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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14615-0.txt b/14615-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13a6750 --- /dev/null +++ b/14615-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8257 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14615 *** + +THE SABLE CLOUD: + +A SOUTHERN TALE, + +WITH NORTHERN COMMENTS. + + +BY THE AUTHOR OF +"A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SLAVERY." + + +"I did not err, there does a sable cloud +Turn forth her silver lining on the night" + +MILTON'S COMUS + + +BOSTON: +TICKNOR AND FIELDS. +MDCCCLXI + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by + +TICKNOR AND FIELDS, + +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts + + +RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE +STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H O HOUGHTON + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE +CHAPTER I. +DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT 1 + +CHAPTER II. +NORTHERN COMMENTS ON SOUTHERN LIFE 5 + +CHAPTER III. +MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE 32 + +CHAPTER IV. +RESOLUTIONS FOR A CONVENTION 53 + +CHAPTER V. +THE GOOD NORTHERN LADY'S LETTER FROM THE SOUTH 59 + +CHAPTER VI. +QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 118 + +CHAPTER VII. +OWNERSHIP IN MAN.--THE OLD TESTAMENT SLAVERY 150 + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE TENURE 177 + +CHAPTER IX. +DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS 205 + +CHAPTER X. +THE FUTURE 239 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT. + + "The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his + master." + + +A Southern gentleman, who was visiting in New York, sent me, with his +reply to my inquiries for the welfare of his family at home, the +following letter which he had just received from one of his married +daughters in the South. + +The reader will be so kind as to take the assurance which the writer +hereby gives him, that the letter was received under the circumstances +now stated, and that it is not a fiction. Certain names and the date +only are, for obvious reasons, omitted. + +THE LETTER. + +MY DEAR FATHER,-- + +You have so recently heard from and about those of us left here, and +that in a so much more satisfactory way than through letters, that it +scarcely seems worth while to write just yet. But Mary left Kate's poor +little baby in such a pitiable state, that I think it will be a relief +to all to hear that its sufferings are ended. It died about ten o'clock +the night that she left us, very quietly and without a struggle, and at +sunset on Friday we laid it in its last resting-place. My husband and I +went out in the morning to select the spot for its burial, and finding +the state of affairs in the cemetery, we chose a portion of ground and +will have it inclosed with a railing. They have been very careless in +the management of the ground, and have allowed persons to inclose and +bury in any shape or way they chose, so that the whole is cut up in a +way that makes it difficult to find a place where two or three graves +could be put near each other. We did find one at last, however, about +the size of the Hazel Wood lots; and we will inclose it at once, so that +when another, either from our own family or those of the other branches, +wants a resting-place, there shall not be the same trouble. Poor old +Timmy lies there; but it is in a part of the grounds where, the sexton +tells us, the water rises within three feet of the surface; so, of +course, we did not go there for this little grave. His own family +selected his burial-place, and probably did not think of this. + +Kate takes her loss very patiently, though she says that she had no idea +how much she would grieve after the child. It had been sick so long that +she said she wanted to have it go; but I knew when she said it that she +did not know what the parting would be. It is not the parting alone, but +it is the horror of the grave,--the tender child alone in the far off +gloomy burial-ground, the heavy earth piled on the tender little breast, +the helplessness that looked to you for protection which you could not +give, and the emptiness of the home to which you return when the child +is gone. He who made a mother's heart and they who have borne it, alone +can tell the unutterable pain of all this. The little child is so +carefully and tenderly watched over and cherished while it is with +you,--and then to leave it alone in the dread grave where the winds and +the rain beat upon it! I know they do not feel it, but since mine has +been there, I have never felt sheltered from the storms when they come. +The rain seems to fall on my bare heart. I have said more than I meant +to have said on this subject, and have left myself little heart to write +of anything else. Tell Mammy that it is a great disappointment to me +that her name is not to have a place in my household. I was always so +pleased with the idea that my Susan and little Cygnet should grow up +together as the others had done; but it seems best that it should not be +so, or it would not have been denied. Tell Mary that Chloe staid that +night with Kate, and has been kind to her. All are well at her house. + + * * * * * + +Of the persons named in this letter, + +KATE is a slave-mother, belonging to the lady who writes the letter. + +CYGNET was Kate's babe. + +MAMMY is a common appellation for a slave-nurse. The Mammy to whom the +message in the letter is sent was nursery-maid when the writer of the +letter and several brothers and sisters were young; and, more than this, +she was maid to their mother in early years. She is still in this +gentleman's family. Her name is Cygnet; Kate's babe was named for her. + +MARY is the lady's married sister. + +CHLOE is Mary's servant. + + +The incidental character of this letter and the way in which it came to +me, gave it a special charm. Some recent traveller, describing his +sensations at Heidelberg Castle, speaks of a German song which he heard, +at the moment, from a female at some distance and out of sight. This +letter, like that song, derives much of its effect from the +unconsciousness of the author that it would reach a stranger. + +Having read this letter many times, always with the same emotions as at +first, I resolved to try the effect of it upon my friend, A. Freeman +North. He is an upright man, much sought after in the settlement of +estates, especially where there are fiduciary trusts. Placing the letter +in his hands, I asked him, when he should have read it, to put in +writing his impressions and reflections. The result will be found in the +next chapter. Mrs. North, also, will engage the reader's kind attention. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NORTHERN COMMENTS ON SOUTHERN LIFE. + + "As blind men use to bear their noses higher + Than those that have their eyes and sight entire." + + HUDIBRAS. + + + "One woman reads another's character + Without the tedious trouble of decyphering." + + BEN JONSON. _New Inn_. + + +So then, this is a Southern heart which prompts these loving, tender +strains. This lady is a slave-holder. It is a slave toward whom this +fellow-feeling, this gentleness of pity, these acts of loving-kindness, +these yearnings of compassion, these respectful words, and all this care +and assiduity, flow forth. + +Is she not some singular exception among the people of her country; some +abnormal product, an accidental grace, a growth of luxuriant richness in +a deadly soil, or, at least, is she not like Jenny Lind among singers? +Surely we shall not look upon her like again. It would be difficult to +find even here at the North,--the humane North, nay, even among those +who have solemnly consecrated themselves as "the friends of the slave," +and who "remember them that are in bonds as bound with them,"--a heart +more loving and good, affections more natural and pure. I am surprised. +This was a slave-babe. Its mother was this lady's slave. I am confused. +This contradicts my previous information; it sets at nought my ideas +upon a subject which I believed I thoroughly understood. + +A little negro slave-babe, it seems, is dead, and its owner and mistress +is acting and speaking as Northerners do! Yes, as Northerners do even +when their own daughters' babes lie dead! + +The letter must be a forgery. No; here it is before me, in the +handwriting of the lady, post-marked at the place of her residence. But +is it not, after all, a fiction? I can believe almost anything sooner +than that I am mistaken in the opinions and feelings which are +contradicted by this letter. In the spirit of Hume's argument against +the miracles of the Bible, I feel disposed, almost, to urge that it +would be a greater miracle that the course of nature at the South in a +slave-holder's heart should thus be set aside than that there should not +be, in some way, deception about this letter. But still, here is the +letter; and it is written to her father, whom she could not deceive, +whom she had no motive, no wish, to delude. Had it been written to a +Northerner, I could have surmised that she was attempting to make false +impressions about slavery, and its influence on the slave-holder. Why +should she tell her father this simple tale, unless real affection for +the babe and its mother were impelling her? This tries my faith. It is +like an undesigned coincidence in holy writ, which used so to stagger my +unbelief. Possibly, however,--for I must maintain my previous +convictions if I can,--possibly her father is such as our anti-slavery +lecturers and writers declare a slave-holder naturally to be, and his +daughter, herself a mother, is seeking to touch his heart and turn him +from his cruelties as a slave-holder by showing him, in this indirect, +beautiful manner, that slave-mothers have the feelings of human beings. +Perhaps I may therefore compromise this matter by allowing, on one hand, +that the daughter is all that she appears to be, and claiming, on the +other, that the father is all that a slave-holder ought to be to verify +our Northern theories. But she herself is a slave-holder, and therefore +by our theory she ought to be imbruted. I beg her pardon, and that of +her father; but they must consider how hard it is for us at the North to +conquer all our prejudices even under the influence of such a +demonstration as her letter. I ask one simple question: Is not this +slave-babe, (and her mother,) of "the down-trodden," and is not this +lady one of the down-treading? And yet she weeps,--not because, as I +would have supposed, she had lost one hundred and fifty dollars in the +child, but as though she loved it like the sick and dying child of a +fellow-creature, of a mother like herself. Now, who at the North ever +hears of such a thing in slavery? The old New York Tabernacle could have +said, It is not in me;--the modern Boston Music Hall says, It is not in +me. None of the antislavery papers, political or religious, say, We have +heard the fame thereof with our ears. Our Northern instructors on the +subject of slavery, the orators, the Uncle Tom's Cabins, "The Scholar an +Agitator," have never taught us to believe this. The South, we are +instructed to think, is a Golgotha, a valley of Hinnom; compacts with it +are covenants with hell. But here is one holy angel with its music; a +ministering spirit; but is she a Lot in Sodom? Abdiel in the revolted +principality? a desolate, mourning Rizpah on that rock which overlooks +four millions of slaves and their tortures? + +In a less instructed state of mind on this subject, I should once have +said, on reading this letter,--This is slavery. Here is a view of life +at the South. As a traveller accidentally catches a sight of a family +around their table, and domestic life gleams upon him for a moment; as +the opening door of a church suffers a few notes of the psalm to reach +the ear of one at a distance, this letter, written evidently amidst +household duties and cares, discloses, in a touching manner, the +domestic relations of Southern families and their servants wherever +Christianity prevails. It is one strain of the ordinary music of life in +ten thousands of those households, falling accidentally upon our ears, +and giving us truthful, artless impressions, such as labored statements +and solemn depositions would not so well convey, and which theories, +counter-statements, arguments, and invectives never can refute. Our +senior pastor would say that the letter is like the Epistles of +John,--not a doctrinal exposition, but a breathing forth of the spirit +which the evangelical history had inspired. I have come to know more, +however, than I did when I could have had such amiable but unenlightened +feelings. I have read the "Key to Uncle Tom" and the "Barbarism of +Slavery." + +Still, I am sorely puzzled. "Kate," she says, "wanted to have it go, it +had been sick so long; but I knew, when she said it, she did not know +what the parting would be." + +"The parting!" Has she read our Northern abstracts and versions of the +Dred Scott Decision, and are there, in her view, any rights in a negro +which she is bound to respect? Has she not heard that the Supreme Court +of the United States has absolved her from all her feelings of humanity? +"The parting!" Where has she lived not to know how, according to our +lecturers, families are parted at the auction-block in the Southern +States without the least compunction? We are constantly told,--has she +not heard it?--that the slave at the South is a mere "chattel," and that +a slave-child is bought and sold as recklessly as a calf, and that a +parting between a slave-mother and her children, sold and separated for +life, is an occurrence as familiar as the separation of animals and +their young, and no more regarded by slave-holders than divorcements in +the barn-yard. This being so, it must follow that when a slave-babe +dies, the only sorrow in the hearts of the white owners is such as they +feel when a colt is kicked to death or a heifer is choked. This must be +so, if all is true which is meant to be conveyed when we are told so +often at the North that the slave is a mere "chattel." Therefore I am +puzzled by this lady's tears for the mother of this little black babe. +She says of the mother of that poor little negro infant slave, "I knew +she did not dream what the parting would be." I repeat it, my theory of +slavery, that which I hold in common with all enlightened friends of +freedom, requires that this lady should have a debased, imbruted nature, +for she owns human beings, has made property of God's image in man. And +now I feel creeping over me a dreadful temptation to think that one may +hold fellow-creatures in bondage and yet be really humane, gentle, and +as good as a Northerner! What fearful changes in politics would come +about should our people believe this! It cannot be that our great party +of Freedom can ever go to pieces and disappoint the hopes of the world; +yet this would be the case, if the feelings stirred by this letter +should gain a general acceptance. I cannot gainsay the facts. Here is +the letter. May it never see the light; people are much more influenced +by such things than by mere logic, and oh, what would befall the nation +should our Northern excitement against slavery cease, and should we +leave the whole subject to the South and to God! "What if people should +come to believe that the Southerners--fifteen or sixteen States of this +Union--are as humane, Christian, and conscientious as the North! + +Who will resolve my painful doubts? I do crave to know what possible +motive this lady could have had in taking so much thought and care about +the last resting-place of this poor little black "chattel." You and your +husband, dear lady, seem to be as kind and painstaking as though you +knew that a fellow-creature of yours was returning, "ashes to ashes, +dust to dust." + +One great Northern "friend of the slave" tells us that the slaves at the +South are degraded so to the level of brutes, that baptizing them and +admitting them to Christian ordinances is about the same as though he +should say to his dogs, "I baptize thee, Bose, in," etc. This, he tells +us, he repeated many times here, and in England.[1] Nothing but love of +truth and just hatred of "the sum of all villanies" could, of course, +have made him venture so near the verge of unpardonable blasphemy as to +speak thus. Yet your feelings and behavior toward this babe are in +direct conflict with his theory. Pray whom am I to believe? + + [Footnote 1: See "Sigma's" communications to the _Boston Transcript_, + August, 1857.] + +Perhaps now I have hit upon a solution. Some people, Walter Scott is an +instance, bury their favorite dogs with all the honors of a decorated +sepulture. Rather than believe that your slaves are commonly regarded by +you as your fellow-creatures, having rights which you love to consider, +or, that you do not mercilessly dispose of them to promote your selfish +interests, we, the Northern people, who have had the very best of +teachers on the subject of slavery, learnedly theoretical, reasoning +from the eternal principles of right, would incline to believe that your +interest in the burial of this little slave-babe was merely that which +your own child would feel on seeing her kitten carefully buried at the +foot of the apple-tree. + +One thing, however, suggests a difficulty in feeling our way to this +conclusion. I mention it because of the perfect candor which guides the +sentiments and feelings of all Northern people in speaking of slavery +and slave-holders. + +The difficulty is this: Who was "poor old Timmy"? Some old slave in your +father's family, I apprehend. You seem sad at finding that his grave is +not in the best place. "The water rises within three feet of the +surface;"--we infer, from the regret which you seem to feel at this, +that you have some care and pity for your old slaves, which extends even +to their graves. But we had well nigh borrowed strength to our +prejudices from this place of old Timmy's grave, and were saying with +ourselves, Thus the slave-holders bury their slaves where the water may +overflow them; but you seem to apologize to your father for Timmy's +having such a poor place for his remains by saying, "His own" (Timmy's) +"family selected his burying-place, and probably did not think of this." +Very kind in you, dear madam, to speak so. "The friends of the slave" +are greatly obliged to you for such consideration. You say, "His own +family selected his burying-place." Do slaves have such a liberty? Can +they go and come in their burying-grounds and choose places for the +graves of their kindred? This is being full as good to your servants, in +this particular, as we are at the North to our domestics. You thought +poor old Timmy's grave was not in a spot sufficiently choice for this +little babe's grave, and, it seems, you inclosed a spot, and inaugurated +it by the burial of this child, for the last resting-place of other +babes, the kindred of this child and of your other servants. This looks +as though there were some domestic permanence in some parts of the South +among the servants of a household; and as though the birth and death of +a child have some other associations with you than those which belong to +the breeding and sale of poultry. We are truly glad to think of all +this. It is exceedingly pleasant to have a good opinion of people, much +more so than to believe evil of them, and to accuse them wrongfully. + +In speaking thus to you, I make myself think--and I hope I do not seem +self-complacent in saying it, for you must have learned from the tone of +my remarks, if from no other source, that self-complacency is not a +Northern characteristic, especially in our feelings toward the +South--but I make myself think, by this candid admission of what seems +good in you, of a venturesome remark by Paul the Apostle to your brother +slave-holder Philemon, in that epistle in which he sends back the slave +Onesimus,--a very trying epistle to us at the North, though on the +whole, many of us keep up our confidence in inspiration notwithstanding +this epistle, especially as it is explained to us by some at the North +who know most of Southern slavery, our inbred hatred of which, it is +insisted by some of our best scholars, should control even our +interpretation of the word of God. Paul speaks to this slave-holder, +Philemon, of "the acknowledging of every good thing which is in +you,"--which we think was exceedingly charitable, considering that it +was said to a holder of slaves; and perhaps quite too much so; for the +truth is not to be spoken at all times, and especially not of those who +hold their fellow-men in bondage. I am often constrained to think that +it was an inconsiderate, unwise thing in the Apostle to take this +favorable view of that slave-holder; he may, however, have written by +permission, not by commandment; that would save his inspiration from +reproach; for had he been inspired in writing this epistle, I ask +myself, Would he not have foreseen our great Northern conflict with the +mightiest injustice upon which the sun ever shone? and would he not have +foreseen how much aid and comfort that epistle would give the friends of +oppression on this continent? One first truth in the minds of the most +eminent "friends of freedom" is this: "Slavery is the sum of all +villanies." Other truths follow in their natural order; among them the +question of the inspiration of the Bible has a place; but slavery leads +some of them to think lightly, and to speak disparagingly, of the Bible, +because it comes in conflict with their theories regarding +slave-holding, which is certainly not always referred to in Scripture in +the tone which we prefer. There was the Apostle James, too, writing +about "works" in the same unguarded manner as Paul when speaking of +slaves and slave-holders. Pity that he could not have let "works" alone, +seeing it was so important for the other Apostles to establish the one +idea of justification by faith. He made great trouble for Luther and his +companions in their contest with Popery. Luther had to reject his +epistle; "_straminea epistola_" he called it,--an epistle of +straw,--weak, worthless; and he denied its inspiration, because it +conflicted with his doctrine of "faith alone." So much for trying to be +candid and just, and for presenting the other side of a subject, or of a +man, when the spirit of the age is averse to it, and candor is in +danger of being looked upon as a time-serving thing. Neither Paul nor +James, however, had felt the tonic, bracing effect of good anti-slavery +principles, or they would not have written, the one such a letter to a +slave-holder, and the other such a back-oar argument against "faith +alone." However, I am disposed to think well of Paul and James, +notwithstanding these the great errors of their lives. Indeed I can +almost forgive them, when I am reading other things which they said and +did. You will please acknowledge, therefore, my dear madam, that in +giving you credit for kind feelings toward a poor slave and its mother, +we are disposed to be just; yet I beg of you not to think that I abate +one jot or tittle of my belief that, in theory, slavery is "the sum of +all villanies," "an enormous wrong," "a stupendous injustice." + +I have just been reading your letter once more, and the foolish tears +pester me so that I can scarce see out of my eyes. I find, dear madam, +that you have known a bitter sorrow which so many parents are carrying +with them to the grave. Your words make me think so of little graves +elsewhere, that I forget for the time that you are a slave-holder. Nor +can I hardly believe that your touching words are suggested by the death +of a slave's babe, when you speak of "the heavy earth piled on the +tender little breast." O my dear lady! has a slave's babe "a tender +little breast"? Then you really think so! And you a slave-holder! +"Border Ruffianism," perhaps, has not yet reached your heart; and yet I +suppose--forgive me if I do you wrong--that slave-holders' hearts +generally need only to be removed to the "borders," to manifest all +their native "ruffianism." Can you tell me whether there are any mothers +in Missouri (near Kansas) who feel toward their slaves who are mothers, +as you do? There are so many people from the North in Kansas (near +Missouri) who have gone thither to prevent you and your brethren and +sisters from owning a fellow-creature there, that I trust their +influence will in time extend through all Missouri, and that white +mothers in that State will everywhere have such humane feelings toward +the blacks as we and you possess. + +All that I ask of you now, is, that you give Kate her liberty at once. +Oh, do not say, as I fancy you will, There is not a happier being than +Kate in all the land of freedom. "Fiat justitia," dear madam, "ruat +coelum." I cannot conceive how being "owned" is anything but a curse. +Really, we forget the miseries of the Five Points, and of the dens in +New York, Boston, Buffalo, and other places at the North, the hordes in +the city and State institutions in New York Harbor, Deer Island, Boston, +and all such things, in our extreme pity for poor slave-mothers, like +Kate, whose children, when they get to be about nine or ten years old, +are liable to be sold. Honest Mrs. Striker came to work in our family, +not long since, leaving her young child at home in the care of a young +woman who watched it for ten cents a day. I said to her, Dear Mrs. +Striker, are you not glad that you live in a free state, and not where, +when you return like a bird to its nest at night, you may find your +little one carried off, you know not where, by some man-stealer, you +know not whom?--We honor your kind feelings, madam, but you are not +aware, probably, what overflowing love and tender pity there is among us +Northerners, toward your slaves and their children. We are +disinterested, too; for we nearly forget our own black people here at +the North, and more especially in Canada, to care for you and your +people. And though hundreds of innocent young people are decoyed into +our Northern cities yearly from the country and are made the victims of +unhallowed passions, yet the thought that some of your young people on +those remote, solitary plantations, can be compelled by their masters to +do wrong on pain of being sold, fills us with such unaffected distress +that we think but little of voluntary or compulsory debauchery in our +own cities; but we think of dissolving the Union to rid ourselves of +seeming complicity with such wickedness as we see to be inherent in the +relation of master and slave. We at the North should all be wicked if we +had such opportunities; we know, therefore, that you must be. Because +you will not let us reprove you for it, we cut off our correspondence +with your Southern ecclesiastical bodies. But I began to speak of little +graves. You will see by my involuntary wandering from them how full our +hearts are of your colored people, and how self-forgetful we are in our +desires and efforts to do them good. And yet some of your Southern +people can find it in their hearts to set at nought these our most +sacred Northern antipathies and commiserations! + +But I constantly hear some of your words in your letter striking their +gentle, sad chimes in my ears. "It is not the parting alone, but the +helplessness that looked to you for protection which you could not +give;" "the emptiness of the home to which you return when the child is +gone." + +Now, for such words, I solemnly declare that, in my opinion, you, dear +madam, never had a helpless slave look to you for protection which you +could give and which you refused; you, surely, never made a slave's home +desolate by taking her child from her. No, such words as those which I +have just quoted from your letter, are a perfect assurance that neither +you nor your kindred, within your knowledge, are guilty of ruthless +violations of domestic ties among your colored people. Otherwise, you +could not write as you do about "desolate homes" and "the child gone." +While I read your letter and think of you, I am reminded of those words: +"Is not this he whom they seek to kill?" Why, if the insurgents' pikes +were aimed at you and your child, I would almost be willing to rush in +and receive them in my own body. Yet I would not be known at the North +to have spoken so strongly as this. O my dear madam, if there were only +fifty righteous people (counting you) in the South, people who knew what +"desolate homes" and "the child gone" mean, I should almost begin to +hope that our Southern Gomorrah might be spared. + +But I fear that I am trespassing too far away from my sworn fealty to +Northern opinions and feelings. I begin to fear that I may be tempted to +be recreant to my inborn, inbred notions of liberty, while holding +converse with you, for there is something extremely seductive to a +Northerner in slavery; it is like the apple and the serpent to the +woman; so that whoever goes to the South, or has anything to do with +slave-holders, is apt to lose his integrity; there is a Circean +influence there for Northern people; thousands of once good, +anti-slavery men now lie dead and buried as to their reputations here at +the North, in consequence of having to do with the seductive +slave-power; they would fill Bonaventura Cemetery, in Savannah; the +Spanish moss, swaying on the limbs of its trees, would be, in number, +fit signals of their subjection to what you call right views on the +subject of slavery. + +Though I fear almost to hold converse with you, yet, conscious of my +innate love of liberty, I venture to do so. Bunker Hill is within twenty +miles of my home. When I go to that sacred memorial of liberty, I strive +to fortify my soul afresh against the slave-power. After hearing +favorable things said, in Boston, about the South, I can go to Faneuil +Hall, and there, the doors being carefully shut, walk enthusiastically +about the room, almost shouting, "Sam. Adams!" "James Otis!" +"Seventy-Six!" "Shade of Warren!" "No chains on the Bay State!" +"Massachusetts in the van!" "Give me liberty or give me death!" I can +enjoy the privilege of looking frequently on certain majestic figures in +our American Apocalypse, under the present vial,--but I need not name +them. I meet in our book-stores with "Lays of Freedom," never sung by +such as you. I see in the shop-windows the inspiring faces, in +medallion, of those masterpieces of human nature, "the champions of +freedom," our chief abolitionists;--and shall I, can I, ever succumb to +the slave-power, even though it approach me through the holy, +all-subduing charms of woman's influence? No! dear madam, ten thousand +times, No! "Slave-power!" to borrow Milton's figure when speaking of +Ithuriel and Satan, the word is as the touch of fire to powder, to our +brave anti-slavery souls. You have, perhaps, seen a bull stopping in the +street, pawing the ground, throwing the dust over him and covering +himself with a cloud of it, his nose close to the earth, and a low, +bellowing sound issuing from his nostrils. Your heart has died within +you at the sight. You have been made to feel how slight a defence is +fan, or sunshade, against such an antagonist, though you should make +them to fly suddenly open in his face. No enemy of his was in sight, so +far as you could perceive; you wondered what had excited his belligerent +spirit; but he saw at a very great distance that which you could not +see; he heard a voice you could not hear, giving occasion to this show +of prowess. That fearful combatant on the highway, dear madam, is the +North, and you are the distant foe. You may affect to smile, perhaps, at +the valorous attitudes, the show of mettle in the bull, but you have no +idea, as I had the honor to say before, how sturdy is our hatred of the +slave-power and how ready we are to do battle with it. We paw in the +valley, and are not afraid. + +Never think to delude us, my dear lady, with the thought that slavery in +our Territories means such ladies as you owning Kates and their little +babes, and having such hearts toward them as you seem to have; for that +would take away a large part of the evil in slavery. Nor must you expect +us, in thinking of slavery as extending into our Territories, to picture +to ourselves an accomplished gentleman and lady searching a cemetery for +a spot to be the grave of a little slave-babe, and behaving themselves +as though they had feelings toward it and its mother irrespective of the +market-price of slaves. "Border Ruffians" are the archetypes of our +ideas respecting all who wish to extend slavery into our Territories. On +the score of humanity, madam, we have no objection to you and your +husband taking Kate and living in Kansas; how perfectly harmless that +might seem to many! for, no doubt, you and Kate are perfectly happy as +mistress and servant; you would need domestics there, and how could they +and you be better pleased than if they and you were just as Kate and you +now are to each other? but, O dear madam, that would be slavery, and we +are under sworn obligations here at the North to oppose the owning of a +human being with indiscriminate hatred. Say not it seems hard that if +you wish to live in Kansas, for example, you cannot have liberty to go +there with Kate, who is as much attached to you, I make no doubt, as any +Northern or English servant is to a household. Perhaps it does seem +perfectly natural and harmless, and no doubt Kate's relation to you is +as gentle and pleasant, almost, as that of an adopted member of a +family, who is half attendant, and half companion; this we understand. +You see nothing terrible in such a relation. O dear madam, you have the +misfortune to have been born under the blinding, blighting influence of +slavery, and cannot see things in the true, just light in which they +appear to us, whose minds are unprejudiced and clear, and whose moral +sentiments on this great subject are more correct and elevated. What is +making all this trouble in our nation? I will answer you in the burning +words of a Northern clergyman in his speech at a meeting called to +sympathize with the family of John Brown, after his death by martyrdom: +"The Slave-Power itself, standing up there in all its deformity in the +sight of Northern consciences,--that is the cause, [applause] and there +the responsibility belongs."[2] Yes, you are sinning against the +Northern conscience! It is settled forever that you are evil-doers in +holding your present relation to the slave. We are bound to hem you in +as by fire, till, like a scorpion so fenced about, you die by your own +sting. We must proclaim liberty to your captives. Step but one foot with +Kate on free soil, and our watchmen of liberty, set to break every yoke +and help fugitives on their way from the house of bondage, will be +around you in troops, and shout in her ear those electrifying and +beatifying words, "You are a free woman!" There her chains will drop; +she will cease to be a slave, and become a human being. + + [Footnote 2: _Boston Courier_, Nov. 26, 1859.] + +Must I refer to your letter once more? I hope to destroy its spell over +me. But I wish at times that I had never seen that letter. "Tell Mammy +that it is a great disappointment to me that her name is not to have a +place in my household." Your little slave-babe, Kate's child, you named +Cygnet, because Mammy's name is Cygnet, and she and your mother grew up +together, and she has been your kind, faithful servant and friend, as +much friend as servant, during all your youth till you were married. And +you seek to perpetuate her name in your own household, and to have a +little Cygnet grow up with your own little Susan. "I was always pleased +with the idea that my Susan and little Cygnet should grow up together; +but it seems best that it should not be so, or it would not be denied." +All this is very sweet and beautiful; but now let me tell you, honestly, +what the spontaneous thought of a Northerner is while meditating on such +an apparently lovely picture. Here it is: Suppose that Susan and little +Cygnet, when both are three years old, are playing in your front-yard +some morning, and a cruel slave-trader should look over the fence, and +say to your husband, "Fine little thing there, sir; take a hunderd and a +ha'f for her?" I ask, Would not your husband (perhaps in need, just +then, of money to pay a note) lay down his newspaper, invite the fellow +in to drink, and go through the opening scene of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," +coaxing up the fellow's price; and finally, would he not sell little +Cygnet while her mother was out of sight, push poor little Susan into a +room alone to cry her eyes out, and you and your husband pocket the +money? Many of us at the North, dear madam, if you will take my +unworthy self as a specimen, and I am a very moderate anti-slavery man +and no fanatic, are quite as ready to believe such things of you as the +contrary. We have read "Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +Nothing could exceed the disgust and ridicule which your letter would +meet with at the hands of some of our best anti-slavery men. I am +thinking of it, just now, as in the hands of Rev. Mr. Blank. The other +day I saw a cambric muslin handkerchief, richly embroidered, blow past +me out of a child's carriage. As I turned to get it, a dog seized it, +shook it, put both his paws on it, rent it, made rags of it, threw it +down, snatched it up, and seemed vexed that there was no more of it to +tear. So will our abolitionists serve your letter, should they ever see +it. And, my dear madam, though I disapprove their temper and language, +yet I must confess that I sympathize with them in their principles, the +only difference between them and me being that of social position and +manners. I must tell you that, after all, you are probably unaware of +the deception which you are practising on yourself, in supposing that +you are really as loving and gentle toward a slave-mother and her child +as some might infer. Let but a good sale tempt you! I wait to know +whether you would then write such a letter. We have a ready answer to +all the kind and good things which are said about you, in this, which +you will see and hear in all our speeches and essays, namely, "Slavery +is the sum of all villanies." That is to all our thoughts and reasonings +about slavery what the longitude of Greenwich is to navigation. All your +clergy, all your physicians, all your judges and lawyers, all your +fathers and mothers, your gentlemen and ladies, all your children, are +heaped together by us in one name, to us an awful name,--"Slave-power." +We think about you as we do of Egypt, with Israel in bondage. + +And now that allusion furnishes me with an argument against your letter, +which I must, in conclusion, and sorely against many of my feelings, let +fall, like a stone, upon it, and crush it forever. Pharaoh's daughter +was touched with the cry of the little slave-babe, Moses; but what does +that prove? that Egyptian bondage was not "an enormous wrong," a +"stupendous injustice," "the sum of all villanies"? or that a Red Sea +was not already waiting to swallow up the slave-holders, horse and foot? + +You may write a thousand such letters, all over the South; but though +they delude me for a while, it is only until the moisture which they +raise to my eyes from my heart, by the pathos in them, dries up, and +leaves my vision clear of all the blinding though beautiful mists of +that error which has diffused itself over one half of this goodly land, +and, I grieve to add, which has fallen upon many even here in New +England, recreant sons of liberty, traitors to the memories of Faneuil +Hall and Bunker Hill. + + +LETTER FROM MR. NORTH, INCLOSING THE FOREGOING. INFLUENCE OF THE LETTER +UPON HIS WIFE. + +MY DEAR MR. A. BETTERDAY CUMMING:-- + +I have, as you see, complied with your request, and herewith I send you +my thoughts and feelings in view of the good Southern lady's letter. I +came near, once or twice, abandoning some of my long-cherished +principles, under the influence of the letter and of the reflections to +which it gave rise. But I have been enabled to retain my integrity. I am +sorry to say that the letter has made me some trouble through its effect +on my wife, to whom, incautiously, I read it. Very soon after I began to +read, I perceived that some natural drops were finding their way down +her tear-passage, leading her to a frequent use of the handkerchief. By +this means she interrupted me, I should say, six or eight times, during +the reading, and as soon as I had finished she rose and left the room. + +I remained, and wrote a large part of the accompanying reflections, and, +near midnight, on repairing to my room, I found that Mrs. North was +asleep. She waked me in the morning by asking me if I was asleep. I told +her that I would gladly listen to what she had to say. She said, "Will +you not please, my dear, stop the ----, and the ----," (naming two +newspapers,) "and take others?" + +"Why," said I, "what is the matter with them?" + +She began to weep again. In a few moments she said, "I would give the +world if I could have a conversation with that Southern lady." + +"I fear," said I, "that it would have a deleterious effect on your +attachment to the principles of liberty." + +"Liberty!" said she. "Oh, how foolish I have been! I see now that there +is another side to that question." + +"I hope, my dear," said I, "that you will say and do nothing to occasion +any reproach. Certainly, there are two sides to every question. If you +manifest any surprise at finding that there is another side to the +Liberty question, I fear that some will quote to you the fable of the +mouse who was born in a meal-chest." + +"I never heard of it," said she. + +"Why," said I, "the mouse one day stole up to the edge of the chest, +when the cover had been left open, and, looking round on the +barn-chamber, she said, 'Dear me, I had no idea that the world was half +so large.'" + +"The cover has been down and the meal has been in my eyes long enough," +said she. "I have been so much accustomed for a long time to read in our +papers about 'enormous wrong,' 'stupendous injustice,' 'the +slave-breeders,' 'sum of all villanies,' that, unconsciously, I have +come to think of the South, indiscriminately, as though they were Robin +Hood's men, or"-- + +"O my dear," said I, "you must have known that there are many good +people at the South, notwithstanding slavery." + +"How can there be one good man or woman there," said she, "if all that +those newspapers say of slave-holding be true? Husband, depend upon it +we have been believing a great lie. Just think of that letter. What a +tale many of those words reveal. When the infants of our former servants +die, do our ladies write such letters about them? I should judge that +owning a fellow-creature softens and refines the heart, if this letter +is any sign, instead of making them all barbarians. All the newspapers +and novels in the world cannot do away the impressions which that +letter has made on my mind. I tell you, husband, having slaves is not +the unmitigated curse to owners nor to slaves that we have been taught +to believe." + +"Perhaps," said I, interrupting her, "you would like to live at the +South, and own a few." + +"I could not be hired by wealth," said she, "to have them for help, even +here. I never did like them; and when I think that there are good men +and women who do, and who are as kind to the poor creatures as this dear +lady, I think that we should give thanks to God." + +"Oh, the Southern people are not all like this good lady, by any means," +said I. + +"'Peradventure,'" said she, "'there be fifty righteous.' There must be +tens of thousands. People like this lady are very apt to make good the +saying of the blackberry pickers when they see a blackberry, 'Where +there's one there's more.' The letter reads as though it were an +every-day thing, a matter of course, for this lady to be kind and loving +to the blacks; and for my part I bless any one who has anything to do +for her or for those like her. Our papers never tell us such stories as +this letter contains. No, they, do not love to hear them, I fear; but if +a slave is beaten or ill-treated, then the chimes begin, 'enormous +wrong,' 'stupendous injustice,' 'sum of all villanies.'" + +"Why, my dear," said I, "you are getting to be pro-slavery very fast." + +"Never," said she, "if you mean by that, as I suppose you do, approving +all that is involved in slavery and all that is committed under the +system." + +"But," said I, "your present feeling toward this Southern lady may +insensibly lead you to believe that it is right to own a +fellow-creature. Does not Cowper say,-- + + "'I would not have a slave to till my ground, + To carry me, to fan me while I sleep + And startle when I wake, for all the wealth + That sinews bought and sold have ever earned?'" + +"How Kate must 'startle' and go into convulsions with terror every time +this mistress wakes!" she replied. "If Cowper had written in Alabama, +instead of describing a state of slavery such as existed in the British +possessions, and not, as in the South, mixed up with his every-day life; +if the first face with which he had become familiar as a babe had been a +black face, the face of his mother's 'slave' loving him, and nursing +him, and he, in turn, had tended his old 'Mammy' in her decrepitude, his +imagination would have contained some other pictures than those in the +lines which you quote. Had there been a Mrs. Cowper, I fancy she would +have been like this lady; and perhaps we should have seen Mr. Cowper +acting the kind part of this lady's husband toward a slave-mother and +her babe, his 'property,' so called. I lay awake here, last night, while +you were writing, and thought it all over. What were you writing about +so long? I wished that I had a pencil and paper near me. Those English +and French people who got rid of slavery as one gets rid of a bunion, +know nothing about slavery mingled with our very life-blood. How +self-righteous they are! Our people, too, are perpetually quoting what +Thomas Jefferson said about slavery in his day. Pray, has there been no +progress? Why are we not permitted to hear what Southern men, as good as +Jefferson, now say about modern slavery?" + +"My dear," said I, "perhaps you are not fully qualified as yet to judge +of this great subject in all its relations. The greatest and wisest men +are divided in opinion about it." + +"Great subject!" said she, "please let me interrupt you; there is but +one side to it, I should judge, from reading our papers. What do some of +the 'greatest and wisest men,' on the other side, have to say for +themselves? Are they all 'friends of oppression,' 'enemies of freedom,' +'minions of the slave-power,' 'dough-faces'? Husband, I am thoroughly +disgusted. I have been compelled to have uncharitable feelings toward +thousands of people like this Southern lady; I confess I have really +hated them, as I hate men-stealers and pirates. This letter has +convinced me of my sin. It is like the Gospel in its effect upon me." + +"But, my dear," said I, "recollect that good people may be in great +error, and we read, 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not +suffer sin upon him.' Now, to hold a fellow-being in bondage,--how can +it be otherwise than 'stupendous injustice'?" + +"I wonder," said she, "if Kate feels that she is in 'bondage' to this +lady. I wonder if she would not think it cruel, if her mistress should +set her free." + +"But it is wrong," said I, "to hold property in a human being, whether +the bondman be in favor of it or not." + +"'Property!'" said she. "I should like to be such 'property,' if I were +a black woman. If it were wrong in the abstract," said she, "it might +not be in practice." + +"Oh," said I, "what a pro-slavery idea that is! where did you learn it?" + +"I learned it," said she, "at our corn-husking, when the Squire read +extracts from John Quincy Adams's speech about China, in which he said +that if China would not open her trade to the world, it would be right +to make war upon her. Now war is wrong, but circumstances sometimes make +it right. So with holding certain men in slavery, under certain +circumstances. I cannot believe that it is right to go and enslave whom +we will; but the blacks being here, I can see that it may be the very +best thing for all concerned that they should be owned. This may be +God's way of having them governed and educated." + +I found that I was getting deeper into the subject than I intended, and, +besides, it was time to rise. As I left the room, she said, "You _will_ +change those papers, won't you? then we will have some more pleasant +talks about this subject." She called to me from the door, "Please don't +send back the lady's letter; I wish to copy it." This is my reason for +not sending the letter with my reply to it. You will certainly give me +credit for candor in telling you all that my wife said. However, it is +so easily answered that I need not fear to intrust you with it. + +Yours, for the slave, +A. FREEMAN NORTH. + + +P.S. After all, I concluded to retain this, and wait till my wife had +made what use she desired of the letter, that I might be sure and return +it to you safely. In the mean time, I have changed the papers. How +irresistible a pleading woman is, especially a wife. Her very want of +logic makes her more so, when we are good-natured. She came upon me with +just such another supplication a few mornings since. As soon as she +awoke, she said, "Husband, do please have our parlor window-sashes let +down from the top." "For ventilation?" said I. "Yes," said she, +"partly;" but I saw that she smiled. "What has made you think of it so +suddenly?" said I. "Do you not want to catch some more canaries?" said +she. "I suspect," said I, "that you would like to have ours escape." +"Perhaps," said she, "that would be a relief to you from your present +embarrassment." Then I saw that all this was banter. She wished to teaze +me a little. The truth is, I have two fine singing canaries and a +mocking-bird. Some of my pro-slavery friends delight to pester me about +them. They say that they mean to issue a habeas corpus, and take them +before Justice Bird, (who, you know, queerly enough, happens to be +United States Commissioner,) and inquire if they be not restrained of +their freedom. I tell them that man has dominion over all the fowls of +the air. But they say, "Then might makes right! Is it not a fine thing +that such a lover of liberty and friend of freedom and enemy of +oppression should keep those little prisoners for his selfish +gratification. Come, be a practical emancipationist to the extent of +your ability; set the South an example; break every yoke." "They are +better off with me," said I; "the hawks or cats would catch them, or +they would die from exposure." "Expediency!" said one of them; "do +justice, if the heavens fall." "Fye at _justitia_!" said one, who +pretended to take my part. "_Ruat coelum_, Let them rush to heaven," +replied the other. "Parse _coelum_, please, sir," said my boy in the +Academy. "Yes, past the ceiling," said the lawyer, pretending to +misunderstand him; "that's right, my son;"--and more wretched punning of +the same sort. Hence Mrs. North's pretended supplication about the +window-sashes. She has been in excellent spirits ever since I stopped +the papers. She says that she wonders at herself so calm and happy. I +heard her yesterday calling at the stairs to a little lisping English +waiting-maid, who cannot pronounce _s_: "Judith," said she, "did you not +hear the parlor-bell?" Judith walked up, and said, "Mitthith North, +lately you've rung tho eathy, that motht of the time I thought it mutht +be a acthident, and didn't come up at futht. I thpect the wireth ith got +ruthty." Mrs. North said nothing, but afterward, in relating the affair +to me, she said she truly believed that it was owing to my stopping the +papers. For she could remember how often she went to the bell-rope +saying to herself as she pulled it, "sum of all villanies!" then +"enormous wrong," with another pull, and then "stupendous injustice," +with another. Several times she says Judith has rushed up to the parlor +with "Ma'am, whath the matter! the bell rung three timth right off." She +thinks that her nervous system will last longer without the papers than +with them. As she told me this, she was shutting down the lid of the +piano for the night. As it fell into its place, the strings set up a +beautiful murmur. "Oh, hear that!" said she; "how solemn it is!" "I +suppose," said I, "you would not have heard it, if those papers had been +in the house." I shall not tell you, a bachelor, what she said and did. +I trust that her views on the great subject of freedom will get adjusted +by and by; and I am debating with myself what papers to take, having +been obliged, for my own edification, to become a subscriber to the +reading-room. There, however, I meet with a good many pro-slavery +prints, and I am tempted to look into them; after which I frequently +feel as though I should pull a bell-rope three times. A.F.N. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE. + + "Heaven pities ignorance: + She's still the first that has her pardon sign'd; + All sins else see their faults; she's, only, blind." + + MIDDLETON: _No Help like a Woman's._ + + +[Accompanying note, from A. BETTERDAY CUMMING to A. FREEMAN NORTH. + +MY DEAR MR. NORTH,-- + +With many thanks for your kindness and frankness, and with my warmest +congratulations to Mrs. North for the pleasant effect which the Southern +lady's letter has had upon her, I send you another document, hoping that +she will read it to you. It will not be worth while for me to say +anything about this production. It purports to be from a young man in +one of our New England literary institutions, whose aunt, with her +husband, was residing at the South for the health of a niece, a sister +to this young man;--they being orphans. The letter is so entirely in the +same key with your feelings that you cannot fail to be interested. +Knowing that you love rare specimens in everything, I send you this as +"the only one of its kind," or as we say, "_sui generis_."--A.B.C.] + + +---- College, ---- -- ----. + +MY DEAR AUNT,-- + +I have not heard from you but once since your arrival at the South. It +is because sister is more unwell? or because you are very busy with +your arrangements for the winter? or is it because, as I more than half +suspect, you are so much overcome by your first observation and +experience of slavery, that you have but little strength left to write +to me from that "---- post of observation, darker every hour"? Perhaps +you are mustering courage to tell me of the sights which you have seen, +the little while that you have been among the poor, enslaved children of +the sun in our Southern house of bondage. "Afraid to ask, yet much +concerned to know," I wait impatiently for a letter from you. I expect +to make great use of its details among my fellow-students, many of whom, +I mourn to say, have their hearts case-hardened against the story of +oppression. They will show an interest in everybody and everything +sooner than in the slave and his wrongs. They are not only callous on +that subject, but they laugh at your zeal and call it hard names. + +No one can tell what I suffer in the cause of freedom, through my +well-meant endeavors to interest and instruct others on the subject +which absorbs my thoughts. I know that I shall have your sympathy; and +when I come to hear from you what your own eyes have seen, ere this, in +slavery, I shall esteem all my sufferings in the cause of the slave as +light as air. + +I employ the intervals of study in walking among the beautiful scenery +of the village and its environs, if haply I may meet with some to whom I +may open my mind on this great theme. The last time that I went out for +this purpose, I met with a sad sight. A horse was running away with a +buggy, while between the body of the carriage and the wheel I saw +depending a foot, which I at once inferred was that of a lady. The horse +rushed by, and sure enough, a young lady had fallen on the floor of the +buggy, holding the reins, evidently entangled and embarrassed in her +posture, uttering the most heart-rending cries and shrieks, with +intermingled calls to the horse to stop. + +I could not help looking at the horse, as he passed, with feelings of +strong displeasure. To think that anything having an ear to hear and a +sensibility to feel should be so heedless of the cries of distress, +roused up my soul to indignation. As I reflected, however, it occurred +to me that no doubt this horse had been subjected to unkind treatment +from his youth up. I began to blame his owners. Had the law of kindness +been observed in the early management of this horse, doubtless he would +have regarded the first appeal of this young lady to him. May we not +hope, dear Aunt, that a new era is dawning upon us with regard to the +universal triumph of love and kindness over oppression of every kind, +and that the brute creation will partake of its benign influences? The +tone and manner in which horses are spoken to often sends a chill to my +heart. + +This reminds me, if you will excuse longer delay in my narrative, of +some unfavorable impressions which I received lately on my way to +Boston, with regard to the imperious manner in which a traveller is +assailed by advertisements on the fences, as you pass through the +environs of the city. Every few miles, as the cars passed along, I saw, +printed on the rough boards of a fence: "Visit" so and so; "Use" so and +so; "Try" so and so. I would not be willing to say how often my +attention was caught by those mandatory advertisements. At last I became +conscious of some feeling of resistance. Whether it was that I began to +breathe the air of Bunker Hill, and the atmosphere which nourishes our +most eminent friends of freedom, so many of whom, you know, live in +Boston and vicinity, I cannot tell; but I found myself saying, with +quite enough resentment and emphasis, "I will not 'use' so and so; I +will not 'try' so and so; especially, I will not 'visit' so and +so,--First, It will not be convenient. Secondly, I have no occasion to +do so. Thirdly, I do not know the way; but, Finally, I do not like to be +addressed in this manner, as an overseer of a Southern plantation +addresses a slave. I am not a slave. I am a Massachusetts freeman." This +way of speaking to people, dear Aunty, must be discountenanced. It will, +by and by, beget an aptitude for servile obedience; the eye and ear +becoming accustomed to the forms of domination, we shall have yokes and +chains upon us before we are aware. Some one says, "Let me write the +songs for a nation, and I care not who makes her laws." So say I, Let me +write imperative advertisements on fences and buildings, and all +resistance to Southern encroachments and usurpation will soon be in +vain. + +But to resume my narrative. I began to look round, as soon as my +excitement about the runaway horse would allow, for some one to whom I +could open my overburdened mind on the subject of freedom. I espied a +man with an immense load of chairs, from a factory in our neighborhood, +as I supposed, on his way to Boston. Four horses drew the load, which I +saw was very heavy; not so heavy, I thought with myself, as that which +four millions of my fellow-men are this moment laboring with, over the +gloomy hills of darkness in our Southern States. I felt impelled to +address the driver on this great theme. So, before he had reached the +top of the hill, I called out,-- + +"Driver!" + +Perhaps there was more suddenness and zeal in my call than was +judicious, but the driver immediately said "Whoa!" to his horses, and he +ran hither and thither for stones to block the wheels to keep his load +from running back, down hill. + +I felt encouraged, by this, to think that he was of a kind and pliable +disposition; and seeing the wheels fortified, and the horses at rest, I +felt more disposed to hold conversation with the man. "Who knows," I +said to myself, "but that I may now make one new friend for the slave?" + +"A warm day," said I. + +"Yes, sir," said he, a little impatiently, I thought, The sun was very +hot, an August morning, no air stirring, well suited to make one think +of toil and woe under our Southern skies. + +"Have you ever been at the South?" said I, wiping my forehead. + +"No, sir," said he, picking out a knot in the snapper of his whip, +evidently to hide his embarrassment while waiting to know the drift of +my question. The sight of his whip kindled in my soul new zeal for the +poor slaves, knowing as I did how many of them were at that moment +skipping in their tortures and striving to flee from the piercing lash. + +"Your toil in the hot sun with your load, my dear sir," said I, "is well +fitted to impress you with the thought of the miseries under which four +millions of your fellow-men are every day groaning in our Southern +country. I make no doubt that you are grateful for the blessings of +freedom which we enjoy here at the North. I wish to ask whether you are +doing anything against oppression; whether you belong to any Association +whose object is"-- + +"What on airth did you stop me for," said he, quite impatiently, and +yet with a lingering gleam of respect, and with some hesitancy at any +further rudeness of speech. + +"My dear sir," said I, "four millions of Southern slaves are this very +hour groaning under sorrows which no tongue"-- + +"You"--(he hesitated a moment, and surveyed me from head to foot, and +then broke out,)--"putty-headed, white-birch-looking, nateral--stoppin' +a load right near the crown of a hill, no gully in the road, such a day +as this, and--'Ged ehp,'"--said he to his horses, as the stones under +the wheels that moment began to give way; and then he drew his lash +through one hand, with a most angry look. I really thought that I should +have to feel that lash. The thought instantly nerved me:--I'll bear it! +it's for the slave; let me remember them, I might have added, that are +whipped as whipped with them; but at that moment the horses had reached +the hill-top, and the driver was by their side. + +He called back, as he passed round the rear of his load to the nigh side +of his team. I caught only a few of his last words;--"take your backbone +for a for'ard X." I snapped my thumb and finger at him, though not +lifting my arm from my side. The human spinal column, with its vertebræ, +for an axle-tree of a wagon! And yet, I immediately thought, the poor +negro's back is truly "the for'ard X" of the great wagon of our American +commerce. But I let him depart. + +Salutary impressions, I cannot question, dear Aunty, were made upon his +mind. He had heard some things which would occupy his thoughts in his +solitary trudge on his way to Boston. That thought comforted me as I was +writhing a little on my way home, under his opprobrious epithets; for +you know that I was always sensitive when addressed with reproachful +words. + +I could not help recalling and analyzing his scalding words of contempt. +I took a certain pleasure in doing so, because, as I saw and felt the +power of each in succession, I remembered what awful abuses flow from +the tongues of Southern masters and mistresses continually, as they goad +on their slaves to their work, or reproach them for not bringing in the +brick for which they had given them no straw. So it was comparatively a +light affliction for me to remember that I had been called by such hard +names. "Putty-headed!" said he. I infer, dear Aunty, that he must have +worked in the painter's department, and had been familiar with putty; +hence he drew the epithet, into whose signification I did not care to +inquire. "White-birch-looking!" I suppose he referred to the impression +of imbecility which we have in seeing a perfectly white tree in the +woods among the deep green of the sturdier trees. He may have referred +to the effect of sedentary habits on my complexion. However, I soon +forgot the particulars of his insulting address, retaining only the +impression that I had suffered, and that willingly, in the bleeding +cause of freedom. + +It was a great relief to me that, just at that moment, a very fine dog +approached me and fawned upon me, then ran ahead, and seemed afraid that +I should send him back. After a while I tried to drive him away, but he +insisted on following me, and I have no doubt that I might have secured +him, had I wished to do so. I was not a little inclined, at one time, to +take him home with me, and to keep him as a companion in my walks. But +he had a collar with his own name, Bruno, upon it, and the name of his +owner. The question of right occurred to me. I debated it. Applying some +of the self-evident truths established by our own Independence, I almost +persuaded myself that I might rightfully take the dog. I reasoned thus: +1. All dogs are born free and equal. 2. They have an inalienable right +to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 3. All governments +derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. These +principles, breathed in, from childhood, with the atmosphere of our +glorious "Fourth," I did not hesitate to apply in the case of the dog. I +do not know what practical conclusion I might have arrived at, but +suddenly I lost sight of Bruno in consequence of a new adventure, in the +process of which he disappeared. + +A matronly looking lady came suddenly out of a gate, with a cup in one +hand containing a teaspoon, and a brown earthen mug in the other hand. +She pushed the gate open before her, easily; but I saw that she was +embarrassed about shutting it. I stepped forward and assisted her. + +"Some kind office for the sick, I dare say," said I. + +"A woman in that plastered house is very sick," said she; "I have just +fixed some marsh-mallow for her, to see if it will ease her cough. Sorry +to trouble you, sir, but my cup was so full that I could not use my +hands." + +"I suppose," said I, "madam, if you will allow me to detain you a +moment,"-- + +"I am afraid my drink in the cup will get cold, sir, but"-- + +"Only a moment, madam," said I; (for I did not feel at liberty to walk +with her;) "only a moment; I am led to think, by your kindness to this +poor woman, of the millions of bond-people in our Southern country who +never feel the hand of love ministering to their sick and dying"-- + +"O you ignorant thing!" said she, pouring the contents of the cup into +the mug, and then setting the cup on the mug, all without looking at me; +"where were you born and bred? You must be an abolitionist. Southern +ladies are the very best of nurses; and as to their slaves when they are +sick,--why their hearts are overflowing--why!" said she, "I could tell +you tales that would make you cry like a baby--the idea! millions of +slaves sick and neglected! Do you belong to ---- College?" + +"Yes, madam," said I. + +"Sophomore?" said she. + +"Yes, madam." But it was a cutting question. She had an arch look as she +asked it. + +"Well sir," said she, with a graceful air, in a half averted direction, +"you have some things to learn about your fellow-countrymen which are +not put down in your Moral Philosophies. Please do not betray your +ignorance on subjects about which you are evidently in midnight +darkness." She was some ways from me, but I heard her continue: "Was +there ever anything like this Northern ignorance and prejudice about the +Southern people!" + +I had nothing to do but resume my lonely walk. My sense of desolateness +no tongue can tell. I whistled for Bruno, but in vain. She called me "an +ignorant thing," said I. Ignorant on the subject of slavery! How easy it +is to misjudge! Have I steadied free-soil papers all these years only to +be called "an ignorant thing!" I could graduate to-day from this +institution, though only in my second year, if the examination were +confined to the subject of slavery. I have thoroughly understood the +theory; I have learned by heart the codes of the iniquitous system. I +know it root and branch, from pith to bark. All the lecturers on the +subject have not labored in vain, nor spent their strength for nought, +with me. And now to be called "ignorant!" Just as though I could not +reason, that is, draw inferences from premises, make deductions from +facts. There is the great fact of slavery; it is "the sum of all +villanies;" men holding their fellow-men in bondage for the sake of +gain; the heart naturally covetous, oppressive, and cruel, where power +is unlimited. As though the law of kindness could, in such +circumstances, possibly prevail and mitigate the sorrows of the bondman! +The direct influence of slavery is to debase, to make barbarous, to +petrify; I know as well as though I saw it that the South must be full +of neglected, perishing objects, cast out to perish in their sicknesses. +You doubtless are acquainted, dear Aunty, with the great change in the +mode of reasoning introduced by Lord Bacon. We reason now from facts to +conclusion; this is called the inductive method, to collect facts, then +draw inferences. The facts which I have collected on the subject of +slavery, in my reading and hearing, lead me to a perfect theory on the +subject, and my confidence in that theory is all which it could be if, +like you, I were now seeing it verified with my own eyes. + +I reason on this subject of slavery, just as our philosophers reason +about the moon. You have learned, dear Aunt, ere this, that there is no +water in the moon. Certain things are observed by our telescopes, in the +moon, from which we are sure that there is no water there. Now there are +certain given facts in slavery. Slavery is Barbarism. It consists in +holding men to compulsory servitude. The human heart is avaricious; it +gets all it can, and keeps all it gets. Give it complete power over a +human being, and there are no limits to its cupidity and wrong-doing, +but the finite nature of the thing itself. Hence, does it not follow +that there can be no disinterestedness, no tender mercies in slavery? +Yes, dear Aunt, as we are perfectly sure that there can be no water in +the moon, so are we sure, by the same unerring rule of reasoning +according to the inductive philosophy, that there is not one drop of +water in slavery for the parched lips of a dying slave. I stated this to +a member of our Junior Class who is a wonderful metaphysician. He was +kind enough to say that he could discover no flaw in the logic. Your +letter, which, I trust, is now on its way to me, I know will fully +confirm my theory and conclusion. + +This lady had probably been reading some miserable cant about Southern +humanity, for there are people everywhere who take the wrong side of +every subject, from sheer obstinacy. What can disprove the laws of human +nature? They require that things should be at the South as our theories +lay them down. + +In our Institution I mourn to say there is much opposition to the +principles of freedom. Not only so, but the students, many of them, mock +at us who stand up against oppression. + +You may not be aware, dear Aunty, that I have a habit, in walking, of +keeping my hands firmly clenched, and my thumbs laid flat and pressed +down over the knuckles of my forefingers. This, I am aware, gives the +thumbs a flattened look. One of our principal pro-slavery students +delights to laugh at me to my face. Perhaps I am wrong in connecting +everything with this all-absorbing theme, but, truly, my thoughts all +run in that direction. Mother and you were accustomed to send me on +errands when I was little, and you placed your money in my right hand +and mother hers in my left, because, on my return to our house, your +room was on the right hand of the entry. So I used to go along, holding +your respective moneys in my palms, with my thumbs stopping the +apertures. And now I am persecuted for the fidelity which led me to +acquire a habit that cleaves to me to this day. But little did I dream, +dear Aunty, when I padded along like a straight footed animal in the +water, instead of having the free use of my open palms to aid me in +walking, that I was acquiring a habit to be to me an inlet of torture in +behalf of our manacled four millions, whose hands feel the galling bonds +of slavery. I take it joyfully, because it is all for the slave. + +The day that I came home from my two interviews and efforts just +related, a pro-slavery student, a Senior, invited me into his room. He +is exceedingly kind and generous, though, I am sorry to say it, a friend +of oppression. He gave me a splendid apple, the first which I had seen +for the season. He dusted my coat with his feather-duster, and he even +dusted my boots. He asked me how far I had been walking. I told him all +which I had said and done, thinking that it would profitably remind him +of the great subject. He roared with laughter. "Three cheers for +Gustavus;" "isn't that rich;"--waving, all the while, the +feather-duster, and breaking out with fresh peals, as I related one +thing after another. The noise which he made brought in several of the +students from neighboring rooms, and he related my stories to them as +they stood with their thumbs and fingers holding open their text-books +at the places where they were studying. They were a curious looking set, +in their dressing-gowns, slippers, and smoking-caps; and the most of +them, unfortunately, happened to be pro-slavery, and advocates of +oppression; by which I mean, not in favor of my mode of viewing and +treating the subject of slavery. One of them was so amused and excited +that he lost all self-control. He threw down his book, caught me with +his two hands about the waist, and tickled me so that I fell upon the +floor. Then they raised a shout. We have cool nights here, sometimes, in +the warmest weather, and we keep, on the foot-boards of our beds, cotton +comforters, called _delusions_, because they are so downy and light. Two +of the students took the Senior's comforter and laid it on me; then four +of them sat down, one on each corner, to keep me underneath. I have told +you that it was a sultry August day. I thought that I should smother. I +told them so, as well as my choked voice would allow; but one of them +said, in a soft, meek tone, as I writhed in distress, "Hush, Gustavus, +lie still; you are certainly laboring under a delusion." This was all +the more painful from its being so cruelly true, in a literal sense, +while I knew that they had reference to my views with regard to freedom, +in the word "delusion." What sustained me in those moments, dear Aunty? +It was not that I had myself stood by when this trick was played on +Freshmen, and encouraged it by my actions; no, a higher and holier power +than conscience of wrong-doing wrought upon me in those moments. Oh, I +thought, the very cotton which fills this comforter, was cultivated by +the hand of a slave. And shall I complain at being nearly smothered by +it, when I remember what an incubus slavery is to the poor creature who +gathered this cotton, and what an incubus it is to our unhappy land? I +was delivered at last from my load, because my tormentors were tired of +their sport. Would that there were some prospect that they who load +cruel burdens on the slave were increasingly tired of their work! + +They would not, however, let me rise. So, thought I, when we have taken +the burden of slavery off from the poor negro, unholy prejudice against +color keeps him from rising to a level with the rest of the community. I +begged that I might get up. They told me that my morning exertions +required longer rest. I told them that I must get my Greek. Whereupon +one of them stood over me, with his arms raised in a deploring attitude, +and said,-- + + "Sternitur infelix!-- + --Et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." + +This, dear Aunty, is the lamentation of a Latin poet over a Greek +soldier lying prostrate on the battle-field, far from home;--"and dying +he remembers his sweet Greece." So they made game of me with the help of +the Classics, giving poignancy to their jokes by polishing the tips with +classical allusions. While I was under the "delusion," they sung +snatches of Bruce's Address to his army; and when they came to the words + + "Who so base as be a slave?-- + Let him turn and flee," + +one of them ran a cane under the delusion and punched me with it, +keeping stroke to the music. This was little short of profaneness. They +asked me if the chair-maker's harnesses were probably made by free or +slave labor, alluding, unfeelingly, to a mistake which I made in a +recitation one day, when two of those very students had kept me talking +about slavery up to the very moment when the recitation-bell rang, so +that I had not looked at my lesson. There are men in my class, and +these were some of them, who, I am told, are plotting to prevent my +having the first appointment, to which they know that my marks at +recitation entitle me. But may I never be so prejudiced against those +who differ from me on the subject of slavery as to deny them credit for +things which they have fairly earned. I leave this to the avowed enemies +of human rights. For the cause of the slave, I must gain the first +appointment. + +I alluded, just now, to my feelings at witnessing tricks played on the +Freshmen. Had the Sophomores asked my advice before they played those +tricks, I should have dissuaded them; but when they played them, with +such courage and enterprise, I stood before them with admiration. But +while I was under that quilt, I found that I did not admire the +Sophomores at all, any more than I did the Seniors who then had me in +their power. + +The enemies of freedom, in College, had a great triumph the other +evening. One of them, in one of the Literary Societies, read an Original +Poem, the title of which was, "The Fly-time of Freedom." He spoke of +"our glorious summer of Liberty" being infested and pestered with noisy, +provoking things, which he characterized under the names of dor-bugs, +millers, and all those creatures which fly into the room when the lamp +is lighted; the swarms of black gnats which are about your head in the +woods; horse-flies which stick, and leave blood running; and +devil's-darning-needles. One brave man here, a great "friend of +freedom," who, they falsely say, loves to be persecuted, and longs for +martyrdom, and interprets everything that way, he described as a miller, +who seems to court death in the flame. I think he aimed at me in +speaking of soft, harmless bugs which creep over your newspaper or book. +Many faces were turned to me as he repeated these lines. I am sorry to +say the piece was much applauded. It has put back the cause of +emancipation in College, I fear, a term. + +The following introduction to another piece was written, and was read, +at the same meeting, by a member of my own class. I fear that there is a +sly hit intended by the writer, which I do not discern, at somebody, or +something, related to freedom. This I suspected from the applause it +excited on the part of those who I know are the most deadly foes we have +to free institutions. I obtained a copy of this introduction. It will +serve, at least, to show you, dear Aunty, what a variety of topics we +have to excite our minds here in College. You can exercise your +discretion about letting uncle read it, as it is on a subject of some +delicacy. The writer says,-- + +"I am collecting facts from our daily papers illustrating the Barbarism +of Matrimony. My list of wives poisoned, beaten, maimed for life by +their husbands, and of divorces, cruel desertions, the effects on wives +of intemperance in husbands, is truly fearful. I make no question that +there are some happy marriages. But a relation which affords such +peculiar opportunities for cruelty to women, must sooner or later +disappear. No doubt the time will come when marriage will be deemed a +relic of barbarism, and a bridal veil be exhibited as one of the mock +decorations of the unhappy victims. Human nature in man is not good +enough to be trusted with such a responsibility as the happiness of +woman. Let Bachelors of Arts, on our parchments, suggest to us our duty +to aid, through our example, as well as by words, in breaking this +dreadful yoke, bidding those innocent young women who are now, perhaps, +fearfully looking at us as their future oppressors, to be forever free. +In the language of young Hamlet: 'I say, we will have no more +marriages.'" + + * * * * * + +Just before dark one evening, I was sitting in my room, meditating on +the great theme which absorbs my thoughts. My eye was caught by the +bright bolt of my door-lock, the part of the bolt between the lock and +the catch showing, beyond question, that the door was fastened. Some one +on the outside had turned a key upon me. + +I had the self-possession to be quiet, for my mind had been calmed by +reflecting, in that twilight hour, that now one more day of toil for the +poor slaves was over. + +But as I looked at the bolt, my attention was diverted by something near +the top of the door, moving with a strange motion. It was black; it +opened and shut. I drew toward it. I found that it was the leg of a +turkey, the largest that I ever saw. It was held or fastened in the +ventilator over the door, while some one on the outside was evidently +pulling the tendons of the claw, making it open and shut. + +There it performed its tragi-comic gibes for several minutes. + +I resumed my seat, unterrified, of course, and proceeded to turn the +spectre to good account. I addressed it, in a moderate tone; though I +think that I used some gesticulation. Said I: Personation of the +Slave-power! predatory, grasping, black! thinkest thou a panting +fugitive lies hid under my "delusion?" or wouldst thou seize a freeman? +The Ægis of Massachusetts is over me. Gape! Yawn! Thou art powerless; +but thy impudence is sublime.--Ten or fifteen voices then solemnly +chanted these words:-- + + "Emblem of Slavery + Clutching the Free! + We've digested the turkey + That gobbled oil thee. + Sure as THANKSGIVING hastened, + Cock-turkey! thy hour, + Thanksgivings shall blazon + Thy downfall, Slave-power! + + "The Slave-power has talons, + Like Nebuchadnezzar; + Slaves are the Lord's flagons + Our modern Belshazzar + From the Temple of Nature + Has stolen away. + 'Mean!' 'Mean!' be writ o'er him! + Wrath! canst thou de"-- + +Here screams of laughter, and a scampering in the entry, and the +turkey's leg tumbling into my room, ended the trick and their +cantillation. I was wishing to hear, in the next stanza, the idea that +as the tendons of the claw were worked by a foreign power, so slavery at +the South owes its activity to Northern influence. Perhaps it is due to +myself to say that the word scampering, a few lines above, has no +revengeful reference, in its first syllable, to the author of the trick. +The cause of humanity, I find, has a tendency to make one cautious and +charitable in his use of words. + +They have anti-slavery meetings in the village, now and then, which I +attend. All the talent of the place, and the truly good, are there. One +evening, when the excitement rose high, a tall, awkward young man +mounted the stage, and said that he wanted to offer one resolution as a +cap-sheaf. You will infer, dear Aunty, that he was an agriculturist. He +lifted his paper high up in one hand, while his other hand was extended +in the other direction, and so was his foot under that hand. He looked +like Boötes, on the map of the heavens, which we used to take with us, +you know, in studying the comet. "Read it!" "Read it!" said the meeting. +"I will," said he, flinging himself almost round once, in his +excitement, reminding me of a war-dance, and then taking his sublime +attitude again; when he read,-- + +"Resolved, Mr. Cheerman, fact is, that Abolition is everything, and +nuthin' else is nuthin'." + +Some of the younger portion of the audience wished to raise a laugh, but +the reddening, angry faces of the prominent friends of the slave were +turned upon them instantly, and overawed them. + +All were silent for a moment, when the Chairman rose to speak. He was a +short man, with reddish hair, and his teeth were almost constantly +visible, his lips not seeming to be an adequate covering for them. He +had, moreover, a habit of snuffing up with his nose,--in doing which his +upper lip, what there was of it, played its part, and made him show his +teeth by frequent spasms. Being a little bow-legged, he made an awkward +effort in coming to the front of the stage; but we all love him, because +he is such a vigorous friend of freedom, looking as though he would +willingly be executioner of all the oppressors in the land. He said that +he "utterly concurred" with the mover in the spirit of his resolution; +it was not, to be sure, in the usual form of resolutions, but that could +easily be fixed; and he would suggest that it be referred to the +Standing Committee of the Freedom League. "I agree to that," said the +pro-slavery Senior who gave me that entertainment in his room, (but who, +by the way, being a friend of oppression, had no right to speak in a +meeting in behalf of freedom;) "I agree to that," said he, "Mr. +Chairman, and I move that the School-master be added to the Committee." +What a cruel laugh went through the meeting! while the most +distinguished friends of the slave had hard work to control their faces. + +I could not help going to the mover of the resolution after the meeting; +and, laying two fingers of my right hand on his arm, I said, "Don't be +put down; he tried to reproach you for not being college-bred; he had +better get the slaves well educated before he laughs at a Massachusetts +freeman for not being a scholar."--He tossed his black fur-skin cap +half-way to his head, and he wheeled round as he caught it, saying, +"Don't care, liberty's better'n larnin', 'nuff sight."--"Both are good," +said I, "my friend, and we must give them both to the slave."--"Give 'em +the larnin' after y'u've sot 'em free!" said he; "I'll fight for 'em; +don't want to hear nuthin' 'bout nuthin' else but liberty to them that's +bound." He stooped and pulled a long whip and a tin pail from under the +seat of the pew where he had been sitting, making considerable noise, so +that the people, as they passed out, turned, and the sight of him and +his accoutrements made great sport for some whose opinions and feelings +were the least to be regarded. I saw in him, dear Aunty, a fair specimen +of native, inbred love of liberty and hatred of oppression, +unsophisticated, to be relied on in our great contest with the +slave-power. I have been told, since the meeting, that his Christian +name is Isaiah. + +The meeting that evening appointed me a delegate to an Anti-slavery +Convention which is to be held before long. I am expected to represent +the College on the great arena of freedom. They have done me too much +honor. Since my appointment, the students have sent me, anonymously, +through the post-office, resolutions to be presented by me at the +Convention. I have copied them into a book as they came in, and I will +transcribe them for you and send them herewith. The spirit of liberty +is, on the whole, certainly rising among the students. As the blood of +the martyrs is the seed of the Church, I cannot but hope that my trials +in the cause of freedom have wrought good in the Institution. Some who +send in these resolutions privately, are, no doubt, secret friends, +needing a little more courage to face the pro-slavery feeling and +sentiment which are all about them. Some one who read these resolutions +suggested the idea of their being a burlesque. I repudiated the idea at +once. They will commend themselves to you, dear Aunty, I am sure, as +honest and truthful. + +The President called me to his room yesterday, and asked me about the +treatment which I received from those Seniors. While I was telling him +of it, I noticed that he kept his handkerchief close to his face almost +all the time. I thought at first that his nose bled, or that he had a +toothache; but I afterward believed that he was weeping at the story of +my wrongs. A Southerner, in the Junior Class, said he had no doubt that +the President was laughing heartily all the time. None but a minion of +the slave-power could have suggested this idea. The President felt so +much that he merely told me to return to my room. + +But I perceive, by the students with letters and papers in their hands, +that the mail is in. I will add a postscript, if I find a letter from +you; and I will send on the resolutions at once. Write soon, dear Aunty, +to your loving nephew, and to + +Yours for the slave, +Gustavus. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RESOLUTIONS FOR A CONVENTION. + + "Nay, and thou'lt mouth, + I'll rant as well as thou."--HAMLET. + + +I. + +_Resolved_, That the continued practice of wild geese to visit the South +for the winter, flying over free soil--Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill, +Faneuil Hall,--on their way to the land of despotism, cannot be too +loudly deplored by all the friends of freedom in the North; and that the +laws of nature are evidently imperfect in not yielding to the known +anti-slavery sentiments of this great Northern people so far as to make +the instincts of said geese conform to our most sacred antipathies and +detestations. + + +II. + +_Resolved_, That the abolitionists of Maine, and of the British +Provinces, resident near the summer haunts of said geese, be requested +to consider whether measures may not be adopted whereby anti-slavery +tracts, and card-pictures illustrating the atrocious cruelties of +slavery, and appeals to the consciences of the South, or at least +instructions to the colored people as to their right and duty to assert +their liberty, may not be fastened to these birds of passage, to make +them apostles of liberty; so that while they continue to disregard the +bleeding cause of humanity, their very cackle may be converted into lays +of freedom. + + +III. + +Whereas we read in the Revelation a description of the wall of heaven as +having "on the South three gates," a number equal to that assigned to +the North, + +_Resolved_, That this description being in total disregard of the great +modern anti-slavery movement, the book which contains it cannot have +been divinely inspired; and that a true anti-slavery Bible would have +represented those pro-slavery gates as shut, with the inscription over +them: Enter from the North. + + +IV. + +_Resolved_, That the great abolitionist who represents himself in his +speeches as baptizing his dogs, in just ridicule of the baptism of +chattel slaves, is worthy, with his dogs, of a place in the heavens +among the constellations; and that anti-slavery astronomers be requested +to make a Southern constellation for them somewhere near the head of The +Serpent, as rivals to "_Canes Venatici_," which pro-slavery astronomers +no doubt designed, in blasphemous profanation of the heavens, to +represent their bloodhounds hunting fugitive slaves, placing it in +disgusting proximity to our own Northern _Ursa Major_. And the friends +of the slave are hereby invited to make that new constellation their +cynosure, vowing by it, and anti-slavery lovers arranging their +matrimonial engagements, if possible, so as to plight their troth only +when it is in the ascendant. + + +V. + +_Resolved_, That we shall hail it as a sign of progress and an omen for +good, when anti-slavery women, with the sensibility which belongs to +their sex, shall become so interpenetrated with the sentiments of +freedom, that they can distinguish by the sense of taste the oyster +grown in James River, Richmond, Virginia, and handled by the toil-worn +slave, from that which grew on free soil. + + +VI. + +_Resolved_, That our noble anti-slavery poets be requested to compose +sonnets addressed to the whippoorwill, appealing to that sorrowful-tuned +bird by our associations with his name, and by his own historic +relationship to the victims of oppression, to desert the South and to +frequent our woods and pastures in greater numbers, that the +sensibilities of our people may be continually touched by his notes and +his name, so suggestive of the monstrous lash which rules over one half +of this great nation. And the anti-slavery members of the Legislature +are hereby requested to seek legislative enactments whereby the +whippoorwill may be further domiciliated at the North, and be provided +with protection during the winter season. + + +VII. + +_Resolved_, That bobolinks, blue jays, orioles, martins, and swallows, +who visit the rice-fields of the South, and live upon the unrequited +toil of four millions of our fellow-men, should not, upon their return, +be viewed with favor by the friends of equal rights at the North, but +should be destroyed by sportsmen as a sacrifice to outraged humanity. +And no true anti-slavery taxidermist will, in our judgment, be found +willing to stuff the skin of one of those mean and traitorous birds for +any public or private ornithological show-case. + + +VIII. + +_Resolved_, That one subject of great interest, well suited to occupy +the attention of Massachusetts freemen and friends of liberty the +current year, is this: Whether the great whips in Dock Square, Boston, +which stand professedly as signs before the doors of whip-makers' shops, +but are in the very sight of Faneuil Hall, shall be allowed to remain +within that sacred precinct of liberty; and that we tender our thanks to +those who are investigating the question whether the whips were not +originally placed, and are not now maintained, there by the slave-power, +in mockery of our Northern hatred of oppression. + + +IX. + +_Resolved_, That, if it be true that the steel pen which signed the bill +for the removal of a Judge of Probate for doing an accursed duty as U.S. +Commissioner, was taken from the Council Chamber and is now in the +possession of one who has driven it into the edge of his chamber-door +casement, and every night hangs his watch upon it, at the head of his +bed, with the infatuated notion that thereby, through some "most fine +spirit of sense," the tick of a death-watch will disturb the political +dreams of our Massachusetts rulers, we hereby declare that this is most +chimerical and visionary, and that the great party of freedom in +Massachusetts need not feel the slightest apprehension that our rulers +have the least misgivings as to the morality of their conduct in the +removal of said officer, nor that they fear political retribution for +that deed; nor do we believe that the death-watch will ever tick in the +ear of freedom in Massachusetts. + + +X. + +_Resolved_, That in the acquiescence of many at the North in the entire +justice of a universal massacre, by the slaves, of their masters, +including women and children, we recognize a state of preparedness for +the proscription and banishment of all who do not come up to the high +abolition standard; but that in carrying out that project, we ought +first to seek the reclamation of the victims, and therefore that due +inquiry ought to be made concerning the most effective modes of +persuasion, as, for example, thumb-screws, racks, wheels, scorpions, +water-dropping for the head, bags of snakes, tweezers, and steel-pointed +beds, it being apparent that our agony for the slave cannot be satisfied +except by his liberation, or by the forcible subjection to us of all who +oppose it. And we do hereby request all the friends of freedom now +travelling in despotic countries to make inquiry as to the most approved +methods of persuading the mind by appeals to it through the +sensibilities of the flesh, and to be prepared with this information +against the time when the sublime march of abolition philanthropy shall +arrive at the limits of forbearance with all the Northern advocates of +oppression. + + +XI. + +Whereas no one who holds slaves can be a Christian; and whereas Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob were slave-holders, Abraham himself having owned more +slaves than any Southerner; and whereas a synonyme of heaven, in the New +Testament, is "Abraham's bosom;" and whereas no true friend of freedom +can consistently have Christian communion with slave-holders, + +_Resolved_, That we look with deep interest to the introduction among us +of the principles of the Hindoo philosophy and religion (including the +transmigration of souls), through tentative articles in our magazines; +by which there is opening to us a way of escape from that heaven one +exponent of which is, to lie in the bosom of a slave-holder. + + +XII. + +And in conclusion, + +_Be it Resolved_, That Bunker Hill was since Mount Sinai, that Faneuil +Hall is far in advance of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness; and that our +anti-slavery literature is immeasurably beyond epistles to Philemon and +other inspired pro-slavery tracts. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE GOOD NORTHERN LADY'S LETTER FROM THE SOUTH. + + "No haughty gesture marks his gait, + No pompous tone his word; + No studied attitude is seen, + No palling nonsense heard; + He'll suit his bearing to the hour, + Laugh, listen, learn, or teach. + With joyous freedom in his mirth, + And candor in his speech."--ELIZA COOK. + + +[My friend, A. Freeman North, having read the foregoing, returned it +with a hasty note, in pencil, saying, "Please send me the Aunt's reply, +if you have it, or can procure it." I accordingly sent it, and we have +it here.] + +MY DEAR NEPHEW,-- + +Your letter came while we had gone into the country for a fortnight. +Hattie is much improved, and I trust will soon be well. I gave her your +letter to read. She told me that she could not find it in her heart to +wonder at you for it; for once she should probably have written very +much in the same strain. + +It was Easter Monday afternoon when our steamboat reached the wharf. We +took an open carriage and drove toward the hotel. As we reached the +centre of the city, the place seemed to be full of colored people, who +evidently had just come out of their meeting-houses. This was our first +view of the blacks. Our driver had to stop frequently while they were +crossing the streets, and we had full opportunity to enjoy the sight. +Hattie exclaimed, after looking at them a few moments,-- + +"Why, Uncle, they are human beings!" + +"What did you suppose they were?" said he. + +"Uncle," said she, "these cannot be slaves. Where do you suppose the +yokes are?" + +"Now, Hattie," said he, "you were not so simple as to suppose that they +wore yokes, like wild cows and swine." + +"Why," said she, "our papers are always telling about their being +'reduced to a level with brutes,' and every Sabbath since I was a child, +it seems to me, I have heard the prayer, 'Break every yoke!' Last Sabbath +our minister, you remember, said, 'Abraham was a slave-holder, David a +murderer, and Peter lied and swore.' Why, Uncle, these black people look +like gentlemen and ladies! If slave-holders are like murderers and +thieves, these cannot be their slaves!" + +"Ask that elderly gentleman," said your Uncle. He was stopping for our +carriage to pass,--a portly man, with a ruffled shirt, and a +rich-looking cane, the end of which he kept on the ground, holding the +top of it at some distance from him. + +"Please, sir, will you tell me if these are the slaves?" said Hattie. + +He looked round, while he kept his arm and the top of his cane +describing large arcs of a circle. + +"They are our colored people, Miss," said he, exchanging a smile with +your Uncle and me. + +"Well, sir," said Hattie, more earnestly than before, "are they +slaves?" + +He politely nodded assent, but was apparently interested by something +which caught his eye. He then took out a snuff-box, and, looking round +about him while opening it, said,-- + +"Some of them dress too much, Miss,--too much, altogether." + +"Kid gloves of all colors," said Hattie, soliloquizing. "Red morocco +Bibles and hymn-books. What a white cloud of a turban! Part of the +choir, I take it,--those, with their singing-books. Elegant spruce young +fellow, isn't he, Aunt? with the violoncello. Venerable old couple, +there! over eighty, both of them. Well," continued Hattie, "I will give +up, if these are the slaves." + +"Don't make up your mind too suddenly," said your Uncle; "you will see +other things." + +"Uncle," said she, "what I have seen here in fifteen minutes shows me +that at least one half of that which I have learned at the North about +the slaves is false. Our novels and newspapers are all the time +misleading us." + +"And yet," said your Uncle, "perhaps everything they say may be true by +itself; it may have happened." + +"Why, Aunt," said she, "such a load is gone from my mind since looking +upon these colored people that I feel almost well. Why, there's a +wedding!" said she. "Driver, do stop! Uncle, please let us go in." + +They left me, and went into a meeting-house, where a black bridegroom, +in a blue broadcloth suit, white waistcoat, kid gloves, patent-leather +shoes, and white hose, and an ebony bride, in white muslin caught up +with jessamines, and a myrtle wreath on her head, had gone in, followed +by a train of colored people. The white people, invited guests, it +seems, were already assembled. The sexton told your Uncle that the +parties were servants, each to a respectable family. This was a new +picture to Hattie. She said that in looking back to the steamboat, an +hour ago, the revelations made to her by what she had seen and heard, in +that short time, all new, all surprising and delightful, afforded her +some idea of the sensations of a soul after it has been one hour within +the veil. We sat in the carriage, and saw the procession pass out, when +the choir, who had been in the church before the wedding, practising +tunes, resumed their singing. + +"Now the idea," said Hattie, after we had listened awhile, "that they +can forget that they are slaves long enough to meet and practise +psalm-tunes!" + +"You evidently think," said your Uncle, "that they would not sing the +Lord's songs, if this were to them a strange land." + +"They certainly have not hung their harps upon the willows by these +rivers of Babylon," said Hattie. + +"Why, some of our people at the North are to-day writhing in anguish, +because of these slaves, and are imprecating God's vengeance, and +praying that the slaves may get their liberty, even by violence, while +the slaves themselves are practising psalm-tunes!"-- + +"And getting married," said your Uncle. + +"Yes, Sir," said Hattie, "and this week our ---- paper will come to us +from New York loaded with articles about 'bondage' and 'sum of all +villanies,' and 'poor, toil-worn slaves.' Toil-worn! I never saw such a +lively set of people. Do see that little mite of a round black child, in +black jacket and pants; he looks like a drop of ink; Oh, isn't he +cunning! Little boy! what is your"-- + +"Come, come!" said your Uncle, "you are getting too much excited; you +will pay for all this to-morrow with one of your headaches." + +But a new surprise awaited us. The driver stopped opposite a large, +plain-looking building, and told us that we had better step in. On +entering, we involuntarily started back, for I never saw a house more +densely filled; and all were blacks. It was a sable cloud; but the sun +was in it. The choir were singing a select piece. The principal +_soprano_, an elegant-looking black girl, dressed in perfect taste, held +her book from her in her very small hand covered with a straw-colored +glove. The singing was charming. We asked a white-headed negro in the +vestibule what was going on. + +"Why, it is Easter Monday, Missis." + +"Is this an Episcopal church?" + +"No; Baptist." + +"What are all these people here for?" said your Uncle. + +"Why, to worship, Sir, I hope. It's holiday." + +"Do they go to church, holidays?" + +"Why," said he, with a smile and bow, "some of the best of 'em, p'raps." + +We returned to the carriage. + +"Think," said your uncle, "of two thousand people at the North spending +a part of 'Artillery Election Day' in Boston, for example, in going to +church!" + +"Well," said Hattie, "if I were not to live another day, I would bless +God for having let me live to see these things. I am so glad to find +people happy who I had supposed were weeping and wailing." + +We admonished her that she had not seen the whole of slavery. + +A very interesting coincidence happened to us the next day. We took tea +at Rev. Mr. ----'s. A splendid bride-cake adorned the table. As Hattie +was admiring the ornaments on the cake, the lady of the clergyman smiled +and said,-- + +"This is from a colored wedding." + +Sure enough, that black bride whom we saw the day before had sent her +minister's wife this loaf. Said Miss ----, "I was hurrying to get a silk +dress made last week, but my dressmaker put me off, because she was +working for Phillis B.'s wedding." + +We both gave a glance at Hattie. She sat gazing at Miss ----, her lips +partly open, her eyes moistened,--a picture in which delight and +incredulity were in pleasant strife. + + * * * * * + +We have been in the interior a fortnight. One thing filled me with +astonishment, soon after I came here, namely, to find widow ladies and +their daughters, all through the interior of Southern States, living +remote from other habitations, surrounded by twenty, fifty, or a hundred +slaves. Hattie and I spent a week with a widow lady, whose head slave +was her overseer. There was not a white man within a mile of the house. +More than twenty black men, slaves, were in the negro quarter. I awoke +the first night, and said to Hattie,-- + +"Do you know that you are 'sleeping on a volcano'?" + +"What do you mean, Aunt? You frighten me." + +"Well, it will not make an eruption to-night," said I. "We will examine +into it to-morrow." + +At breakfast I asked the lady how she dared to live so. I told her that +we at the North generally fancied Southern people sleeping on their +arms, expecting any night to be murdered by their slaves. + +"It ought to be so, ought it not?" said she, "according to your Northern +theory of slavery; and it may get to be so, if your people persist in +some of their ways. My only fear is of some white men who live about two +miles off. I keep two of my men-servants in the house at night as a +protection against white depredators." + +"But," said Hattie, "there have been insurrections. Are you not afraid +that your slaves will rise and assert their liberty?" + +The lady smiled and was evidently hesitating whether to answer seriously +or not, when Hattie continued,-- + +"Aunt! now I see what you meant by our sleeping on a volcano." + +"Yes," said I, "we at the North often speak of you Southerners as +sleeping on a volcano. Our idea is that the blacks here are prisoners, +stealing about in a sulky mood, vengeance brooding in their hearts, and +that they wait for their time of deliverance, as prisoners in our +state-prison watch their chance to escape." + +"Well," said she, "believe I am the only slave on the premises. I am +sure that no one but myself is watching for a chance to escape. I would +run away from these people if I could. But what shall I do with them? I +am not willing to sell them, for when I have hinted at leaving, there is +such entreaty for me to remain, and such demonstrations of affection and +attachment, that I give it up. + +"Here," said she, "are seven house-servants, large and small, to do work +which at the North a man and two capable girls would easily do. I have +to devise ways to subdivide work and give each a share. My husband +carried it so far that he had one boy to black boots and another shoes, +and these two 'bureaus' were kept separate." + +"Oh," said I, "what a curse slavery is to you!" + +"As to that," said she, "it is the negroes who are a curse, not their +slavery. So long as they are on the same soil with us, the subordination +which slavery establishes makes it the least of two evils. If there is +any curse in the case, it is the blacks themselves, not their slavery. +Were it not for their enslavement to us, we should hate them and drive +them away, like Indiana and Illinois and Oregon and Kansas. Now we +cherish them, and their interests are ours. + +"Two distinct races," said she, "never have been able to live together +unless one was subordinate and dependent. This, you know, all history +teaches. Your fanatics say it should not be so; they talk about liberty, +equality, and fraternity, and put guns and pikes into the hands of the +inferior race, here, to help them 'rise in the scale of being,' as they +term it. What God means to accomplish in this matter of slavery I do not +see. + +"Suppose, merely for illustration," said she, "that cotton should be +superseded. Vast numbers of our slaves might then be useless here. What +would become of them? We should implore the North to relieve us of them, +in part. Then would rise up the Northern antipathy to the negro, +stronger, probably, in the abolitionist than in the pro-slavery man; and +as we sought to remove the negroes northward and westward, the Free +States would invoke the Supreme Court, and the Dred Scott decision, and +then we should see, with a witness, whether the black man has 'any +rights' on free soil 'which the' original settlers 'are bound to +respect.' Think of bleeding Kansas, even, refusing to incorporate +negro-suffrage in her constitution, when left free to follow the +dictates of common sense, and a wise self-interest. I sometimes think +that that one thing, as a philosophical fact, is worth all the trouble +which Kansas has cost. It cannot be 'unholy prejudice against color.' It +is human nature asserting the laws which God has established in it. + +"I never," said she, "find abolitionists quoting the whole of the verse +which says: 'and hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth.'" + +"What," said I, "do they leave out?" + +"'And hath fixed the bounds of their habitations,' are some of the next +words," said she. + +But you will tire of this. I will resume my story. I will only say that +I told the lady that some of my gentleman friends would call her a +strong-minded woman. + + * * * * * + +Your letter made me think of something which happened to a lady, a +fellow-traveller of ours, a few weeks, ago. She came here to visit a +lady whose husband owns one hundred and fifty slaves. The morning after +she reached the plantation, as she told me, she was awaked by the +cracking of whips. She listened; human voices, raised above the ordinary +pitch, were mingling with the sounds. She lay till she could endure it +no longer. Coming down to the piazza, she saw a white man mending a +harness on a horse. "Those whips," said she, inquiringly,--"they have +rather interfered with my peace. Any of the colored people been doing +wrong?" He hesitated, and kept on fixing his harness, till, finally, he +turned round,--for he had been standing with his back to her and, as she +supposed, to hide his chagrin at being questioned on so trying a +subject. "Truth is, Madam," said he, taking a large piece of tobacco and +a knife from his pocket, and helping himself slowly,--"truth is, we have +so much of this work to do, we have to begin early. Sorry it disturbed +you;" and he gathered up the reins and drove off. + +The whips kept up their racket. "Here," said she to herself, "is the +house of Bondage. How can I spend a month here?" She thought that she +would peep round the house. Yet she feared that she should be considered +as intruding into things which she had better not meddle with. But the +screams became so fearful that she could no longer restrain herself. She +rushed round the corner of the house, and came full against a black +woman rinsing some fustian clothes in a tub near the rain-spout. "Do +dear tell me," said she, "what they are doing to those people. Who is +whipping them? What have they done?" The black woman stopped, and looked +round without taking her hands from her tub, and then said, as she went +on rinsing, "Lorfull help you, Missis, dem's de young uns scaring de +birds out of de grain." + +What bliss there was to her in that moment of relief! Six or eight +little negroes were sauntering about at their morning work, each having +a rude whip, with tape for a snapper, interrupting the hungry birds at +their breakfast. + +I expected to see a wretched, down-trodden, alms-house looking set of +creatures; for the word _slave_, and all the changes which are rung on +that word, made me think only of people who are convicts, such as you +see in the state-prison yard at Charlestown, Mass. I never expected that +they would look me in the face, but would skulk by me as a spy or enemy. +A Christian heart is overjoyed to find what religion and society have +done for these colored people. If one who had never heard of "slavery" +should be set down here, the Northern idea of "bondage" would not soon +occur to him. + +In the Presbytery which includes Charleston, S.C., there are two +thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine church-members, and of these one +thousand six hundred-and thirty-seven, more than one half, are colored. +In State Street, Mobile, there is a colored Methodist Church who pay +their minister, from their own money, twelve hundred dollars a year. Not +long since they took up a voluntary contribution for Home Missions, +amounting to one hundred and twenty dollars. Their preacher was sent by +the Conference, according to rotation, into another field, and the +blacks presented him with a valuable suit of clothes. + +You see things here, good and evil, side by side, and mixed up together, +one thing counterbalancing another. If you reason theoretically upon +this subject, as you do "about the moon," to quote from your letter, it +is enough to make one almost a lunatic, and I do not wonder that some of +our good people at the North, who pore over this subject in this way, +are on the borders of insanity. + +My great mistake at the North with regard to this subject of slavery +was, I reasoned about it in the abstract, instead of considering it in +connection with those who are slaves under our laws, bound up with us in +our civil constitution. Things might be true or false, right or wrong, +in connection with the enslavement of a race who had never been slaves, +which cannot be applied to the colored people of the South. Hence, the +arguments and the appeals founded on the wrongfulness of reducing you or +me to slavery are obviously misapplied when used to urge the +emancipation of these slaves. Moreover, my thoughts about slavery were +governed by my associations with the word _slave_, in its worst sense. +This is wholly wrong, and it is the source of most of our mistakes on +this subject. + +Dreadful things happen here to some of the slaves in the hands of +passionate men. One slave who had run away was caught, and was beaten +for a long time, and melted turpentine was then poured upon his wounds. +He lingered for several hours. But the horror and execration which this +deed met with were no greater at the North than at the South. It cannot +be denied that slavery, as well as marriage, affords peculiar +provocations and facilities for cruel deeds,--according to the doctrine +of your friend and fellow-Sophomore. But in which section there is the +more of unpunished wickedness, I am slow to pronounce, for I do not wish +to condemn my own people, nor to justify others in their sins. An +excellent minister in Cincinnati not long since preached a sermon on +murder, in which he stated that "during his residence in that city, +there had been more than one hundred murders, or an average of two a +month, while in no instance had the perpetrator been executed." Reading +lately of a husband at the North throwing oil of vitriol from a bottle, +filled for the purpose, over his wife's face and neck, and of a Northern +clergyman feeding his young wife, as she sat on his knee, with apple on +which he had sprinkled arsenic, I questioned whether human nature were +not about the same everywhere. The theoretical right of a master, in +certain cases, to put his slave to death, without judge or jury, is +controlled by the self-interest of the owner who, of course, does not +recklessly destroy his own property. The slave-codes are no just +exponent of the actual state of things in slavery. For example,--by law +a master may not furnish his slave with less than a peck of corn a week. +This has a barbarous look. But to see the slaves feasting on the fat of +the land you certainly would not be reminded of the "peck of corn," +except by contrast. There must be some legal standard, below which if +an inhuman master falls in providing for his servant, he can be +prosecuted. Hence the "peck of corn." By the will of an eminent citizen +at the North, establishing courses of lectures for all coming time, the +pay of each lecturer is to be determined by the market value, at the +time, of a bushel of wheat. This is a fair standard for the unit of +measure. + +In arguing with one who should insist that the abuses in slavery are a +reason for breaking up the institution in this country, I should feel +justified in maintaining that there are as many instances of a happy +relation between, master and servant in the Southern country as there +are happy marriages in the same number of households anywhere. Let there +be four millions of an inferior, dependent race mixed up with a superior +race, anywhere on earth, and of course, while human nature is what it +is, there will be hardships, wrong-doings, oppressions, and barbarisms. +At the North, we get scraps of anguish in the newspapers relating to +hardships at the South; and many pore upon them till they make +themselves half-crazed. All the circumstances serving to qualify the +narrative are sometimes withheld, and the stories are told with dramatic +art. There is sorrow enough everywhere to furnish material for such kind +of writing, especially to those who make it their calling, or find it +for their interest, to publish it. But the goings-on of life, at the +South, with its alleviations and comforts, the practical mitigations of +an oppressive system, theoretical evils qualified by difference of +color, constitution, and history, and all the goodness and mercy which +Christianity and a well-ordered state of society provide, we at the +North do not see. Nor do our people consider that running away, and the +complaints of the slaves, are partly chargeable to the discontent and +restlessness of human nature; but we seem to take it for granted that +every one who flees from the South is as though he had escaped from a +prison-ship. + +While at the North, I remember reading an article, signed with initials, +in a prominent Massachusetts magazine, which contained this sentence: +"Arsenic is universally in possession of the negroes; but it is +considered the part of wisdom, where families are poisoned, that the +fact should be kept as secret as possible." This was brought very +powerfully to my mind one day on passing through King Street, in +Charleston, and seeing for a painted sign over an apothecary's shop, a +tall, benevolent-looking negro, in his shirt sleeves, behind a golden +mortar, with the pestle in his hands, as though at work. + +Now, I thought with myself, as I stood and enjoyed the sight, what a +palpable and eloquent, though undesigned and silent, refutation that is, +of all such Northern chimeras. If poisons are mixed with articles of +food or medicine by the negroes with any noticeable frequency, the sign +of a negro compounding medicines for public sale would surely be, to +customers, the most detersive sign which an apothecary could erect over +his premises. That little incident, and things like it, which are +meeting you at every turn, show the state of things here to be in +pleasing contrast to the horrors with which the imaginations of many of +us Northerners are peopled. I find, in the "Charleston Mercury," a good +cut of this "negro and golden mortar," and I send it to you as an +appropriate answer to much of your letter. + +Our landlord, driving us about the country the other day, and needing +silver change, came to a gang of slaves in a field, and cried out, +"Boys, got any silver for a five dollar gold piece?" Several hands went +into as many pockets, at once, and a lively fellow among them getting +the start, jumped over the fence, and changed the money. I had been here +a month when I received your letter, and when I read it I at first +laughed as heartily, I suspect, as "the pro-slavery Senior" did. Then I +pitied you, and I pitied myself for my own former ignorance, and I +pitied very many of our Northern people, and, not the least, such +persons as poor "Isaiah," who I know are honest, but are grievously +misled. The word slavery is, to us, an awful word. Very much of our +anti-slavery feeling is a perfectly natural instinct. You cannot see +Java sparrows in a cage, nor even a mother-hen tied to her coop, without +a lurking wish to give them liberty. On thinking of being "a slave," we +immediately make the case our own, and imagine what it would be for us +to be in bondage to the will of another. We cannot easily be convinced +that this is not exactly parallel with being one of the slaves at the +South, nor that to be a slave does not have these things for its +inseparable conditions, which, we imagine, are always obtruding their +direful visages; namely, "auction-block," "overseer," "whip," +"chattelism," "separations," "down-trodden," "cattle." Hence it is easy +for orators and preachers to work on our sympathies. There are scattered +facts enough to justify any tale which any public speaker chooses to +relate. I confess that my respect for many of our Northern people has +not risen, as I see them from this point of view. They ought not to be +so easily duped, so ready to believe evil, so quickly carried away by +partial representations, and so unwilling to take comprehensive views of +such a subject as this. I condemn myself in speaking thus; I partly +blame the novel-writers, and the editors of party papers, and political +leaders. But we ought at the North to understand this subject better, +to listen willingly to information from great and good men who have +spent their lives among the slaves, and to discriminate between the evil +and the good. The result may be that we shall not change our inbred +views, nor cease to dissent from those who advocate slavery as a +necessary means of civilization in its highest forms; but we shall +certainly differ from those who declare it to be, practically, an +unmitigated curse to all concerned. I am often made to wish that the +Southerners could be relieved of our Northern hostility and its effects +upon them, just to see them laboring, as they then would, to correct +certain evils which ought to be redressed. We are all apt to neglect our +duty, more or less, when we are suffering abuse. + +Educate this people, some years longer, in the way in which they are +going on, and they cannot be slaves in any objectionable sense. Tens of +thousands of them, now, are not slaves in any such sense, and they never +can be; they could not be recklessly sold at auction; the owners would +revolt at it, and those in want of servants would meet with great +competition in obtaining such as these. A church-member who should +separate husband and wife for no fault, would be disciplined at the +South as surely as for inhumanity at the North. But oh, we say at the +North, only to think, that all those fine-looking people whom Hattie saw +from the barouche, that Monday afternoon, were liable on Tuesday morning +to have their kid gloves and finery taken from them, and to be marched +off to the auction-block! Hence our commiseration. And it is a most +groundless commiseration. + +One thing is especially impressed on my mind. There being sins and evils +in slavery, as all confess, there are men and women here who are +perfectly competent to manage them without our help. There is nothing +that seems to me more offensive than our self-righteousness, as I must +call it, at the North, in exalting ourselves above our fathers and +brethren of all Christian denominations at the South; as though there +were no conscience, no Christian sensibility, no piety here, but it must +all be supplied from the North. When I hear these Southern ministers +preach and pray, and see them laboring for the colored people, and then +think of our designation of ourselves at the North, "friends of the +slave," and remember that all our anti-slavery influence has been +positively injurious to the best interests of the slave at the South, I +have frequently been led to exclaim, What an inestimable blessing it +would be to this colored race, and to our whole land, if anti-slavery, +in the offensive sense of that word, could at once and forever cease! +and I have as often questioned in my own mind whether slavery has not +been, and is not now, the occasion of more sin at the North than at the +South, and whether we at the North are not more displeasing in the sight +of God for the things which are said and done there, in connection with +anti-slavery, than the South with all the sins and evils incident to +slave-holding. I am coming to this belief. + +The people who most frequently excite my commiseration are the free +blacks. They are "scattered and peeled." The Free States dread their +coming; they cannot rise in the Slave States. Even the slaves look down +upon them, sometimes. "Who are you?" said a slave to a free black, in my +hearing; "you don't belong to anybody!" Some States have given them +notice to quit, within a specified time, or they must be sold. Some here +insist that slavery is the only proper condition for the blacks, and +they would reduce them back to bondage. Others remonstrate at this as +cruel. Surely it is a choice of evils for them, to be free, or to be +slaves, if they remain here. There is one thought that affords a ray of +consolation,--they are better off, in either condition, than they once +were in Africa. It is unquestionable to my mind that their relation to +the whites, even in bondage, is, as the general rule, mercy to them, +while they are on the same soil with the whites. Allow it to be +theoretically wrong to be a slave,--it is, under existing circumstances, +protection and a blessing, compared with any arrangement which has yet +been proposed. I have not sufficient patience to argue with those, North +or South, who contend for slavery as a normal condition. I should be +called at the North "pro-slavery;" but the North is in a passion on this +subject. I am not, and I never can be, an advocate for this relation, in +itself, but as a present necessity. + +I once heard a speaker at an anti-slavery meeting at home say, "They +tell us how elevated the blacks are, how intelligent, how pious; that +shows how fit they are for freedom, how wrong it is to hold such people +in bondage. As much as you raise the slaves in our opinion, you deepen +the guilt of the slave-holder." + +This used to dwell much on my mind. I see the thing differently now. You +remember your Uncle Enoch, from Madras, who made your first Malay kite. +I remember a fable which he told you when he was flying the kite for the +first time. "A kite," he said, "high in the air, reasoned thus: If, +notwithstanding this string, I fly so high, what would I not do, if I +could break away! It gave a dash and became free, and was soon in the +woods." I do not mean to strain the comparison; but, certainly, a +_string_ has raised, and now keeps up, the colored race, here. How they +would do, if the string were cut, let wiser heads than mine decide. +They cannot have my scissors, at present. + +The way to be friends of the slave, I now see, is to be the real friends +of their masters, and to pray that the influences of truth and love may +fill their hearts. Where this is the case, the slaves, as a laboring +class, are better off than any separate class of laboring people on +earth, both for this world and the next. + +As to setting them free at once and indiscriminately, it would be as +unjust to them as it originally was to steal them from Africa. So it +appears to me. What God means to do with them, no one can tell. That He +has been doing a marvellous work of mercy for the poor creatures is +manifest. They were slaves at home; they have changed their situation to +their benefit. I have made up my mind to leave this great problem--the +destiny of the blacks--to my Maker, and, in the mean time, pray in +behalf of the owners, that they may have a heart to act toward them +according to the golden rule. I am glad that I am not oppressed with the +responsibility of ownership. Those who assume it should be encouraged by +us to treat their charge as a trust committed to them for a season. I do +not argue, much less plead, for the continuance of this system; it may +be abolished very soon, but that is with Providence. I have acquired no +feelings toward the institution which would not lead me to rejoice in +emancipation the moment that it would be for the good of the colored +people. + +You are looking for my letter to furnish you with details of horrors in +slavery. Wherever poor human nature is, there you will find imperfection +and sin; and of course power over others is always liable to great +abuses. If I were to follow the plan of those who collect the horrors +of slavery and spread them out before our Northern friends, but should +gather merely the beautiful and touching incidents which I meet with, +and which are related to me, I could make people think that slavery is +not an evil. But I have not seen an intelligent Southerner who, +admitting all that we had said about the happiness of the slaves as a +class, did not go far beyond me in declaring that the presence of a +subject, abject race, cannot fail to be an evil. There is not an +ultraist at the North, whom, if he had their confidence, and were not +put in antagonism to him, the Southerners could not make ashamed, and +put to silence, by telling him evil things about slavery, which he had +never contemplated, and by admitting most fully things which he would +expect them to deny. But they are placed in a false position by his +clamor and anger, which set them against him and his doctrines. They +say, "Allowing all that the North asserts, here are the colored people +on our hands; what are we to do with them?" Not one of the Northern +"friends of the slave," nor all of them together, have ever proposed a +feasible plan with regard to the disposal of the slaves, which would be +kind or even humane to the blacks. Moreover, theoretical arguments +against slavery, and representations of it, from many quarters, are so +palpably wrong, that replies to them and refutations are counted by us +at the North as defences of "oppression;" which they were never designed +to be. I am surprised at the extent and depth of real anti-slavery +feeling at the South. Sometimes I question whether Providence is not +permitting the antagonism of the North and South to continue just to +compel the South to hold these colored people in connection with +themselves for their good, until God's purposes of mercy for them are +accomplished, and "the time, times and half a time" of their captivity +is fulfilled. If Northern resistance to slavery had ceased, perhaps the +South would have rid herself of the blacks sooner than would have been +for their good. + +I hope that you will not think me "a strong-minded woman" in what I here +repeat to you of the opinions and expressions which I have gathered in +listening to the conversation of intelligent people on this subject. I +write these things for your instruction, and also as memoranda for my +own future use. + +It is a cherished idea with many excellent people that the time will +come when there will not be a slave in this land, nor on the earth. If +they mean by this that the time will come when every man in every face +will see a brother and a friend, it is certainly true. But if they mean +by it that ownership in man will come to an end, their opinion and +prophecy are as good as those of men who should undertake to differ from +them, and no better; while both would be entirely presumptuous in being +positive on such a subject. Some people seem to think that, in the good +time coming, it is as though we should dwell out-of-doors, among flowers +and fruits, with few wants, these being supplied by the spontaneous +offerings of nature. + +Others, however, suppose that we shall still need some to shovel, take +care of horses, work over the fire the greater part of the day in +preparing food, go of errands, and, in short, be a serving class. They +suppose that the same sovereign God which distributes instincts, and +wisdom, variously, to animals, and gifts of understanding to men, will, +in the same sovereign way, create men and women with such degrees of +capacity and susceptibility as will lead inevitably to their being +superiors and inferiors, and that this will be, as it is now where love +and kindness reign, the source of the greatest happiness to all +concerned. + +This being so, none of us will venture to say that no one of the +existing races of men will, to the end of time, be of such gentle, +dependent natures as to find their highest happiness and welfare in +being, generally, in the capacity of servants. Some of all races, we do +not object, may be servants to the end of time. No one will say to his +Maker that it will be unjust for Him to put a whole race of men forever +in that serving condition, making them, according to their capacity, +most happy in being so. For "Who hath been His counsellor?" That the +Africans are under a cloud of God's mysterious providence, no one +denies. I will not dictate to my Maker when He shall remove that cloud, +while I still endeavor to mitigate the effects of it upon my +fellow-creatures, the blacks. I do not know that he may not perpetuate, +to the end of time, a relationship of dependency to other races in this +African race. I know nothing about it. But I always feel impelled to say +these things, when I hear good men confidently predicting that ownership +in man will soon and forever come to an end. I reply, It may be in the +highest measure necessary to the happiness of the human family, at its +best estate, that one race, or that races, should be in the relation of +inferiors, finding their very best advantage in the relative place which +a sovereign God has assigned them in the scale of intelligence, by +holding that relation to the end of time. Of course it would cease to be +a curse; it would become one of those subordinate parts in the great +orchestral music of life which subdue and soften it for the highest +effect. If any one gets angry at such an idea, I leave him to his +folly; for he is angry without a cause at me, who have, in this idea, +expressed no wish that it may be true; and he is angry that his Maker +should do a thing which contradicts his pet notions about "freedom." But +the singular fact of slavery in this land, continued and defended under +all political changes, and now having the prospect of being more firmly +established than ever by means of our great national commotion on this +subject, is enough to make a serious mind reflect whether it be wholly +the work of Satan, or whether the providence of God be not concerned in +this great and difficult problem. + +It is certainly remarkable that religion, which once gained such a +footing in Africa, so soon and entirely died out there, but that the +Africans, transported to our land, are of all races the most susceptible +to religious influences. If we should visit a foreign missionary field, +and learn that the mission had been blessed to the extent which has +characterized the labors of Christians at the South for their slaves, of +whom, according to the "Educational Journal," Forsyth, Ga., there are +now four hundred and sixty-five thousand connected with the churches of +all denominations, we should regard it as the chief of all the works of +God in connection with modern missions. It is this providential and +Christian view of slavery which quiets my mind. Now, suppose that, +contemplating a foreign missionary field where such results should be +found, one should object: "But there are evils there; people do not all +treat their dependants as they ought; hardships, cruelties, and some +barbarisms remain;"--we should not, I apprehend, proceed to scuttle such +a ship to drown the vermin. But I can see that Satan must be in great +wrath to find himself spoiled of so many subjects. One stronger than he +has brought here hundreds of thousands, who, in Africa, would have +perished forever, but who are now civilized and Christianized. Satan +would be glad, I think, to see American slavery come to an end. We have +no right to go and steal people in order to convert them; the salvation +of these slaves will not, in one iota, extenuate the guilt and +punishment of those who were engaged in the slave-trade. But "the wrath +of men shall praise Thee." In the writings of anti-slavery men I do not +remember to have met with cordial acknowledgments of what religion has +done for the slaves at the South. They coldly admit the fact, but often +they speak disparagingly of the negro's religion, which is full as good +as that of converts in our foreign missionary fields, as good, judging +from some things in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, as that of some +converts to whom he wrote. Our Northern anti-slavery people cannot bear +to have anything good discovered or praised in connection with slavery. + +My own hopeful persuasion is, that great and marvellous works of Divine +Providence and grace are in reserve for the African people in their own +land, and that we are to prove to have been their educators. Most +sincerely do I hope, however, that the number of scholars and future +propagators of religion and civilization, imported here from Africa, +will not need to be increased, considering that one hundred and fifty +per cent. of deaths by violence take place in procuring a given number +of slaves. This is but one objection; others are sufficiently obvious. +Both parts of that passage of Scripture are exceedingly interesting: +"Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands +unto God." Egypt, the basest of kingdoms, shall yet send forth +first-rate men; and Ethiopia, even, shall be the worshipper of God. I +hope that these prophecies, though fulfilled once, are yet to have their +great accomplishment. This is my persuasion, and I trust that every +nation will be independent; but I shall not discard the Bible, if my +interpretation and hope should fail. Ethiopia is certainly stretching +out her hands unto God in our Southern country. + +Hattie received some papers for children from a young friend at the +North, last week. After attending the colored Sabbath-school in ----, +and teaching a class of nicely-dressed, bright little "slave" girls, and +hearing the school sing their beautiful songs, with melodious voices, +such as, I can truly say, I never heard surpassed at the North, and +after looking upon the teachers, who represented the very flower of +Southern society, the superintendent being a man who would adorn any +station, you cannot fully conceive with what feelings I read, in one of +Hattie's little papers from the North, these lines, set to music for the +use of Northern children: + + "I dwell where the sun shines gayly and bright, + Where flowers of rich beauty are ever in sight; + Here blooms the magnolia, here orange-trees wave; + But oh, not for _me_,--I'm a poor little slave. + + "They say 'Sunny South' is the name of my home; + 'Tis here that your robins and blue-birds are come, + While snows cover nests up, and angry winds rave; + _They_ may rest here,--not _I_; _I'm_ a poor little slave. + + "Here beautiful mothers, 'mid splendors untold. + Their fairy-like babes to their fond bosoms fold; + My mammy's worked out, and lies here in the grave; + There's none to kiss _me_,--I'm a poor little slave. + + "I've heard mistress telling her sweet little son, + What Jesus, the loving, for children has done; + Perhaps little black ones he also will save; + I ask him to take _me_, a poor little slave!" + +No wonder, Gustavus, that you write such letters as your last, fed and +nourished as you are on such things as this. I took it with me that +evening to a missionary party at the house of Judge ----. I read the +lines. The ladies said nothing for a time, till at last one said to me, +"Such things have helped us in seceding." The Judge took the lines, +looked them over, and, smiling, handed them back to me, saying, "Madam, +is Massachusetts a dark place?" "Yes," said a young gentleman, "and the +dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." "Oh," +said I, "how prejudiced you all are!" Whereupon they all laughed. "Now," +said I, "you think, no doubt, that the author of such a piece is malign. +I know nothing of its origin, but I venture to say it was written by one +whose heart overflows with love to everybody, but who is 'laboring under +a delusion.'" I did not tell them of the "delusion" which you were +"under," in the Senior's room, but I said, "I have a nephew in a New +England college who has the Northern evil very badly. But he is so very +kind. Set him to write poetry about the South and he would produce just +such lamentable stanzas." Nothing will cure these fancies, about oranges +and magnolias not blooming for the little negroes, so well as to bring +these good people where they can see them pelting one another with +oranges, such as these poets never dreamed of, and making money by +selling magnolias to passengers at the railway stations. + +"Here beautiful mothers, 'mid splendors untold," etc. I went with the +wife of a planter to her "Maternal Association" of slave-mothers. She +gathers the fifteen mothers among her servants once a fortnight, and +spends an afternoon talking to them about the education of their +children, and reading to them; and when she knelt with them and prayed, +I cried so all the time that I hardly heard anything. Oh what a tale of +love was that Maternal Association! "Here beautiful mothers 'mid +splendors untold," etc.;--those words kept themselves in my thoughts. +Now tell this to some great "friend of the slave," in Massachusetts, and +what will he say?--"All very good, I dare say; hope she will go a little +further, and give those fifteen their liberty." I sometimes say, "Must I +go back to the North, and hear and read such things?" + +Yes, it is such things as these, simple and inconsiderable as you may +deem them, which are dividing us irreconcilably, and breaking up the +Union. It is not Messrs. ----, nor their frenzy, but it is Christian +brethren who allow their Sabbath-school children, for example, to say +and sing, "I've heard mistress telling her sweet little son, what Jesus, +the loving, for children has done," making the impression that such a +Christian mother leaves a colored child in her house, without +instruction, to draw the inference, if it will, that Jesus, perhaps, +will love a "poor little slave!" There are no words to depict the +feeling of injustice and cruelty which this conveys to the hearts of our +Christian friends at the South. "Let us go out of the Union!" they cry, +in their blind grief; but where will they go? for while our Northern +people write and publish and sing and teach their children to sing such +things, we can have nothing but mutual hatred, and perhaps exterminating +wars. We must change. If our Northern people would discriminate, and, +while retaining all their natural feelings against oppression and +man-stealing, would admit that "ownership in man" is not necessarily +oppression nor man-stealing, they would do themselves justice and +contribute to the peace of the country. "But O!" they say, "look at the +iniquitous _system_. If separating families, and destroying marriage, +and liberty to chastise at pleasure, and to kill, are not _sin_, what is +sin?" So they impute the _system_, and everything in it, to the people +who live under it. How a system can be a sin, it would puzzle some of +them, who say that all sin consists in action, to explain. And when they +came to look into the system itself, they would find, that if slavery is +to exist, some laws regulating it are, of necessity, self-protective, +and must be coercive. Even in Illinois, it is enacted that a black man +shall not be a witness against a white man. But if the slaves could +swear in court, every one sees that the whites must be at the mercy of +their servants. The testimony of the honest among them is procured, +though indirectly, and it has weight with juries; but it is a wise +provision to exclude them as sworn witnesses. So of other things, which +theoretically are oppressive, but practically right; while many things +in the system which are rigorous are as little used as the equipments in +an arsenal in times of peace. + +When you quote John Wesley's words and apply them to the South: "Slavery +is the sum of all villanies," you unconsciously utter a fearful slander. +Whatever may have been true of British slavery, in foreign plantations, +in Wesley's day, the good man never would utter such words about our +Southern people could he see and enjoy that which gladdens every +Christian heart. If slavery be, necessarily, "the sum of all villanies," +as you and many use the expression, the relation cannot exist without +making each slave-holder a villain, in all the degrees of villany. You +will do well to look into the cant phrases of "freedom," before you +indulge in the use of them. The bishops and clergy of the noble army of +Methodists in the South would not sustain their great chief in applying +the phrase in question to the actual state of things in the Southern +country. Wesley used those words concerning slavery in foreign colonies; +he had not seen it mixed up with society in England, as it is in the +South. + +Taking the blacks as they are, and comparing them also with what they +would be in Africa, or if set free, to remain in connection with the +whites, slavery is not a curse. To be free is, of course, in itself a +blessing. But it depends on many things whether, under existing +circumstances, being a slave here is practically a curse. Our people +generally insist that it must be, and therefore that it is. Here they +are mistaken, as I now view the subject. The British people and the +French, looking at the blacks in a colony, settle the question of +emancipation in their own minds without much difficulty. But it would be +found to be a different thing to emancipate the colored race, to live +side by side with the English people in the mother-country. In that +case, a contest between the two races for the possession of power, and +innumerable offences and practical difficulties, would, in time, lead to +the extermination, or expatriation, of one of the two races, or to their +intermarriage, if the universal history of such conjunction of races is +any guide. + +I do not wonder that the good lady with the "marsh-mallow" exclaimed so +at your groundless commiseration of the sick among the slaves. You have +no more idea of the practical relation between the whites and the +blacks, the owners and the slaves, than most of the English people, who +have never been here, have of our Federal and State relations. + +I will tell you an incident which I know to be literally true. + +A lady from a free state was visiting at the South. Calling upon a +married lady, a near relative of one who has been Vice-President of the +United States, she found her with a little sick black babe at her +breast. + +The Northern lady started with astonishment. I am not informed whether +she was what is called among us a "friend of the slave;" the eminent +lady friend whom she visited certainly was such, in the best sense. The +Northern lady's feelings of repugnance would not be found to be peculiar +to her among our Northern people. The little babe died on the lap of the +Southern lady. + +So you see that there are more things here than are dreamed of in your +philosophy. When you stigmatize the Southerners as oppressors, my only +consolation for you is that you know not what you do. Imagine, now, the +Rev. Mr. Blank, at the North, relating that little incident: "Behold and +see this monstrous picture of infinite hypocrisy: The Slave-power with a +slave at its breast! Yes, rather than lose one or two hundred dollars' +worth of human "property," a distinguished lady slave-holder will give +her nourishment to a slave-infant. So they fatten the accursed system +out of their own bodies and souls." Such is a fair specimen of this +man's frenzy; and there are multitudes all over the Free States who will +listen to such language and applaud it. But how cruel it is, how low and +wicked! I pray Heaven to deliver you from being an abolitionist in the +cast of your mind, your temper, and spirit. Nothing gives me such an +idea of the world of despair as when I read ultra anti-slavery speeches. +I see how the lost will hate God's mysterious providence, and revile it; +and how they will fight with each other, and pour out their furious +invective and sarcasm and vituperation, and scourge one another with +their fiery tongues, as they now do, when some one of the party appears +to falter. If there were not something truly good in connection with +slavery amid all its evils, I think such men would not oppose it. + +Pray, who are these gentlemen, and who are their extremely zealous +anti-slavery friends of more respectable standing, that they should have +such immense instalments of sympathy and pity for the "poor slave"? +Their neighbors are as susceptible as they to every form of human +sorrow; they know as much, their judgments are as sound, their motives +are as good as theirs. Had these zealous people made new discoveries, +or, were the subject of slavery new, we might give them credit for being +on the hill-tops, while we were in the vales. This passionate sympathy, +on the part of some, for "the down-trodden," as they call the negroes, +is not like zeal for a theological, or a political, or a scientific, +doctrine, which would justify its adherents in rebuking the error and +indifference of others; for if slavery be as they represent it, the +proofs of it must be as self-evident as starvation. What if a class of +men among us should rage against those who do not contribute largely to +the Syrian sufferers, as the zealous anti-slavery people reproach and +even revile those who do not see slavery with their eyes? We should then +say, "Friends, who are you, that you should claim to have all the +virtuous sensibility?" + +But more than this,--I doubt, I venture to deny, and that on +philosophical grounds, the true philanthropy of these people. For true +love and kindness always create something of their own kind where they +have full power. Are there any words or acts of love, kindness, +gentleness, mercy, toward others, in the speeches and doings of the +zealous anti-slavery people? + +I wish that you had been with me, one evening, in a corner of the +Methodist meeting-house, where I sat and enjoyed the slaves' +prayer-meeting. I had been filled with distress that day by reading, in +Northern papers, the doings and speeches at excited meetings called to +sympathize with servile insurrection. In this prayer-meeting the slaves +rose one after another, went in front, and repeated each a hymn, then +resumed their seats, while some one, moved by the sentiments of the +hymn, would lead in prayer. A white gentleman presided, according to +custom, and I was the only other white person present. Going to that +meeting with the impressions upon my heart of the terrible excitements +which you were witnessing at home, and saying to myself, "O my soul, +thou hast heard the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war!" you +cannot imagine what my feelings were when the largest negro that I ever +saw rose and stood before the desk, and repeated the following hymn by +Rev. Charles Wesley. The first lines, you may well suppose, startled me, +and made me think that the insurrection had reached even here. + + "Equip me for the war, + And teach my hands to fight; + My simple, upright heart prepare, + And guide my words aright. + + "Control my every thought, + My whole of sin remove; + Let all my works in thee be wrought, + Let all be wrought in love. + + "Oh, arm me with the mind, + Meek Lamb! that was in thee; + And let my knowing zeal be join'd + With perfect charity. + + "With calm and temper'd mind + Let me enforce thy call; + And vindicate thy gracious will, + Which offers life to all. + + "Oh, may I love like thee, + In all thy footsteps tread; + Thou hatest all iniquity, + But nothing thou hast made. + + "Oh, may I learn the art, + With meekness to reprove; + To hate the sin with all my heart, + But still the sinner love." + +You must read this hymn to "Isaiah," and tell him about the +prayer-meeting. While the "friends of the slave," as you call them, are +holding such humiliating meetings as you describe, in behalf of the +slaves, and are vexing themselves and chafing under the imagination of +their unmitigated sorrows and "oppression," the slaves themselves, all +over the South, are holding prayer-meetings, and are blessing God that +they are "raised 'way up to heaven's gate in privilege." As I sat in +that prayer-meeting I could almost have risen and asked the prayers of +the slaves in behalf of many at the North who are making themselves and +others nearly insane on their behalf. But I thought of my former +ignorance and prejudice, and said, "And such were some of you." + +I will tell you some of the little incidents which meet one every day, +and which give you impressions respecting the relations between the +whites and blacks, full as instructive as those received in any other +way. + +Crossing a public street, which is steep, in the city of ----, a +truckle-cart came by me at great speed, drawn by a white boy, with +another white boy pushing, and seated in it, erect and laughing, was a +fine-looking black boy of about the same age as his white playmates. +Around the corner of another street there came by me, with a +skip-and-jump step, two white girls, about thirteen years old, and +between them--the arms of the three all intertwined--was another girl of +the same age, as black as ebony. On they went jumping, and keeping step, +and singing. + +I had not been accustomed to such sights in Beacon Street, on my visits +to Boston. "Friends of the slave," as we most surely are, and some of us +being decorated with that name by way of distinction, significant of our +all-absorbing business "to raise the black man at the South to the +condition of a human being," when we get them there we are not greeted +in the streets with pictures of white and black children on such terms +as appeared in these two casual incidents. Nothing at first struck me +with greater wonder at the South than to see the most fashionably +dressed ladies in the most public streets stop to help a black woman +with a burden on her head, if she needed assistance, or to hold a gate +open for a man with a wheelbarrow. + +One white boy cried to another across a street, "Come along, it's most +time to be in school." The other answered, in a petulant tone, "I a'n't +going to school." A tall, white-headed negro was passing; his black +surtout nearly touched the ground; he had on his arm a very nice +market-basket, covered with a snow-white napkin, and in his right hand a +long cane. Hearing what the last boy said, he came to a full stand, put +down his basket, clasped his long cane with both hands, and brought it +down on the brick sidewalk with three quick raps, and then a rap at each +of these points of admiration: "What! what! what!" said he, drawing +himself up to express surprise, and calling out with magisterial voice; +"Go to school! my son! go to school! and larn! a heap!" the cane making +emphasis at every expression. The white boy retreated under the +impression of a well-deserved, though kind, rebuke. He did not call the +old man "nigger," nor in any way insult him. + +But here is an incident of a different kind. + +Standing to talk with a man who had charge of my baggage, in the +passage-way between the baggage-room and the colored passengers' +apartment. I saw a white man with a pert, flurried manner and coarse +look ascend the steps of the cars, and behind him a tall graceful black +man, a little older than the other, with signs of gentleness and dignity +in his appearance. As he stooped and turned, his air and carriage would +have commanded attention anywhere. The white man, seeing him enter the +wrong door, cried out to him with an impudent voice, ordered him back, +pointed him to the proper room, and told him to go in there and make +himself "oneasy," with a laugh at his own attempt at inaccurate talk as +he cast a glance at some white men standing by. The black man was his +slave. The natural and proper order of things was reversed in their +relation to each other. + +I looked at the black man as he took his seat, and, without being +observed, I kept my eye on his face. He cast his eye out of the window, +as though to relieve a struggle of emotions, but a calm expression +settled down upon his features. + +A Southern gentleman, a slave-holder, witnessing the scene with me, +said,-- + +"Disgusting! There, madam, you have one of the great evils of +slavery,--irresponsible power in the hands of men who are not fit to be +intrusted with authority over others. No man, I sometimes think, ought +to be allowed to hold slaves till he has submitted to examination as to +character, or brings certificates of a good disposition. I know that +man. His father was from ---- [a New England State.] He is what we call +a torn-down character. His neighbors all"--but the signal was given for +starting, and the conversation was broken off. + +My first thought was, How glad I would be to set that man free from such +bondage! The next thought was, Where would I send him to be free from +"the power of the dog?" I had been reading, in a Boston paper, a lecture +delivered in Boston, by a distinguished "friend of the slave," against +Mr. Webster and Mr. Choate, before an "immense audience." I thought, How +much better it is to be a Christian slave, even to this master, than to +sit in the seat of the scornful, applauding such a lecture! + +The poor slave was having his probation and discipline, as we all have +ours, and he was suffering, as we all do in our turns, from an impudent +tongue. Little did he think that a fellow-creature, looking at him at +that moment, was reminded, by his meekness under insult, of Him, our +example, who, under such provocation, opened not his mouth, and that I +was made to remember, as I stood there and received instruction from +him, that the best alleviation and cure of anguished sensibility under +ill-treatment is in this same silence, and in thoughts of Jesus. + +After the cars had started, I took my Bible from my carpet-bag, and read +these passages: "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not +only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is +thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering +wrongfully." Then this is enforced by the example of our incarnate God +and Saviour, who is held up to Christian slaves as their example; and in +this connection, not only in this passage, but elsewhere in speaking to +slaves, the Apostle brings in the most sublime truths relating to +redemption. You will be struck with this in reading what is said to +slaves, that in several cases, the train of thought proceeds directly +from their condition and its duties, to the most sublime and beautiful +truths of salvation. How divinely wise did these exhortations to slaves +appear to me, that morning, in contrast with the spirit of the Northern +abolitionist, and his talk about "Bunker Hill," "'76," and his +"grandfather's old gun over the mantel-piece," and his injunctions to +slaves as to the duty of stealing, and even murdering, if necessary, to +effect their liberty. This is not the spirit of the New Testament. The +idea of submission on the part of "servants" to "masters," of "pleasing +them well in all things," of "fear and trembling," "not purloining but +showing good fidelity in all things," is not found in the Gospel of the +abolitionist. He complains that we do not send the true Gospel to the +South. There are passages in the Epistles addressed to slaves, which, if +faithfully regarded, would make fugitive slave laws for the most part +needless. No wonder that the New Testament, with its exhortations to +meekness and patience under suffering, and the duty of those who are +"under the yoke," and of masters as being "worthy of honor," and the +caution that the slave do not take undue liberty where his master is a +believer, nor assert the doctrine of equality in Christ as a ground for +undue familiarity, or disobedience, is repudiated by the vengeful spirit +of the abolitionist. How well the Apostle understood him! "If any man +teach otherwise," that is, contrary to these injunctions as to the duty +of slaves who have believing masters, "he is proud, (that is the leading +feature of his error) he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about +questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, +evil surmisings." What an anomaly it would be to have an abolition +convention opened with reading a collect of Paul's inspired directions +to masters and slaves. + +But we never hear anything quoted from the Bible on the subject but +"break every yoke!" "let the oppressed go free!" "undo the heavy +burdens!" I was telling a slave-holder of the frequency with which we +hear these expressions in public prayer. "I could join in every one of +them," said he; "I am for breaking every yoke, South and North, +unbinding every heavy burden, and destroying every form of oppression. +But they must be actual, not theoretical, nor imaginary." + +This gentle slave in the cars, we will suppose, refuses opportunities to +escape, but complies with the exhortations of the New Testament, +"enduring grief, suffering wrongfully." His master is at last touched by +his meekness, his "not answering again." I should relate only that which +I know to have happened, should I say, that one day this master is +filled with distress on account of sin. He goes out into the +cotton-field and finds Jacob. + +"Jacob," he says, "I am a great sinner. Jacob, I feel that I am sinking +into hell. Jacob, pray for me. I mean to turn about, if I live." + +"Dats jest what I've sought de Lord for, massa, dis six months coming +New Year. Let's go up into de loft; it's whar I've wrastled for you in +prayer." + +He leads the way. The floor of the loft is covered with cotton-seed. A +wheelbarrow is in the middle of the floor. Jacob takes off his jacket, +and with it brushes the cotton-seed away from one side of the +wheelbarrow, lays the jacket down for his master to kneel upon, and goes +to the other side. Like Jacob at Peniel, he has power over the angel, +and prevails; he weeps and makes supplication unto him. The master +breaks out in prayer. He rises and says,-- + +"Jacob, forgive me if I've been unkind to you; I've seen that you are a +Christian; now if you want to leave me for anybody else, say so." + +"Thank you, massa; only sarve de Lord with gladness for all de good +things he has done for you, and I'll sarve you de same. Please go home +and tell missis; she told me to pray for you; 'twill finish up her joy." + +This is better than running away and going to Canada. Those Christians +who send the Gospel to the South by missionaries and religious tracts, +to promote such scenes as this, do a better work than though they +withheld missionaries and tracts from one half of the nation, and called +it "Standing up for Jesus." + +I am sometimes inclined to put down all that I see and hear, good and +bad, and publish a book to satisfy my truly candid but mistaken friends +at the North as to the real truth on this subject. But I have in mind +the way in which similar works have already been received and treated by +an unreasoning, passionate North. I have amused myself sometimes in +imagining what certain writers would say to some of the incidents which +I have related in this letter. Let me attempt to show you the spirit and +manner of our Northern reviewers when one ventures to state favorable +things relating to slavery. I will take some of the incidents already +related in this letter and let these men review them. I am perfectly +familiar with their style, from having been employed in helping your +uncle prepare the notices of new publications for the "---- Review." +Here, then, I will give you first a supposed notice of my little book, +should I make one, from a Northern religious newspaper, quoting, in all +cases, the identical expressions from articles which I have read:-- + +"'The authoress, it seems, is yet in her Paradise of slavery.' Her +'opulent friends' and the slave-holders generally, it would appear, got +up little tableaux for her, to impose on her good-nature. Knowing the +times when she took her daily walks, they put the fattest and sleekest +black boy whom they could find, into a truckle-cart, and made two of the +sons of the 'most opulent' citizens race down hill with him. Slavery, +therefore, is not the bad thing she and we had supposed. The female +teacher of a school in the neighborhood of her daily walk was suborned, +most probably, by the 'opulent' ladies of the place, to practise another +pleasing trick. Two white girls and a black girl were made to practise +running with their arms interlocked, and one day, as our friend came in +sight, they were pushed out to astonish her with one instance of white +girls hugging a negro slave-child. No doubt our friend, on seeing these +three together, soliloquized as follows:-- + + "See Truth, Love, and Mercy in triumph descending, + All nature now glowing in Eden's first bloom." + +The old negro, respectable and well off, was one of those rare +exceptions to surrounding degradation which you now and then see in +Southern cities. The poor slave in the cars, gentle, timid, quivering, +was the true exponent of slavery. Had our authoress filled her book with +such illustrations exclusively, she would have written more truthfully, +more for her reputation with the real 'friends of the slave,' and, we +confess, more in accordance with our taste." + +A writer in a very respectable publication at the North, already +referred to, gave us several years ago a curious piece of criticism on +some publication which he regarded as too favorable to slavery. His +pages, some of them, were crowded with daggers, in the shape of +exclamation marks,--two, three, four, and, in one instance, five, at the +end of quotations from the book under review. It was he that made the +assertion about the "arsenic," as being "universally in the hands of the +slaves." + +I shall now let him review my little stories. I quote many of his +words:-- + +"'To show the ignorance and simplicity of our travelling' lady, we give +the following,--and what will the North say to this new argument in +favor of slavery? namely, a truckle-cart! a black boy riding!! two white +boys giving him a ride!!! and three girls, one of them black! arm in +arm!! romping. 'It is not the fault of this writer, that she cannot +understand a principle;' 'she is a New England Orthodox,'--'and a fair +specimen of the limitations of that type of mankind.' 'But does not the +lady know,' why negro boys are put in truckle-carts? 'If not, any of her +Southern friends could have told her.' We can tell her; 'we have lived +at the South.' These white boys were sent on an errand with their cart, +and to increase its momentum down hill, and, withal, to tease and worry +a fellow-creature, with a skin not colored like their own, they made +this poor slave-boy get in. She should have seen the poor creature +trudging home, up hill, under a Southern sun, after the little white +tyrants had done with him, unless it was the case, which we more than +half suspect, that the ride was a stratagem to convey the poor child to +the auction-block. 'How the merry dogs,' the white boys, must have +laughed at this Northern lady's complacent looks at them. She had no +tears for the poor old white-headed negro, who, hearing the word +'school' from the lips of his white young masters, had such a rush of +sorrow come over his soul at the thought of the midnight ignorance in +which the slave-driver's whip had kept him, that he actually dropped his +burden in the public street, and uttered incautious words, for which, no +doubt, old as he was, he caught a terrible flogging. "Why, in the name +of humanity, did not the authoress load her pages, as she might so +easily have done, with scenes like that in the cars? There is slavery! +patent! undisguised! In the other cases it is slavery, indeed, but +covered with the pro-slavery lady's snow-white napkin." + +Here is a review of me and of my little stories, by a distinguished New +England divine, and author. He has written much on slavery. Having +prepared notices of some of his writings on this subject, I am familiar +with his turns of thought and modes of expression. I have great regard +for him, and always read him with pleasure and profit, not excepting +when he writes as follows, in doing which he has the approbation of +large numbers among the Northern clergy of all denominations, except the +Episcopalians,--who, more than other Northern ministers, are remarkably +free from ultraisms. + +"Concerning the truckle-cart, 'we would say this,' that unquestionably +'the moral power' of the incident was all which the writer assumes, but +its 'logical sequences' 'we utterly deny.' Slavery is evil, and only +evil, and that continually; now, to infer that agreeable relations can +subsist between the children of masters and the children of slaves under +the 'immense, malignant, and all-pervading influence of slavery,' +abhorred of Heaven and all good men, does violence to all sound +principles of reasoning, and is at war with 'the manifest rules of +Providence.' + +"And as to the three girls 'we are prepared to say' that the author 'did +not look deep enough' into the philosophy of human motives under the +controlling power of slavery. For slavery makes men improvident, and +their children also; (see 'Judge Jay,' 'Weld on Slavery,' etc.) These +white girls, therefore, probably had no money in their pockets; it was +the time of recess; they were hungry; the black child we presume had +money in her pocket, for by the authoress's own showing (in the story of +a slave changing a gold piece for the landlord), slaves may have money +of their own. Had our authoress followed her trio down to the +confectioner's, there she might have seen these white children cajoling +the poor black, and making her treat them; in preparation for which they +affected to put their arms around her; but, in the true diabolical +spirit of slavery, it was only to devour. + +"We have no space to enter philosophically into the instruction afforded +us by the old negro and the schoolboys; but there is deep meaning in it, +which the true friends of the slave, who may read it, will do well to +ponder. The old negro is the prophetic representation of his +down-trodden race, crying with bewildered accents, he heeds not where, +'Go to school! boys; go to school!' Let a united North echo back his +words, suiting their political action to them, and saying to the colored +children, with an authority which shall shake the very pillars of the +Union, 'Go to school, boys! go to school!' + +"Nor can we, for the tears which dim our sight, speak as we would of +the wretched master and his amiable slave in the cars. The sketch +reminded us of the best in 'Uncle Tom.' We need books filled with such +pictures, to electrify the slumbering sensibilities of the North. Wanton +candor in speaking of slavery, is the most unpardonable of sins. There +is a time to tell the whole truth; but the wise man says. There is 'a +time to keep silence.'" + +I did not pretend, Gentlemen Reviewers, that my little, pleasing +incidents were arguments in favor of slavery; you should not have been +so alarmed; you are really rude; I almost feel disposed to say to you, +for each of my tales, as the Rosemary said to the Wild Boar,-- + + "Sus, apage! haud tibi spiro;" + +which, not having a poetical friend near to translate for me, I venture +to render as follows:-- + + "Thus to the Boar replied the Rosemary: + O swine, depart! I do not breathe for thee." + +In noticing the manner in which many Northern writers, some of them +amiable men, receive the candid views and statements of travellers and +visitors at the South, I have been made to think of a company of the +owls, such as you see in Audubon, listening to the reading of David's +one hundred and fourth Psalm, in which he describes nature. Not a smile +of satisfaction; on the contrary, if you + + "Molest the ancient, solitary reign" + +of prejudice in their minds against the South, they either mope, or make +a sad noise. With regard to others, are there any limits to their anger +and denunciations? You may, without difficulty, imagine how this +appears to the Southerner, who knows the truthfulness of the +representations which excite this passionate resentment, and how much +the character of the North for ordinary candor falls in his esteem, and +how little disposed he is to heed their admonitions, and how absurd +their demands upon his ecclesiastical bodies to suffer their +remonstrances, appear, together with their subsequent withdrawal of +fellowship for the reason publicly assigned; namely, that the South will +not let them admonish her "in the Lord." Indeed, whatever may be true of +slavery, the South looks on the great body of zealous anti-slavery +people as being in as false and unnatural a state of excitement as the +Massachusetts people were in the times of witchcraft. A great delusion +is over the minds of many at the North, like one of our eastern +sea-fogs. It always makes a Southerner merry, when listening, in New +York or Boston, for example, to a lecture, if the speaker concludes a +sentence with some allusion to "freedom," and the people clap and stamp. +That the blood should tingle in our veins at so slight a cause, makes +him think that we are certainly in need of something worthy of our great +excitability, and that we are thankful for small favors in that way. He +does not think less than we of liberty where an occasion makes that name +and idea appropriate; but that the condition of his slaves should +reconsecrate for us all the old battle-cries of freedom, seems to him +pitiably weak. It shows him how incompetent we are to deal with the +acknowledged evils of slavery; and there are those at the South who are +stirred up by us to take extreme views of an opposite kind, which good +people there very generally deplore. + +A Southern lady here tells me that some time since, being on a visit at +the North, she received through the post-office anonymous letters with +extracts from newspapers containing little items of woe, declared to +have been experienced at the South, with here and there delirious abuse +of slave-holders and frenzied words about freedom. She could have +matched every one of them, she said, with wife-murders at the North, +during her visit. In dealing with people like the slaves, of course men +of brutal passions, provoked by their stupidity and negligence, or +exasperated by their crimes, and, in cases of ungovernable anger, +venting their displeasure upon their negroes under slight or merely +imaginary affronts, give occasion to tales of distress which are nowhere +mourned over more deeply than at the South. These cases are the natural +results of a superior and inferior class of society, standing in the +relation, the one to the other, of proprietor and dependant, and such +evils are not peculiar to this institution. Human nature is the same +everywhere. The South is willing to have the abuses of irresponsible +power among them compared with abuses, discomforts, disadvantages +elsewhere. Grant that an owner may abuse his liberty; ownership leads to +more of care and protection than of abuse and cruelty. The slaves are +here; the question is not, What would be the best possible condition for +these people under the sun, but, What is best for them, being on this +soil. "Set them all free," is the answer of some. Half the ministers at +the North every Sabbath pray for the slaves thus: "Break every yoke; let +the oppressed go free." If this means, Give the slaves their liberty, +this would be their most direful calamity; they would be chased away +from every free state, in process of time, and the Dred Scott decision +would be invoked, even in Massachusetts, by its present most bitter +opposers, and in its most misrepresented forms, as a defence of the +American white race against the blacks. "Set them free and hire them!" +is the reply of others. This, among other effects, would make them a far +more degraded people than they now are. Slavery keeps them identified +with the whites; they are more respectable and respected by far, in this +relation, than they can be, in the circumstances of the case, if they +are detached from the whites. There is no expression which conveys a +more absolute error than this, and we often meet with it: "He ceased to +be a slave, and became a man." I read lately the report of a lecture at +the North, by an eminent gentleman, of great moral worth, and highly +respected. He said, "A man cannot be, voluntarily, a slave, without +having his manhood crushed out of him." That might be true in our case; +but having seen manhood forced into benighted natures here, and splendid +specimens of man as the result, I was, by this remark, reminded again of +the delusiveness which there is sometimes in the best of logic. You gave +us a good specimen in your admirable illustration of no water in the +moon. A comparison of the slaves with the free negroes of the North, and +in Canada, and with the free colored population in some of the Slave +States, will satisfy any impartial spectator that manhood is full as +conspicuous in the slaves, as a body, as in the free negroes. + +Here are two extracts from Northern papers, which, true or false, awaken +compassion in every human bosom toward the free colored people. Indeed, +allowing these statements, so unfavorable to them, to be mostly false, +it reveals the antipathy of the white to the colored race when the +blacks come to seek equality with the whites. Let these free blacks be +mixed up in large proportions with society in England and Scotland, and +if Canadians feel as they are here represented, we may be sure that the +present tone of the British people with regard to American slavery and +the blacks, would also be modified. But here are the extracts:-- + + "Getting Sick of Them.--The colored persons of Toronto, having had a + meeting to denounce Colonel John Prince, a member of the Canadian + Parliament, for speaking against them, he publishes a reply, in + which he says,-- + + "'It has been my misfortune, and the misfortune of my family, to + live among those blacks (and they have lived upon us) for + twenty-four years. I have employed hundreds of them, and with the + exception of one, named Richard Hunter, not one of them has done for + us a week's honest labor. I have taken them into my service, fed and + clothed them, year after year, on their arrival from the States, and + in return have generally found them rogues and thieves, and a + graceless, worthless, thriftless set of vagabonds. This is my very + plain and simple description of the darkies as a body, and it would + be indorsed by all the Western white men, with very few + exceptions.'" + + "Underground R.R. Return Trains.--The 'Cleveland Plaindealer' states + that every steamboat arriving at that place brings back from Canada + families of negroes, who have formerly fled to the Provinces from + the States. They are principally from Canada West. They describe the + life and condition of the blacks in Canada as miserable in the + extreme. The West is, therefore, likely to have large accessions to + its colored population. The Canada folks do not want them, and have + shown a disposition in their Parliament, and otherwise, to + discourage their coming to, or remaining in the Provinces. In some + instances, the question of ejecting those now resident there, has + been discussed. Our Western States will be likely to experience a + similar attack of the _black vomito_, when they shall have become + satisfied with this peculiar Southern luxury. In some localities the + superabundant free negro population has already become a burden, + while in others they are under severe restrictions, which amount + almost to an exclusion from the limits of the state. + + "Should this exodus from Canada continue to any great extent, it + would throw such a burden upon those states which have adopted the + most liberal policy towards the negro, that it would occasion a + reaction in the public sentiment which would compel them to abandon + their abolition doctrine and practice, for their own + self-protection. We should then hear of fewer attempts to abduct + slaves from the slave-holding states; and abolitionists would be + content to allow slaves to remain under the care and protection of + their masters. Even though at heart sympathizing with the oppressed + and task-worn negro, and yearning towards him with all the love of + the professed philanthropist, he would still be permitted to toil + and bleed; for now that the route to Canada has been closed, there + is no alternative but to take them to their own bosoms." + +Compare with this the condition of the free blacks in South Carolina. +The amount of property held by them is $1,600,000; their annual taxes, +$27,000; and the free blacks own slaves to the amount of $300,000 in +value. + +The above statements teach us that any attempts to force the Southern +slaves away from their present relation, are in violation of the laws of +Providence concerning them. If they become free in a natural way, and +can provide for themselves, or be provided for, it is well; otherwise, +the South, and their present relation to the white race, are the bounds +of their habitation fixed for them by an all-wise God, till his purpose +concerning them as a race shall be made manifest. The people of the Free +States ought to thank God that the South is willing to keep the colored +people. Instead of inflaming our passions against the abstract +wrongfulness of holding fellow-men in bondage, we should consider that +theoretical justice to the slaves as a whole would be practical +inhumanity. The destiny of the colored race here is a dark problem. But +it is not for us to penetrate the future. When God is ready to finish +his purposes with regard to their continuance with us, He will open a +way for their liberation; in the mean time it is our duty to protect +them from their own improvidence and from the neglect and degradation +which they would suffer at the hands of the Free States. Instead of +aiding slaves to escape, or rejoicing when we hear of runaways, I say we +should feel grateful, on our own account, and for the slaves, that the +South is willing to harbor them, and we ought to consider that the very +best thing to be done for them is to encourage the South in treating +them well, mitigating their trials and sorrows, and, in short, complying +with the Apostle's doctrine and exhortations as to the duty of masters. + +But we have a way, at the North, of delivering over our Southern +brethren to supposed terrible liabilities in their relation to the +slaves. "They are sleeping on a volcano;" "they keep weapons under their +pillows;" "they are always in fear." And when a servile insurrection +takes place, many close their eyes and lift their hands, and say, +"Perhaps the day of retribution is come! They have been 'sinning against +the Northern conscience;' they have been resisting our well-meant +efforts for their good; we would not stir up the slaves against them," +(some kindly say,) "but if they rise, did not Jefferson say, 'There is +not an attribute of the Almighty that would take part with the whites?'" +Thus we prefer to take Jefferson's opinion on this subject, though +hundreds as good and wise as he, and quite as decided in their +acceptance of the Christian religion, differ totally from him. In +strictly political matters, many of the same people who love to quote +Jefferson against modern slave-holders, are of opinion that time and +experience give modern statesmen some advantages in their judgments. As +to Jefferson's oft-quoted remark, above cited, it appears to me that if +the Almighty has anywhere set the seal of his divine blessing, clear and +broad, it is on the Christian influence of our Southern friends upon +this colored race. + +It is humiliating to me, in looking back to the North, to see how +injudicious and weak we are in pouring out our sympathy upon a fugitive +slave, without discrimination. The lecture before the Boston audience, +already mentioned, contains a perfect illustration of Northern credulity +in the case of fugitive slaves. The lecturer tells us that while reading +the printed report of Mr. Everett's Oration at the inauguration of the +Webster statue, a fugitive slave appeared at his door, and, baring his +breast and back, showed him the marks of the branding-iron, and the +scars from the lash. At the sight, he says, the paper dropped from his +hand. He "thought of Webster and the Fugitive Slave Law." + +Now this negro was, just as likely as not, one of those characters whom +we call jail-birds. If so, and he had lived at the North, instead of +branding-iron and stripes, he might have had parti-colored pants, and +manacles, and a record of ten or twenty years in the state's prison. But +because he ran away from the South, he straightway became, as a matter +of course, a martyr and a saint. Perhaps he was, truly, a saint; and +perhaps he was not. + +Looking out of the window in a hotel the other day, we saw two white +men leading up a black man with a leather bridle around his neck. + +"Here, Hattie," said your Uncle, "here is slavery; now you have it in +full bloom." + +The poor fellow was crying and protesting and begging to be released. +Your Uncle stepped out and spoke to a very respectable gentleman whom he +met on the piazza. He could not refrain from expressing some feeling at +the sight of a fellow-creature so literally "reduced to the level of the +brutes." I did not hear the whole of the conversation, for my attention +was diverted by two roosters who just then flew at each other and were +assailed by a troop of black urchins who tried to scare them apart, +pulling their tail-feathers and uttering ludicrous cries. + +"You are from the North, sir, I take it," said the gentleman, in reply +to your Uncle. + +"I am, sir," said your Uncle. "Do you often bridle your slaves in this +way, in these parts? I am seeking for information on the subject of +slavery." + +"I shall be happy to give you any," said the gentleman. "I am here as a +magistrate." + +"I am one at home," said my husband. + +"One of these white men who led the negro," said the gentleman, "was +riding on horseback, and was attracted to a by-place by the screams of a +child, and found this black man attempting violence upon a black girl +ten years old. He knocked the fellow down and held him, and called for +help. A white man who came up took the bridle from the horse, to secure +the villain with it. They have with difficulty kept the negroes from +putting him to death." + +"We are all ready, sir," said a sheriff to the gentleman. + +"Will you walk into the hall?" said the magistrate to your Uncle. + +But the stage-coach was waiting for him, and we were soon on our way. +Your Uncle was silent for nearly fifteen minutes, when he said,-- + +"What is that passage, Hattie, about answering a matter before you +understand it?" + +I gave Hattie my Bible, and, after a while, she read: + +"He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame +unto him. The spirit of a man"-- + +"That will do, child," said your Uncle, "I wanted only that one verse." + + * * * * * + +I should be glad to transfer some of this Southern ease and beauty of +manners to the North. I wish that we could see more of these Southern +ladies and gentlemen there. They stay away very much, because they +cannot bring servants with them. Whole families would rejoice to visit +our Northern shores and mountains for summer residences, were it not for +this. When our passions subside, and we can look at this subject fairly, +we shall repeal the statutes which prevent a Southerner from residing in +a free state for a season, with his or her servant. The people of +Massachusetts, for example, can easily appreciate the hardship of being +kept away from a clime which they would visit for health or recreation, +by the fear of being set upon by a mob of whites and blacks seeking to +drag a wet-nurse, for example, before a court to be interrogated whether +she does not wish to leave us. How long will our warm-hearted, +hospitable people allow such things? The answer, from ten thousand +tongues, will be, So long as Southern people imprison colored seamen +from the North!--If Southern slaves should come here and make trouble +between our domestics and us, and we should forbid their coming, the +cases would be more nearly parallel.--Moreover, it will be said that the +manner in which people from the North have in many instances of late +been treated at the South, does not encourage the hope and prospect of +amicable intercourse. This is certainly so; and therefore what have we +to look for but everlasting hatred and strife? and that whether we be +one nation or two confederacies. + +A distinguished Southern gentleman came home from his visit to the +North, where he had received great attentions, and he filled his hearers +with his enthusiastic admiration of us for our wonderful ingenuity in +all the arts of life. + +"It is astonishing," said he, "how they work everything into shape, and +create instruments for their purposes. But," said he, "there is one +thing in which they are deficient. They are omnipotent with matter, but +they do not know how to govern men. If they did," said he, "there would +be no chance for us in any form of contest with them." + +I was much entertained, and I said to him that I supposed his remarks +would need qualification on both sides; but I was greatly impressed, as +I often am here, with the secret, strong attachment which there is in +Southern hearts to the North as a part of the country, irrespective of +its anti-slavery views and feelings. Its climate and institutions and +arts and scenery are adapted to their diversified wants. "The North and +the South, Thou hast created them." God made the North for the South, +and the South for the North, and our acts of non-intercourse are in +violation of his will. We are in a war of "conscience," inflamed by +doctrinal error on our part. It allows no "conscience" to the other +side. The state of our "consciences" at the North is jury, judge, and +executioner. There is no "conscience," we think, in Southern churches, +ministers, judges, citizens, except that which is defiled. Probably +there is not on earth this day a greater despot, or one more prepared +for inquisitorial proceedings, than "Northern Conscience." + +No doubt I should be contented and happy to be a slave-holder, had I +been born and bred here, but I rejoice that I belong to a free state. I +love to think of my capable girls, my "help." at home, who make the +household go like clock-work, instead of having a swarm of servants who +do only half as much, and only half as well. I am glad, too, that my +children live in a climate favorable to labor, and are not born to be +waited upon. But I am ashamed of those who erect these things into an +invidious comparison, and with a supercilious, reproachful spirit. God, +who made us of one blood, has fixed the bounds of our habitations. I +love these Southerners as I never loved new acquaintances before. But I +prefer a state of society free from slavery: yet this makes me love +those to whom God has given a South country, and imposed upon it a +necessity, at present at least, to employ the African race as +cultivators of the soil. It has often disturbed my feelings to hear some +people inveigh reproachfully against the Southern country, as comparing +unfavorably with neighboring free states. Going up the Ohio River one +day, a Northern gentleman pointed to some poor-looking lands in Kentucky +on the one hand, and some flourishing fields of Ohio on the other. +"There, ladies and gentlemen," said he, "is slavery," pointing to +Kentucky, "and there," turning to the other side, "is freedom." + +"Now," said an intelligent Ohioan, "if you will excuse me for saying +it, I regard that as clear humbug. What is cultivated on either side? +The products of Kentucky, if raised in Ohio, would give the same look to +her lands. It is not slavery and freedom that make the difference; it is +the difference between large staples sown over large territories, and +smaller staples raised on smaller fields. Kentucky's soil would be +exhausted just as fast under free labor, so long as she cultivated her +present crops." + +I long to see some clear running water. Our streams and brooks in New +England are not appreciated till one comes to this part of the land. I +long to see some good grass. I yearn for some hills. I would sail again +along our rock-bound coast; Oh for a walk on its beaches, to see the +tunnellings of the sea in the rocks, and the spouting-horns. But what a +relief it is to be in a section where the Christian religion is so +generally accepted, and the swarms of errorists and sectarians which +abound elsewhere are comparatively unknown. Here, the lowest class, in +which error would be prolific, is under instruction, to a great degree. +I see now why it is that false views about slavery are a great stimulant +to heretical views and feelings;--they are a convenient substitute for +the love and zeal which true Christianity supplies. The human mind, +where it is accustomed to act freely, must be impelled by some +master-passion; and when true religion does not supply it, error stands +ready to satisfy the demand. + +On the whole, I am persuaded that our Northern people behave full as +well under the anti-slavery excitement as Southerners would if their +consciences were perverted like ours, and we were the objects of their +opposition. I think that a change will come over us. At the North, you +have heard the wind, at midnight, after a warm rain, in winter, haul out +to the north-west, and you know what a piping time we then have of it, +and how the clear cold air, the next morning, and the bright sun, excite +and cheer us. There has been with us for a long time at the North, in +our political and religious atmosphere, a warm, foggy, unwholesome +drizzle of weak, fanatical feeling, with now and then gusts of wind and +scud,--a kind of weather most abhorred by mariners. But we hope that the +wind is changing, and that "fair weather cometh out of the North." God +will not suffer us to live long, we earnestly hope, in this condition of +misunderstanding and hatred, for it would be contrary to his established +laws that we should long continue to be one nation with such feelings +toward each other. The change will be in the North. Slavery will come to +be regarded as not in itself a sin, and the evils incident to it will be +left for those immediately concerned to bear them or seek their removal. +Or, if we become divided, the Southern section may extend its conquests +into the whole southern part of the American continent, and spread the +institution of slavery over that vast domain. God may have purposed that +the good which has flowed to the African race in this land by its +connection with us, shall be extended to millions more, not by +importation, we may suppose, but by propagation here. I say this to show +that fanatical opposers of slavery may be employed under God as the +instruments of extending slavery to the very limits of habitable land in +the southern parts of our continent. We have tried in vain at the North, +for thirty years, to abolish slavery. It is time either to cease, or to +try some entirely different influences. + +But I must close my long letter. When you write again, I have no doubt +that you will have seen some things in a new light. Tell me more about +your studies. I was interested in your way of describing things. I only +wondered that, with your occasional sense of the ludicrous, you should +not have been aware of the impression which you yourself must have made +on others. Burns's "giftie," "to see oursel's," etc., we all, more or +less, need. I told Hattie the other day that I thought some parts of +your letter did you very great credit, but that the monomania of the +North has fallen upon you, and that you have it, as it seemed to me, in +one of its worst forms. Some it makes fierce, others, flat, according as +the victim is, naturally, more or less amiable. + +Your mother gave you in charge to me in her last sickness, and I must do +all in my power for your best good. I have, therefore, told you some +things which I have seen and considered. These you must now add to the +facts of your "inductive philosophy." Your definition of "pro-slavery," +and "friends of oppression," is a fair illustration of a prevailing +state of mind at the North:--"Pro-slavery--_i.e._, do not agree with me +in my manner of viewing and treating the subject." This you will +correct. Excuse my freedom, but you have no father nor mother now, to +advise and guide you, and you must let me be your Mentor in some things. +I shall keep your letter and let you see it perhaps ten years hence. Be +careful what newspapers you read. Those which abound with low, +opprobrious language about the South and Southerners, avoid. There are +some low Southerners about here who go around buying up refractory and +vicious negroes; they are the dregs of society; but I have listened, +with others, at the North, to men, on the subject of "freedom," who, I +think, would take kindly to this business, and they would be as hearty +in it as they are now in vilifying it. The "Legrees" are not confined to +the South. Do not incline your ear to those who systematically inveigh +against slavery, making it their principal business. You will invariably +find that there is something false and wrong in their principles as well +as spirit. Be careful to what influences you commit your thoughts and +your taste. + +You need not become a friend of oppression; you need not approve of +"auction-blocks," and "separation of families;" slavery can exist when +these are done away. Until you are appointed and commissioned as a +minister of righteousness to Southern Christians and ministers, I advise +you to blot slavery out of the list of topics about which you are called +to express the least concern. The South will work out the problem for +herself, with the help of that God who has evidently appointed her to do +a great work for the African race, and all the more perfectly and +speedily as our Northern people let her entirely alone as to the moral +relations of the subject. + +You subscribe yourself, "Yours for the slave;" I shall subscribe myself, +"Yours for preaching the Gospel to every creature." + +With the strongest love, +Your affectionate Aunt. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. + + "The sages say dame Truth delights to dwell, + Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well. + Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope + That pull the grave old gentlewoman up." + + PETER PINDAR. + + +My friend, Mr. North, having read the foregoing letters, wrote me a note +requesting me to come and spend an evening with him and his wife, and +answer some questions occasioned by these letters. The lady was earnest +that I should do so. + +After being seated before a cheerful fire in my friend's house, while it +was raining violently, so that we felt defended from all interruption, +my friend said,-- + +"Here, first of all, is the Southern lady's letter to her father, which, +I suppose, belongs to him, and which you may wish to send back." + +"I do," said I. + +"But, please," said Mrs. North, "let it be published. Add to it the +incident of the Southern lady nursing the sick babe of a slave." + +"O my dear," said her husband, "that would create a false impression. It +would be a pro-slavery tract. It would abate Northern zeal against the +'sum of all villanies.' Something should go forth with such +representations to correct their influence in the Free States. What +would become of the cause of freedom should such stories make their +impression upon the minds of our people?" + +"You might," said I, "make a heading of an auction-block, or +slave-coffle; add the last pattern of a slave-driver's whip; picture a +panting fugitive on his way to the North; give us a ship's hold, with a +black boy just detected among the stowage. You would thus, perhaps, keep +these beautiful, touching illustrations of loving-kindness in +slave-holders from having the least effect." + +"It is very important," said he, seriously, "to keep up a just +abhorrence of slavery here at the North, because"-- + +"Excuse me," said I, "but what do you mean by an abhorrence of slavery?" + +"Why," said he, "is not the Christian world agreed that 'slavery is the +sum of all villanies'?" + +"By no means, in the United States," said I; "you might with as real +truth say that here slavery is the sum of all the loving-kindnesses." + +"Is not that letter of the Southern lady to her father," said he, "as +rare a thing almost as a white crow?" + +"O husband," said Mrs. North, "what an opinion you must have of Southern +society!" + +"Is not Gustavus," said I, "a perfect representative of the North, on +the subject of slavery? Does not ultra anti-slavery find or make +everybody, as the Aunt says, either fierce or flat?" + +"You do not believe so," said he. + +"Neither do you believe," said I, "that where Christianity has exerted +the same influence on the hearts of men and women as on yours, and all +the humanizing and elevating influences of society prevail, that letter +is a rare product." + +"I cannot believe," said he, "that one can own a fellow-creature, hold +God's image as property, and be a true Christian. This lady is an +exception which does not destroy the general rule." + +"My dear sir," said I, "you are an abstractionist. You make the best +possible condition under the sun your standard, to which you would make +all men and things conform, instead of allowing for the vast +inequalities, the necessities, the mutual dependence, the long +historical conditions of men, as individuals and races. A race or class +of human beings may be in such a condition, that being 'owned' by a +superior race will be, in their circumstances, a real mercy and a great +blessing." + +"O my dear sir," said he, "I weep over the degradation of your moral +sense. 'Owning a fellow-creature!' I would not hold property in a human +being 'for all the wealth that sinews bought and sold have ever +earned.'" + +"Thousands of men and women," I replied, "as good in the sight of God as +you or I, think otherwise. There is nothing in the relation of ownership +to a human being which in itself is sinful, or wrong." + +"If it is your purpose," said he, "to argue in favor of oppression, +perhaps we had better not pursue the conversation." + +"Uncharitableness, false judgments, self-righteousness," said I, +"condemning a whole people for the sins of a few, are as truly +'oppression' as anything can be. I plead for no wrongs; I justify no +selfishness in the relation of master and servant; I regard the golden +rule of Christ as the law by which slave-holding should be regulated in +every instance." + +"I never expected," said he, "to live long enough to hear of the golden +rule being applied to slavery! It would be like applying light to +darkness, truth to falsehood, holiness to sin." + +"By what rule," I inquired, "do you think the lady is habitually +governed who wrote the letter which has interested you so much?" + +"Why," said he, "there are good people under every iniquitous system. +These exceptional cases are not the rule of judgment with regard to the +nature and effect of a system." + +"Can you not imagine one man owning another," said I, "under +circumstances, and with motives, and in a temper and spirit which will +make the relation most desirable?" + +"I go further back," said he, "and I deny that it is right for one human +being to own another." + +"Has not God a right," said I, "to place one human being over another as +his owner?" + +"Has God a right," said he, "to countenance theft and oppression?" + +I said to him: "I might follow your example, and answer you by asking, +Has God a right to countenance war? But I will relieve all your +disagreeable apprehensions as to our conversation at once, by saying +that I am not to argue in favor of oppression. If holding a slave is +oppression, it is a sin. And if it be inconsistent with the golden rule, +it is a sin." + +"If that be your doctrine," said he, "we shall soon agree. Now apply the +golden rule to slavery. Are there any circumstances in which you would +yourself be willing to be 'owned'?" + +"Certainly," I replied. + +He rose, and put some lumps of coal upon the fire with the tongs, and +said, "I presume you mean what you say, and that you do not wish to +trifle with the subject." + +"Mr. North," said I, "would you be willing that any one should make you +head-cook in a hotel, engineer in a steamboat, or keeper of a floating +light?" + +"No, Sir," said he. + +"You would, Mr. North," said I, "under given circumstances. You would +petition for such places, get recommendations for them, and count +yourself perfectly happy, if you succeeded in obtaining them. + +"Now look at the slaves. They are a foreign race, we are their civil +superiors, and unless we amalgamate, we intend to remain so. While we +are in this relation, it is a privilege to the blacks to have owners, +but they must use their ownership according to the golden rule. When +this is done, the condition of the blacks, in their present relation to +us, is happy." + +"How often," said he, "do you suppose that it is done?" + +"That," said I, "is another and a very interesting question, which we +will consider soon. You took the ground, as I understood you, that the +law of love would prevent any one from holding a fellow-creature as a +slave. I reply that it would be in perfect accordance with it, as the +blacks at the South are now situated, for the whites to be their humane +owners. But pray what do you mean by 'owning' a human being?" + +"I mean," said he, "having the right to abuse them, domineer over them, +work them as cattle, sell them, and--" + +"Did this Southern lady," said I, while he paused for more words, "ever +acquire a right with her ownership to treat Kate so?" + +"Her laws," said he, "give her a right to punish her; and such +irresponsible power is fearful. She could whip her to death and"-- + +"And be punished for it," said I, "as surely as you would be for +whipping a servant to death." + +"She is at liberty to punish more severely than the case warrants," said +he, "and then she can shield herself under the laws." + +"I presume," said I, "a Northern parent never gives a hasty box on the +ear, never strikes one passionate blow in the chastisement, never shakes +a child a single trill beyond the due harmony of parental affection, +never scourges it with the tongue to momentary madness! What a dreadful +thing parental authority is! Would it not be well to abolish the +authority of parents over children! Indeed, would it not be well to go +further, and interdict the public lands of the United States from being +settled; for as surely as men live there, every form of wickedness will, +in its turn, be perpetrated. How much better the calm and holy silence +of the woods and fields, than if the tumultuous passions of men should +roll over them!" + +"But, my dear sir," said he, "I maintain that oppression is inseparable +from the holding of a slave. I insist that this Southern lady, if all +her feelings and conduct toward her servants are like her letter, is an +exception among her people." + +"No, Sir," said I, "she is the general rule among all decent people, and +there is as much sense of decency and propriety there as with us, as +many good people, kind, humane, generous, and it is as rare a thing for +a servant to be ill-used there, as for our apprentices, and servants, +and even our children. How kind and good you would be, Sir, if +Providence should place a human being under you as his owner, for the +mutual good of both of you." + +"Dear me," said he, "I should try to feel and act just as I suppose +those Southerners do who, you say, are fairly represented by this lady's +letter about the slave-babe." + +"Mr. North," said I, "suppose that the State should make you the +absolute owner of some of those boys who set fire to the Westboro' and +Deer Island institutions. In consideration of your personal +responsibility for them, there is ceded to you all right and title to +their services, and absolute control over them, subject, of course, to +the laws against misdemeanors and crimes against the person. My only +point is this: Where would be the sinfulness of that relation? All that +would be sinful about it would be in your neglect or violation of your +duty as a master." + +"How glad all this makes me feel," said he, "that I am not troubled with +slaves. If we do not like our servants or apprentices, we can get rid of +them." + +"Then," said I, "you surely ought to pity those who are bound to their +slaves and have to put up with a thousand things which you say we can +escape by changing our help." + +"But," said he, "can they not sell off their slaves when they please?" + +"Suppose, however," said I, "that they happen to be humane, as Mr. North +is, and as we all are in the Free States! and that they are unwilling to +turn off a poor helpless creature for her faults, to be sold, and to go +they know not where!" + +"Slavery," said Mr. North, "is surely a great curse. I am so glad that I +live under free institutions." + +"Who made us to differ from the South in this respect? How came those +blacks there? Whose ships, whose money, imported them? You remember that +it was by the votes of Free States, that the importation of slaves was +continued for eight years beyond the time when the Southern States had +voted in the Convention that it should cease. And now what would you +have the South do with the slaves, to-day?" + +"Set them all free," said he, "'break every yoke; proclaim liberty to +the captives, the opening of the prison-doors to them that are bound.'" + +"Allow me," said I, "to smile at your simplicity, for you are very +child-like, not to say childish, in your feelings. You would have the +colored people universally go free. Do you really think that Kate is +worse off in being what you call a slave, than that young, free black +woman who keeps a stall and sells verses and knives near our Park?" + +"O dear sir," said he, "liberty is a priceless boon; liberty"-- + +"Liberty to what?" said I. + +"Why," said he, "liberty not to be sold, nor to be beaten, nor to be +subject to the wicked passions of a master." + +"Would you rather," said I, "have your daughter a servant in a Southern +family, brought up as a playmate with the children, a sharer in many of +their gifts, a partner with their parents, as the children grew up, in +the pride and joy of the parents, an honored member of the wedding party +when a daughter is married, one of the principal mourners when the bride +departs, identified with the history of the family, provided for in the +will, a support guaranteed to her by law in sickness and old age, and +that, too, not in a pauper establishment, but in her owner's home, and +when the parents die, if she survives, taken by some branch of the +family or neighbor from regard to her and to them; her moral and +religious character improved under their training, a respectable +standing in society conferred upon her by her connection with them, her +religious privileges sacredly secured to her, any insult redressed as +though it were the family's personal affair; she a partaker of their +food and of all their comforts, and followed to her grave with respect +and love; or, for the sake of 'priceless liberty,' 'heaven's best gift +to man,' would you prefer to see her seated under the iron fence of a +park, an old umbrella tied to the pickets for her shelter, and she, in +rain and sunshine, selling 'Old Dan Tucker,' 'Jim Crow, Illustrated,' +and pea-nuts, and sleeping you know not where? Which lot would you +choose for a child? Which is best for this world and the next? In one +case, she is 'owned,' she is 'a slave;' and in the other, she is a free +woman." + +"You have no right," said he, with some warmth, "to take the best +condition in slavery, and the very worst in freedom, and compel me to +choose." + +"'Best condition in slavery!'" said I; "is there any 'best' in being a +slave, in not being free? Does it admit of degrees? Is not being 'owned' +such a curse, such an unmixed iniquity in its essence, that to compare +its best estate with the worst in freedom, is like comparing the best +devil with the most inferior saint? Is not a devil's nature incapable of +comparison as good, better, best, with anything which is not, in its +nature, devilish? According to your conversation just now, it seemed as +though being 'owned' always implied an unmitigated transgression; and +now when I inquire whether you would prefer degradation to the iniquity +of being 'owned' in comfort and usefulness, respectability and +happiness, you shrink from the question. If freedom in the abstract is +the best thing under the sun, of course you will prefer it to everything +else. No happy condition, no happy prospect for this life, and the life +to come can, in your view, make being 'a slave,' as you call it, capable +of being compared with this abstract privilege of being free. In this +you and your friends labor under a huge mistake, and it poisons all your +views and feelings about slavery. When you denounce slave-holders and +slavery, and depict the condition of the slave in your awful colors, +they at the South know that in hundreds of thousands of instances, as it +regards masters and slaves, all that you say is practically false; you +are carried away by your zeal against a theoretical wrong. + +"Now suppose that instead of starting with the theoretical wrong and +getting only such facts as illustrate it, you should travel through the +South to pick up such letters as you consider this, respecting Kate, to +be;--what a pleasing view might be presented of the slaves' condition in +cases without number!" + +"But," said he, "there are terrible evils underlying these fair features +of slavery." + +"True," said I, "but why, in the name of truth and love do you never +hear such a letter as this read on the platforms of Northern abolition +societies? What mingled groans and hisses and shrieks for freedom, and +then what an emptying of the demoniacal epithets there would be, if such +a letter should be offered. One case of whipping would have more effect +than a thousand such letters, in your assemblies and newspapers. No one +from the continent of Europe would infer from those meetings that such +beings as Kate and her little babe, and this lady and her husband and +father, existed even in fiction, but that slave-holders are Legrees, and +the slaves their victims. What a beautiful effect it would have on us +and on the South, if touching tales of loving-kindness between masters +and slaves, instances of perfect happiness in that relation, should be +cited, and then you should enter your candid, but decided opposition to +the system, to its extension, to its evils where it exists. How soon we +should all be found working together, so far as we might, for the +amelioration of the colored race here, with a view to the extinction of +slavery in every form of it in which it is an evil, or a greater evil +than anything which might properly be substituted." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, "husband, what do you say to that?" + +"I like it," said he. + +"But now," said I, "the language of the place of despair is exhausted in +describing and denouncing the South. If a man among us lifts up his +voice to say good things about Southerners, one universal hiss goes up +from all your conventions and anti-slavery prints. He may be seeking the +same end with you, namely, the peaceful removal of slavery, with due +regard to the highest good of all concerned; but let him utter a word in +arrest of your unqualified condemnation of slavery as it actually is, +and there are no persecutors, nor scourges, nor intolerance on the +earth, more fierce and cruel than you and your denunciations." + +"Take it patiently, husband," said Mrs. North, "you know that you +deserve it." + +"I know from this," said I, "if from nothing else, that your theory is +wrong. The truth does not excite such passions in those who love and +seek to promote it. We see that, in cases without number, the present +condition of the slaves is a blessing for both worlds, and that if all +who possess slaves were, as many are, slavery would cease to be any more +of a curse than any dependent condition in this world. There must always +be those who will do every sort of menial work. The great Father of all, +who himself says that he has 'deprived' the ostrich 'of wisdom, neither +hath he imparted to her understanding,' so arranges the capacities of +some that their happiness consists in leaning upon superior intelligence +and capability. + +"The serving people, in some districts of country, are volunteers from +all races; at the South, they consist of one inferior, dependent race, +who for ages have been slaves in their own country, and would be such +even now, if they were there. We will not shut the door of hope forever +upon any part of the human family, as to their elevation among the +tribes of men, but this race has, for a long period of its history, +evidently been undergoing a tutelage and discipline at the hand of +Providence. There is some marvellous arrangement of Providence, it seems +to me, designing that this black race shall lean upon us. Let the same +number of any other immigrant race have gone from us to Canada as of +this colored race, and the world would have heard a better report from +them ere this. They thrive best in connection with us as their masters, +whether it be right or wrong for us to be in such relation to them." + +"But now," said he,--in a persuasive tone, and evidently wishing to turn +the drift of the remarks,--"just set them free, and hire them; we shall +agree then. The slaves will be as well off, and so will their masters." + +"Mr. North," said I, "being owned is, in itself, irrespective of the +character of the master, a means of protection to the negro. Somebody +then is responsible for him as his guardian and provider, and is +amenable to the State for his sustenance. You can easily see that, let +the colored people come to be a hireling class, and their interests and +those of their masters are disjoined. There would be conflicts and +oppressions among themselves; they would fall into a degraded, serf-like +condition; but now each of them partakes of his master's interests, and +rises with him. I am not here pleading for slavery in the abstract, but, +the blacks being on the soil, it is far better for them to be owned than +to be free. Why are the Southwestern States, one after another, passing +laws, or framing their constitutions, to shut out from their borders +free negroes,--people in the very condition into which you would reduce +by wholesale all the blacks in the South? I pray you look and see that +you are an abstractionist, setting what you deem a theoretical wrong +against a practical good, and under the circumstances, a real mercy." + +"But," said Mr. North, "slavery impoverishes the soil, makes the whites +shun labor, feeling it to be degrading, and it keeps the white children +from industrial pursuits, and"-- + +"Please stop," said I, "my dear Sir, and think of what you are saying, +and be not carried away by that popular flood of cant phrases. Now you +know that God has given our Southern friends a south country, nearer +than ours to the tropics. Out-of-door labor there is injurious to the +white people, as you know. They are not to be blamed for this. God has +not given them strength to endure exposure to the sun. Had they a +northern climate, in which the labor required by the mechanic arts could +be performed with safety and comfort, do you not suppose that they +would have the same aptitude and relish as we for handicraft? Their +children cannot be brought up to manual labor to the extent that ours +are, because the God of heaven has ordained their lot in a land less +favorable than ours to toil. His providence, making use of the sins of +men, has placed the blacks here; you and the rest of the world, who +depend upon their cotton, are willing enough to use it in its countless +forms, while you reproach your Maker, as I think, for having caused it +to be raised as he has seen fit to do." + +"But Oh," said Mr. North, "free labor is more profitable than slave +labor. You well know how it affects the soil, and that the great price +of slaves will in time make the system oppressive to the masters, +especially if they are all as considerate as you say they are about +selling." + +"The good Aunt has replied to you as to the soil, and we need not +distress ourselves about the price of slaves; that will regulate itself. +You well understand," said I, "that I am not arguing in favor of slavery +_per se_, nor for the slave-trade, nor for the extension of slavery; but +I contend that where slavery now exists, no one has yet proposed a +scheme which is better than the continuance of ownership, the blacks +remaining on the same soil with their present masters. Nor do I mean to +say that the present system must inevitably continue forever. We must +leave future developments in other hands. Of course there are difficult +problems on such a subject as this. Intelligent Christian gentlemen at +the South say that the best schemes which have been proposed by +Europeans for the substitution of apprenticed negroes for slaves would +make the condition of the negro as far worse than our slavery as the +condition of a degraded negro here is below that of his master. Who will +care for him when he is old, or sick? Granting this apprentice scheme +to be arranged without oppression or sin of any kind, I hold that the +condition of our slaves owned by masters and mistresses, is better than +such a hireling condition, though it have the appearance of liberty." + +"Why so?" inquired Mr. North. + +"The slaves are not treated as hired horses are liable to be treated," I +replied. "We know how a man is likely to treat his own horse, compared +with the horse which he hires. Men nurse their slaves when they are +sick; they provide for them when they are old. By their care and +responsibility for them, and in relieving them from responsibility, they +pay them wages whose market-value, if it could be reckoned in dollars, +would be higher wages than are paid to the same class of laborers in the +land. There are not four millions of the lower class of the laboring +people in any one district of the earth whose condition is to be +compared with that of the Southern slaves for comfort and happiness." + +"I presume," said Mrs. North, "that you would not regard exemption from +responsibility as in itself a blessing. You know how it educates us, how +it sharpens the faculties, how it makes a man more of a man; therefore +is it, after all, any kindness to the slaves, that they are relieved +from responsibility?" + +"I thank you," said I, "for that question. Does it concern us that our +domestic servants are relieved, for the time, of all responsibility for +house-rent, taxes, political duties? + +"Every condition of poverty and toil has its peculiar hardships and +sorrows. But putting together, respectively, all the advantages and the +disadvantages of our slaves, he who looks upon a population with +enlarged views of liabilities and of the inevitable results in the +working of different schemes of labor, and is not so weak or morbid as +to dwell inordinately on real and imaginary wrongs and miseries, which, +after all, if real, are compensated for by advantages or surpassed by +aggregated smaller evils in other conditions, must admit that, the +colored people being here, their being owned is the very best possible +thing for their protection, and the surest guarantee against all their +liabilities to want in hard times, sickness, and old age. + +"Speaking of hard times leads me to say, that if you could put four +millions of laboring people in the Free States, for a winter or during +commercial distresses and the stagnation of every kind of business, in a +position where, while they were still active and useful, a single +thought or care about their sustenance would not visit them, you would +be deemed a philanthropist and public benefactor. There will not be the +same number of people in the laboring class throughout our land next +winter, in any one section, whose comfort and happiness will exceed that +of our slaves." + +"Oh, well," said Mr. North, "all this may be true, but this does not +reconcile me to slavery. Our horses here at the North will all be +comfortably provided for, notwithstanding any money pressure. But I +would rather be a human being and fail, every winter, than be a horse." + +"Husband," said Mrs. North, "do you consider that a parallel case? Mr. +C. is not arguing, as I understand him, that slavery is better than +freedom. He is not persuading us to be slaves rather than free. He takes +these four millions of blacks as he finds them, in bondage, and he asks, +What shall we do with them? You say, Set them free. He says, They are +better off, as a race, in their present bondage, than they would be if +made free, to remain here. Not that they are better off than four +millions of colored people, who had never been slaves, would be in a +commonwealth by themselves." + +"I thank you, Mrs. North," said I, "for your clear and correct statement +of my position. And now I will take up Mr. North's parable about the +horses, and apply it justly. Let hay and grass be exceedingly scarce, +and I had rather take my chance with an owner and be a horse, in a +stable, and at work, than a horse roaming in search of food, chased away +everywhere. The comparison is between horse and horse, and man and man." + +"You make me think," said Mrs. North, "of an interesting passage in a +late magazine, written by a lady. She was on a voyage to Cuba. She +arrived at Nassau. She says, 'There were many negroes, together with +whites of every grade; and some of our number, leaning over the side, +saw for the first time the raw material out of which Northern +Humanitarians have spun so fine a skein of compassion and sympathy. You +must allow me one heretical whisper,--very small and low. Nassau, and +all we saw of it, suggested to us the unwelcome question whether +compulsory labor be not better than none.'"[3] + + [Footnote 3: _Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1859, p. 604.] + +"There is," said I, "this great question of right, with some, as to +slavery: As the State has a right to interpose and send vagrant children +to school, has the world a right to interpose, in certain cases, and +send certain races to labor for the good of mankind? This was the +question which broke upon the lady's mind. It is very interesting to see +the question thus stated, and to notice the graceful touch of apology, +and of playfulness, in the manner of stating it. There was risk, and +even peril, in making the suggestion, but, withal, some moral courage. +Still a lady may sometimes venture where it might not be safe for a +gentleman to go. + +"But the question between us is not, 'Freedom or slavery,' in the +abstract, nor, Whether it is right, in any case, to reduce a people to +slavery; but, What is best for our slaves? All your proofs that freedom +is better than slavery in the abstract, are nothing to the point." + +"It is the foulest blot on our nation in the eyes of the world," said +Mr. North, "that we have four millions of human beings in bondage." + +"Have you read 'Uncle Tom's Cabin?'" I inquired. + +"Ask me," said he, pleasantly, "if I know how to read. Every lover of +liberty and hater of oppression has read 'Uncle Tom.'" + +"That is very far from being true," said I; "but still, you like Uncle +Tom as a character, do you?" + +"You astonish me," said he, "by making a question about it. He is the +most perfect specimen of Christianity that I ever heard of." + +"Among the martyrs," said I, "have you ever found his superior?" + +"No, Sir!" was his energetic answer. + +"Now," said I, "what made Uncle Tom the paragon of perfection?" + +"What made him?" said he. + +"Yes," said I, "what made him the model Christian? You do not reply, and +I will tell you. SLAVERY MADE UNCLE TOM. Had it not been for slavery, he +would have been a savage in Africa, a brutish slave to his fetishes, +living in a jungle, perhaps; and had you stumbled upon him he would very +likely have roasted you and picked your bones. A system which makes +Uncle Toms out of African savages is not an unmixed evil." + +"But," said he, "it makes Legrees also." + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," said I, "it does not make Legrees. There are +as many Legrees at the North as at the South, especially if we include +all the very particular 'friends of the slave.' Legree would be Legree +in Wall Street, or Fifth Avenue; Uncle Tom would not be Uncle Tom in the +wilds of Africa." + +"And so," said he, "it is right to fit out ships, burn villages in +Africa, steal the flying people, bestow them in slave-ships, and sell +them into hopeless bondage!" + +"So you all love to reason," said I, "or seek to force that conclusion +upon us. No such thing. If God overrules the evil doings of men, this is +no reason for repeating the wrong. I am insisting that slavery as it +exists in the South has been a blessing to the African. This does not +warrant you in perpetrating outrages on those who are still in Africa. + +"But the result has been, through the mercy of God as though we had +taken millions of degraded savages out of Africa, and had made them +contribute greatly to the industrial interests of mankind. + +"We have raised them from heathenish ignorance and barbarism to the +condition of intelligent beings. Look at them in their churches and +Sabbath-schools. Slavery has done this. See the colored population of +Charleston, S.C., voluntarily contributing, as they do, on an average, +three dollars apiece, annually, for the propagation of the Gospel at +home and abroad. See the meeting-house of the African Church at +Richmond, Va., a place selected for public speakers from the North to +deliver their addresses in it to the citizens of Richmond, because it is +more commodious than any other public building in the city. Think of the +membership of slaves in Christian Churches; of the multitudes of them +who have died in the faith and hope of the Gospel. Slavery has done +this. The question is whether slavery has been, or is, such a curse, on +the whole, to the African race, that we must now set free the whole +colored population? Please let us keep to the point. The reopening of +the slave-trade is a question by itself. + +"It seems that God had chosen to redeem and save large numbers of the +African race by having them transported to this Christian land. +Philanthropists would not be at the cost and trouble of all this. God +has, therefore, used the cupidity of men to accomplish his purposes, and +he punishes the wicked agents of his own benevolent schemes. His curse +has for ages rested on the African race, and the laws of nature have, to +a great degree, interposed to prevent Christian efforts in their behalf. +God saw fit to change the prison-house, and prison yards and shops of +this race from one continent to another, and New England merchantmen, in +part, have been allowed to be the conveyers. In the process of +transferring these future subjects of civilization and Christianity, +vast misery is endured, as in opening a way by the sword for the +execution of his decrees, great slaughter is the inevitable attendant. I +look at the whole subject of slavery in the light of God's providence. +And I do not see that his providence yet indicates any way for its +termination consistent with the interests of the colored people. + +"As to the extension of slavery, in this land, if the Most High has any +further purposes of mercy for the African race in connection with us, he +will not consult you nor me. He will open districts of our country for +them; if my political party refuses to be the instrument in doing this, +from benevolent motives, or from any other cause, He will make that +party to be defeated, it may be by a party below us in moral principle, +as we view it. This question of slavery, its extension and continuance, +is therefore among the great problems of God's providence. I shall do +all that I properly can to prevent it, and to encourage, and, if called +upon, to aid my brethren now in immediate charge of the slaves, to +fulfil their solemn trust; but anything like impatience and passion at +the existence of slavery, I hold to be a sin against God. I pity those +good men whose minds are so inflamed by the consideration of individual +cases of suffering as not to perceive the great and steadfast march of +the divine administration. Politicians and others who get their places, +or their bread, by easy appeals to sympathy for individual cases of +suffering, are the causes of much misplaced commiseration and of a low, +uninstructed view of the great interests involved in slavery. Yet these +very men who, for selfish purposes, stir up the passions of our people, +by dwelling on cases of hardship in slavery, are greatly disappointed +when Napoleon III., at Villafranca, prematurely terminates a war of +unparalleled slaughter. They would have preferred, for the cause of +constitutional liberty and for its possible influence against the Pope, +that the fighting had continued a month longer; we hear no pathetic +remonstrances from them on the score of the killed and maimed, the +widows and orphans and the childless, of homes made desolate, by this +additional month of battle. Such is man, so inconsistent, so blinded by +party prejudice, so ready to maintain that which, in a change of persons +and places, he will denounce. He will be wholly blinded by individual +acts of suffering to all that is good in a system; and again, the good +to be effected by a war will blind him to the hundreds of thousands of +dead or mutilated soldiers, with five times that number of bleeding +hearts, rifled by the sword of their precious treasures." + +I saw that I had prolonged my remarks to an undue length. We sat in +silence for a little while, looking into the fire, and listening to the +rain against the windows, when Judith called Mrs. North to the door; +and, after some whispering between them, Mrs. North said to her, + +"Oh, bring them in; our company will excuse it." + +The cranberries, it seems, were not doing well over the fire in Judith's +department, and she had hesitatingly proposed that they should be +promoted to the parlor grate, where, after due apologies, they were +placed. They soon began to simmer; then one would burst, and then +another, we pausing unconsciously to hear them surrendering themselves +to their fate, while one mouth, at least, watered at the thought of the +delicious dish which they were to furnish; the rich, ruby color of their +juice in the best cut-glass tureen, and the added spoonful, as a reward +for not spilling a drop on the table-cloth the last time they were +served, coming to mind, with thoughts of early days. And here I was +discussing slavery. Now, while the cranberries were over the fire, +making one feel domestic and also bringing back young days, it was +impossible to be disputatious, had we been so inclined. The Northern +cranberry-meadow and the Southern sugar-plantation seemed mixed up in my +feelings on this subject, qualifying and rectifying each other. Perhaps +the soothing presence of the cranberry saucepan was timely; for, without +any design, a phase of our subject next presented itself which was not +the most agreeable. I broke the silence, and said,-- + +"Mr. North, what do you think is the mission of the abolitionists as a +party, and of all who sympathize with them?" + +"Why," said he, "to abolish slavery, to be sure. What else can it be?" + +"You are mistaken," said I. "The real mission of the abolitionists, thus +far, is, To perpetuate slavery till Providence has accomplished its +plan. You know what Southern synods, and general assemblies, and many of +the ablest men at the South have said about slavery; how they deplored +it, and called upon Christians to seek its extinction. The South would +probably have tried to abolish slavery ere this, if left to themselves. +But they would have failed; and Providence prevented the useless effort. +The influence of those sentiments which prevailed in the General +Assembly of 1818 would have been to remove all the objectionable +features of slavery, at least, preparatory to its final extinction, if +that could be reached. It looked as though Churches generally would, in +obedience to the General Assembly, have made it, in certain cases, the +subject of discipline. Abolitionism, however, began about that time. It +had the effect to make the South defend themselves and slavery too. +Providence saw that the South was weary of the system, and wished to +throw it off. But the years of the captivity appointed of God had not +come to an end. Purposes of mercy for the African race had not been +accomplished; the South must be made willing to hold these poor people +for the 'time, times, and half a time,' ordained of God. To encourage +them, the God of Nature makes the great Southern staple, cotton, to be +in greater demand for the supply of the world; the cotton-gin is +invented, and immediately the slaves are thereby assisted to retain that +hold upon the South which was about to be broken off. All this seems to +me designed, as it certainly has the effect, to perpetuate slavery until +Providence shall indicate measures for the removal of the colored people +among us. This may be delayed for centuries to come. In the mean time, +we at the North, by keeping up our agitation of the subject, have +impressed the South with the importance of being united against us; but +if any of our schemes of emancipation had divided them, it would not +have been for the good of the slaves. So the abolitionists have been +fulfilling their destiny by fighting against Providence to help +perpetuate slavery till the Most High shall disclose his will concerning +it." + +"And helped the South," said Mr. North, "perpetuate violations of the +marriage relation, and to separate families, and to countenance all the +sins in slavery!" + +"Yes, to some degree," said I; "for should we treat them with common +candor and truthfulness, make them feel that we appreciate the +perplexities of the subject, admit for once, and act upon it, that they +are better and more competent 'friends of the slave' than we, it would +be the surest way to put a stop to every evil in slavery. Now they have +little power over a certain class of men among them, who, when measures +are proposed for the relief of the slaves, raise the cry that they are +abolitionists, and excite an odium which deters them from doing many +things which would otherwise be attempted." + +"They might all certainly join," said Mr. North, "one would think, to +prevent the violation of the marriage contract by the slaves, and the +sundering of the marriage tie by the auctioneer." + +"Now," said I, "there are two allegations, and I will answer them. As to +the violation of the marriage covenant by the slaves, are you aware how +many divorces for the same cause are granted in your own state yearly? +You will find, on inquiry, that 'freedom' has nothing to boast of in +this respect. As to the auctioneer, and the separation of the marriage +tie by him, how often do you think that an honest black man, for no +crime, is taken from his wife and sold, or she from him? How often, do +you suppose, are families divided and scattered at the auction-block? If +you will inquire, you will find that the cases are extremely rare; that +in some large districts it has not occurred for several years; and that +in other cases, where it has occurred, regard has been had to the +neighborhood of the purchasers, so that members of the same families +have been within reach of one another. You seem to think that a great +feature, and the most common effect, of slavery is to separate families. +Such is the general belief at the North. Let me remind you that there is +no form or condition of service in the world which has more effect than +slavery to keep families together." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, dropping her work in her lap, "I never thought +of that before." + +"Why," said I, "where will you find in the Free States husband and wife +and children living together as servants in the same family?" + +Said Mrs. North, "It is rather uncommon with us to find two sisters +living together as help in a family. At least, it is always spoken of +and noted as pleasant and desirable." + +"What would Northerners think," said I, "of gathering the old parents +and all the brothers and sisters of their domestics together, in small +tenements near their own dwellings? He who should do this would be +regarded as a very great saint. So that you may as well say that slavery +is a system by which a serving class is kept together in families, as to +say that its purpose and effect is to break up families." + +"Just think," said Mrs. North, "of the serving class in our families +here at the North,--how they are separated by states, by oceans, from +one another!" + +"Be careful, Mrs. North," said I, "how you even hint at such mitigations +in slavery, for you will be denounced as a 'friend of oppression' if you +discern anything in the system but 'villanies.' You never hear such a +feature of slavery, as that of which we have just spoken, recognized +here at the North by our zealous anti-slavery people." + +"Do you not think," said she, "that if we were candid and less +passionate, and viewed the subject as anti-slavery men at the South do, +we should exert far more influence against slavery?" + +"If we exerted any," I replied, "it would be 'far more' than we do now. +If we would only cease to 'exert influence' in that direction, and begin +to learn that the people of the South are as Christian, benevolent, and +good in every respect as we, this first, great lesson, which we all need +to learn, would do us all great good. Self-righteousness is the great +characteristic of the Northern people with regard to the South. Fifteen +States declare that they are justified before God in continuing the +system of slavery. The other States would be ashamed to condemn those +fifteen States for immorality in the discussion of any other subject; +but here they assume that one half of the American nation is convicted +of crime. I take the ground that, if the Churches and the ministry of +those fifteen States say, With all the evils of slavery, it is right and +best that we should maintain it, I will so far yield my convictions as +not to feel that they are less righteous than I." + +"Oh," said Mr. North, "but they have been born and educated under the +system. Of course they must be blinded by it, and their moral sense +perverted." + +"There," said I, "Mr. North, is the 'Northern Evil' again. Oh, what a +shame it is for intelligent people to decry Southern Christians in this +way, and to erect their own moral sense into such self-complacent +superiority! + +"You will see in your church one excellent brother, whose heart is +filled with anguish at the thought of the 'poor slave.' One sits by him +who knows full as much on this and on all subjects as he, who feels that +the people at the South are perfectly qualified to manage this subject, +and that we have no need to interpose. He thinks that if one wishes to +be excited with compassion at the sorrows and woes of men, a short walk +will bring him to certain abodes such as no Southern slave would be +allowed by any human master to inhabit. If he would benefit men as a +class, our own sailors need all his philanthropy. But the good +anti-slavery brother is possessed with the idea that the Southern slave +is the impersonation of injustice and misery, and that those who stand +in the relation of masters are guilty of crimes, daily, which ought to +shut them out of the Church. + +"I have often thought that the most appropriate prayers in our public +assemblies, with regard to slavery, would be petitions against Northern +ignorance and passion with respect to Southern Christians. It is we who +most need to be prayed for. When I think of those assemblies of +Christians of all denominations in the South, with a clergy at their +head who have no superiors in the world, and then hear a Northern +preacher indicting them before God in his prayers, what shall I say? The +verdict of a coroner's inquest, if it were held over some of his hearers +at such a time, might almost be, Died of disgust." + +"Now I desire to know," said Mr. North, "if we are never to pray in +public about slavery? Is it not the great subject before the country, +and are not all our interests in Church and State deeply involved in +it?" + +"While we believe," said I, "that holding slaves is a sin, I take the +ground that praying for the Southerners is a false impeachment. When we +are rid of this error, we do not feel their need of being prayed for any +more than 'all men,' for whom Paul says, 'I will that men pray +everywhere,'--'lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting.' Our +'hands' must be 'holy' when we lift them up for 'all men,' including +Southerners; there must be no 'wrath' in our prayers,--which I am sorry +to say is too easily discerned in prayers against the South; and there +must be no 'doubting' in the petitioners whether their feelings and +motives are right before God. There is as much in the relation of +officers and crews in our merchant vessels, to say the least, to enlist +the prayers of ministers, as in slavery. But this relates to ourselves, +and has not the enchantment of a distant sin. + +"You must bring yourself to believe, Mr. North, that Southern hearts are +in general as humane and cultivated as ours. This, it is true, is a +great demand upon a Northerner." + +"But oh," said he, (we happening to be alone just then,) "the cruelty of +compelling virtuous people, members of Churches, to commit sin, under +pain of being sold." + +"Mr. North," said I, "how do you dare to open your lips on that +subject,--you, with myself, a member of a denomination in which men, +eminent in our pulpits, have--so many of them of late years--fallen. One +would think that we would never cast a stone at the South on that +subject. + +"Some among us seem to think that the power and the opportunity to +commit sin must necessarily be followed by criminal indulgence. They do +themselves no credit in this supposition. They also leave out of view a +natural antipathy which must be overcome, sense of degradation, +probability of detection, loss of character, conscience, and all the +moral restraints which are common to men everywhere; and they only judge +that all who exercise authority over an abject race must, as a general +thing, be polluted. + +"As to opportunities for evil-doing at the South compared with the +North, no one who walks the streets of a Northern city, by day or night, +with the ordinary discernment of one who sets himself to examine the +moral condition of a place, will fail to see that we need not go to the +South to find humiliating proofs of baseness and shame. There is less +solicitation at the South; here it is a nightly trade, without disguise. +At the South the young must go in search of opportunity; here it +confronts them. The small number of yellow children in the interior of +the Cotton States, on 'lone plantations,' is positive proof against the +ready suspicions and accusations of Northern people. Let all be true +which is said of 'yellow women,' 'slave-breeders,' and every form of +lechery, he is simple who does not believe that the statistics of a +certain wickedness at the North would, if made as public as difference +of color makes the same statistics at the South, leave no room for us to +arraign and condemn the South in this particular. Their clergy, their +husbands, their young men, if they are no better, are no worse than we. +But there is nothing in which the self-righteousness created by +anti-slavery views and feelings is more conspicuous than in the way in +which the South is judged and condemned by us with regard to this one +sin. Had the pulpits of the South afforded such dreadful instances of +frailty, for the last ten or fifteen years, as we have had at the North, +what confirmation would we have found for our invectives against the +corrupting and 'barbarous' influence of slavery! + +"How the morbid fancy of a Northerner loves to gloat over occasional +instances of violence at the South, and is never employed in depicting +scenes of betrayal and cruelty which our policemen in large cities could +recount by scores." + +"I saw," said Mr. North, "in a recent paper, that a slave in Washington +County, N.C., was hanged by the sheriff in the presence of three +thousand spectators, for the murder of a white man, whom he shot with a +pistol because he suspected him of undue familiarity with the wife of +the black man. Poor fellow! no doubt he swung for it because he was a +slave. He must let his marriage rights be invaded by the whites, and +bear it in silence, or die." + +Said I, "What a perfect specimen of Northern anti-slavery feeling and +logic have we in what you now say. If a man, on suspicion of you, takes +the law into his hands and shoots you with a pistol, does he not deserve +to die? He does, if he is a white man; perhaps, if he be a slave, that +excuses him! Even where a man is known to be guilty of the crime +referred to, and the husband shoots him, he is apt to have a narrow +escape from being punished. As to bearing such violations of one's +rights in silence under intimidation, there is no more power in +intimidation to save a villain at the South from disgrace and abhorrence +in his community, than at the North." + +"But he can evade prosecution under the statute," said Mr. North, "more +easily at the South than here." + +"When you have served on the grand jury a few terms," said I, "you will +be more charitable toward Southerners. Human nature is the same +everywhere. It makes, where it does not find, occasion for sin. + +"Now you will not understand, in all that I have said, that I am +pleading for slavery, that I desire to have this abject race among us, +that Southerners are purer and better than we. We are both under sin. We +all have our temptations and trials; each form of society has its own +kind of facilities for evil; but the grace of God and all the influences +which bear on the formation and the preservation of character, are the +same wherever Christianity prevails." + +"Well, after all," said he, "it must be a semi-barbarous state of +society, where such a system is maintained." + +"I shall have to send you," said I, "to the 'Hotel des Incurables.' I +think that your judgments are more than semi-barbarous. If you please to +term even the Southern negroes 'semi-barbarous,' you may do so; but you +are bearing false witness against your neighbor. + +"My dear friend," said I, "sum up all the evils of the laboring classes, +of foreigners and the lower orders of society. Take their miseries, +vices, crimes, with all the blessings of freedom and everything else. +Get the proportion of evil to the good. Remember that these classes will +continue to exist among us. Then take the slaves, the lower order at the +South, as foreigners are with us, and say if, on the whole, the +proportion of evil among the slaves is any greater than among the +corresponding classes elsewhere. Do not be an optimist. Acknowledge that +society, in this fallen world, must have elements of evil, by reason at +least of imbecility, want of thrift, misfortune, and other things. You +will not fail to see that slavery with all its evils is, under the +circumstances, by no means, the worst possible condition for the colored +people." + +"Well," said he, "I will think of all you have said. I do not wish to be +an ultraist, nor to shut my eyes against truth. You will wish to go to +bed; there are some further points on which I would know your views, and +we will, if you please, resume the subject to-morrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +OWNERSHIP IN MAN.--THE OLD TESTAMENT SLAVERY. + + "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do + ye even so to them; FOR THIS IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS." + + HOLY WRIT. + + +The rain still poured down in the morning, making it agreeable to us +that we had the prospect of an uninterrupted forenoon for our +conversation. + +So when we found ourselves together again in the course of the forenoon, +by the fire, we opened the discussion. + +Mr. North inquired what I understood by the term "owning a +fellow-creature." + +"I understand by it," I replied, "a right to use, and to dispose of, the +services of another, wholly at my will. That will must be subject to the +whole law of God, which includes the golden rule. I do not mean by it +that a man owns the body of a man in such a sense that he can maim it at +will, or in any way abuse it. Ownership in men is power to use their +services and to dispose of them, at will." + +"Now," said he, "who gives you a right to go to Africa or to a slave +auction and to say to a human being, 'I propose to own you.' How would +you like to have a black man come to you in a solitary place and say, +'My dear Sir, I propose to own you. Henceforth your services are +subject to my will.'?" + +"As to Africa," said I, "and making slaves of those who are now free, we +cannot differ. As to the other part of your question, I will carry the +illustration a little further, and in doing so, will answer you in part. +How would you like to have some Michael O'Connor come to you and say, +'Mr. North, I propose to hire you and pay you wages as my body-servant, +or my ostler.' Why should you not consent? If you do not, why should you +hire Mike himself to serve you in either of those capacities? What has +become of the golden rule, if you hire a man to do work for you which +you would not be hired to do? + +"You are feasting with a company of friends; and your domestics, below, +hear your cheerful talk, and feel the wide difference between your state +and theirs. Why do you not go down and say, 'Dear fellow-creatures, go +up and take our places at table, and let us be servants'? Does the +golden rule require that? Inequalities in human conditions are a wise +and benevolent provision for human happiness, so long as men are +dependent on one another, as they are and ever must be. Some are so +constituted by an all-wise God that they are happier to be in +subordinate situations. Mind is lord; and they, seeing and feeling the +superiority of others, gladly attach themselves to them as helpers, to +be thought for and protected, and to enjoy their approbation. There is +nothing cruel in this, unless it be cruel not to have made all men +equal. There are important influences growing out of these relationships +of superiors and inferiors,--gentleness, kindness, benevolence, in all +its forms, on the one hand, and on the other, respect, deference, love, +strong attachments and identification of interests. + +"As to the remaining part of your question, let me ask, What nation or +tribes are capable of such bondage as the Africans at home inflict and +bear? We never had a right to go and steal them, nor to encourage their +captors in their pillage and violent seizure of the defenceless +creatures; nor do I think that all the blessings which multitudes of +them have received, for both worlds, in consequence of their +transportation from Africa, lessens the guilt of slave-traders; nor are +these benefits any justification of the trade, nor do they afford ground +for its continuance. Nothing can justify it. Such is the voice of the +human conscience everywhere except where covetousness or controversy +prevail. + +"But finding these colored people here, the question upon which you and +I differ, is, What is our duty with regard to them? + +"You say, Set them all free. I reply, The relation of ownership on our +part toward them is best for all concerned. You say, It is wrong in +itself. To say this, I think, is to be more righteous than God." + +"Then you maintain," said he, "that the Most High, in the Bible, +countenances all the atrocities of American slavery." + +"What a strange way," said I, "of arguing, do we very generally find +among anti-slavery men, when their feelings are enlisted, as they are so +apt to be. They take unwarrantable, extreme inferences from what we say, +and oppose these as logical answers to a statement or argument. 'Auction +block' and 'Bunker Hill,' are sufficient answers with them to most of +our reasoning on this subject. But let us look at this point in a +dispassionate manner. + +"But," said I, "before I begin I wish to be distinctly understood as +holding this doctrine; namely, The Bible does not justify us in reducing +men to bondage at our will. God might appoint that certain tribes should +be slaves to others; but before we proceed to reduce men to slavery, our +warrant for it must be clear. + +"If, however, slavery is found by a certain generation among them, and +it is not right and just nor expedient to abolish it, may we not safely +ask, How did the Most High legislate concerning slavery among the people +to whom he gave a code of laws from his own lips? + +"Learning this, we must then consider whether circumstances in our day +warrant, or require, different rules and regulations. + +"But our inquiry into the divine legislation respecting slavery, will +disclose some things which draw largely upon one's implicit faith in the +divine goodness; and if a man is disposed to be a sceptic and his +anti-slavery feelings are strong, here is a stone on which, if that +anti-slavery man falls, he shall be broken, but if it falls on him, it +shall grind him to powder. + +"You will acknowledge this, if you will allow me to speak further on +this subject. + +"Did you ever notice," said I, "with what words Christ concludes his +enunciation of the golden rule? They are a remarkable answer to our +modern infidels, who impugn the Old Testament as far behind the New in +its moral standard. After declaring that the rule by which we should +treat others is self-love, the Saviour says,--'for this is the Law and +the Prophets.' So there was nothing in the Law and Prophets inconsistent +with the golden rule. The golden rule therefore marks the history of +divine legislation from the beginning; and if God appointed slavery, he +ordained nothing in connection with it which was inconsistent with +equal love to one's self and to a neighbor. + +"This deserves to be considered by those who, finding slavery in the Old +Testament appointed by God, begin, as it were, to exculpate their Maker +by saying that the Hebrews were a rude, semi-barbarous people, and that +divine legislation was wisely accommodated to their moral capacity. Now +it is singular, if this be so, that the Mosaic code should be the basis, +as it is, of all good legislation everywhere. The effort to make the +Hebrew people and their code appear inferior, in order to excuse +slavery, is one illustration of the direful effect which anti-slavery +principles have had in lowering the respect of many for the Bible, and +loosening its hold upon their consciences. Now it is to me a perfect +relief on this subject of slavery in the Old Testament, to know that God +appointed nothing in the relation of his people to men of any class or +condition which his people in a change of circumstances, might not be +willing should be administered to them. If slavery was ordained of God +to the Hebrews, it must, therefore, have been benevolent. If we start +with the doctrine that 'Slavery is the sum of all villanies,' no wonder +that we find it necessary to use extenuating words and a sort of +apologetic, protecting manner of treating the divine oracles. After all +it is evidently hard work, with many anti-slavery men to maintain that +reverence for the Old Testament and that confidence in God which they +feel are required of them. So they lay all the responsibility of +imperfection in the divine conduct, to the 'semi-barbarous Hebrews!'--a +people by the way, whose first leader combined in himself a greater +variety, and a higher order, of talent, than any other man in history. +As military commander, poet, historian, judge, legislator, who is to be +named in comparison with the man Moses? + +"We must come to the conclusion," said I, "that the relation of +ownership is not only not sinful, but that it is in itself benevolent, +that it had a benevolent object; for its origin was certainly +benevolent." + +"What was its origin?" said Mrs. North; "I always had a desire to know +how slavery first came into existence." + +"Blackstone tells us," I replied, "that its origin was in the right of a +captor to commute the death of his captives with bondage. The laws of +war give the conqueror a right to destroy his enemies; if he sees fit to +spare their lives in consideration of their serving him, this is also +his right. Thus, we suppose, slavery gained its existence. + +"True, its very nature partakes of our fallen condition; it is not a +paradisiacal institution; it is not good in itself; it is an +accompaniment of the loss which we have incurred by sin. In that light +it is proper to speak of the Most High as adapting his legislation to +the depraved condition of man; but that is no more true of slavery than +of redemption; everything in the treatment of us by the Almighty is an +exponent of our departure from our first estate." + +"Now," said Mrs. North, "all this is a relief to me; for I have always +been sorely tried by remarks seemingly impugning the divine wisdom and +goodness, whenever slavery in the Bible has been under discussion." + +"Please give us an outline," said Mr. North, "of the Hebrew legislation +on this subject." He handed me a Bible. + +"I will try and not be tedious," said I, "and will repeat to you in few +words the principal points of the Hebrew Code, with regard to +involuntary servitude. + + * * * * * + +"Slavery is the first thing named in the law given at Sinai, after the +moral law and a few simple directions as to altars. This is noticeable. +In the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, and in the twenty-fifth chapter +of Leviticus, we find the Hebrew slave-code. The following is a summary +of it:-- + +"1. Hebrews themselves might be bought and sold by Hebrews; but for six +years only, at farthest. If the jubilee year occurred at any time during +these six years, it cut short the term of service. + +"2. Hebrew paupers were an exception to this rule. They could be +retained till the year of jubilee next ensuing. + +"3. Hebrew servants, married in servitude, if they went out free in the +seventh, or in the jubilee year, must go out alone, leaving their wives +which their masters had given them, and their children by these wives, +(if any,) behind them, as their masters' possession. If, however, they +chose to remain with their wives and children, the ear of the servant +was bored with an awl to the door-post, and his servitude became +perpetual. + +"4. Hebrew servants might also, from love to their masters, in like +manner and by the same ceremony, become servants forever. + +"5. Strangers and sojourners among the Hebrews, 'waxing rich,' were +allowed to buy Hebrews who were 'waxen poor,' and who were at liberty to +sell themselves to these sojourners or to the family of these strangers. +The jubilee year, however, terminated this servitude. The price of sale +was graduated according to the number of years previous to the jubilee +year. The kindred of the servant had the right of redeeming him, the +price being regulated in the same way. + +"6. In all these cases in which Hebrews were bought and sold, there were +special injunctions that they should not be treated 'with rigor,' the +reason assigned by the Most High being substantially the same in all +cases, namely, 'For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they +are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the +Lord your God.' + +"7. Liberal provision was to be made for the Hebrew servant at the +termination of his servitude. During his term of service, he was to be +regarded and treated 'as an hired servant and a sojourner.' + +"8. Bondmen and bondmaids, as property, without limitation of time, and +transmissible as inheritance to children, might be bought of surrounding +nations. The children of sojourners also could be thus acquired. To +these the seventh year's and the fiftieth year's release did not apply. + +"Now, Mr. North," said I, "let me proceed to try your faith somewhat. I +will see whether your confidence in divine revelation is sound, for +nothing at the present day has overthrown the faith of many like the +manifest teachings of the Bible with regard to slavery. You have felt +that the Hebrew code is better than ours, so far as it relates to slaves +who were Hebrews. As to the slaves from the heathen, we infer that they +met 'with rigor,' or at least were liable to it; for God continually +enjoins it upon the Hebrews that they shall not use rigor with their +brethren. + +"Now let me mention some things which will try your faith in revelation, +if you are an abolitionist. + +"The Hebrews were allowed to sell their servants to other people. + +"Thus they traded in flesh and blood. This was prohibited in the case of +a Hebrew maid-servant, whom a man had bought and had made her his +concubine. If she did not please him, it was said that--'to sell her +unto a strange nation he shall have no power.' The inference is that +they sold their Gentile slaves, if they pleased, 'to a strange nation.' +Again. When a father or mother became poor, their creditor could take +their children for servants. Thus you read: 'Now there cried a certain +woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying, Thy +servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear +the Lord; and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be +bondmen.' This was according to the law of Moses, in the twenty-fifth of +Leviticus; 'bondmen,' however, meaning here a servant for a term of +years. See also the New Testament parable of the unforgiving servant. + +"This was hard, it will seem to you and to all of us, that if one became +poor in Israel, his children could be attached. Thus the idea of +involuntary servitude, where no crime was, prevailed in the Theocracy. + +"But we come now to something which draws harder upon our faith. + +"We find the Most High prescribing, Exodus xxi. 20, 21, that a master +who kills his servant under chastisement shall be punished (but not put +to death); and if the servant survives a day or two, the master shall +not even be 'punished' for the death of his slave! + +"The reason which the Most High gives is this: '_For he is his money_'! + +"A human being, 'money'! An immortal soul, 'money'! God's image, +'money'! And this the reasoning, these the very words of my Maker! Is it +not astonishing, if your principles are correct, that there has been no +controversy for ages against this? and that the Bible, with such +passages in it should have retained its hold on the human mind? 'He is +his money'! It would have been no different had it read: 'He is his +cotton.' You see that the Most High recognized 'ownership,' 'property in +man.' Why is it said, 'He is his money'? Poole (Synopsis) says,--'that +is, his possession bought with money; and therefore 1. Had a power to +chastise him according to his merit, which might be very great. 2. Is +sufficiently punished with his own loss. 3. May be presumed not to have +done this purposely or maliciously.' + +"Either and all of which explanations, or any other which can be given, +only bring more clearly to view the idea of 'money' as a reason why the +master is not to be punished, for causing the death of a slave by +whipping, if the slave happens to continue a day or two, no matter under +what mutilations and sufferings. + +"Furthermore. We find the Most High decreeing perpetual bondage in +certain cases, and more than all, as we have seen, _the forcible +separation of husband and wife_ among slaves. Let me turn to Exodus xxi. +and read:-- + + "'1. Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. + + "'2. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in + the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. + + "'3. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he + were married, then his wife shall go out with him. + + "'4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him + sons or daughters, _the wife and her children shall be her + master's_, and he shall go out by himself.' + +"I have not finished my reading," said I; "but what do you say to that, +Mr. North?" + +"Read on," said he. + + "'5. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my + wife, and my children, I will not go out free: + + "'6. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, he shall also + bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, and his master shall + bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.' + +"God decreed, therefore, that the marriage of a slave in bondage, in +those days, was dissoluble, as no other marriage was. Divorces among the +Hebrews, allowed for the hardness of their hearts, were not parallel to +the forcible separation of a slave from his wife under the hard +necessity of choice between perpetual bondage with a wife, or freedom +without her. The merciful God who kindly enacted, 'No man shall take the +nether nor the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to +pledge,' and that a garment pawned should be restored before sundown, +that wages should not be withheld over night, yes, the God who +legislated about bird's-nests ordained the dissolution of the marriage +tie between slaves in certain cases, unless the slave husband was +willing for his wife's sake, to be a slave forever! + +"What do you say to this, Mr. North?" I asked again. + +Said Mrs. North, "I begin to see the origin and cause of infidelity +among the abolitionists." + +"Tell me," said Mr. North, "how you view it." + +"On stating this, once," said I, "in a public meeting, I raised a +clamor. Three or four men sprung to their feet, and one of them, who +first caught the chairman's eye, cried out, his face turning red, his +eyes starting from their sockets, his fist clenched, 'I demand of the +gentleman whether he means to approve of all the abominations of +American slavery! Is he in favor of separating husbands and wives, +parents and children? Let us know it, Sir, if it be so. No wonder that +strong anti-slavery men turn infidels when they hear Christian men +defending American slavery from the Bible. No wonder that they say, "The +times demand, and we must have, an anti-slavery constitution, an +anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slavery God." Mr. Moderator, will the +gentleman answer my question,--Do you mean to approve all the atrocities +of American slavery, on the ground that the Bible countenances them?' + +"I was never more calm in my life. I replied, 'Mr. Chairman, taking for +my warrant an inspired piece of advice as to the best way of answering a +man according to his folly, it would be just, should I reply to the +gentleman's question, Yes, I do. But the gentleman, I perceive, is too +much excited to hear me.' + +"He had flung himself round in his seat, put his elbow on the back of +it, and his hand through his hair; he then flung himself round in the +opposite direction, and put his arm and hand as before, and he blew his +nose with a sound like a trombone. + +"I then said, 'Mr. Chairman, if all that the gentleman meant to ask was, +Do you find any countenance under any circumstances, for the relation of +master and slave in the divine legation of Moses,--and this was all +which, as a fair man, not carried away by a gust of passion, he should +have asked me,--my answer was correct and proper. If he wished to know +my views of what is right and proper as to the marriage relation of our +slaves, he should have put the question in a different shape. But first, +Sir,' said I, 'if he dislikes the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, his +controversy must be with his God, not with me. Sinai was, let me remind +him, more of a place than Bunker Hill. I am not a friend of "oppression" +any more than the gentleman; but I trust that had I lived in Israel, I +should never have thought of being more humane than my Maker.' + +"I then proceeded to say that (as before remarked to you) we are not +warranted by the Bible to make men slaves when we please; nor, if +slavery exists, are we commanded to adopt the rules and regulations of +Hebrew slavery. + +"But we do learn from the Bible that property in man is not in itself +sinful,--not even to say of a man, 'He is my money.' + +"Were it intrinsically wrong, God would not have legislated about it in +such ways; for granting, if you please, the untenable distinction about +his 'not appointing' slavery, but 'finding it in existence' and +legislating for it, what necessity could there have been for making such +a law as that relating to the boring of the ear, rather than giving the +slave his wife and children and suffering them all to go free? + +"No, Mr. North," said I, continuing our conversation, "I cannot oppose +the relation of master and slave as in itself sinful; for then I become +more righteous than God. But I must inquire whether it is right, in each +given case, to reduce men to bondage: shall that be, for example, the +mode in which prisoners of war shall be disposed of? or a subjugated +people? or criminals? or, in certain cases, debtors? In doing so, there +is no intrinsic sin; the act itself, under the circumstances, may be +exceedingly sinful; but the relation of ownership is not necessarily a +sin. This, I hold, is all that can be deduced from the Bible in favor of +slavery: The relation is not in itself sinful." + +"But," said Mr. North, "we sinned in stealing these people from Africa; +all sin should be immediately forsaken; therefore, set the slaves free +at once." + +I replied, "Let us apply that principle. You and I, and a large company +of passengers, are in a British ship, approaching our coast. We find +out, all at once, that the crew and half of the passengers stole the +ship. We gain the ascendency; we can do as we please. Now, as all sin +must be repented of at once, it is the duty of the passengers and crew +to put the ship about, and deliver it to the owners in Glasgow! Perhaps +we should not think it best to put in force the '_ruat coelum_' +doctrine, especially if we had had some '_ruat coelum_' storms, and it +was late in the season. But then we should actually be enjoying the +stolen property--the ship and its comforts--for several days, with the +belief that benevolence and justice to all concerned required us to +reach the end of the voyage before we took measures to perform that +justice, which, before, would have been practical folly. + +"Now, please, do not require this illustration to go on all fours. All +that I mean is this: A right thing may be wrong, if done unseasonably, +or in disregard of circumstances which have supervened. + +"But to go a little further, and beyond mere expediency: Can you see no +difference between buying slaves, and making men slaves? While it would +be wicked for you to reduce people to slavery, is that the same as +becoming owners to those who are already in slavery? In one case, you +could not apply the golden rule; in the other, the golden rule would +absolutely compel you, in many instances, to buy slaves. Go to almost +any place where slaves are sold, and they will come to you, if they like +your looks, and, by all the arts of persuasion, entreat you to become +their master. Having succeeded, step behind the scenes, if you can, and +hear them exulting that they 'fetched more' than this or that man. Is +there no difference between this and reducing free people to slavery?" + +"Say yes, husband," said Mrs. North, "or I must say it for you." + +"So that, let me add," said I, "in opposing slavery, I am necessarily +confined to the evils and abuses committed in the relationship of +master. But, even in doing this, why should I be meddlesome? We have a +most offensive air and manner in our behavior towards Southerners, in +connection with their duties as masters. It is perfectly disgusting. I +may oppose slavery, on the grounds of political economy or for national +reasons. But if I mix up with it wrathful opposition to the sin, so +called, or the unrighteousness of holding property in man, it has no +countenance in the Bible. If I speak of it publicly, as a system fraught +with evil, I must discriminate; or they whom I would influence, knowing +that I am mistaken, will regard me as an infatuated enemy, who will +effect more injury than I can repair. As to Mr. Jefferson's testimony, +there are as good and conscientious men at the South in our day as +Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Calhoun was as worthy a witness in all respects." + +"Now tell us," said Mrs. North, "your sober convictions, apart from this +Northern controversy, about that twenty-first chapter of Exodus, where +God directs that slaves, in certain cases, shall be slaves forever; and, +moreover, in certain cases, that slave husbands may have their wives and +children withheld from them, and the husbands leave them forever. How do +you reconcile this with the justice and goodness of God?" + +I said to her, "To make the case fully appear, before we converse upon +it, hear this passage, Leviticus XXV. 44-46:--'Both thy bondmen, and thy +bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round +about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.' So, in the next +verses, 'The children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of +them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they +begat in your land; and they shall be your possession: And ye shall take +them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for +a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever; but over your +brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another +with rigor.' + +"Here, and in all the divine legislation on this subject, a distinction +is made between Hebrews who became slaves, and slaves who were +foreigners, or of foreign extraction, though resident in Israel. Slaves +of Hebrew extraction might go free after six years, and upon the death +of the owner; and in every jubilee year they must all return to freedom, +and be free from every disability by reason of bondage, except where the +ear was bored. + +"Not so with the slaves of foreign extraction; nor even with the Hebrew +whose ear was bored, provided his wife was given him in slavery, and he +had elected to live with her rather than be free. Not even upon the +death of the owner could such slaves be manumitted, as was the case +ordinarily with regard to Hebrew slaves; but property in these Gentile +slaves, and in Hebrew slaves reduced to the same condition, God ordained +should be an 'inheritance,' passing down forever from father to child. + +"No jubilee trumpet was to cheer their hearts. Think what the jubilee +morning must have been to those slaves in hopeless bondage, if bondage +were necessarily such as many fancy. Our abolitionists represent the +bells and guns of our Fourth of July to be a hideous mockery in the ears +of the slaves; and multitudes of our good people ludicrously fancy them +as most miserable on that day, by the contrast of their enslaved +condition with our boasted Independence. Let us borrow this fancy, and +apply it to the Hebrew slave. + +"The jubilee trumpets, and all the joyous scenes of the fiftieth year in +Israel, caused multitudes of slaves in Israel, we will suppose, to +reflect, This Jehovah, God of Israel, has doomed us to hopeless bondage. +We are guilty of having been born so many degrees south or north, east +or west, of these Hebrews. We, by God's providence, are Gentiles. Our +chiefs sold us, and these Hebrews bought us. We were betrayed; we were +driven out of our homes; unjust wars were made upon us, to make us +captives, that we might be sold. And 'the Lord's people' bought us, by +his special edict (Lev. xxv. 44). Our brother-servants, unfortunate +Hebrews, get released in the jubilee year, except these poor creatures +who were so unfortunate as to be married in slavery, and, not being +willing to be divorced, had their ears fastened, with the ignominious +'awl,' to their master's door-post. God could have ordained that they, +with their wives and children, and we, with ours, should have release in +the fiftieth year. But, no! our bondage is forever, and so is theirs; +and our children and their children are to be servants forever. But we +hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are born free and equal, +and have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness. Slavery is the sum of all villanies. Our master's will is our +law; we are subject to his passions; we are chattels; we 'are his +money.' This is the language of your God,--the God whom you worship; and +not only so, but you circumcise us to worship Him! + +"Some benevolent Levite, jealous for the character of his Maker, +replies, 'But God did not institute slavery; He found it in existence, +and he only legislates about it, and regulates it.' + +"A thousand groans are the prelude to the withering answer which the +slaves make to this apology for oppression. + +"'He broke your bonds, it seems,' they cry, 'in Egypt, and in the Red +Sea. Did He "find slavery" on the opposite shore of the Red Sea? Why did +he not merely "legislate for it, and regulate it?" No, He enacted it. +How dare you apologize for your God with such a miserable pretext? He +made the ordinance separating a husband from wife and children, unless +the husband would submit to the indignity of having his ear bored and to +the doom of perpetual bondage, in case his wife was a Gentile. If he +goes away, he must leave his wife and children. Great indulgence have +you in multiplying wives; that is winked at "for the hardness of your +hearts;" but the poor Hebrew must abandon his wife and family if he +chooses freedom! They are his master's "property," "his money," and God +gave the servant these children, knowing that they would be the +"property" of another, and that he would have no unencumbered right to +them; and down through all ages they and their descendants must be +servants. And now you tell us, "God did not institute" this! He only +"found it!" He "regulated it!" Come, blow up your trumpet, reverend +Levite! Go, worship the God of whom you feel half ashamed. Do not ask us +to worship and love a Being who is bound by the laws of fate so that he +cannot do otherwise, if he would, than make one of us a slave forever, +while the man who grinds with me at the same mill, goes with his wife +and children, forever free!'" + +"Those remarks have the true Boston tone," said Mrs. North. + +"Yes," said I, "there were brave men before Agamemnon, Horace tells us. +There is slavery forever," said I, "or the separation of husband and +wife, father and children, unless the man would be a slave forever. What +'partings' there must have been! What struggles in those who concluded +to take the fatal 'awl' through their ears, before they could make up +their minds to be slaves forever. See the hardship of the case. If the +man 'loves his wife and children,' he may be a slave; that love would +make him spend and be spent for them in freedom, in his humble home, +amid the sweets of liberty; but no; if he loves his wife he must take +the bitter draught of slavery with his love. But if he hates her and his +children, he may be free! What a bounty on conjugal fickleness, on +unnatural treatment of offspring!" + +"Was there no Canada?" said Mrs. North, biting off her thread. "O, I +recollect; Hagar went there. I wonder if the angel who remanded her was +removed from office, on his return to heaven." + +"Come, wife," said Mr. North, "there is such a thing as being converted +too much. Please, Sir, will you answer the question as to the +consistency of all this with the divine wisdom and goodness?" + +"That," said I, "is not the question which you wish to ask." + +"I do not understand you," said he; "please to explain." + +"You wish to ask," said I, "how I reconcile these things with your +notions of wisdom and benevolence." + +"Why," said he, "I have my ideas of divine wisdom and goodness, and I +wish to make these things square with them." + +"And that," said I, "is just the rock on which you all split. Your ideas +of the divine goodness must be based on a complete view of the revealed +character and conduct of God. But you and your friends say, 'this and +that ought to be, or ought not to be,' and you try your Maker by that +measure. Now I say, 'he that reproveth God, let him answer it.' Are not +the things which I have quoted, parts of divine revelation, as much as +the flood and the passover?" + +"I see that they are," said Mr. North. + +"Do you believe that God is a spirit infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in +his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth?" + +"I do," said he. + +"You believe this notwithstanding the apostasy, the destruction of Sodom +and Gomorrah, the flood, and the extirpation of the Canaanites." + +"I do," said he, "so long as I receive the Bible as the Word of God." + +"I think," said Mrs. North, "that the loss of the 'Central America' with +her four hundred passengers, tries my faith in God full as much as a +heathen's having his ear bored to spend his days with his wife and +children among God's covenant people." + +"Then you do not worship the Goddess of Liberty, Mrs. North," said +I.--"'Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it. But if thou +mayest be made free, use it rather.'" + +"That," said she, "seems to express my idea about bondage and freedom. +Of course it is not, theoretically, a blessing to be a slave. It may be, +practically, to some. But what strikes me oftentimes is the utter +inability of an abolitionist to say to a slave, under any circumstances, +'Care not for it.' His doctrine, rather, is, 'Art thou called being a +servant? If thou hast a Sharpe's rifle, or a John Brown's pike, use it +rather.' Or, 'Art thou called being a servant? If thou canst run for +Canada, use it rather.' Paul had not an abolitionist mind, that is very +clear. But," she continued, "do relieve my husband and enlighten me +also, by giving us your views about the Old Testament slavery, which I +presume you can do without seeming to arraign the character of God." + +I replied, "This is a sinful race, and we are treated as such. Slavery +is one of God's chastisements. Instead of destroying every wicked nation +by war, pestilence, or famine, he grants some of them a reprieve, and +commutes their punishment from death to bondage. Those whom he allowed +to be slaves to his people Israel were highly favored; they enjoyed a +blessing which came to them disguised by the sable cloud of servitude; +but in their endless happiness many of them will bless God for the +bondage which joined them to the nation of Israel. + +"I look upon our slaves as being here by a special design of +Providence, for some great purpose, to be disclosed at the right time. +Unless I take this view of it, I am embarrassed and greatly troubled; +'perplexed, but not in despair.' The great design of Providence in no +wise abates the sin of those who brought the slaves here, nor does it +warrant us in getting more of them. While this is true, I cannot resist +the thought that God has a controversy with this black race which is not +yet finished. I believe that God withholds from them a spirit and temper +suited for freedom till he shall have finished his marvellous designs. +His destiny with the Jew, as a nation, to the present day, is another +illustration of his mysterious providence with regard to a people. + +"As to the enactment which made the Hebrew servant a slave for life, +thus dooming even one of the covenant people to perpetual bondage, if he +had married in slavery, I see in it several things most clearly. + +"You will have noticed that in every case in which a Hebrew was made a +servant, poverty was the ground of it. 'If thy brother be waxen poor,' +he could sell himself, either to a Hebrew or to a resident alien. He and +his children could also be taken for debt. This seems to us oppressive. + +"Let a family among us be reduced, from any cause, to a condition in +which they cannot maintain themselves, and what follows? The children +find employment, some of them in families, in various kinds of domestic +service. Indented apprenticeships in this commonwealth are within the +memory of all who are forty or fifty years of age. We remember the very +frequent advertisements: 'One cent reward. Ran away from the subscriber, +an indented apprentice,' etc. The descriptions of such fugitives, all +for the sake of absolving the master from liability for the absconding +boy, and sometimes the hunt that was made, with dogs to scent his +tracks, when his return was desired, are far within the memory of the +oldest inhabitant. + +"In Israel, this descent of a family from a prosperous to a decayed +state, and the consequent servitude, were used by the Most High to +cultivate some of the best feelings of our nature. It touched the finest +sensibilities of the soul. Let me read from the fifteenth of +Deuteronomy:-- + + "'And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto + thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt + let him go free from thee. + + "'And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let + him go away empty. + + "'Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy + floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord thy God + hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember + that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God + redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. + + "'And if it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from + thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well + with thee, + + "'Then thou shalt take an awl and thrust it through his ear unto the + door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And also with thy + maid-servant thou shalt do likewise. + + "'It shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free + from thee: for he hath been worth a doubled hired servant to thee, + in serving thee six years; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in + all that thou doest.' + +"Is not this very beautiful and touching, Mrs. North?" + +She said nothing, but hid her face in her little babe's neck, +pretending to kiss it. But Mr. North wiped his eyes. "There is not much +barbarism in that," said he. + +"The golden rule," said I; "for this is the law and the prophets. + +"The people to whom these touching precepts were given by the Most High, +and who were susceptible to these finest appeals, are, as we have said, +sometimes represented as a semi-barbarous people, so gross that God was +obliged to let them hold slaves! Now, could anything be more civilizing, +refining, elevating, than such relationships as this limited servitude +of poor Hebrews created? What scenes there must have been oftentimes, +when the six years were out, and the servant was about to depart, laden +with gifts! And what a scene when, with strong attachment to the family, +the servant declined to be free, and went to the door-post to have his +ear pierced with the awl, to be a servant, and not only so, but to be an +inheritance forever! + +"Is this 'the sum of all villanies,' Mr. North?" said I. "Yet it is +'slavery.' 'Auction-blocks,' 'whippings,' 'roastings,' 'separations of +families,' are not 'slavery.' They are its abuses; slavery can exist +when they cease. I pray you, is such slavery as the God of the Hebrews +appointed, in such cases as these, 'forever,' an unmitigated curse? + +"Now," said I, "go through our Southern country, and you will find in +every city, town, and village just such relationships between the whites +and the blacks as must have existed where these Hebrew laws had effect. +Think of the little slave-babe, and the Southern lady's letter, which +have given occasion to all our conversation. The Gospel, as it subdues +and softens the human heart, will make the relationship of involuntary +servitude everywhere to be after this pattern. Instead of exciting +hatred and jealousy, and provoking war between the whites and blacks, I +am for bringing all the influences of the Gospel to bear upon the hearts +of the white population, to convert them into such masters as God +enjoined the Hebrews to be, and such as the Apostle to the Gentiles +enjoined upon Gentile slave-holders as their models. And I am filled +with sorrow and astonishment as I see some of the very best and most +beloved men among us at the North withholding missionaries and tracts +from the Southern country, and--as Gustavus's aunt said some of these +do--calling it 'standing up for Jesus!' + +"Now," said I, "if such were the injunctions of the Most High as to the +manner in which the Hebrews should treat their Hebrew slaves, it is easy +to see that such a habit with regard to them would serve greatly to +mitigate the sorrows of bondage on the part of Gentile slaves. And thus +the curse of slavery, like sin, and even death, is made, under the +influences of religion, a means of improvement, a source of blessing. +Let but the sun shine on a pile of cloud, and what folds of beauty and +deep banks of snowy whiteness does it set forth, and, at the close of +day, all the exquisite tints which make the artist despair are flung +profusely upon that mass of vapor which but for the sun were a heap of +sable cloud. + +"The minister," said I, "who, Hattie tells us, classed 'Abraham the +slave-holder' with the 'murderer,' and the 'liar and swearer,' knew not +what he did. People who laugh and titter at the 'patriarchal +institution,' need to peruse the laws of Moses again, with a spirit akin +to their beautiful tone; and those who say that to hold a fellow-man as +property is 'sin,' are not 'wiser than Daniel,' but they make themselves +wiser than God. + +"All who sustain the relationship of owner to a human being," said I, +"do well to read these injunctions of the Most High, as very many of +them do, applying them to themselves. And it is also profitable to read +how that a violation of these very slave-laws was, in after years, one +great cause of the divine wrath upon the Hebrews. You will find, in the +thirty-fourth of Jeremiah, that, not content with having Gentile slaves, +the Hebrews violated the law requiring them to release each his Hebrew +slaves once in seven years. + +"'I made a covenant with your fathers,' God says, 'in the day that I +brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, saying, At the end of seven +years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew which hath been sold +unto thee. But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his +servant to return, and brought them unto subjection. Ye have not +hearkened unto me in proclaiming a liberty every one to his +brother;--behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the +sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.' + +"Thus it is evident that the relation of master and servant was +originally ordained and instituted by God as a benevolent arrangement to +all concerned,--not 'winked at,' or 'suffered,' like polygamy, but +ordained,--that it was full of blessings to all who fulfilled the duties +of the relation in the true spirit of the institution; and, moreover, it +is true that there are few curses which will be more intolerable than +they will suffer who make use of their fellow-men, in the image of God, +for the purposes of selfishness and sin; while those who feel their +accountableness in this relation, and discharge it in the spirit of the +Bible, will find their hearts refined and ennobled, and the relationship +will be, to all concerned, a source of blessings whose influences will +bring peace to their souls when the grave of the slave and that of his +owner are looking up into the same heavens from the common earth." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE TENURE. + + "One part, one little part, we dimly scan + Through the dark medium of life's fevering dream; + Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan + If but that little part incongruous seem; + Nor is that part, perhaps, what mortals deem; + Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise."--BEATTIE, _Minstrel_. + + +Mr. North then said, "Let us change the subject a little. Please to tell +us why, in your view, any slave who is so disposed may not run away. +Would you not do so, if you were a slave, and were oppressed, or thought +that you could mend your condition? Where did my master get his right +and title to me? God did not institute American slavery as he did +slavery among the Hebrews. If I were a slave to certain masters, South +or North, I should probably run away at all hazards. I should not stop +to debate the morality of the act. No human being would, in his heart +blame me. It would be human nature, resisting under the infliction of +pain. We catch hold of a dentist's hand when he is drawing a tooth. +Perhaps there may be found some moral law against doing so!" + +"But we are apt," said I, "to take these exceptional cases, and make a +rule that includes them and all others. I have been present when +intelligent gentlemen, Northerners and Southerners, have discussed this +subject in the most friendly manner, though with great earnestness. Once +I remember we spent an evening discussing the subject. I will, if you +please, tell you about the conversation. + +"I must take you, then, to an old mansion at the South, around which, +and at such a distance from each other as to reveal a fine prospect, +stood a growth of noble elms, a lawn spreading itself out before the +house, and the large hall, or entry, serving for a tea-room, where seven +or eight gentlemen, and as many ladies were assembled. + +"A Southern physician, who had no slaves, took the ground that all the +slaves had a right to walk off whenever they pleased. He did not see why +we should hold them in bondage rather than they us, so far as right and +justice were concerned. Some of the slave-holders were evidently much +troubled in their thoughts, and did not speak strongly. My own feelings +at first went with the physician and with his arguments; but I saw that +he was not very clear, nor deep, and his friends who partly yielded to +him, seemed to do so rather under the influence of conscientious +feelings, than from any very well defined principles. This is the case +with not a few at the South, and it was very common in Thomas +Jefferson's days. But the large majority, who were of the contrary +opinion, got the advantage in the argument, and it seemed to me went far +toward convincing the physician, as they did me, that he was wrong. + +"The company all seemed to look toward a judge who was present, to open +the discussion with a statement of his views. He did so by saying, for +substance, as follows:-- + +"'I will take it for granted,' said he, 'that we are agreed as to the +unlawfulness of the slave-trade, past and present. We find the blacks +here, as we come upon the stage. We are born into this relationship. It +is an existing form of government in the Slave States. + +"'Ownership in man is not contrary to the will of God. I also find it +written that "Canaan shall be a servant." Hear these words of +inspiration: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto +his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan +shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in +the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." As the Japhetic +race is to dwell in the tents of Shem, for example, England occupying +India, so I believe the black race is under the divine sentence of +servitude. Moreover, being perfectly convinced of the wrongfulness and +the infinite mischief to all concerned of the forcible liberation of our +slaves, I am assisted in settling, in my own mind, the question as to me +right of individual slaves to escape from service, and our right to +continue in this relationship, conforming ourselves in it always to the +golden rule. + +"'If it be the right of one, under ordinary circumstances, to depart, it +is the right of all. But the government under which they live, in this +commonwealth, recognizes slavery. The constitution and the general +government protect us in maintaining it. The right of our servants to +leave us at pleasure, which could not of course be done without +violence, on both sides, implies the right of insurrection. It is +impossible to define the cases in which insurrection is justifiable, but +the general rule is that it is wrong. Government is a divine ordinance; +men cannot capriciously overthrow or change it, at every turn of affairs +which proves burdensome or even oppressive. God is jealous to maintain +human government as an important element in his own administration. Men +justly in authority, or established in it by time, or by consent, or by +necessity, or by expediency, may properly feel that they are God's +vicegerents. He is on their side; a parent, a teacher, a commander,--in +short, he who rules, is, as it were, dispensing a law of the divine +government, as truly as though he directed a force in nature. Hence, to +disturb existing government is, in the sight of God, a heinous offence, +unless circumstances plainly justify a revolution; otherwise, one might +as well think to interfere with impunity and change the equinoxes, or +the laws of refraction. It is well to consider what forms of government, +and what forms of oppression under them, existed, when that divine word +was written: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For +there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. +Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; +and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." This was +written in view of the throne of the Caesars. + +"'But it is very clear that when a people are in a condition to +establish and maintain another form of government, there is no sin in +their turning themselves into a new condition. In doing so, government, +God's ordinance, evolves itself under a new form, and provided it is, +really, government, and not anarchy, no sin may have been committed by +the insurrection, or revolution, as an act. The result proved that +government still existed, potentially, and was only changing its shape +and adapting itself to the circumstances of the people. If a man or body +of men assert that things among them are ready for such new evolutions, +and so undertake to bring them about, they do it at their peril, and +failing, they are indictable for treason; they may be true patriots, +they may be conscientious men; the sympathies of many good people may be +with them, but they have sinned against the great law which protects +mankind from anarchy. + +"'To apply this,' said the Judge, 'to our subject,--When the time comes +that the blacks can truly say, "We are now your equals in all that is +necessary to constitute a civil state, and we propose to take the +government of this part of the country into our hands," we should still +make several objections, which would be valid. The Constitutions of the +States and of the United States must be changed before that can be done, +and we will presume that this would involve a revolution. Moreover, this +country belongs to the Anglo-Saxon race, with which foreigners of +kindred stocks have intermingled, and they and we object to the presence +of a black race as possessors of some of the states of the Union, even +if it were constitutional. We do not propose to abandon our right and +title to the soil, without a civil war, which would probably result in +the extermination of one or the other party. If you are able to leave us +at pleasure, the proper way will be to do it peaceably, and on just +principles, to be agreed upon between us. + +"'No such exigency as this,' said the Judge, 'is possible. It would be +prevented or anticipated, and relief would be obtained while the +necessity was on the increase and before it reached a solemn crisis. + +"'One of three ways will, in my opinion,' said he, 'bring a solution to +this problem of slavery. + +"'One is, the insurrection of the slaves, the massacre of the whites, +and the forcible seizure and possession of power by the blacks +throughout the South. This would be a scene such as the earth has never +witnessed. I have no fear that it can ever happen. But,' said he, +addressing me, 'I presume that I know, Sir, how your people in the Free +States, to a very considerable extent, think on this point. I will +speak, by-and-by, of the other two ways in which slavery may find its +great result. One, I say, is, by insurrection and then the extermination +of the black race; for that would surely follow their temporary success +if I can trust my apprehensions of the subject.' + +"'Please, sir,' said I, 'let me hear what you think is 'very +considerably' the sentiment at the North on this subject of +insurrection.' + +"'I presume sir,' said he, 'if the slaves should, some night, take +possession of us, and demand a universal manumission, and we should +refuse, and fire and sword and pillage and all manner of violence should +ensue, and our persons and property should be at their will, vast +multitudes of your people, including clergymen, would exclaim that the +day of God's righteous vengeance had come, and they would say, Amen.' + +"'So we interpret Thomas Jefferson's idea,' said I. + +"'I think, Sir,' said he, 'that very many reasonable people of the North +are of opinion that all the attributes of God are against any such +procedure. + +"'In the large sense in which nations speak to each other when they are +asserting their rights, there is no objection to the first clause in the +Declaration of Independence; but when you come to the people of a state, +and one portion of that people rise and assert their right to break up +the constitution of things under which they live, there is no more +pertinency in that clause in the Declaration than there would be in +giving us the reason for a revolution that all men are not far from five +or six feet high. What they say may be true in the abstract, but it +does not prove that men, having come into a state of society, +involuntarily, if you please, have all the freedom and equality which +they would have, if they were each an independent savage in the +wilderness. Society is God's ordinance, not a compact. We have, all of +us, lost some of our freedom and equality in the social state; now how +far is it right that the blacks, being here, no matter how or why, +should lose some of theirs? and how far is it right that we should take +and keep some of it from them, whether for the good of all concerned, or +for the good of ourselves, their civil superiors?--whose welfare, it may +be observed, will continually affect theirs.' + +"The Judge said that he believed that God had, in his mysterious +providence, and of his sovereign pleasure, making use of the cupidity of +white men, placed these blacks here in connection with us for their good +as a race, and for the welfare of the world. He said that his mind could +feel no peace on the subject of slavery, unless he viewed it in this +light. In connection with the great industrial and commercial interests +of our globe, and as an indispensable element in the supply of human +wants, this abject race had been transported from their savage life in +Africa, and had been made immensely useful to the whole civilized world. +'We agree, as I have said,' he continued, 'as to the immorality of those +who brought them here; but he is not fit to reason on this subject, +being destitute of all proper notions with regard to divine providence, +who does not see in the results of slavery, both as to the civilized +world and to negroes themselves, a wise, benevolent, and an Almighty +Hand. Here my mind gets relief in contemplating this subject, not in +abstract reasoning, not in logical premises and deductions, but by +resting in Providence. There are mysteries in it,--as truly so as in the +human apostasy, origin of evil, permission of sin, which confound my +reasonings as to the benevolence of God; in which, however, I, +nevertheless, maintain my firm belief. Here was the great defect in Mr. +Jefferson's views of slavery. In the highest Christian sense, he was not +qualified to understand this subject; he reasoned like one who did not +take into view the providence and the purposes of God, even while he was +saying what he did of there being "no attribute in the Almighty that +would take part with us" in favor of slavery. Standing as I do by this +providential view of the great subject, the assailants of slavery at the +North seem to me, some of them, almost insane, and others, even +ministers of the Gospel, shall I say it? more than unchristian;--there +is a sort of blind, wild, French Jacobinical atheism in their feeling +and behavior; while as to the rest, good people, they are misled by what +Mr. Webster, in one of his speeches in the Senate, called "the constant +rub-a-dub of the press,"--"no drum-head," he says, "in the longest day's +march, having been more incessantly beaten than the feeling of the +public in certain parts of the North." I cannot reason with these men,' +continued the Judge, 'for I confess, at once, that I cannot demonstrate, +either by logic or by mathematics, a modern quitclaim or warranty in +holding slaves. In combating their illogical and unscriptural positions, +I seem to them to be an advocate of the divine right of +oppression,--which I am not. That it is best, however, and that it is +right, for this relation to continue until God shall manifest some +purpose to terminate it consistently with the good of all concerned, I +am perfectly convinced and satisfied. I believe that it has reference +to the great plan of mercy toward our world, and that when the object is +accomplished, the providence of God will, in some way, make it known. It +may be the case, no candid man and believer in revelation and divine +providence will deny it to be possible, that this dispensation with +regard to this colored race will continue for long ages to come, in the +form of bondage. That they are now under a curse, and have been so for +centuries, is apparent. When the curse is to be repealed, God only +knows. I like to cherish the idea that some development is to be made of +immense sources of wealth in Africa, that we have an embryo nation in +the midst of us, whom God has been educating for a great enterprise on +that continent, and when, like California and Australia, the voice of +the Lord shall shake the wilderness of Africa, and open its doors, it +may appear that American slavery has been the school in which God has +been preparing a people to take it into their possession. + +"'EMIGRATION, then,' said he, 'is the second of the three ways in which +this problem of slavery may have its solution. + +"'In preparation for this, I say, God may keep these Africans here much +longer. He may need more territory on which to educate still larger +numbers; and we may see Him extending slavery still further in our land +and on our continent. So that there may be one other way in which the +purposes of God will manifest themselves with regard to the colored race +here, and that is by EXTENSION. + +"'It may be that still greater portions of this land and continent are +to be used, for ages to come, in the multiplication of the black race. I +feel entirely calm with regard to the subject, believing that God has a +plan in all this, and that it is wise and benevolent toward all who fear +Him. While our relation to this people remains, the law of love, the +golden rule, must preside over it. That does not require us to place the +blacks on a level with us in our parlors, nor in our halls of +legislation; and there may be disabilities properly attaching to them +which, though they seem hard, are the inevitable consequence of a +dependent, inferior condition. All this, however, has a benign effect +upon us, if we will but act in a Christian manner, to make us gentle, +kind, generous; and when this is the case, no state of society is +happier than ours. Let Jacobinical principles, such as some of our +Northern brethren inculcate, prevail here, and they at once destroy this +benevolent relation. This relation will improve under the influence of +the Gospel; it has wonderfully improved since Jefferson's day; and +though the time may be long deferred, we shall no doubt see this colored +race fulfilling some great purpose in the earth. I trust that our +Northern friends will not precipitate things and destroy both whites and +blacks; for a servile war would be one of extermination. Many of the +Northern people I fear would acquiesce in it, provided especially, that +we should be the exterminated party. This is clear, if words and actions +are to be fairly interpreted.' + +"'The colored people here, as a race,' said a planter, 'are under +obligations to us as partakers in our civilization. No matter, for the +present, how their ancestors came here;--that does not at all affect +their present obligations to us for benefits received. Now it is not a +matter of course that, having been thus benefited by us, they are at +liberty to go away when they please. This we assert respecting them as a +whole. Are not the blacks, as a race, so indebted to us that we ought +to be consulted as to the time and manner of their departure? We say +that they are. They do not morally possess the right, we think, to sever +the relation when they please.' + +"Said an elderly, venerable man, 'A white woman in the cars, in +Pennsylvania, begged me to hold her infant child for her, while she +fetched something for it. She ran off, leaving the child to me. My wife +and I took the child home, and have been at pains and expense with it. I +question the child's right to say, whenever it pleases, Sir, I propose +to leave you. I have invested a good deal in him, have increased his +value by his being with me, and he has no right to run off with it.' + +"'But,' said the physician, 'how long should you feel that you have a +right to his services?' + +"'I will answer that,' said the gentleman, 'if you will say whether my +general principle be correct. Have I, or have I not acquired just what +all intelligent slave-holders call "property" in that youth, that is, a +right to his services,--not dominion over his soul, nor a right to abuse +him, nor in any way to injure him, but to use his services. Have I not +acquired that right?' + +"'I think you have,' said the physician, 'but with certain limitations.' + +"'The limitations,' said Mr. W., 'certainly are not the wishes, nor +caprices, nor the inclinations, of the boy;--do you think so?' + +"'I agree with you,' said he. + +"'That is all I contend for,' said Mr. W. + +"'But,' said the physician, 'where is your title-deed from your Maker to +own these fellow-creatures? Trace their history back, and they are here +by fraud and violence.' + +"'Thank you, Sir,' said Mr. W., 'that is just the case with my Penn. I +came into possession of him through fraud and violence! I did not sin +when he was thrown upon my hands; though I confess I said, he was--what +we call slavery--an incubus. My right and title to the boy I have never +been able to discover in any handwriting; the mother, surely, had no +right to impose the child upon me; Providence, however, placed it in my +hand. I might have given it immediate emancipation through the window, +or at the next stopping place; or, I might have left the child on its +mother's vacant seat, declining the trust; but I felt disposed to do as +I have done.' + +"'Now,' said the physician, 'will you please tell me, Sir, how long you +feel at liberty to possess this boy as a satisfaction to you for your +pains and expense?' + +"'In the first place,' said Mr. W., 'I have a right to transfer my +guardianship over him to another, if circumstances make it necessary. In +doing so, I must be governed not by selfish motives, but by a benevolent +regard to his welfare, allowing that he is not unreasonable and wicked. +If when he comes of lawful age, he is judged to be still in need of +guardianship, or it is expedient for the good of all concerned that he +should be my ward indefinitely, the law makes me, if I choose, his +guardian, with certain rights and obligations. Even if he could legally +claim his freedom at his majority, circumstances might be such that all +would say he was under moral obligations to remain with me. If I abuse +him, he must consider before God how far it is his duty to bear +affliction, and submit to oppression. There are cases in which none +would condemn him, should he escape. But the rule is to "abide." He has +not, under all the circumstances of our relation to each other, a right +to walk off at pleasure.' + +"The company agreed in this, though the physician made no remark. We +conversed further on the antipathy of the Free States to a large +increase among them of the colored population, ungrateful and perfidious +Kansas, even, withholding civil and political equality from them; their +condition in Canada; their relation to the whites in every state where +they have gone to reside; and we concluded that the South was the best +home for the black man,--that home to become better and better in +proportion as the law of Christian benevolence prevailed. We agreed that +if the South could be relieved of Northern interference, the condition +of the colored people would be greatly improved, in many respects; +especially, we regretted that now we did not have an enlightened public +sentiment at the North to help the best part of the Southern people in +effecting reformations and improving the laws and regulations. Now, the +Northern influence is wholly nugatory, or positively adverse. The +opinions and feelings of calm and candid neighbors and friends have +great influence. This the South does not enjoy. The North is her +passionate reprover; she is held to be, by many, her avowed enemy. In +resistance, and in retaliation, compromises are broken, and every +political advantage is grasped at in self-defence, by the South. +Recrimination ensues, and civil war is threatened. The only remedy is +the entire abandonment by the North of interference with this subject; +but this cannot take place so long as the Northern people labor under +their doctrinal error that it is a sin to hold property in man. Here is +the root of the difficulty. We agreed that if reflecting people at the +North would adopt Scriptural views on that point, peace would soon +ensue; for all the discussions of the supposed or real evils in +slavery, which would then be the sole objects of animadversion, would +elicit truth, and tend to good. If the South felt that the North were +truly her friend, they would both be found cooperating for the +improvement and elevation of the colored race. Every form of oppression +and selfishness would feel the withering rebuke of a just and +enlightened universal public sentiment. But now that the quarrel runs +high as to the sinfulness and wrongfulness of the relation itself, there +is nothing for the South to do but to stand by their arms. + +"One gentleman made some remarks which interested and instructed me more +than anything that was said. He confessed that the whole subject of the +relation of master and servant,--in a word, slavery, was, for a long +time, a sore trouble to him, because he constantly found himself +searching for his right, his warrant to hold his slaves. At last he +resolved to study the Bible on the subject. He naturally turned to the +last instructions of the Word of God with regard to it, and in Paul's +injunctions to masters and servants, he found relief. There he perceived +that God recognized the relationships of slavery, that the golden rule +was enjoined, not to dissolve the relation, but to make it benevolent to +all concerned. He found the Almighty establishing the relation of master +and servant among his own chosen people, and decreeing that certain +persons might be servants forever, being, as he himself terms them 'an +inheritance forever.' + +"Hereupon, he said, his troubles ceased. He gave up his speculations and +casuistry, and concluded to take things as he found them and to make +them better. He became more than ever the friend and patron of his +servants, rendered to them, to the best of his ability that which was +just and equal, felt in buying servants and in having them born in his +household, somewhat as pastors of churches, he supposed, feel in +receiving new members to be trained up for usefulness, here, and for +heaven. He said that he had a hundred and seventy-five servants, and +that he doubted whether there was a happier, or more virtuous, or more +religious community anywhere. + +"'But,' said the young Northern lady, who had recently come to be a +teacher in the family where we visited, 'what will become of them when +you die?' + +"'Why, Miss,' said he, 'what will become of any household when the +parents die? The truth is,' said he, 'I believe in a covenant-keeping +God. I make a practice of praying for my servants, by name. I keep a +list of them, and I read it, sometimes, when I read my Bible, and on the +Sabbath, and on days set apart for religious services. I have asked God +to be the God of my servants forever. I shall meet them at the bar of +God, and I trust with a good conscience. Many of them have become +Christians.' + +"'Do you ever sell them?' said she. + +"'I have parted with some of my servants to families,' he replied, +'where I knew that they would fare as well as with me. This was always +with their consent, except in two or three cases of inveterate +wickedness, when, instead of sending the fellows to the state-prison for +life, as you would do at the North, I sold them to go to Red River, and +was as willing to see them marched off, handcuffed, as you ever were to +see villains in the custody of the officers. But had any of your good +people from the North met them, an article would have appeared, perhaps, +in all your papers, telling of the heart-rending spectacle,--three human +beings, in a slave-coffle! going, they knew not where, into hopeless +bondage! And had they escaped and fled to Boston, the tide of +philanthropy there, in many benevolent bosoms, would have received new +strength in the grateful accession of these worshipful fugitives from +Southern cruelty. Whereas, all which love and kindness, and every form +of indulgence, instruction, and discipline, tempered with mercy, could +do, had been used with them in vain. One was a thief, the pest of the +county, and had earned long years in a penitentiary; but slavery, you +see, kept him at liberty! Another was brutally cruel to animals; another +was the impersonation of laziness. Two of them would have helped John +Brown, no doubt, had he come here, and they might have gained a Bunker +Hill name, at the North, in an insurrection here, as champions of +liberty.' + +"This led to some remarks about the great economy which there is in the +Southern mode of administering discipline and correction on the spot, +and at once, instead of filling jails and houses of correction with +felons. But to dwell on this would lead me too far into a new branch of +our subject. + +"This planter asked the young lady, the school-teacher, if tare and tret +were in her arithmetic? Upon her saying 'yes, in the older books,' he +told her that there was, seemingly, a good deal of tare and tret in +God's providence, when accomplishing his great purposes; and that to fix +the mind inordinately on evils and miseries incident to a great system +and forgetting the main design, was like a man of business being so +absorbed by the deductions and waste in a great staple as to forego the +trade. He said that he thought the Northern mind ciphered too much in +that part of moral arithmetic as to slavery. + +"A very excellent gentleman from the District of Columbia who had held +an important office under government, gave us some valuable information. +He said that the extinction of slavery in New England was not because +the institution was deemed to be immoral or sinful, but from other +considerations and circumstances. It was abolished in Massachusetts, +without doubt, by a clause, in the bill of rights, copied from the +Declaration of Independence. In Berkshire, one township, he believed, +sued another for the support and maintenance of a pauper slave, and the +Supreme Court decided that the bill of rights abolished slavery. The +question was as incidental, he said, as was the question in the Dred +Scott case which the United States Supreme Court decided. This +Massachusetts case was previous to any reports of decisions, and he had +some doubt as to the form in which the suit was brought, but was sure as +to the decision. The question as to abolishing slavery was not submitted +to the people, nor to a Convention, nor to the Legislature. + +"I was specially interested in his account of the way in which the +slave-trade was prohibited by our excellent sister, Connecticut. It was +done by a section prohibiting the importation of slaves by sea or land, +preceded by the following preamble:--'And whereas the increase of slaves +in this state is injurious to the poor, and inconvenient, Be it +therefore enacted.' Another section of the same statute, he said, was +preceded by the following words:--'And whereas sound policy requires +that the abolition of slavery should be effected, as soon as may be +consistent with the rights of individuals, and the public safety and +welfare, Be it enacted,' etc. Then follows the provision that all black +and mulatto children, born in slavery, in that state, after the first of +March, 1784, shall be free at twenty-five years of age. Selling slaves, +to be carried out of the state, was not prohibited before May, 1792; +thus allowing more than eight years to the owners of slaves in +Connecticut to sell their slaves to Southern purchasers! 'There seems to +me,' he said, 'no evidence of superior humanity in this; nor was it +repentance for slavery as a sin.' He thought that if we feel compelled, +by our superior conscientiousness, to require any duty of the South, all +that decency will allow us to demand is, that she tread in our steps. + +"'I think,' said a planter, 'that if pity is due from one to the other, +the South owes the larger debt to the North. There needs to be a great +reformation, namely, The Gradual Emancipation of the Northern Mind from +"Anti-slavery" Error.' + +"'Our English friends, in their zeal against American slavery,' said a +young lawyer, 'seem to forget that the English government, at the Peace +of Utrecht, agreed to furnish Spain with four thousand negroes annually +for thirty years.' + +"'Poor human nature!' said the Judge. 'What should we all do, if we had +not the sins of others to repent of and bewail?' + +"There was a strong friend of temperance in the company from a +north-western state. Travelling in the South for pleasure, some time +ago, he was immediately struck with the comparative absence of +intemperance among the slaves. On learning that the laws forbid the sale +of intoxicating drink to them, and thinking of four millions of people +in this land as delivered, in a great degree, from the curse of +drunkenness, he says that he exclaimed: 'Pretty well for the "sum of all +villanies." The class of people in the United States best defended +against drunkenness are the slaves!' Some admonished him that the +slaves did get liquor, and that white men ventured to tempt them. 'I +don't care for that,' said he; 'of course, there are exceptions; the +"sum of all villanies" is a Temperance Society!' + +"A Northern gentleman, travelling through the South, said, 'As to the +feelings of the North respecting a possible insurrection, I am +satisfied, since visiting in different parts of the South, that a very +common apprehension with us, respecting your liability to trouble from +this source, is exaggerated by fancy. + +"'We have a theoretical idea that you must be dwelling, as we commonly +hear it said, with a volcano under your feet. Very many regard your +slaves as a race of noble spirits, conscious of wrong, and burning with +suppressed indignation, which is ready to break out at every chance. +They think of you at the North as having guns and pistols and spears all +about you, ready for use at any moment. But when I spend a night at your +plantations, the owner and I the only white males, the wife and seven or +eight young children having us for their only defenders against the +seventy or hundred blacks, who are all about us in the quarters, the +idea of danger has really never occurred to me; because my knowledge of +the people has previously disarmed me of fear.' + +"'Emissaries, white and black,' said a planter, 'can, make us trouble; +but my belief is that we could live here to the end of time with these +colored people, and be subject to fewer cases of insubordination by far +than your corporations at the North suffer from in strikes. Your people, +generally, have no proper idea of the black man's nature. God seems to +have given him docility and gentleness, that he may be a slave till the +time comes for him to be something else. So He has given the Jews their +peculiarities, fitting them for His purposes with regard to them; and to +the Irish laborer He has given his willingness and strength to dig, +making him the builder of your railways. If we fulfil our trust, with +regard to the blacks, according to the spirit and rules of the New +Testament, I believe God will be our defender, and that all his +attributes will be employed to maintain our authority over this people +for his own great purposes. We have nothing to fear except from white +fanatics, North and South.' + +"'I have no idea,' said the Judge, 'of dooming every individual of this +colored race to unalterable servitude. I am in favor of putting them in +the way of developing any talent which any of them, from time to time, +may exhibit. More of this, I am sure, would be done by us, if we were +freed from the necessity of defending ourselves against Northern +assaults upon our social system, involving, as these assaults do, peril +to life, and to things dearer than life. But I see tenfold greater evils +in all the plans of emancipation which have ever been proposed than in +the present state of things.' + +"The pastor of the place, who was present, had not taken much part in +the discussion, though he had not purposely kept aloof from it. He was +Southern born, inherited slaves, had given them their liberty one by +one, and had recently returned from the North, where he had been to see +two of them--the last of his household--embark as hired servants with +families who were to travel in Europe. + +"Some of us asked him about his visit to the North. Said he, 'I went to +church one day, and was enjoying the devotional services, when all at +once the minister broke out in prayer for the abolition of slavery. He +presented the South before God as "oppressors," and prayed that they +might at once repent, and "break every yoke," and "let the oppressed go +free." I took him to be an immediate emancipationist, perhaps peculiar +in his views. But in the afternoon I went into another church, and in +prayer the minister began to pray "for all classes and conditions of men +among us." I was glad to see, as I thought, charity beginning at home. +But the next sentence took in our whole land; and the next was a +downright swoop upon slavery; so that I regarded his previous petitions +merely as spiral movements toward the South. If the good man's petitions +had been heard, woe to him and to the North, and to the slaves, to say +nothing of ourselves. + +"'I stopped after service, and, without at first introducing myself, I +asked him if he was in the habit of praying, as he had done to-day, for +slave-holders. He said yes. I asked him if it was a general practice at +the North. He thought it was. I inquired if he would have every slave +liberated to-morrow, if he could effect it. "By all means," said +he.--"Would they be better off?" said I.--"Undoubtedly they would," said +he. "But that is not the question. Do right, if the heavens +fall."--"What would become of them?" said I.--"Hire them," said he; "pay +them wages; let husbands and wives live together; abolish +auction-blocks, and"--"But," said I, "some of the very best of men in +the world, at the South, are decidedly of the opinion that such +emancipation would be the most barbarous thing that could be devised for +the slaves."--"Are you a slave-holder?" said he.--"I was," said I; "but +I have liberated my slaves, and I am in your city to see the last two of +my servants sail with your fellow-citizens ---- and ----" (naming +them).--"You don't say so!" said he. "What did you liberate them +for?"--"I could not take proper care of them," said I, "situated as I +am."--"But," said he, "did you do right in letting them go to sea as you +did? One of them will get no good with that man for a master. I would +rather be your dog than his child."--"Then," said I, "you have +'oppressors' at the North, it seems."--"Well," said he, "some of our +people are not as good as they ought to be."--"It is so with us at the +South," said I.--"Preach for me next Sabbath, Sir," said he.--"Are you +going to stay over?"--"Why," said I, "my dear Sir, would you and your +people like to hear a man preach for you whom you, if you made the +prayer, would first pray for as an 'oppressor?'"--"But you are not an +oppressor," said he.--"But I am in favor of what you call 'oppression,'" +said I.--"One thing I could pray for with you," said I.--"What is that?" +said he.--"Break every yoke," said I. "This I pray for always. But how +many 'yokes,'" said I, "do you suppose there are at the South?"--"I +forget the exact number of the slaves," said he, in the most artless +manner.' + +"Hereupon the company broke out into great merriment. After they had +enjoyed their laughter awhile, my Northern lady-friend said, 'Did you +preach for him?' + +"'Yes,' said the pastor; 'and prayed for him too. + +"'Walking through the streets of that place in the evening, I saw +evidence that no minister nor citizen there was justified in casting the +first stone at the South for immorality. I lifted up my heart in thanks +to God that my sons were not exposed to the temptations of a Northern +city. Being in the United States District Court there, several times, I +had some revelations also with regard to the treatment and the condition +of seamen in some Northern ships, which led me to the conclusion which +I have often drawn,--that poor human nature is about the same, North and +South. + +"'So, when I conducted the services of public worship, I prayed for that +city and for the young people, and alluded to the temptations which I +had witnessed; and I referred also to mariners, and prayed for masters +and officers of vessels who had such authority over the welfare and the +lives of seamen; and I prayed that Christians in both sections of our +land might pray for each other, considering each themselves, lest they +also be tempted, and that they might not be self-righteous and +accusatory; and that our eye might not be so filled with the evils of +other sections of the land as not to see those which were at home. + +"'After service the good brother said, "I suppose you referred in your +prayer to my praying against the South, as you call it. Well," said he, +confidentially, "the truth is, some of our people make this thing their +religion, and they will not abide a man who does not pray against +slavery." Some gentlemen, with their ladies, stopped to speak with me. +One shook me by the hand most cordially. "We are glad to see our good +Southern brethren," said he; "thankful to hear you preach so, and pray +so, too," said he, with an additional shake and a significant look, +while the rest were equally cordial with their assent. One of the +gentlemen took me home with him. "This is most of it politics," said he, +"and newspaper trade, this anti-slavery feeling. The people generally +are not fanatics; they are kind and humane, and their sensibilities are +touched by tales of distress."--"Especially Southern," said I. "Last eve +I read in your papers four outrages which happened within fifteen miles +of this city, and two in your city, which equalled, to say the least, +in barbarity anything that ever comes to my knowledge among our people." + +"'The next Sabbath, as I have since learned, my good brother was very +comprehensive, discriminating, and impartial in his supplications. He +really distinguished between those at the South who "oppress" their +fellow-men, and those who "remember them that are in bonds as bound with +them." But,' said the pastor, 'the most of those who use that latter +expression at the North really think the Apostle had slaves, as a class, +in mind. I have no such belief. I suppose that he referred to persecuted +Christians, suffering imprisonment for their religion, and to all +afflicted persons. + +"'My landlord said to me,' he continued, '"They tell us you are afraid +of free discussion at the South, that you are afraid to have your slaves +hear some things, lest it should excite them to insurrection. How is +this?" + +"'I told him that the slaves, being the lower order of society with us, +were not capable of so discriminating in that which promiscuous +strangers should see fit to say to them as to make it safe to have them +listen to every harangue or to every one who should set himself up to +teach. "Of course," said I, "there are liabilities and dangers in our +state of society. We must use prudence and caution. We have some loose +powder in our magazine. No one denies this. What if one who was rebuked +for carrying an open lamp into the magazine of a ship, should reproach +the captain with being 'an enemy to the light,' and as 'loving darkness +rather than light'?" + +"'While at the North,' said he, 'I read Mr. Buckle on civilization, and +I reflected upon the subject. Being in a great assembly, once or twice, +listening to abolitionist orators, lay and clerical, and hearing their +vile assaults on personal character, their vulgar and reckless ridicule +of fifteen States of our Union, their affected, oracular way of saying +the most trite things as though they were aphorisms, but reminding me of +the piles of short stuff which you see round a saw-mill, and hearing the +great throng applaud and shout, I asked myself whether we have really +made any decided advances in civilization since the Hebrew Commonwealth. +I really doubted whether those orators could have collected an audience +of Hebrews even in the wilderness. Under the "Judges," the people were, +at times, low enough to enjoy such drivelling. The willingness at the +North to hear these men, and to applaud them, gave me a low idea of the +state of society.' + +"'But,' said I, 'confess now that you found specimens of cultivated life +there such as you never saw surpassed.' + +"'I did,' said he, 'many times. And I must tell you,' he added, 'of my +enjoyment in looking on your pastures in autumn,--the sun shining aslant +upon them of an afternoon,--and in noticing what shades of scarlet and +crimson were given to the picture by the whortleberry leaves, which, I +found, contributed most to the coloring of the landscape. I also saw a +peculiarity of the whortleberry's flower, which, when stung by an insect +sometimes swells to twenty-five times its natural size, and becomes a +fungus.' + +"'Now,' said I, 'why not apply this,--perhaps you were intending to do +so,--and say that society at the North is generally like our +whortleberry pastures in autumn, which pleased you so much, with here +and there a fungus, made by the sting of radicalism.' + +"A planter's Northern wife said, 'I should like to move the adoption of +that simile.' + +"'We will have it so,' said the Judge to me, 'if the lady and you tell +us that we must.' + +"'A fungus,' said I, 'gets more attention from one half of the people +who go into the woods, than all the pure and beautiful garniture of the +pastures.' + +"The ladies of our company having been rallied for not having done their +part in the conversation, and also, of course, having been complimented +for keeping silence so long, the wife of one of the planters, a Northern +lady, made this remark that considering how God, in his providence, had +made such provision for the welfare of the human family through slavery +in our land, and, in doing it, had shown mercy and salvation to so many +hundreds of thousands of Africans, she thought it both ungrateful and +narrow-minded in people anywhere to confine all their thoughts to the +incidental evils of the slaves. She said that in the North she was not +an abolitionist, but on coming to the South and finding things so +different from that which her fancy had pictured, she had concluded to +be very charitable toward the most of her Northern friends who she said +were no more in the dark than she herself had been all her days, from +reading newspapers and tales which had concealed one whole side of +slavery from the view of Northern people. She added that she preferred +life at the North without the blacks, but had found more disinterested +benevolence toward them in one year at the South than she had charity to +believe existed in the hearts of all the good people at the North toward +them, counting in even the professional benevolence of the 'friends of +the slave.' + +"After refreshments, the pastor was called upon to read the Scriptures, +and to offer prayer. He read the fifteenth chapter of Revelation. Never +can I forget the impression which one of the verses in that chapter made +upon me, in connection with some of the thoughts awakened by our +conversation about the sovereignty of God as displayed in his dark and +awful dispensations towards races, nations, and men: 'And the seven +angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure +and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.' +'Those who are in any way associated with the administration of God's +great judgments towards their fellow-men,' said he, 'have need of +special purity; and their honor should be like the untarnished gold.' + +"This pastor told me, during the repast, that one day, returning +suddenly from his study in the church just after breakfast, to the house +of one of the gentlemen present, with whom he lived, and who was one of +the wealthiest men in the South, and passing through the parlor to get a +book, he found the room darkened, and the lady of the house kneeling in +prayer with her servants. He of course withdrew at once, but he learned +afterward from one of the 'slaves,' that it was the lady's daily custom. +He often thought of that incident when reading Northern religious +newspapers and noticing their lamentations over 'slave-holding +professors.'" + + * * * * * + +So much for my Southern visit. + +Mrs. North said that in our next conversation she would suggest that we +consider the relation of Christianity to Slavery. I told her that I had +some night thoughts on that subject, which I would with pleasure +submit, at another time. + +As the rain continued, Mr. North and I resorted to the wood-pile in the +shed for exercise, till dinner-time, Mrs. North following us to the +door, and charging us not to converse upon this subject till she should +be present. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS. + + "My equal will he be again + Down in that cold, oblivious gloom, + Where all the prostrate ranks of men + Crowd without fellowship,--the tomb." + + JAMES MONTGOMERY. + + +"I will now relate to you," said I, as we resumed our conversation, "the +thoughts which came to me one night as I lay awake meditating on this +subject. I wrote them down the next day. + +"The subject in our conversation which suggested them was, The relation +of Christianity to slavery. + + * * * * * + +"About the year A.D. 64, two men, travellers from Rome, entered the city +of Colosse, in Phrygia. Asia Minor, both of them the bearers of letters +from the Apostle Paul, then a prisoner at Rome. + +"A Christian Church had been gathered at Colosse. Its pastor was +probably Archippus. Some think that Epaphras was his colleague. This +church, according to Dr. Lardner and others, was most probably gathered +by the Apostle Paul himself. Mount Cadmus rose behind the city, with its +almost perpendicular side, and a huge chasm in the mountain was the +outlet of a torrent which flowed into the river Lycus, on which the city +was built, standing not far from the junction of this river with the +Moeander. + +"One of the two men who bore these letters was a slave. His name was +Onesimus. He robbed his master, Philemon, of Colosse, fled to Rome, +heard Paul preach, was converted, and now by the Apostle is sent back to +his master with a letter, in charge of Tychicus, who, with this +Onesimus, was the bearer of a letter to the Colossian Church. + +"Let us attend the church-meeting. The pastor, Archippus, presides. +Epaphras is at Rome. + +"What an interesting company do we behold as we sit near the pastor's +table, in full view of the audience! The inhabitants of this place were +noted for the worship of Bacchus, and Cybele, mother of the gods; hence +her name, _Phrygia Mater_. Every kind of licentious language and actions +was practised in the worship of these deities, accompanied with a +frantic rage called orgies, from the Greek word for _rage_. This was a +part of their religious worship. From among such people, converts had +been made to Christianity, together with some who had been turned from +Judaism. + +"The letter from the Apostle Paul is brought in and is laid on the +pastor's table, and some account is given of the manner in which it was +received. The letter is read. It refers the Colossians, at the close, to +the bearers, for further information and instructions. 'All my state +shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful +minister and fellow-servant in the Lord. Whom I have sent unto you for +the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your +hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of +you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.' + +"Tychicus relates his story, and, when he has finished, Philemon, a +member of the Church, addresses the meeting. He was evidently a man of +distinction in that community, as we infer from the large number of +persons in his household, (ver. 2,) his liberality to poor Christians, +(ver. 5, 7,) and from the marked respect and deference paid to him by +the Apostle. He also had received a letter from the Apostle, and he asks +leave to read it. + +"He then tells them that Onesimus is present; that he has been sent back +by the Apostle Paul, and with the full, cordial consent of Onesimus +himself. He would ask permission for Onesimus to say a few words. + +"'Come hither,' says the pastor, 'and tell us what the Lord hath done +for thee, and how he hath had mercy on thee.' + +"'Let me wash the saints' feet,' says Onesimus, 'but I am not worthy to +teach in the church.' + +"He proceeds to tell them, in full, of his escape from his master, after +robbing him; of his meeting the Apostle at Rome; of his conversion; of +his voluntary return to spend his days, if such be the will of God, as +the servant of Philemon. + +"The account of these proceedings reaches Laodicea, not far distant, to +which place Paul had also sent a letter, and the Colossians, agreeably +to the Apostle's charge, exchange letters, and no doubt the letter to +Philemon is also read to the Church which is at Laodicea. + +"Whereupon, we will suppose, a controversy at once springs up. There had +already appeared in this region of Phrygia, as we infer from the Epistle +to the Colossians, serious errors, among them a kind of angel worship +and asceticism, or abstinence from things lawful, and a state of things +called Gnosis, (Eng. knowledge,) or Gnosticism, a pervading spirit of +worldly wisdom, science, philosophy, which treated the simplicity which +was in Christ as too rudimental and plain for the human mind, and +therefore sought to furnish it with speculations and mysticism, to +gratify its desires for a more extensive spiritual knowledge than it +seemed to many of them was provided for by Christianity. + +"Among the speculations and theories of those days, we will suppose that +the idea began to prevail that Christianity was inconsistent with +holding a fellow-being in bondage. A motion is made in the Laodicean +Church that a committee be appointed to confer with the Colossian Church +on the return of Onesimus into slavery. Such a motion would have found +ready advocates in the Church at Laodicea, if, as at a later day, they +were 'neither cold nor hot' in religion; in which case any collateral +subjects wholly or partly secular, would have a charm for them. These +supplied that lack of warmth which they were conscious of as to +religion; their church-meeting, no doubt, seemed to them dull, unless a +subject was introduced which gave opportunity for discussion, and for +things which gendered debate, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, +evil surmisings. + +"The result of the conference on the part of the Laodicean Committee +with the Colossian Church was, that a general meeting was appointed to +discuss the subject of the return of Onesimus into slavery. It was a +private session of members of the two churches. They claimed the +privilege as Christians of discussing any question relating to the +government and the laws, taking care that no spies were present; still, +with all their precautions, false brethren made trouble for them by +giving private information to the civil authorities against some of +their number, whom they disliked; and this led to some oppression and +persecution. + +"But the meeting was fully attended. Two members of the church who were +faithful servants to slave-holding brethren were set to guard the doors. +The slaves were allowed to be present and listen to the discussion. This +was carried after much debate, some contending that it would expose the +Christians to just reprehension from the civil authorities; and others +maintaining that it would do the slaves good to hear such doctrines +advanced and enforced as would be quoted from the Apostle relating to +masters and servants. + +"The discussion was opened by a brother from Laodicea, an office-bearer +in the church, a private citizen, devoted to study, and an author of +some repute. He was formerly odist at the festivals of Cybele. His +pieces were collected and published under the title of 'Phrygian +Canticles.' His name was Olamus. + +"He took the ground that Christianity abrogated slavery. He quoted the +well known words of Paul, so familiar to all who had heard him preach: +'In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, +bond nor free; but all are one in Christ.' 'The Spirit of the Lord is +upon me because he hath sent me to preach deliverance to the captives, +the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound.' 'Whatsoever ye +would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them.' + +"He maintained that to own a fellow-creature was inconsistent with this +law of equal love; that it was giving sanction to a feature of +barbarism; that, practically, slavery was the sum of all villanies; an +enormous wrong; a stupendous injustice. + +"If any one should reply that the Mosaic institutions recognized +slavery, he had one brief answer:--'which things are done away in +Christ.' Moses permitted this and some other things for the hardness of +their hearts. Polygamy was allowed by Moses, not by Christianity; its +spirit is against it; the bishop of a church must be 'the husband of one +wife;' slavery is certainly none the less contrary to the spirit of the +gospel. + +"But inasmuch as it is inexpedient to dissolve at once, and in all +cases, the relation of master and slave, he contended that while the +relation continued, it should be regulated by the laws which God himself +once prescribed. Every seventh year should be a year of release; every +fiftieth, year should be a jubilee. And as to fugitives, he would refer +his brethren to that Divine injunction: 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his +master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall +dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in +one of thy gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.' + +"That a slave having escaped from his master could not rightfully be +sent back into bondage, was evident from these considerations: + +"All men are born free and equal, and have an inalienable right to life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If a slave sees fit to walk off, +or run off, or ride off on his master's beast, or sail off in his +master's boat, he has a perfect right to do so. Slavery is violence; +every man may resist violence offered to his person, except under +process of law; the person cannot be taken except for crime, or debt, or +in war; every man owns his body and soul; the person cannot become +merchandise, except for the three causes above named, which he +acknowledged were justifiable causes of involuntary servitude at +present. But to forcibly seize a weaker man, or race, and hold them in +bondage he declared to be in violation of the laws of nature, and +contrary to the Christian religion. + +"If it should be replied that Paul the Apostle countenanced slavery by +sending back Onesimus, he would answer, that Paul was a Jew, and was not +yet freed wholly from Jewish practices and associations of ideas. +Gnosticism has supervened upon the rudimental childhood of spiritual +truth. He believed in progress. It was contrary to the instinct of human +nature to send back a poor fugitive into bondage, and he was glad for +one that he lived in an age when the innate moral sentiments, under the +lucid teachings of our more transcendental scholars were becoming more +and more the all-sufficient guide in the affairs of life. He would, +therefore, publicly disclaim his allegiance to the teachings of the +Apostle Paul, if, upon reflection, Paul should insist that he was right +in remanding Onesimus to be Philemon's property 'forever;' it was well +enough that he should be sent back to restore what he had taken by +theft, provided Philemon would immediately release him; otherwise, to +steal from Philemon was doing no more than Philemon had done to him, in +taking away that liberty which is the birthright of every human being; +and Onesimus probably stole merely to assist his escape. He was +justifiable in doing so. + +"If one should insist that there can be no intrinsic wrong in holding a +fellow-being as property because God allowed Hebrews to sell themselves, +and in certain cases to be servants forever, and directed the Israelites +to buy servants of the heathen round about them, who should be an +inheritance to the children of the Israelites, he would simply say +either that the whole pentateuch which contained such a libel on the +divine character, is thereby proved to be a forgery, or, that if the +pentateuch is to be received, it only proves that in condescension to a +race of freebooters who were employed, as the Israelites were, in bloody +wars of extermination, slavery was allowed them, to prevent, perhaps, +worse evils, and in consistency with their dark-minded, semi-barbarous +condition. In this enlightened age when Greece and Rome had shed +superior light on human relationships and obligations, and especially +since Christ had promulgated the golden rule, the idea that man could +own a fellow-creature was so preposterous that he would be an infidel, +nay, he would go farther, he would be an atheist, rather than believe +it. Our moral instincts are our guide. They are the highest source of +evidence that there is a God, and they are a perfect indication as to +what God and his requirements should be. He was for passing a vote of +disapprobation at the act of Paul the Apostle in sending back Onesimus +into bondage. Tell me not, said he, that the Apostle calls him 'a +brother beloved,' and 'one of you;' these honeyed phrases are but +coatings to a deadly poison. Slavery is evil, and only evil and that +continually. Disguise it as you will, Philemon holds property in +Onesimus. By the laws of Phrygia, he could put Onesimus to death for +running away. He deplored the act as a heavy blow at Christianity. It +would countervail the teachings of the Apostle. He sincerely hoped that +the Epistle to Philemon would not be preserved; for should it be +collected hereafter, as possibly it may, among Paul's letters, unborn +ages might make it an apology for slavery, it would abate the hatred of +the world against the sum of all villanies. He would even be in favor +of a vote requesting Philemon to give Onesimus his liberty at once, even +without his consent, sending him back, with this most unwise and unblest +epistle to Philemon, to Paul, who says that he 'would have retained +him,' but would not without Philemon's consent. He did hope that the +brethren would speak their minds, be open-mouthed, and not be like dumb +dogs. For his part he wanted an anti-slavery religion. He acknowledged +that the truths of the Gospel needed the stimulant of freedom to give +them life and power. + +"His remarks evidently produced a great sensation, for a variety of +reasons, as we may well suppose. + +"A man took the floor in opposition to this Laodicean brother. He was a +Jewish convert, a member of the Colossian Church. His name was +Theodotus. Born a Jew, he had renounced his religion and became a Greek +Sophist, practised law at Scio, and heard Paul at Mars Hill, where, with +Dionysius the Areopagite, with whom he was visiting, he was converted. +He had established himself at Colosse, in the practice of law. He was +unusually tall for a man of his descent, had beautifully regular Jewish +features, and was a captivating speaker. + +"He said that they had 'heard strange things to-day. If they are true, +we have no foundation underneath our feet. Every man's moral sentiments, +it seems, are to be his guide. Where, then, is our common appeal? For +his part he believed that if God be our heavenly Father, he has given +his children an authentic book, a writing, for their guide, unless he +prefers to speak personally with them, or with their representatives. +When he ceased to speak by the prophets, he spoke to us by his Son; and +now that his Son is ascended, I believe,' said he, 'that inspired men +are appointed to guide us, and seeing that they cannot reach all by +their living voice, I believe that the evangelists and apostles are to +furnish us with writings which shall be inspired disclosures of God's +will and our duty. The Old Testament is as truly God's word as ever; +Christ declared that not one jot or tittle should pass from it, till all +be fulfilled. Some of it is fulfilled, in him, the end of the types; +parts of it refer to local and temporary things; all which is not local +and temporary is still binding upon us. At least, the spirit of its laws +is benevolent and wise. Damascus and its scenes are too fresh in the +memories of the brethren to need that I should argue the inspiration of +the Apostle to the Gentiles. His miracles are known to us. Nay, what +miracles are we ourselves, reclaimed from the service of the devil, once +the worshippers of Bacchus and of our Phrygian mother; now, clothed, and +in our right minds. The Apostle claims to speak and act by divine +authority. We must question everything, if we set aside this claim. + +"'I maintain,' said he, 'that the Apostle Paul regards the holding a +fellow-creature as property to be consistent with Christianity. To +prevent all misunderstanding, however, let me declare that he insists on +the golden rule as the law of slave-holding, as of everything else; that +he discountenances oppression, that he warns and threatens us with +regard to it; and that he considers slave-holding as consistent with the +Christian character and happiness of master and slave. + +"'In the very Epistle just received by our Church, and by the hands of +Tychicus and Onesinius himself, from the Apostle, we find these words: +"Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not +with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing +God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not +unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the +inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall +receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of +persons. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; +knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." + +"'Where, in this, is there a word that countenances the wrongfulness of +being a slave, or of holding men as slaves? He directs all his +exhortations to the duties which are to be performed in the relation, +and he leaves the relation as he finds it. He does not enjoin slavery; +he treats it as something which belongs to society, to government, and +he leaves Christianity to regulate it as circumstances shall make it +proper. If any one says that the Apostle was afraid to meddle with it, I +reply, that there was never anything yet that Paul was afraid to meddle +with, if it was right to do so. He "meddled" with Diana of the Ephesians +and her craftsmen; he "meddled" with the "beasts" there; he "meddled" +with idolatry on Mars Hill at Athens, I being witness; he has been +beaten, stoned, imprisoned, and is now the second time before Nero for +his life. Afraid to "meddle" with slavery! I am ashamed of the man who +makes the suggestion. He who thinks it, has never yet understood him. + +"'Now, where in all his teachings has he ever intimated that it is wrong +to hold property in man? Nowhere; I repeat it, nowhere. But is he +ignorant of the nature of slavery? We all know what has lately happened +at Rome, in connection with slavery. The very year that Paul arrives at +Rome, the prefect of the city, Pedanius Secundus, was murdered by his +slave; and agreeably to the laws of slavery all the slaves belonging to +the prefect, a great number, women and children among them, were put to +death indiscriminately, though innocent of the crime.[A] Such is slavery +under the Apostle's eye; and yet'-- + + [Footnote A: Tacitus, _Annals_, xiv. 42.--A thrilling tale. See + Bohn's Classical Library, 53.] + +"'And, therefore,' interrupted the Laodicean brother, 'the Apostle +approves of murdering innocent slaves for the sin of one. That is the +conclusion to which your reasoning will bring us.' + +"'Excusing the brother for interrupting me, I ask, Is that agreeable to +the plain facts in the case?' said the speaker. 'Are the abuses of +parentage chargeable upon the relationship of parent and child? +Moreover, does not the Apostle expressly teach us, in this Epistle, that +such things are wrong? but still, does he condemn the relation of master +and slave? + +"'The tale of that horrid butchery was present to the mind of the +Apostle when he sends Onesimus back into slavery. Moreover, he knew that +by our laws Philemon could put Onesimus to death; yet he sends him back. + +"'It is said by my brother that Paul enunciated principles which in time +would kill slavery, and therefore he did not care to denounce it, but +prudently let it alone. What else, I inquire, did Paul fail to denounce? +and why is this "enormous wrong," this "stupendous injustice," alone, +left to die, without being attacked? No, Paul treated slavery as he did +all other forms of government; he did not denounce government, not even +its despotic forms; for he knew that a despotism may be the best form of +government in some circumstances. But he spoke against the abuse of +power by rulers, and in the same way he speaks against the abuse of +power by the master. + +"'My brother tells us that slavery is "the sum of all villanies." A +comprehensive term, truly. Let us admit the correctness of the phrase. +"All villanies" includes all "the works of the flesh," and the Apostle +enumerates the principal of them, where he says, "Now the works of the +flesh are these;"--concluding his account with the expression, "and such +like." With unsparing denunciation, he portrays each and every +"villany," and shows how the wrath of God is revealed from heaven +against it. + +"'But while he is thus bold and faithful with regard to "all villanies" +in particular, we cannot but think it strange that a thing which is said +to be the "sum" of them all, is nowhere spoken against by the Apostle! +On the contrary, he recognizes the duties which grow out of +slave-holding. + +"'Let us suppose him to do the same with regard to each villany which he +does to that which my brother calls the "sum" of them all. Then we +should hear him say! Murderers, do so and so; thieves, do so and so; and +ye that are mutilated, do so and so; and ye that are pillaged, do so and +so. I am curious to know how my brother will answer this. What are the +religious "duties" of murderers and thieves, but to repent, to forsake +their evil ways at once, and to make lawful reparation? And what are the +"duties" of those whom murderers and thieves assault, but to resist, and +to seek the conviction of the evil-doer? Oh how strange it seems for the +Apostle to counsel masters and slaves to imitate their "Master which is +in heaven," in their relation to each other, if holding men in bondage +be "the sum of all villanies," and how strange for him to send Onesimus +back to the system to behave in it as Christ would act in his place! + +"'Onesimus escapes, we will say, from a gang of murderers, or from a +company of thieves, and the Apostle's preaching is the means of his +becoming a good man. Paul writes a letter to the chief murderer of the +gang, or to the captain of the robbers, sends Onesimus back, and +"beseeches" the brigand for "his son Onesimus," telling him that now he +receives him "forever," and then calls the desperado "our dearly beloved +fellow-laborer"! Why not, with equal propriety, if slavery be, +necessarily, as our brother describes it? There is some mistake in our +brother's theory. + +"'I venture to state the distinction which I think he overlooks, and +which, if observed, will relieve his difficulty. Paul never denounces +government; "the powers that be are ordained of God." He appeals to +"Caesar"; he goes before "Nero"; he never counsels insurrection, nor +denounces government, in whatever hands or under whatever forms it may +be; but he enjoins principles and duties which, if observed, would make +"Caesars," even though they be "Neros," blessings, and their despotisms +even would cease to be a curse. So with slave-holding. It is +incorporated into the state of society; it is, moreover, a relation +which can exist and no sin be committed under the relation; hence, it is +not sin in itself, any more than the throne of Nero is sin in itself; +and the Apostle speaks to the slave-holding Philemon as he would to a +father receiving back a wayward son. + +"'The claim of Philemon to Onesimus rests only on his having purchased +him. Who had a right to sell him? Trace the thing back, and you come to +fraud or violence, or some form of injustice to Onesimus in making him +a slave. Paul knew that this is the case with regard to every slave; yet +he does not "break every yoke," even when, as in this case, he had one +so completely in his hands, and could have broken it in pieces. + +"'But we will suppose, with my brother, that the laws which God ordained +for slavery should prevail under Christianity, if slavery is to exist. +Let every Phrygian, then, a fellow-countryman who has lost his liberty, +go free at the end of six years; and at every fiftieth year, whether six +years be completed or not, since the last seventh year of release, let +all such go free. This, for argument's sake, we approve. But we must +take the whole code. Every foreigner who becomes a slave, and the child +of every such slave, was to be an "inheritance forever." Husbands, who +are Phrygians, must choose, in certain cases, whether to go out free by +themselves, or remain in perpetual bondage with their wives and their +offspring. Paul knew the Jewish laws with regard to slavery; he knew how +favorably they compared with our code; but he says not a word on that +score, and simply sends Onesimus back to his bondage. + +"'Yet see how beautifully the spirit of Christ works itself into the +relation of master and slave, and into Paul's views and feelings with +regard to it. In his letter to our Church, he expressly names Onesimus +as one of the bearers of the epistle. He speaks of him as "one of you," +a resident with us; and he calls this slave "a faithful and beloved +brother." He speaks to Philemon about him as "my son Onesimus whom I +have begotten in my bonds;" "thou therefore receive him, that is, mine +own bowels." "Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother +beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the +flesh and in the Lord." "If thou count me, therefore, a partner, receive +him as myself." + +"'What a comment is this on the words: "In Christ Jesus there is neither +bond nor free." Not that there shall be "no bond," according to the +brother's interpretation; for then it would be equally right to +interpret the other part of the passage literally,--there is no Jew, no +Greek, and none free! How perfectly does the relation become absorbed by +that state of heart which makes it proper for Paul to say: "Art thou +called being a servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made +free, use it rather." Notwithstanding this advice, he sends back this +man-servant. + +"'Paul might have manumitted Onesimus by his authority as an apostle; +this, however, would have been rebellion against government, for our +laws recognize slavery. + +"'My brother says that the Hebrew law forbade the surrender of a +fugitive slave. Yes, if the slave fled into Israel from a heathen +master, he must not be sent back to heathenism; but'-- + +"'But,' said the brother from Laodicea, 'there is no limitation of that +kind. I insist that it was of universal application to slaves of all +kinds.' + +"'Find the passage, if you please (in Deut. xxiii.),' said the Colossian +speaker. + +"The passage was found by the pastor, and was read, as already quoted: +'Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant that is escaped from +his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee even among you, in that +place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him +best; thou shalt not oppress him.' Deut. xxiii. 10, 15. + +"'Now,' said Theodotus, 'it is absurd to say that God proclaimed to all +the servants throughout Israel, If any of you are dissatisfied, for any +cause, and wish to run away, you may do so; and wherever you wish to +live, the people-of that place shall provide a residence for you. After +being there for ever so short a time, if you do not like it, you may +flee again; and so keep moving all your lifetime, the people everywhere +being obliged to allow you a place of abode. Did the Most High mean to +encourage such vagabondism? + +"'No; He merely provided that a fugitive from a heathen master should +not be sent away from the worship of Jehovah into heathenism.' + +"'That is undoubtedly the true meaning,' said the pastor, 'if Theodotus +will allow me to put in a word. "Thee," in that passage, means Israel as +a nation, not each man.' + +"'I thank you, Sir,' said Theodotus; 'and now I maintain that the +injunction not to give up a fugitive to his heathen master, but to keep +him in Israel, is a powerful argument in favor of retaining slaves where +they will be most benefited in their spiritual concerns. God thus makes +the soul of man and its eternal welfare paramount to all external +relations, including slavery.' + +"'May I inquire, then,' said the Laodicean: 'Suppose that Philemon had +been a cruel heathen master, and Onesimus had fled for his life, would +Paul have sent him back?' + +"'If the case were clear and beyond doubt, I am not sure that he would,' +said Theodotus. 'While he would not counsel Onesimus to run away, yet I +can only say, that, fleeing from certain cruelty and death, I doubt if +he would have been remanded. But Paul told servants to be "subject to +their masters," "not only to the good and gentle, but also to the +froward." He speaks to them of "suffering wrongfully;" of "doing well, +and suffering for it;" and he refers the suffering slave to Christ, +"who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, +threatened not." Moreover, he says: "For even hereunto were ye called; +because Christ also _suffered for us_, leaving us an example that ye +should _follow his steps_." That is certainly death.' + +"'If Paul did not send Onesimus back to Philemon, however, it would not +be because it was wrong, in his view, for Philemon to hold him in +bondage; please observe this distinction; but, judging the case by +itself, he would decide whether the slave ought not, under the +circumstances, to have the right of asylum,--Paul himself having once +been "let down by a basket," to escape from the Damascenes. Paul and any +other man would, in certain cases, protect even a fugitive son or +daughter from a father; and this consistently with his recognition of +the parental and filial relation. + +"'Let me remind my brother, and you, my pastor, and my brethren, of one +fact which occurs to me at the moment. Manslayers, in cities of refuge, +were to go free at the death of the High Priest then in office; no such +release, however, was granted to the Gentile slaves, showing that +slavery was not a crime in the estimation of the Most High. Otherwise, +He would have legislated for the departure of slaves from their Hebrew +masters, as He did for manslayers fleeing from the avenger of blood. +Excuse the digression. The thought struck me at the moment.' + +"'I put it to the brother,' said the Laodicean, 'whether he himself would +not flee to Rome, were he a single man, if he should be made a slave to +that monster in human shape, Osander of Hieropolis?' + +"'I cannot say,' replied the Colossian, 'what my temptations might be, +nor how well I should resist them; but slavery being incorporated into +the government, and I being, in the providence of God, sold into bondage +to Osander,--I being either the child of a slave, or one of those who +are called "lawful captives,"--my race, or my capture in war, or my +indebtedness, or my crimes, subjecting me to bondage according to the +constitution of government, I ought to consider my slavery as the mode +which God had chosen for me to glorify him,--by my spirit and temper, by +my words and conduct, by my Christian example in everything, for the +good of Osander's soul, and the honor of religion. I believe that I +should please God more by staying to suffer, and even to die, than to +run away. I doubt even the expediency of running away, as a general +rule. It implies a want of faith. He is the Christian hero who stays +where God has manifestly placed him. + +"'I know,' continued he, 'how easy it is to make this appear ridiculous; +and also how often cases occur in which flight, and even the taking of +life, are proper, under extreme hardships. It is frequently the case +that a servant sees and feels his mental superiority to the man who owns +him. Now one may be so disgusted, and be so constantly vexed and chafed +at this, as to make out a strong case for escaping; another, in the same +circumstances, will feel that God has placed him in charge of his +master's soul, to please him well in all things though he be "froward." +Whether is better, to run off or to "abide"? There can be no doubt how +the Apostle would answer the question. Exceptional cases of extreme +distress do not make a rule; the rule is for each one to "abide" in the +calling in which he is called of God. See what perfect insubordination +would everywhere follow if every one who is oppressed, or believes +himself to be oppressed, should flee: children would desert their +parents; husbands and wives would flee from each other, at any supposed +or real grievance. This is not the Christian rule. Patience and all +long-suffering, obedience, endurance, committing one's self to him that +judgeth righteously, is the temper and spirit of the Gospel. This is the +tone-note of the Sermon on the Mount. At the same time, who blames or +judges harshly a man in peril of his life if, in self-defence, he flees? +I say that Paul would probably judge every fugitive slave case by +itself. One thing is clear: It is not his rule to help a fugitive from +slavery in his flight, as a matter of course. His rule is evidently the +reverse of this. I cannot argue with regard to the exceptions. They +generally provide each for itself. The New Testament rule is for slaves +not to run away; and for us, and for all men, not to encourage them to +do so; but to encourage them to return, and to deal with the masters on +such principles, and in such a fraternal, affectionate way, that the +appeals to their Christian sensibilities may permanently affect their +consciences and hearts. + +"'I stand by the record. Let me forsake it, and I am like Paul's ship +when it was driving up and down in Adria, and neither sun nor stars +appeared. My impulses were not given me as my guide. They are to be +compared with the divine will. Many questions may be asked which I +cannot answer, and many difficulties encompass this subject of +slave-holding which I cannot solve. I abide by the example and teachings +of inspired men, and am safe in following them, even if I cannot +explain everything connected with their principles and conduct to the +satisfaction of others. I only know that if our masters and servants +would take the Apostle Paul's Epistle to Philemon as the rule of their +spirit and life, there would be no such thing as oppression, nor +fugitive servants. Now, as to revolutionizing society to eradicate +slavery, I would no more attempt it than I would try to dig down Cadmus +to dislodge yonder snow and ice upon his top. The sun will in due time +melt them and pour them into the Lycus and the Moeander. So the Gospel, +when it has free course, will dissolve every chain, break every yoke, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' + + * * * * * + +"Philemon was now the first to rise. + +"'I am the master to whom Paul the Apostle sends back my fugitive +servant. This man, Onesimus, is my brother in Christ; in heaven, it may +be, I shall see him far above me as a faithful servant of our common +Lord. He has given a proof of obedience to the Gospel, of submission, of +patience and long suffering, of implicit compliance with the rules of +Christ, which excite my Christian emulation. My endeavor shall be to +imitate Onesimus as he has imitated Christ, and to surpass him in +likeness to that Lord who is meek and lowly in heart. The bonds which +hold Onesimus to me are no stronger than those which bind me to him. +(Great sensation and much emotion.) Can I ever treat this servant in an +unfeeling manner? Can I recklessly sell him? Can I deprive him of +comforts? Can I fail to provide for his highest happiness? God do so to +me and more also, if I prove deficient in these particulars. + +"'Let me ask, What would be the state of things among us if the benign +influences of Christian love pervaded every case of slave-holding as, by +the grace of God, I hope it will in my case? We must have a serving +class; our customs and laws ordain the relationship of involuntary +servitude, property in the services of others, by purchase of their +persons. While this is so, suppose that every servant is an Onesimus and +every master such as I ought to be, under the influence of the Apostle +Paul's directions! It is plain that in no way can we better promote the +spiritual and eternal good of certain men, as the times are, than by +standing in the relation of Christian masters to them. This is the great +thing with Paul. We can mitigate the sorrows of their bondage; we can +compensate for the appointments of providence reducing them to slavery, +by making them the freemen of Christ. While this state of things +continues, it may be a blessing to both parties. God will open a way for +any change which he decrees in our social relation, in his own time and +manner. + +"'Now, let us suppose what would happen if, departing from the rule and +example of Paul, we follow the counsels of our good brother from +Laodicea. The community would be in constant excitement by the departure +of servants asserting each his natural liberty; laws would become rigid; +hardships would be multiplied; cruelties would be perpetuated; +insurrections would become frequent; sacrifices of servants, the +innocent with the guilty, would be made to deter from insubordination. +Instead of the spirit of the Gospel in our dwellings, alienations, +suspicion, jealousy, wrangling, strife, and every form of evil would +prevail. He is no real friend of servant or master who would enforce the +principles of our Laodicean brother. I adhere to the Apostle. If +questioned as to my right to hold Onesimus in bondage, the answer +immediately suggested is that an inspired Apostle sanctions it in my +case. If right in my case, it is right in principle; for if +slave-holding be a violation of rights, I am guilty of that violation, +however humane a master I may be. The Apostle does not reprove me, nor +require me to manumit Onesimus, but tells me that I now receive him +"forever," and he teaches me how to treat him. I could occupy your time +by arguing the abstract question relating to property in the services of +men,--but I rest my case for the present on the letter of Paul the +Apostle, brought to me by the hand of my fugitive servant, returning to +what the laws call his bonds. + +"'Let me add a few words, however, on the general subject, to the +argument of Theodotus. + +"'Our good brother from Laodicea tells us that slavery and polygamy are +"twin barbarisms." He argues that slavery was winked at, like polygamy; +was "suffered," by the Most High. But I propose to refute this, and I +will throw myself on your candor to judge if I succeed. + +"'God, in Eden, appointed the marriage of one man and one woman to be +the law of matrimony. "And wherefore one?" says the prophet. "He had the +residue of the spirit," and could have ordained otherwise. "Wherefore +one?" The answer is, "that he might seek a godly seed." The arrangement +was for the highest elevation of the race. + +"'Polygamy is in direct conflict with the ordinance of God. Of course +God never ordained it. On the contrary, the appointment in Eden was +equivalent to a prohibitory act, which Jesus Christ revived, forbidding +polygamy, and the Apostles have enjoined upon us that we observe the law +of marriage as given in paradise. + +"'So much for polygamy. God never recognized it. The edict requiring +the marriage of a childless widow to the brother of her husband, takes +it for granted that a man would leave but one widow. + +"'But how is it with slavery? God never forbade it; he recognized it; +when He framed the Jewish code it was perfectly easy to exclude slavery; +but hardly are the Ten Commandments out of his lips when He ordains +slave-holding, gives particular directions about it, decrees that +certain persons shall be an inheritance forever. Jesus Christ never +uttered one word against slavery, though he did against polygamy; the +Apostles have never written nor preached to us against slavery, but on +the contrary here is the Apostle to the Gentiles sending back a servant +escaped from his master; and in that letter on the pastor's table he +enjoins duties on masters and slaves. I have confidence that my brother +will not again class slavery with polygamy, for it would be a reflection +upon divine wisdom and justice. + +"'One thing more. My brother says slavery is the sum of all villanies. + +"'But did not the Most High God place his people in slavery for seventy +years, in Babylon? This does not prove that slavery is a good thing, in +itself; for by the same proof heathenism might be shown to be a +blessing. Slavery was a curse, a punishment; but still, God would not +have made use of slavery to punish his people, if, theoretically and +practically, it is by necessity all which my brother alleges. It surely +did not, in that case, prove a "villany" to Babylon. They were the best +seventy years of their probationary state, when that people held the +Jews in captivity. Now I beg not to be misunderstood nor to have my +meaning perverted. I am not pleading for slavery. I simply say that God +would not have put his people, whom He had not cast off forever, into +slavery, if slavery, _per se_, were the sum of all villanies, or, if the +practical effect of it on them would be, necessarily, destruction, or +inconsistent with his purposes of benevolence. I will add, that every +people and every man, who hold others in bondage, should be admonished +that when God puts his captives, his bondmen, into their hands, He is +most jealous of the manner in which the trust is discharged. I do think, +I say it here with all possible emphasis, it is the most delicate, the +most solemn, the most awful responsibility, to stand in the relation of +master to a bondman. + + * * * * * + +"No further discussion was had at that time, the hour being late, and so +the meeting was closed with prayer and singing. Masters and servants +joined to chant a hymn, of which the following, written many years after +by Gregory of Nazianzum, might almost seem to be the expansion:-- + + "'Christ, my Lord, I come to bless Thee, + Now when day is veiled in night, + Thou who knowest no beginning, + Light of the eternal light. + + "'Thou hast set the radiant heavens, + With thy many lamps of brightness, + Filling all the vaults above; + Day and night in turn subjecting + To a brotherhood of service, + And a mutual law of love. + + "'Own me, then, at last, thy servant, + When thou com'st in majesty; + Be to me a pitying Father, + Let me find thy grace and mercy; + And to Thee all praise and glory + Through the endless ages be.' + +"Leaning on the arm of Onesimus, Philemon returned to bless his +household. + + * * * * * + +"Thus far," said I, "you have my Night Thoughts." I asked Mr. North if +he accepted the present New Testament Canon as correct? He said that he +did. I then inquired if he regarded the Scriptures as the only and +sufficient rule of faith and practice. + +To this he also agreed. I then asked him if he did not think that, in +making up the canon, that is, in directing what books and epistles +should go into it, God had reference to the wants of all coming times? +He signified his assent. I then asked his attention to a few thoughts +connected with that point. + +"Here is the Epistle to Philemon, placed by the hand of the Holy Spirit +himself in the Sacred Canon. It is on a small piece of parchment, easily +lost; the wind might have blown it from Philemon's table out of the +window, beyond recovery; it was not addressed to a Church, to be kept in +its archives; it is a private letter, subject to every change in the +condition of a private citizen. Yet, while the epistle to Laodicea, sent +about the same time, is irrecoverably lost, this little writing, +addressed to a private man, goes into the Bible, by direction of God! + +"Do you not suppose," said I, "that God had a meaning in this beyond +merely informing us how a master received a servant back to bondage?" + +"What further purpose do you think there was in it?" said he. + +"I only know," said I, "that slave-holding was to be a subject, as has +proved to be the case, which would involve the interests of at least +two of the continents of the earth, one of them being then unknown. Here +the Church of God was to have large increase. Here, too, slavery was to +exist, and to thrill the hearts of millions of citizens from generation +to generation. It is very remarkable that one book of the Bible, which +was to be made known to all nations by the commandment of the +everlasting God, for the obedience of faith, should be exclusively on +the subject of slavery, and that the whole burden of the Epistle should +be, The Rendition of a Fugitive Slave!" + +"This never occurred to me before," said Mr. North. + +"Suppose," said I, "that instead of sending back Onesimus, the epistle +had been a private letter from Archippus at Colosse to Paul at Rome, +clandestinely aiding Onesimus to escape from Philemon, and that Paul had +received Onesimus and had harbored him, and had sent him forth as a +missionary, and that not one word of comment had appeared in the Bible +discountenancing the act. What would have happened then?" + +"Then," said Mrs. North, "one thing is certain; the business of running +off slaves to Canada would now have been more brisk even than it is at +present." + +"Why?" said I. + +"Simply because," said she, "the New Testament would have sanctioned the +practice of running off slaves." + +"Why, then," said I, "does it not now equally countenance the 'running' +of slaves back to their masters?" + +"Please answer that for me, husband," said Mrs. North. + +He smiled, and rose to put some coal on the fire. We waited for his +words. + +"Well," said he, "I do not know but it is all right, provided the master +be in each case a Philemon." + +"That is a good word," said I. "You show that the Bible has an +ascendency in your mind. You will be safe in following the Bible +wherever it leads you, even into slave-holding, if it goes so far. But I +must now question you a little. You may answer me or not, as you please. + +"One day a black man appears at your door, and says, 'I have just +escaped from the South. I was owned by Rev. Professor A.B. of New +Orleans. I preferred liberty to slavery, and here I am.' Would you +shelter him, and encourage his remaining here, and, if necessary, send +him to Canada?" + +"What would you have me do?" said he. + +"Take him in," said I, "if you please, and give him some breakfast. You +would not object to this. After breakfast you have family prayers. 'Can +you read, Nesimus?' you inquire. 'O yes, master; missis and the young +missises taught us all to read.' Your little boy hands him, with the +rest, a Testament, and names the place of reading. Strange to say, +yesterday you finished 'Titus,' and the portion to be read in course is +'Philemon!'" + +"Almost a providence," said Mrs. North. + +"How would you feel, Mr. North?" said I. + +"Why, feel? How should I feel?" said he. "You will answer for me, +perhaps, and say, 'Read Philemon; pray; and then say, Come, Nesimus, I +am going to send you back to Professor A.B. I will write a letter to +him, and pay your passage.'" + +"What objection would you make to this?" said I. + +He thought a moment, and in the meanwhile his shrewd wife said,-- + +"Why, husband, do you hesitate? Say this: 'What! I? and Bunker Hill +within a day's march of my house, and grandfather's old sword over my +library door?'" + +"I am sick of hearing about Bunker Hill in this connection," said he. +"Any one would think that it is one of the 'sacred mountains' in Holy +Writ." + +"But," said his wife, "If some of Paul's ancestors had had Bunker Hill +privileges and influences, do you think Paul would have written the +Epistle to Philemon? Unfortunate Apostle! Say," said his wife again, +before he spoke, "that you believe in progress, that that epistle might +have been right enough in its day, but that now 'we need an anti-slavery +Bible and an anti-slavery God.'" + +She made up a very expressive smile as she said it and stretched her +work across her knee. + +"Yes," said I, "the Bible is antiquated! God never gave a written +revelation to be a perpetual guide to the end of time! I can supersede +the Epistle to Philemon: Mrs. North, Hebrews; you, James; and another +the whole of the Old Testament." + +"Now," said Mr. North, "I will tell you what I have been thinking of all +this time. + +"I will put you into bondage in Algiers or Tunis. Somebody has bought +you or captured you. But by some means you escape to me at Gibraltar. +Now I will read 'Philemon' to you, and send you back to your Algerine +master. What objection can you make to this, as a believer in +inspiration?" + +I answered, "If I were a slave in my own country, and slavery existed in +Algiers, you would need to consider the relation which existed between +this country and Algiers. If the governments had treaties with each +other, the surrender of persons held to service in either of the +countries would probably be provided for, and then you would have to +consider whether you would obey what is called the 'higher law,' or +yield me to the requisition of the proper authorities. This brings up +the question of the rendition of fugitive slaves, which we have just +considered. + +"But being free in my own country, and having been, therefore, +unlawfully sold into Algerine Slavery, or having been captured, or +stolen, you would, I trust, make proper resistance in my behalf." + +"But," said Mr. North, "The ancestors of my fugitive friend Nesimus, +were taken from freedom in their own land and were reduced to slavery. +Must he and his descendants be slaves forever for the sin of the +original captors, or for the misfortune of his ancestors?" + +"Birth in slavery long established makes all the difference in the +world, Mr. North," said I. "If I am born in slavery, under a government +ordaining slavery, that is a different case from that of one taken out +of a passenger ship and sold as a slave." + +"Then if you and your wife," said he, "were taken out of a passenger +ship, and you should happen to have a child born in slavery, that child +must remain a slave, even if you go free?" + +"No, Sir," said I; "the child born under such circumstances is as +rightfully free as its parents. But take this case: I, being captured +and held as a slave, my master gives me a wife, lawfully a slave. Then, +the child born of her is lawfully a slave. You see the distinction. God +recognized it. The condition of both is a limitation and qualification +of natural rights. So the lapse of time qualifies the right to collect +debts, bring suits for libel, or slander, and for the right of way, or +for the possession of land. Will we live under law? or shall each man +or any set of men set up laws for their own conscience?" + +"Then," said he, "If a slave-trader lands a cargo of slaves from Africa, +at Florida, I have no right to buy them; they are not lawfully slaves. +Is that your belief?" + +"Assuredly," said I; "and if the fugitive whom I have supposed you to be +sending back to the gentleman at New Orleans, were a fugitive from the +cargo just imported from Africa, you would be sustained by the law of +the land in delivering him from bondage; he was piratically taken; the +laws would make him free, and punish his captors, if the laws were +faithfully executed." + +"But a poor fellow born in slavery must remain a slave!" he replied. + +"He is not lawfully a slave," I said, "if his parents were both of that +cargo. But if his father had received a wife from his master, then the +child is lawfully a slave." + +"How do you establish that distinction?" said he. + +"The child is born of one known to be, herself, lawfully a slave. It is +born under a constitution of government which recognizes slavery; while +that government provides for slavery, the child must submit or violate +an ordinance of God, unless freedom can be had by law, or by justifiable +revolution." + +"I feel constrained," said Mr. North "to hold that liberty is the +inalienable right of every human being, except in cases of crime." + +"You mean," said I, "that every human being is entitled to all the civil +rights and immunities which others enjoy." + +"Yes," said he, "in proportion to his age, and his capacity. Minors, and +the imbecile, are entitled to protection, but may not be oppressed." + +"Ah," said I, "how soon you find your general rules intercepted and +qualified by circumstances. Minors, and the imbecile, then, may not be +admitted to equal privileges with us. But are not all men born free and +equal?" + +"Now let me add to 'minors' and 'the imbecile' one more class. There are +two races existing together in a certain country. One has always been, +there, a servile race. The other are the lords of the soil; the +institutions of the country are by their creation; they have acquired a +perfect right and title to the government. + +"You know, from all history, that two races never could, and never did +live together on the same soil, unless they intermarried, or one was +subject to the other. You admit this historical fact. + +"It is proposed, now, by some, to give the subject race a right to vote +and to hold office, so that their equality in all things shall be +acknowledged." + +"Pray," said Mr. North, "will you object to this? Has not God 'made of +one blood all nations of men'?" + +"Yes," I replied, "but read on, in that same verse:--'and hath +determined the bounds of their habitation.' There is a law of races; +races must have antipathies, unless they intermarry; he who seeks to +confound them may as well labor for the conjugation of all the tribes of +animals. He and his results would prove to be monsters. + +"The Anglo Saxon race on this continent properly say to the Negro, 'If +by conquest you get possession of the land, we must, of course, succumb +to you. We are now in possession, and mean so to continue. Hard, +therefore, as it seems not to let you vote in parts of the country where +your numbers are such as to endanger our majority, or afford temptation +to demagogues to inflame your prejudices and passions by historical +appeals to them, and severe as it may seem not to let you form military +companies, (which would also be mischievous in the same way) we +nevertheless propose to exclude you from this right of suffrage, and +from separate organizations, for our own defence, and that we may +preserve our institutions for our proper descendants. We are very sorry +that our English ancestors began to impose you upon us, and that Newport +and Salem vessels brought so many of you here into slavery; but we +cannot think of requiting you for this by jeoparding our own peace; nor +would it be kind to you, as things are, to be made prominent in any way +as a class. When the Northern people are, generally, your true friends, +and cease to use you in an offensive manner, to excite civil war, we +shall join to elevate you in every way consistent with your true +interests.' + +"There will be cases of extreme hardship," said I, "if a slave, fleeing +from the South, however unjustifiably, nevertheless becomes surrounded +here with a family, and the owner comes and claims him. There are +principles of natural humanity which come into force at such a time to +modify or set aside a claim. I know, indeed, that to build a valuable +house on land not mine, does not vacate the land-owner's title; and, +moreover, I know what may be alleged on the principle illustrated by +Paley, who speaks of a man finding a stick and bestowing labor on it +which is more in value than the stick itself. These cases of slaves who +have gained a settlement here, call for the utmost kindness and +forbearance between the sectional parties in controversy; clamor will +never settle them, nor the sword; but the reign of good feeling will +cause justice to flow down our streets like a river, and righteousness +like an overflowing stream." + +"As we have conversed a good deal upon this subject," said Mr. North, +"perhaps we may bring our conversation to a close as profitably as in +any other way by your telling us, summarily, what you think of this +whole perplexing subject; what would you have me believe; how ought a +Christian man, who desires to know and do the will of God, to feel and +to act with regard to it? Good men, I see, are divided about it; I +respect your motives, I approve many of your principles, I cannot object +to your conclusions, in the main. Let us know what you consider to be, +probably, the ultimate issue of the whole subject." + +"I will do so with pleasure," said I. + +"But," said Mrs. North, "let us wait till after dinner." + +"As the storm is over," I said to her, "I must go home, but we will have +one more council fire, if you please, and end the subject." + +So in the afternoon, my kind friends gave me their attention while I +made my summing up in the next and concluding chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE FUTURE. + + "It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind rest in providence, move in + charity, and turn upon the poles of truth." + + LORD BACON. + + +"Slavery, as human nature now is, cannot be otherwise than one of the +Almighty's curses upon any race which is subject to bondage. + +"True, it may nevertheless, be an amelioration of their original state; +they may fall into the hands of a Christian people, and hundreds of +thousands of them be civilized, and be converted to Christianity; +redeemed from a barbarous condition they may contribute immensely to the +general good of the race both as producers and consumers. Wherever +commerce needs them, unquestionably they will do more good to the world +by being compelled to work than by wearing out their miserable and +useless existence in Africa. + +"All this may be true; still, is it not a curse to be hewers of wood and +drawers of water? Does not God say to Israel that if they sin, they +'shall be the tail and not the head?' National degradation, exposing a +people to be the prey and the captives of a superior race, is, of +course, a curse, though, like death itself, and even sin, it may, by the +grace of God, turn to good. Still, it is a curse. + +"But in governing a fallen world like ours, God now and then ordains +the subjection of one race to another; and he makes bondage one of his +ordinances as truly as war. The extermination of the Canaanites by the +sword, was an ordinance of Heaven. War is a part of God's method in +governing the world; as well as sickness and death. + +"I never had any sympathy for that amiable but weak concern for the +character of God which represents him as finding slavery in existence +and merely legislating about it, and doing the best he can with an +inevitable evil. This view belongs to a system which makes God, as it +seems to me, the most unhappy Being, continually striving to destroy +that which sprung up contrary to his plan. To dwell on this, however, +would lead us too far into theological questions. + +"I tremble to think of our responsibility as a nation in being put in +charge of a people with whom God has some terrible controversy for their +own sins and those of their ancestors. + +"Through our abuse of power, God may say to us, 'I was a little angry, +and ye helped on the affliction.' God's purposes in having the chastised +nation afflicted, will be accomplished, but He will punish every one who +inflicts the chastisement with a selfish, unchristian spirit. + +"Our people generally take it for granted that slavery is like one of +the self-limiting diseases of childhood, to be outgrown, and to cease +forever, in process of time, and before many years have passed away. + +"The ground of this conclusion is a doctrinal error, namely, that +slave-holding, the relation of master and servant, ownership, property +in man, or by whatever name slavery may be designated, is in itself +wrong, and that as soon as practicable it will be abjured and no man +will stand to another in the relation of master, or owner. But whether +for good or for ill, slavery will be in existence at the last day. We +read that 'every bondman and every freeman' will see the sign of the Son +of Man. + +"But should slavery be at any time, or in any country, or part of a +country, utterly extinguished, it will ever remain true that ownership, +or property in man is not in itself wrong, and that it may be benevolent +to all concerned. It is interesting to recollect that in proportion as +human relations are cardinal, or vital, they approach most nearly to +ownership, as in the case of parent and child. The highest relation of +all, that between man and God, finds its most perfect expression in +terms conveying the idea of ownership on the part of God. 'For ye are +not your own;--therefore glorify God in your body and spirit which are +God's.' If God should send one of us to a distant part of the universe, +under the charge of an angel, where superior intelligence and wisdom +were needful for our safety in temptation and amid the bewildering +excitements of new scenes, ownership for the time being, absolute +dominion over us, on the part of the angel, would be in the highest +measure benevolent. In those days when universal love reigns, it is just +as likely as not that there will be more 'ownership' in man than ever +before. By ownership I mean such relationships as we see in the +households of those who are represented in the letter of the Southern +lady to her father. There we see the weak, the unfortunate, the +dependent nature clinging to the stronger, and receiving support and +comfort, and even honor, from those who in rendering kindness and in +receiving service have their whole being refined and cultivated to the +highest degree. There are no rigors in those relationships; everything +which contributes to the welfare and happiness of a serving class is +enjoyed, and all its liabilities to care and sorrow are removed, to as +great a degree as ever happens in this world. + +"Allowing that there are always to be inequalities of mind and +condition, and that what we call menial services will need to be +performed; that there must be those who will have a disposition and +taste to work over a fire all day and prepare food; and that men of +business or study will not all be able to groom their own horses and +wash their vehicles; and that possibly the Coleridges and Southeys, and +their friends the Joseph Cottles, may, from being absorbed in their +ideal pursuits, still be ignorant of the way to get off a collar from a +horse's neck, and must call upon a servant-girl to help them, we shall +need those who will be glad to be servants forever, and who will require +for their own security that their employers shall 'own' them, and thus +be made responsible for their support and protection. This may always be +necessary for the highest welfare of all concerned. But the history of +this relationship in connection with our human nature has been such, to +a great extent, that we associate with it only the idea of pillage, +oppression, cruelty. Already there are cases without number in which no +such idea would ever be suggested to a spectator, and they will increase +in proportion as Christianity prevails. There is more real 'freedom' in +thousands of these cases of nominal slavery than in thousands who are +nominally free. How did it happen that the Hebrew servant, who chose to +stay with his master rather than leave his wife and children, was not +made nominally free, and apprenticed or hired? Why was his ear bored, +and perpetual relations secured between him and his master?" + +"For the master's security, I presume," said Mr. North. + +"I should say," said I, "for the mutual benefit of both. The master then +became responsible for him; his support was a lien on his estate, the +children must always be responsible for his maintenance. The awl made its +record in the master's door-post, as well as in the servant's ear. + +"Now, suppose," said I, "that God chooses to supply this nation with +menial servants to the end of time. Suppose that he has designed that +one race, the African, shall be the source from which he will draw this +supply, and that down through long generations he proposes to make this +black race our servants, seeking at the same time, by means of this, +their elevation, by connecting them with us, and keeping up the +relation; and that for the permanence of the relation, and for the +security of all concerned, there should be 'ownership,' such as he +himself ordained when he prescribed the boring of the ear? For my part, +I cannot see in this 'the sum of all villanies,' 'an enormous wrong,' 'a +stupendous injustice.' Yet this would be slavery. I am not arguing for +such a constitution of things. As was before observed, the whole black +race may, in a few years, be swept off from the country; but who will +undertake to say that, as the people of other nations have been employed +by Providence to make our railroads and canals, the black race may not +be employed for a much longer term to be our servants, both North and +South, both East and West? And who will say that the tenure of +'ownership' may not be the wisest and most benevolent arrangement for +all concerned? I repeat it, I am not arguing for this; I am only trying +to show you that the present abuses in slavery are no valid argument +against the relation itself; that this may remain when the abuses cease, +and therefore that at the present time we ought to discriminate in our +arguments against slavery, and direct our assaults, if we continue to be +assailers, against its abuses." + +"On one disagreeable subject," I said to him aside, "I will make this +general remark: The Southern slaves are, as a whole, a religious people; +their religion, indeed, is of a type corresponding to their condition. +But still, if the South were one festering pool of iniquity, as many at +the North fancy, would the colored people show such evidences as they do +of moral and spiritual improvement? Look at Hayti. A very large majority +of the children are not born in wedlock. Slavery is a moral restraint +upon the Southern colored people. Evil as slavery is, it is, in many +things, taking the slaves as they are, a comparative blessing." + +"But," said Mr. North, "our people generally insist that abuses, +oppression, cruelty, are so inherent in slavery that they cannot be +removed without destroying the relation itself." + +"Here," said I, "is the mistake under which Southerners perceive that we +labor, and which prevents us from having the least influence with them. + +"This, however, is unquestionably true: as human nature is, we would not +choose to give men unlimited power over their fellow-men who are slaves. +If, in the course of events, it is found by good men that the abuses +flowing from such power are inevitable, that legislative enactments and +public opinion cannot control the relation, their consciences will not +be quiet till it is abolished. I am willing to confide this to men as +good as we, acting as they will on their responsibility to God. It may +be, that the system, stripped of everything which can be taken away, +will be perpetuated, for the best good of the slave and his master. + +"But," said I, "while this perpetual relation of the black race to us is +possible, and may be the design of a benevolent God for our happiness +and that of the Africans, and while I love to use it in replying to +those who, with short-sighted and somewhat passionate reasoning, as I +think, contend that slavery must utterly be rooted out of the land, I +confess that my own thoughts turn to the Continent of Africa as the +great object for which an all-wise God has permitted slavery to exist on +our shores. + +"I love to look at American slavery in connection with the future +history of that great African continent, containing one hundred and +fifty millions of people. History and discovered relics make the +Ethiopian race to be older even than Egypt. The once powerful nations of +Northern Africa, Numidia, Mauratania, as well as the Egyptian builders +of pyramids, have disappeared, or they exist only in a few Coptic +tribes; and even they are of doubtful origin. But the Ethiopian people, +notwithstanding the slave-trade which has extended its degrading +influence far and wide among them, and though civilization long since +departed from their tribes, have continued to increase till now they are +the most numerous of the human families except the Chinese. The +slave-holding nations which have pillaged them forages, have not been +able to destroy them. Ethiopia may well say, stretching out her hands to +God, 'Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all +thy waves.' It is sublime to think what triumphs of redemption there are +yet to be on that African continent. But how little, apparently, from +all that they ever say, do some of our abolitionist friends seem to +think about Africa as a future jewel in Immanuel's diadem! Utterly +foreign from all their thoughts appears to be the great plan of +Providence which by means even of slavery in this land, has done so much +to extend the work of human salvation among the African race. And there +are some ministers of the Gospel and professed Christians, I regret to +observe, who reply to all that you say about the vast proportion, to +white converts, of converts among the colored people, in a manner which +would awaken great fears in the most charitable breast with regard to +their own personal interest in the salvation by Christ, did we not all +know how far we may be blinded by passion. If you visit in the South, +you will find that African missions take the deepest hold on the hearts +of Southern Christians. The time will come, God hasten it! when they and +we will be united in plans and efforts for the good of the African race. + +"But I am not in favor of stealing Africans from their native land to +bring them here, even though it were certain that the majority of them +would be converted to God. We are not to do evil that good may come. If +Providence makes it plain that tribes of them shall be removed to new +districts of our country, suitable measures can and will be devised for +that purpose. That they are better off here, even in slavery, than in +their own land, under present circumstances, I do not see how any one +can question; but that does not justify man-stealing. I remember to have +seen a letter from a Missionary in Africa, in which he says, speaking of +the slaves and of the South, 'Would that all Africa were there; would +that tribes of this unhappy people could be transferred to the +privileges which the slaves at the South enjoy. I would rather take my +chance of a good or bad master, and be a slave at the South, than be as +one of these heathen people. In saying this, I refer both to this world +and the next'. I need not say, he is an enemy to the slave-trade. + +"A missionary who had spent much time among the Zulu people, was +appealed to by a zealous anti-slavery person to commiserate our slaves +as being so much worse off than the Zulus. 'Madam,' said he, 'if our +Zulus were in the condition of your slaves, eternity would not be long +enough to give thanks.' + +"Mrs. North," said I, "you will not impute it to mere gallantry when I +appeal to you if we may not generally measure the refinement and +elevation of society by the position of woman, and by the sentiments and +manners of the other sex with regard to yours. The deference, the +delicate attentions, the gentleness, the refinement of behavior, in word +and act, which you inspire, are both the means and the evidence of the +highest cultivation. In public and in private life, in assemblies, +public conveyances, at table, around the evening lamp, in all the +intercourse of the family, the susceptibility of impression, the +restraints and the chastised utterances, in word and action, of +husbands, fathers, brothers and friends, which are due to the presence +of woman, are a correct gauge of civilization and refinement." + +"All right," said Mr. North, bowing very politely to his wife. + +"Nowhere," said I, "do we see this more conspicuously than in Southern +society. Chivalry there seems to blend with the genial influences of +Christianity, and together they give a tone and manner to Southern life +which is peculiar. + +"I am often struck with a Southern gentleman's reverence, here at the +North, for the female sex. He is displeased at seeing daughters serving +at table in boarding-houses kept by their worthy parents or widowed +mothers. We, indeed, respect a young woman who serves us in this manner, +(if we reflect at all,) and we resent rudeness or an unfeeling mode of +addressing those who are in such situations. But the Southern gentleman +goes further. He has, perhaps, not been accustomed to see the daughter +of a white family serve. When a respectable young woman, therefore, at a +boarding-house, brings him his tea, he feels impelled to rise and ask +her to be seated, and to wait upon her. I have been an eye-witness to +scenes of this kind, and have been much pleased and not a little amused +at some exhibitions of the feeling. If our sentiments toward the sex, +and their position in social life, mark the degree of civilization and +cultivation in a community, I am compelled to accord a high degree of it +to Southern society, in its best estate. + +"This is one effect of slavery. It takes mothers, wives, daughters, away +from occupations which, though honorable, do not always elevate them in +the eyes of the other sex. Perhaps there is no value (and some will say +it) in all this; that every labor and service is right and good for +woman; and that we are to prefer a state of society where woman does +these things with her own hands, instead of having them done for her, +and that this is our only safeguard against luxury and degeneracy. I +will not debate it. I am only showing that, tried by an ordinary +test,--the position of woman,--Southerners are really not barbarians." + +"I verily believe," said Mrs. North, "that if you take the Southern +constitution and give it a Northern training, the result is as perfect a +specimen of man or woman as is to be found on earth." + +"People at the North," said I, "may, in their zeal against slavery, make +light of the abounding sustenance which the slaves enjoy, and call it a +low and gross thing in comparison with 'freedom;' but, in the view of +all political economists and publicists, how to feed the lower classes +is a great problem. It is solved in slavery. + +"There is another topic," I added, "which is interesting and important. + +"Here," said I, taking a newspaper-slip from my wallet, "is something +which fairly made me weep. It is a picture of one of our poor, virtuous, +honest New England homes, in which I would rather dwell and suffer, than +be an 'oppressor' with my hundreds of slaves, and wealth counted by +hundreds of thousands. A slave-holder, blessed be God, is not a synonyme +of 'oppressor;' nor are the slaves as a matter of course 'oppressed.' +Our people to a great extent think otherwise, and it is useful to see +how we appear to others when this error leads us into folly. This little +picture in the newspaper-slip gives us a transient look into an abode +whose honest poverty and want are made more painful by evil-doing under +the influence of fanaticism." + +I then read to my friends the following from a Southern paper;--I here +omit the names which are given in full:-- + +"The touching letter which was found on the body of ---- ----, one of +the insurgents, from his sister in ----, ----, has been published. The +following paragraph in that letter is a suggestive one: + +"'Would you come home if you had the money to come with? Tell me what +it would cost. Oh! I would be unspeakably happy if it were in my power +to send you money, but we have been very poor this winter. I have not +earned a half-dollar this winter. Mattie has had a very good place, +where she has had seventy-five cents a week; she has not spent any of it +in the family, only a very little for mother. Father has had very small +pay, but I think he has more now; he is a watchman on the ---- ----, +that runs from here to ----.' + +"Here, says the Southern editor, is a family, one of thousands of +families in New England in similar circumstances, where one daughter +thinks it a 'very good place' where she can get seventy-five cents a +week; another has not earned a half-dollar during the winter, and all +are 'very poor;' yet the son and brother goes off and deserts a mother +and sisters thus situated,--a mother and sisters who, though poor, have +evidently the most affectionate feelings and tender sensibilities,--for +the purpose of liberating a class of people, not one of whom knows +anything of the want or privation from which his own family is +suffering, or who would not look without contempt upon such remuneration +as seemed the height of good fortune to the destitute sisters and mother +of this abolitionist. When we bear in mind the intelligence and +sensibilities which characterize the wives and daughters of the poorest +classes equally with the richest in New England, it is most amazing that +men should overlook such misery at their own doors--nay, should forsake +their own kith and kin who are suffering under it--the mother who bore +them, the sisters who love them with all a sister's tender and +solicitous love, and run off to emancipate the fattest, sleekest, most +contented and unambitious race under heaven." + +"This shows," said I, "how God has set one thing over against another, +in this world. You and Mrs. Worth and myself would rather be the poor +honest 'watchman,' or earn our 'seventy-five cents a week,' with +'Mattie,' or even, with the loving sister who writes this letter, 'not' +have 'earned a half-dollar this winter,' than be the 'sleekest' of +well-fed slaves. + +"Yet, when we are summing up the evils of slavery in the form of +indictments, we must honestly confess that it is no small thing to feed +a whole laboring class in one half of a great country with bread enough +and to spare." + +Mrs. North asked if I had ever seen a slave-mart, or if I knew much by +observation of the domestic slave-trade. + +"Yes," said I, "and it is in connection with this feature of slavery +that we at the North are most easily and most painfully affected. Some +of the most agonizing scenes are enacted at these auctions. They are a +part of slavery; so is the domestic slave-trade, which is the necessary +removal of the slaves from places where they cannot have employment, to +regions where their labor is in demand. In no other way can they be +disposed of, unless they are at once freed; and with many the evils of +the domestic slave-trade are the most powerful argument in favor of +emancipation. That there are grievous trials and sorrows, as well as +wrongs and violence, in the disposal of slaves, is known to all. As to +those who are to remain within the State, we are told to go, if we will, +and inquire into the history of slaves who are to be publicly sold, and +take the number of cases in which a wanton disregard of a slave's +feelings can be detected. An owner is compelled to part with his +property in his slave; or, the slave is taken for debt; estates are to +be divided; an owner dies intestate; titles are to be settled, +mortgages foreclosed, the number of the household is to be reduced; and +for these and numerous other reasons new owners are to be sought for the +slaves. Here is a man and his wife and children to be sold. There is a +general interest felt in arranging the sale so that the family may be in +the same neighborhood. This is for the interest of the owners; it +promotes contentment and cheerfulness in the servants. Cases of hardship +are the exceptions to the general rule in disposing of servants. +Admitting all that can properly be said of such cases, and of the +various other evils connected with it, the question recurs, What is to +be done but increasingly to mitigate the sorrows of the bondmen, to +cultivate a kind and generous disposition toward them, and to prepare +them, as far and as fast as the good of all concerned will warrant, for +any other condition which Providence may in time point out? My belief +is, that if you take four millions of laboring people anywhere under the +sun, and put down in separate columns the good and the evil in their +conditions, the balance of welfare and happiness, from the supply of +their wants, will be found to be greater among our Southern slaves than +elsewhere. But, still, this leaves them slaves. My reply to myself, when +I say this, is, They were so in their own land; or, they were in a +condition of fearful degradation and misery. Their God is their judge; +we have not increased their degradation; woe to us if we add needless +sorrows to their lot. But as for thrusting them up to an ideal state of +elevation, before their time and ours has come, I am not disposed to aid +in it. Moreover, Southern Christians are doing all that we would do if +in their place; I will not affect to be more humane or just than they; +this is our great error. + +"Here," said I, "is another view of the subject": + + "In the sale of slaves (in America) nothing but labor is + transferred. It passes from master to master, as it passes, in + countries of hired labor, from employer to employer. The mode in + which the transfer is made differs in the two systems of labor. The + slave-laborer is never compelled to hunt for work and starve till he + finds it. Is this an evil to the laborer? Would it be thought an + evil, by the hired man in Europe, that his employer should be + obliged, by-law, to find him another employer before dismissing him + from service? + + "But, it is said, the slave is too much exposed to the master's + abuse of power; he is liable to wrongs without a remedy; and, so + far, his condition is below that of the hired laborer. + + "If this be true at all, it is true as regards the able-bodied hired + man only. But take into the account children and women, those, for + example, that work naked in coal-mines, or wives whose sufferings + from the brutal treatment of husbands daily fill the reports of + police courts; take these into the reckoning, and the difference in + the consequences of abused power will be very small. The negro-slave + is as thoroughly protected as any laborer in Europe. He is protected + from every other man's wrong-doing by the ready interference of his + master; he is guarded from the master's abuse by the laws of the + land, and a vigilant, earnest public opinion. Let all cruelty be + punished; let all abuse of power be restrained; but to abolish the + relation of master and slave, because there are bad masters and + ill-treated slaves, would not be a whit wiser than to abolish + marriage, because there are brutal husbands and murdered wives. + + "Yet, surely, it will be said, it must be admitted, after all, that + slavery is an evil. Yes, certainly, it is an evil; but in the same + sense only in which servitude or hired labor is an evil. To gain + one's bread by the sweat of one's brow, is a curse. But it is a + curse attended with a blessing. It is an evil that shuts out a + greater evil. Labor for wages, labor for subsistence, and + subjection to the authority of employer or master, are the + conditions on which alone the laboring masses, white or black, can + live with advantage to themselves and to society."--_De Bow's + Review_, _Jan_. 1860, pp. 56, 57. + +Mr. North asked if I did not think that the colored people should be +assisted in their efforts to get an education. + +"There are collegiate institutions," I told him, "for colored people, in +Oxford, Pa., and in Xenia, O. With great sorrow have I observed, that +applications to aid these institutions and to endow others for similar +purposes have been received with coldness and distrust by many who could +have made liberal contributions, for no other reason than the suspicion +that they were designed by Abolitionists to thrust forward the colored +man in an offensive manner. I have known the name of a leading +Abolitionist to be the death of a subscription-paper for such an +institution. This was a bitter prejudice. When philanthropy with regard +to the colored race among us falls into its natural channel, we shall +see the South and the North opening wide the doors of usefulness in +every department for which the colored people shall, any of them, +manifest an aptitude. The idea that this race is to be debarred from any +and every development of which it is capable, is not entertained by any +respectable people at the South. The negro at the South is not doomed, +by the Christian people, to an inexorable fate. They will help him rise +as fast and as far as God, in his providence, shows it to be his will to +employ any or all of that race in other ways than those of servitude. + +"'If American slavery,' says one, 'be the horrid system of cruelty, +ignorance, and wickedness represented by some writers of fiction and +paid defamers of our institutions, how happens it that those who have +been reared in the midst of it, when freed and planted in Africa at +once exhibit such capacity for self-government and self-education, and +set such examples of good morals? + +"'Have the negroes under British care at Sierra Leone made similar +progress in improvement? Do the free colored subjects of Britain in the +West Indies show the capacity, industry, and intelligence manifested by +the Liberians, whose training was in the school of American servitude? +Nor have the best specimens of this tutelage been sent out. Thousands +and tens of thousands of colored servants in the Southern States are +church-members, instructed in their duties by faithful Christian +teachers, and the children are trained in the fear and love of God.'--I +then observed, + +"I have come to this conclusion: if Southern Christians say to us, as +they do, Auction-blocks, separation of families, and similar features of +slavery, in the limited and decreasing extent to which they prevail, are +as odious to us as to you;--we tolerate these things as parts of a +system which we all feel to be an evil, and which we are constantly +striving to ameliorate;--I will leave the whole subject in their hands; +I will trust them in this as I would in anything and everything; I feel +absolved from all responsibility to God or to them with regard to the +matter." + +"Pray tell me," said Mrs. North, "what is all this discussion about 'the +territories,' and keeping slavery out of them?" + +"I told her that slavery, which fifteen States of the Union maintain as +a part of their domestic life, is, by many of the people in the Free +States, regarded as they regard the plague and death; they prescribe +certain degrees of latitude as barriers to it, as though they enacted +thus: 'North of 36° 30' whooping-cough is prohibited, measles are +forbidden, cholera-morbus is forever interdicted.' They regard +slave-holders as living in a moral pestilence, and seeking to carry it +with them into new districts. + +"But, practically," I said, "the thing will now regulate itself, and +both sides are contending very much for an abstract right. It is a war +of feeling, and no one knows where it will end. If the North would say, +'Free labor, which cannot thrive where slavery exists, requires an +amicable division and allotment of the territorial regions; let us agree +where our respective systems shall prevail,'--there would be no +difficulty. But the effort has been to shut out slavery, as men use +sanitary legislation and quarantine to keep out a pestilence. This is +treating fifteen States of the Union as polluted and polluting. Hence +they say, We cannot live together as one people, and we will not." + + * * * * * + +"What do you honestly think," said Mr. North, "is the true cause of our +present national calamities?" + +"They are owing," said I, "originally, to the peculiar state of feeling +on the part of the North toward the South. This was not in consequence +of injury experienced; for slavery had not inflicted injury upon the +North; but, right or wrong, Northern disapprobation of slavery, and the +ways of manifesting it, are the fountain-head of our present national +trouble. Let great numbers in one section of such a nation as this +conscientiously disapprove of their brethren in another section, and not +only so, but hold them guilty of an immoral and an inhuman system, and +deal with them in such ways as Conscience, that most merciless of +inquisitors and persecutors, alone employs, and if the indicted section +be not exasperated, it will be because the accusation is true,--that +their system has destroyed their manhood." + +"But my hope and belief," said he, "are, that all these changes are to +result in the overthrow of slavery." + +"I can only say," said I, in answer to such a remark, "that he who +expects relief from our trouble through the eradication of slavery, and +urges on secession and division as the means to effect it, is in danger +of having his enthusiasm counted as fanaticism, if not madness." + +"How I wish," said he, "that we could join and buy up these slaves and +set them free." + +"Kind and well meant as this proposal is," said I, "nothing is really +more offensive to the South. It implies that her conscience is debauched +by self-interest, and that by offering to remunerate her if she will +part with what we call her ill-gotten booty we shall assist her to +become virtuous. Such a proposal makes her feel that fanaticism has +assumed the calmness which is its most hopeless symptom." + +"Then," said he, "is the North to change all its opinions?" + +I said, "If this implies the abandonment of moral or religious principle +in the least degree, Never. Our only hope lies in our possibly being in +the wrong, and in magnanimously changing our views and feelings, and our +behavior. This, upon conviction, it will be most noble to do for its own +sake, leaving the effect of it to Him by whom actions are weighed, and +to those who, we shall have concluded, are naturally as magnanimous and +just as we, and who, if guilty of oppression, were liable to the very +same accusation when we first confederated with them, and when Northern +slave-importers put their hands with Southern slave-holders to the +Declaration of Independence, both averring that all men are created free +and equal. + +"We seem now to have concluded that we have put ourselves entirely +right, and that our Southern brethren are entirely wrong." + +"I cannot feel," said Mr. North, "that we are to blame for having our +opinions, and for expressing them honestly and fearlessly. What more +have we done?" + +I replied, "They say that we have held them up to universal execration; +that we have quoted, with readiness, the testimony of foreign nations +against them,--of nations who know nothing of domestic slavery like +ours, mixed up with the qualifying influences of our own civilization; +that our imaginative literature has made them odious, associating +cruelty and vulgarity with the relation of slave-holding; that we have +labored to cripple their Institution, hoping to destroy it; that we have +striven to save the District of Columbia from their system as from +corruption; that a thousand millions of dollars of their property we +have treated as contraband, and have made it perilous for them to +recover it; that we have lain in wait and molested them in their transit +through our borders, with their servants, to embark for sea. We dispute +their right to go with their servants into territories jointly acquired, +and belonging by constitutional right equally to them as to ourselves. +This, they say, has not been a just and sincere demand for an equitable +division of territory in view of the naturally conflicting interests of +slave labor and free, but rather a vindictive determination to hem in +the slave-holder, to force the scorpion into fires where he shall die of +his own sting, or,--to borrow the metaphor, with the language, of a +present Senator from Massachusetts,--where the 'poisoned rat shall die +in his own hole.' + +"Two confederacies or one, our prospect is fearful if we continue to +feel and act toward each other after this temper, and to cherish our +respective grievances." + +"There is another side to all this," said Mr. North. "I ascribe the +excitement at the South to the loss on their part of political power, or +to a grasping spirit which breaks compromises, and which requires that +the national legislation be always shaped in its favor." + +"But," said I, "if we can trust the convictions of just men, in private +life, at the South,--men removed from all suspicion as to the purity of +their motives,--it is certain that our Northern feelings toward +slave-holders, and the expressions of those feelings in ways which have +been applauded among us for many years, are the real causes of the +irritation and exasperation which have brought us to the present brink. + +"Now, as these two sections must continue to exist, side by side, they +will go on to repel each other until either slavery ceases, or a change +of feeling takes place in the non-slaveholding section. Secession and +permanent division will not cure the trouble, but will increase it. +Moreover, the contrariety of feeling between people in the +non-slaveholding States, made intense by the departure of the Southern +section, may inaugurate hostilities among ourselves more fearful than +those which drive away the Southern people. + +"Perhaps we are to be two nations. I cannot but regard this as the +greatest calamity which will have happened to the cause of human +improvement. Nor do I see how it will help Northern philanthropy, nor +the negro; but it may be greatly for his injury. The truth is, we must +live together for self-defence against each other, if from no other +consideration. Israel began its downfall in secession, which was +compelled by Rehoboam. + +"But," said I, "let us contemplate a different issue. Let us think what +a result it will be if such a government as ours, whose speedy ruin has +been so often predicted and is still confidently looked for, shall pass +through these trials and dangers without bloodshed, and we become again +a united people. Self-government will then have vindicated itself; +constitutional liberty will have triumphed; arms and coercion will lose +their old authority and power; for there will be an example of a +republican people recovering from convulsions which would have +demolished any throne or power which trusted in the sword. The +serf-boats in ports of the Bay of Bengal, which ride the swift, enormous +surges, are not nailed, but their parts are lashed one to another, and +thus the boats yield easily to the force of the water. Our government +has been likened to them; and now, by yielding, one part to another, +where a theoretically stronger government would have used coercion, we +shall, if it please God, pass safely through these fearful hazards, +furnishing a demonstration, which God may have been preparing by us for +the instruction of mankind, that fraternal blood is not the best +nourishment of the tree of liberty, and that 'wisdom,' resulting in the +victories of peace, 'is better than weapons of war.' + +"I look, therefore, toward some change in Northern feelings with regard +to the South. A change in this respect will end our troubles. Opinions +may not be wholly reversed; people born and bred under totally different +institutions may not, for they cannot wholly, yield their convictions on +controverted sectional topics, even when they cherish mutual respect and +deference; but, the belief that the North will change its feelings +toward the South and its institutions, under a modification of views +entirely consistent with independence of judgment and self-respect, and +that the South will not be wanting in a corresponding temper, rests on +the same conviction as that God does not intend to destroy us by each +other's hands, nor to make the life of the two sections weary with +perpetual hatred and strife." + + * * * * * + +"Our form of government, Mr. North," said I, "is the very best on earth +if it goes well, and the worst if it goes ill. We have no standing army +to fight for an administration as for a throne or dynasty; so that if a +State secedes, the question is how to coerce that people, if it be best +to attempt it. Citizens do not like to march against their brethren. +Think of our taking up arms against our correspondents; against people +that have gone from our churches and settled in that State; against +cousins, and brothers-in-law, and people who lived or did business under +the same roofs with us." + +"It is awkward, indeed," said Mr. North, "especially if they simply +withdraw and hold the fortifications of the general government, in their +own territory, to keep the government from destroying their lives." + +"Why, yes," said Mrs. North, "it would be simple in them, after +seceding, to suffer themselves to be bombarded. But have they any right +to secede?" + +"As to that," said Mr. North, "my mind has been much exercised of late +with this thought: I have always advocated the right of the negroes to +make insurrection, or to flee from oppression. But now their masters +complain of being oppressed by the North. Why have not the masters the +same right to secede from their government as the negro from his?" + +"Well, husband," said his wife, "I think that you are getting on fast." + +"Why," said I, "Mr. North, is not slavery 'the sum of all villanies?' +Did the negro ever consent to his form of government?" + +"Well," said he, "I never consented to be born; I find myself in +existence; I have no more consented to the government of the United +States than I suppose the negroes, generally, have submitted to their +civil condition. My question is, Who shall decide when the Southern +masters say, We are intolerably oppressed; we are under a yoke; 'break +every yoke!' 'let the oppressed go free!' If I interpose and say, 'You +are not oppressed; you are better off as you now are,' is not this the +reply of the masters when we seek to free their slaves? Do we not say +that the oppressed must be the judges of their necessity? And why may I +coerce the master, if it be wrong for him to coerce the negro?" + +"I must let you, work out that question at your leisure, and on your own +principles," said I.--"We were speaking of seizing and holding the forts +and arsenals. The French proverb says, 'It is the first step that +costs.' Seceding involves the necessity of seizing the forts. If they +who do this embarrass other persons in their lawful rights, they must +risk the consequences; but if they secede from the government, the +question is, Do circumstances justify a revolution? for secession is +revolution. Is revolution justifiable in the present case? + +"But not to discuss that question," said I, "all that I wished to say +was this, that our government seems admirably suited for a people who +will behave well under it. We can take care of isolated cases of +rebellion. But if any important part of the country rises up and +departs, it is exceedingly difficult to know what to do. Prevention is +excellent; but cure is next to impossible. So long as there is a general +acquiescence in the exercise of executive power against +insurrectionists, one or more, we have a general government; but when +States depart, we are a house divided against itself. We find that we +have been living, as it were, not so much under paternal authority, as +under fraternal rule. If broken irretrievably, the alternative is to be +divided, or for one part of the country to coerce its neighbors and +brethren. This we find to be extremely inconvenient and really +impracticable without civil war; and after the war,--whose horrors, in +our case, can never be pictured,--we would either find ourselves in the +same divided state as before, or if politically united, it will have +been effected at a cost which it is fearful to contemplate. + +"So that we are illustrating the question, whether such a government as +ours is really practicable,--whether a people can govern themselves. +Already we hear it said, 'We have no government.' The explanation is, We +are not disposed to destroy each other's lives to preserve the +confederation. We can have a monarchy, with its 'divine right,' and with +its standing army, if we choose; or, if we remain as a republic, we must +be liable to just our present exigency. Our only defence, then, +consists in mutual conciliation and agreement. + +"What a land this is," said I, "with its diversified interests and its +unparalleled variety of products,--its agriculture, mechanic arts, +science, and literature. Separation will embarrass every form of +intercourse, and make us hostile." + +"Jews and Samaritans," said Mrs. North. "And all for an idea!" + +"Yes," said I, "and for an idea which to one whole section, and to a +very large part of the people in the other section, is false.--Four +millions of negroes are destroying us. As a foreign writer said, 'In +trying to give liberty to the negro, we are losing our own.'" + +Said Mrs. North, "Can nothing be done to save us?" + +"Bishop Butler tells us, Mrs. North," said I, "that a nation may be +insane as well as an individual. But reason seems to be returning in +some quarters. Secession and its consequences are having a wonderful +effect to open the eyes of people. John Brown's foray and its end were a +providential demonstration of certain errors, which we may conclude will +not soon be revived. Secession is now leading the world to look more +narrowly into the subject of negro slavery. Let me read to you these +extracts from a recent number of 'Le Pays,' Paris. The writer is arguing +that Europe must recognize the Southern confederacy: + + 'But in awaiting these results which would flow from the cordial + welcome given by Europe to the new confederation, let true + philanthropists be assured that they are wonderfully mistaken in + regard to the real condition of the blacks of the South. We + willingly admit that their error is pardonable, for they have + learned the relations of master and slave only from "Uncle Tom's + Cabin." Shall we look for that condition in the lucubrations of that + romance, raised to the importance of a philosophic dissertation, but + leading public opinion astray, provoking revolution, and + necessitating incendiarism and revolution? A romance is a work of + fancy, which one cannot refute, and which cannot serve as a basis to + any argument. In our discussion, we must seek elsewhere for + authorities and material. Facts are eloquent, and statistics teach + us that, under the superintendence of those masters,--so cruel and + so terrible, if we are to believe "Uncle Tom,"--the black population + of the South increases regularly in a greater proportion than the + white; while in the Antilles, in Africa, and especially in the so + very philanthropic States of the North, the black race decreases in + a deplorable proportion. + + 'The condition of those blacks is assuredly better than that of the + agricultural laborers in many parts of Europe. Their morality is far + superior to that of the free negroes of the North; the planters + encourage marriage, and thus endeavor to develop among them a sense + of the family relation, with a view of attaching them to the + domestic hearth, consequently to the family of the master. It will + be then observed that in such a state of things the interests of the + planter, in default of any other motive, promotes the advancement + and well-being of the slave. Certainly, we believe it possible still + to ameliorate their condition. It is with that view, even, that the + South has labored for so long a time to prepare them for a higher + civilization. + + 'In no part, perhaps, of the continent, regard being had to the + population, do there exist men more eminent and gifted, with nobler + or more generous sentiments, than in the Southern States. No country + possesses lovelier, kinder hearted, and more distinguished women. To + commence with the immortal Washington, the list of statesmen who + have taken part in the government of the United States shows that + all those who have shed a lustre on the country, and won the + admiration of Europe, owed their being to that much abused South. + + 'Is it true that so much distinction, talent, and grandeur of soul + could have sprung from all the vices, from the cruelty and + corruption which one would fain attribute now to the Southern + people? The laws of inflexible logic refute these false imputations. + And--strange coincidence--while Southern men presided over the + destinies of the Union, its gigantic prosperity was the astonishment + of the world. In the hands of Northern men, that edifice, raised + with so much care and labor by their predecessors, comes crashing + down, threatening to carry with it in its fall the industrial future + of every other nation. For long years the constant efforts of the + North, and a certain foreign country, to spread among the blacks + incendiary pamphlets and tracts have powerfully contributed to + suspend every Southern movement towards emancipation. Its people + have been compelled to close their ears to ideas which threatened + their very existence.'" + +"But," said Mr. North, "here we have been, for thirty years or more, +living on an anti-slavery excitement. Grant that it is all wrong; will +you ask or expect that we shall change all at once? in a week? or in a +month? or in a year? We will not kneel to anybody; if we change, it must +be upon conviction." + +"I strike hands with you there," said I, "most heartily. Our Southern +friends must understand this; they must now approach us once more with +reason and persuasion. The people at large are in a frame to be reasoned +with and persuaded; for if we can do anything within the bounds of +reason to retain the South in the Union, it will be done. We will say of +concession as the antithesis of secession, as was said of two other +things: 'Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute.' I think that +both sections need forgiveness of God, and of each other." + +"Well," said Mr. North, "after all we shall get along and get through, +even if there should be a separation." + +"Mr. Worth," said I, "when you were studying Cicero, could you +understand--for I could not--how he and other patriots could feel so +strongly about the fortunes of their country as to declare--which they +frequently do--that they would rather die than survive their country's +honor? It has come to me vividly of late. I see it and feel it. The +sunshine will seem to have gone out of our life when we become two +unfriendly nations. + +"It is easy," said I, "for it gratifies some of the lower passions, to +ridicule a whole section of the country for their act of secession or a +disposition towards it; to boast that the South cannot do without us; to +prophesy that they will get sick of it, and wish to return; to express +wonder that they should feel so much hurt; to remind them that, if they +will do as we have always counselled them, there would be no trouble; +and there is a temptation to say, as friends in a quarrel will hastily +say, Let them go. But when they are irrecoverably gone, justifiably or +not, I tell you, Mr. North, there will be mourning in our streets. I +know, indeed, that there are some among us to whom it will be a +carnival; but--" + +"They will have a long Lent after it," said Mrs. North; "pray excuse +me." + +"Ties of kindred," said I, "patriotism, Christian friendships, will not +go down to hopeless graves without leaving behind them sorrows ending +only with life. + +"It appears to me," said I, "that our ship is where nothing but an +immediate calm and then a change of the wind, can save us. If we become +two nations, it may be for judgment and destruction; and it may be for +some great, ultimate good. But it will be hard parting. To think of +having no South! and of their having no North! We shall each become +provincial. We are wonderfully fitted to qualify and improve each the +other. How strange it would be to have these two sections love each +other! No one among us under twenty-five years of age, has probably ever +thought of us but as in controversy." + +"Speaking of Southern life," said Mrs. North, "I have not seen our +friend Grant since he came back from the South." + +"I have seen him," said I, "and have heard his story. He made his home +with an old friend, a clergyman. It was known that he was a stranger, +and at once he was made to feel at home by many of the citizens. The +morning after he arrived, Jack, a servant of a neighboring family, came +into the breakfast-room, with a waiter filled with dishes, which he +deposited on the side-board. 'Master and Missis send their compliments, +and want to know how the family is, and how Mr. Grant is this morning.' +Now they had never seen Mr. Grant; but they knew that he had arrived the +night before. 'Well, Jack,' says Mrs. ----, 'I see you have got some +good things for us.' 'O, not much, Missis; but they thought you and Mr. +Grant would excuse 'em for sending it.' So there were deposited on the +breakfast-table, 'big hominy' in one or two shapes, rare fish, +puff-muffins, and several dishes which called for Jack's +interpretations. 'And Master says, shall he send the carriage round for +you this forenoon? and he will call himself.' The evening talk was +interrupted by a black woman, all smiles, bearing a waiter of ice-cream +and other refreshments, from another house; and so the visit was a +succession of surprises from families who, at the South, count each +other's guests their own. Mr. Grant was a strong anti-secessionist, and +he spent much breath in arguing with the people in private. On his +return to his room, one day, he found a glass dish on the table, filled +with japonicas, camellias, roses, and other early flowers, with the card +of a married lady,--with whom he had had a debate,--inscribed, 'From the +hottest of the Secessionists.' He seems modified in his views a little +about 'the sum of all villanies,' since his return." + +"Yes," said Mrs. North, "and the people here explain it by saying, 'O, +he was fêted, and flattered.' + +"Yes," she continued, "some of our people will sacrifice their +confidence in man or angel, rather than believe anything good about +slavery." + +I said to her, "Add the Bible to those witnesses, Mrs. North." + +"Husband," said she, "please reach me that long, thin, brown-covered +book on the what-not." She then read an extract from the sixty-third +page; it was a book by one now deceased, called, "Experience as a +Minister": + +"I had not been long a minister, before I found this worship of the +Bible as a fetish hindering me at every step. If I declared the +Constancy of Nature's Laws, and sought therein great argument for the +Constancy of God, all the miracles came and held their mythologic finger +up. Even Slavery was 'of God,' for the divine statutes in the Old +Testament admitted the principle that man might own a man, as well as a +garden or an ox, and provided for the measure. Moses and the Prophets +were on its side; and neither Paul of Tarsus, nor Jesus of Nazareth, +uttered a direct word against it." + + * * * * * + +"But here is the sun!" said I. + +"We are all more cheerful," said Mrs. North, "than we were when he left +us; for we have been able to converse on a trying and perplexing +subject with good feelings." + +"Now," said I, "here is the Southern lady's letter, which has given +occasion to all our conversation." + +"It has also introduced us," said Mr. North, "to that goose, Gustavus, +and to his good aunt." + +"What shall I say to the Southern lady," said I, "if I write to her +father?" + +"Tell her," said Mrs. North, "that if she comes to the North she must +come directly to our house and make it her home. If you will allow me, I +will put a note into your envelope to that effect. I shall beg her to +bring Kate with her. Wouldn't I love to see Kate!" + +"My dear," said Mr. North, "do you know what a time there would be if +the lady should bring Kate with her?" + +"The good time coming! I think it would be," said his wife, "to see the +Southern lady and her Kate under our roof." + +"Why," Paid he, "we should all have to go to court?" + +"Well, that would be interesting," said she; "but for what?" + +"Why," said he, "you know that this is free soil: Kate is a slave; she +can have her freedom for nothing if she comes here. Some of our +Massachusetts gentlemen are as chivalrous and attentive to Southern +colored people, as our good friend tells us Southern gentlemen are to a +white woman: a committee would wait on Kate, with an officer of the +peace, and invite her to visit the court-house with them, to be +presented with 'freedom'; and Kate's mistress must go with her, to show +that she is not restraining Kate of her liberty." + +"Why," said Mrs. North, "if I could not be allowed, in visiting Sharon +Springs, to take Judith with me to give me my baths, because she is +free, I should call it barbarism. Who was that gentleman that broke his +collar-bone and seat to you, husband, to get him a nurse?" + +Mr. North said it was a student in a medical school, from the South. + +"Did you find him a nurse?" said she. + +"Yes," he replied; "but he groaned and said, 'Mother wanted to send on +my mammy that nursed me, but your laws will not allow her to come. Now,' +said he, 'mammy will not tamper with your servants here, and entice them +away, as free colored men might do to our slaves if they landed at the +South from your vessels. O, mammy,' said he, 'if I had your 'arbs and +your nursing, what a pleasure it would be to be sick.'" + +"Poor fellow!" said Mrs. North. "What did you say to him?" + +"O," said he, "I told him that we lived under different institutions; +and that when we are among the Romans we must do as the Romans do." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, "if all such prohibitions are not downright +impertinence, then I will give up." + +"It's the law of the land, here," said her husband. + +"Is there no 'Higher Law' in such a case?" said she. "'Higher Law,' I +believe, is sometimes the rule in Massachusetts." + +"Some of our most estimable colored fellow-citizens would attend her," +said I, "and tempt her by their own prosperity and happiness in freedom, +at the North, to cast in her lot with them and abandon her Southern +home, her mistress, and her little charge, Susan; and her own little +Cygnet's grave. They would send her, if she wished, free of charge, to +Canada, and leave her there. She could be perfectly free." + +"Now, what is all this for?" said Mrs. North. "Do the people here really +believe that Kate is 'oppressed?' that her mistress is a tyrant? that +Kate is a victim to the 'sum of all villanies?' that she buffers an +'enormous wrong?' that her mistress does her a 'stupendous injustice?' +If they wish for objects of charity, and will go with me, I will engage +to supply them with 'the oppressed' in any quantity, with some of 'the +down-trodden' also." + +"But, my dear Mrs. North," said I, "''tis distance lends enchantment to +the view.' Besides, to get a slave away from a Southerner is worth +unspeakably more to the cause of human happiness than to help scores of +Northern people." + +"But to be serious," said Mr. North, "we are afraid that slave-holding +may get a foothold in Massachusetts; so we have to challenge every one +who comes here with a slave, to show proof that he or she is not holding +the servant to involuntary servitude among us." + +"But," said Mrs. North, "are the people so conscientiously fearful lest +bondage should get established here in Massachusetts? Is that the true +reason for hurrying every colored servant, who travels here with his or +her invalid master or mistress, before a court to know if he or she +would not prefer to quit the family and the South? It seems to me we are +sadly wanting in good manners." + +"Now, please do not smile at your good wife for her simplicity, Mr. +North," said I, "for I suppose that you are thinking, What have 'good +manners' to do with the 'cause of freedom'? She is right in her +impressions; a lady's sense of propriety against all the world." + +"Do publish the Southern lady's letter by all means," said Mrs. North. + +"How surprised she would be," said I, "to see it in print, or to know +that it had wandered here, and was taking part in the discussions about +slavery." + +"The letter," said Mrs. North, "would, just now, seem like Noah's poor +little dove, wandering over wrecks and desolations." + +"True," said I, "and to finish the illusion, it might come back to her +after many days, and lo! in its mouth an olive-leaf plucked off!" + +"Give my love to her," said Mrs. North; "her letter has made me a better +and happier woman. Now I love my whole country. I do justice in my +feelings to hundreds of thousands whom I have hitherto regarded as +perverse. I now see God's wonder-working providence in connection with +the slave. It seems plain to me in what way the Union can be saved, and +that is, by the general prevalence at the North of such views about +slavery as the very best people at the South declare to be just and +right." + +"You would be deemed simple for saying that, Mrs. North," said I. "But +you are right." + +"Three things," she continued, after a moment's pause, "are more +strongly impressed on my mind; please see if I am right:--That the +relation of master and slave is not in itself sinful; That good people +at the South feel toward injustice and cruelty precisely like us; and, +That Southern Christians can correct all the evils in slavery, or +abolish it, if necessary, better without our aid than with it." + +"Mrs. North," said I, "unless we accept those propositions, the North +and South never can live together in peace; and if we separate, the +Northern conscience will be in a worse condition than ever, and we shall +have long wars." + +"It is a marvellous thing to me," said she, "as I now view it, that our +good Christian people here are not willing to confide in that which good +Southern Christian people say about slavery. We should trust their +judgments, their moral sentiments, their consciences, on any other +subject. How is it that when men and women, who are the excellent of the +earth, tell us the results of their observation, experience, and +reflections, with regard to slavery, we treat them as we do? When +ill-mannered people, who must be vituperative and saucy to every body +and in every thing, behave thus, it is not surprising; but I cannot +explain why truly good men should not either adopt the deliberate +sentiments of good people at the South, or at least consent to leave the +subject, if beyond their faith or discernment, to the responsibility of +Southern Christians. I condemn myself in saying this. But having myself +been converted, I have hope for everybody." + +During this talk, Mr. North was affected somewhat as he said his wife +was when he first read the Southern lady's letter to her. He was a +little incoherent by reason of his emotions; but he made out to say +something about the sweetness and the strength of reconciled affections, +and of the happiness which there would be when it should be proclaimed +that the North and the South are once more friends. + +"What is your whole name, Mrs. North?" said I; "for I shall wish to +speak of you to the Southern lady, if I write to her father." + +"My Christian name," said she, "is Patience." + +"PATIENCE NORTH!" I said to myself, once or twice, as I stood at the +parlor door. I was musing upon the name perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, +and when I looked up, they were each both smiling at me and crying. + +We shook hands, and I went my way. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sable Cloud, by Nehemiah Adams + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14615 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c68ca62 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14615 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14615) diff --git a/old/14615-8.txt b/old/14615-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcf71ab --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14615-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8647 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sable Cloud, by Nehemiah Adams + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sable Cloud + A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861) + +Author: Nehemiah Adams + +Release Date: January 6, 2005 [EBook #14615] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SABLE CLOUD *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Amy Cunningham and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +THE SABLE CLOUD: + +A SOUTHERN TALE, + +WITH NORTHERN COMMENTS. + + +BY THE AUTHOR OF +"A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SLAVERY." + + +"I did not err, there does a sable cloud +Turn forth her silver lining on the night" + +MILTON'S COMUS + + +BOSTON: +TICKNOR AND FIELDS. +MDCCCLXI + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by + +TICKNOR AND FIELDS, + +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts + + +RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE +STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H O HOUGHTON + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE +CHAPTER I. +DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT 1 + +CHAPTER II. +NORTHERN COMMENTS ON SOUTHERN LIFE 5 + +CHAPTER III. +MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE 32 + +CHAPTER IV. +RESOLUTIONS FOR A CONVENTION 53 + +CHAPTER V. +THE GOOD NORTHERN LADY'S LETTER FROM THE SOUTH 59 + +CHAPTER VI. +QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 118 + +CHAPTER VII. +OWNERSHIP IN MAN.--THE OLD TESTAMENT SLAVERY 150 + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE TENURE 177 + +CHAPTER IX. +DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS 205 + +CHAPTER X. +THE FUTURE 239 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT. + + "The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his + master." + + +A Southern gentleman, who was visiting in New York, sent me, with his +reply to my inquiries for the welfare of his family at home, the +following letter which he had just received from one of his married +daughters in the South. + +The reader will be so kind as to take the assurance which the writer +hereby gives him, that the letter was received under the circumstances +now stated, and that it is not a fiction. Certain names and the date +only are, for obvious reasons, omitted. + +THE LETTER. + +MY DEAR FATHER,-- + +You have so recently heard from and about those of us left here, and +that in a so much more satisfactory way than through letters, that it +scarcely seems worth while to write just yet. But Mary left Kate's poor +little baby in such a pitiable state, that I think it will be a relief +to all to hear that its sufferings are ended. It died about ten o'clock +the night that she left us, very quietly and without a struggle, and at +sunset on Friday we laid it in its last resting-place. My husband and I +went out in the morning to select the spot for its burial, and finding +the state of affairs in the cemetery, we chose a portion of ground and +will have it inclosed with a railing. They have been very careless in +the management of the ground, and have allowed persons to inclose and +bury in any shape or way they chose, so that the whole is cut up in a +way that makes it difficult to find a place where two or three graves +could be put near each other. We did find one at last, however, about +the size of the Hazel Wood lots; and we will inclose it at once, so that +when another, either from our own family or those of the other branches, +wants a resting-place, there shall not be the same trouble. Poor old +Timmy lies there; but it is in a part of the grounds where, the sexton +tells us, the water rises within three feet of the surface; so, of +course, we did not go there for this little grave. His own family +selected his burial-place, and probably did not think of this. + +Kate takes her loss very patiently, though she says that she had no idea +how much she would grieve after the child. It had been sick so long that +she said she wanted to have it go; but I knew when she said it that she +did not know what the parting would be. It is not the parting alone, but +it is the horror of the grave,--the tender child alone in the far off +gloomy burial-ground, the heavy earth piled on the tender little breast, +the helplessness that looked to you for protection which you could not +give, and the emptiness of the home to which you return when the child +is gone. He who made a mother's heart and they who have borne it, alone +can tell the unutterable pain of all this. The little child is so +carefully and tenderly watched over and cherished while it is with +you,--and then to leave it alone in the dread grave where the winds and +the rain beat upon it! I know they do not feel it, but since mine has +been there, I have never felt sheltered from the storms when they come. +The rain seems to fall on my bare heart. I have said more than I meant +to have said on this subject, and have left myself little heart to write +of anything else. Tell Mammy that it is a great disappointment to me +that her name is not to have a place in my household. I was always so +pleased with the idea that my Susan and little Cygnet should grow up +together as the others had done; but it seems best that it should not be +so, or it would not have been denied. Tell Mary that Chloe staid that +night with Kate, and has been kind to her. All are well at her house. + + * * * * * + +Of the persons named in this letter, + +KATE is a slave-mother, belonging to the lady who writes the letter. + +CYGNET was Kate's babe. + +MAMMY is a common appellation for a slave-nurse. The Mammy to whom the +message in the letter is sent was nursery-maid when the writer of the +letter and several brothers and sisters were young; and, more than this, +she was maid to their mother in early years. She is still in this +gentleman's family. Her name is Cygnet; Kate's babe was named for her. + +MARY is the lady's married sister. + +CHLOE is Mary's servant. + + +The incidental character of this letter and the way in which it came to +me, gave it a special charm. Some recent traveller, describing his +sensations at Heidelberg Castle, speaks of a German song which he heard, +at the moment, from a female at some distance and out of sight. This +letter, like that song, derives much of its effect from the +unconsciousness of the author that it would reach a stranger. + +Having read this letter many times, always with the same emotions as at +first, I resolved to try the effect of it upon my friend, A. Freeman +North. He is an upright man, much sought after in the settlement of +estates, especially where there are fiduciary trusts. Placing the letter +in his hands, I asked him, when he should have read it, to put in +writing his impressions and reflections. The result will be found in the +next chapter. Mrs. North, also, will engage the reader's kind attention. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NORTHERN COMMENTS ON SOUTHERN LIFE. + + "As blind men use to bear their noses higher + Than those that have their eyes and sight entire." + + HUDIBRAS. + + + "One woman reads another's character + Without the tedious trouble of decyphering." + + BEN JONSON. _New Inn_. + + +So then, this is a Southern heart which prompts these loving, tender +strains. This lady is a slave-holder. It is a slave toward whom this +fellow-feeling, this gentleness of pity, these acts of loving-kindness, +these yearnings of compassion, these respectful words, and all this care +and assiduity, flow forth. + +Is she not some singular exception among the people of her country; some +abnormal product, an accidental grace, a growth of luxuriant richness in +a deadly soil, or, at least, is she not like Jenny Lind among singers? +Surely we shall not look upon her like again. It would be difficult to +find even here at the North,--the humane North, nay, even among those +who have solemnly consecrated themselves as "the friends of the slave," +and who "remember them that are in bonds as bound with them,"--a heart +more loving and good, affections more natural and pure. I am surprised. +This was a slave-babe. Its mother was this lady's slave. I am confused. +This contradicts my previous information; it sets at nought my ideas +upon a subject which I believed I thoroughly understood. + +A little negro slave-babe, it seems, is dead, and its owner and mistress +is acting and speaking as Northerners do! Yes, as Northerners do even +when their own daughters' babes lie dead! + +The letter must be a forgery. No; here it is before me, in the +handwriting of the lady, post-marked at the place of her residence. But +is it not, after all, a fiction? I can believe almost anything sooner +than that I am mistaken in the opinions and feelings which are +contradicted by this letter. In the spirit of Hume's argument against +the miracles of the Bible, I feel disposed, almost, to urge that it +would be a greater miracle that the course of nature at the South in a +slave-holder's heart should thus be set aside than that there should not +be, in some way, deception about this letter. But still, here is the +letter; and it is written to her father, whom she could not deceive, +whom she had no motive, no wish, to delude. Had it been written to a +Northerner, I could have surmised that she was attempting to make false +impressions about slavery, and its influence on the slave-holder. Why +should she tell her father this simple tale, unless real affection for +the babe and its mother were impelling her? This tries my faith. It is +like an undesigned coincidence in holy writ, which used so to stagger my +unbelief. Possibly, however,--for I must maintain my previous +convictions if I can,--possibly her father is such as our anti-slavery +lecturers and writers declare a slave-holder naturally to be, and his +daughter, herself a mother, is seeking to touch his heart and turn him +from his cruelties as a slave-holder by showing him, in this indirect, +beautiful manner, that slave-mothers have the feelings of human beings. +Perhaps I may therefore compromise this matter by allowing, on one hand, +that the daughter is all that she appears to be, and claiming, on the +other, that the father is all that a slave-holder ought to be to verify +our Northern theories. But she herself is a slave-holder, and therefore +by our theory she ought to be imbruted. I beg her pardon, and that of +her father; but they must consider how hard it is for us at the North to +conquer all our prejudices even under the influence of such a +demonstration as her letter. I ask one simple question: Is not this +slave-babe, (and her mother,) of "the down-trodden," and is not this +lady one of the down-treading? And yet she weeps,--not because, as I +would have supposed, she had lost one hundred and fifty dollars in the +child, but as though she loved it like the sick and dying child of a +fellow-creature, of a mother like herself. Now, who at the North ever +hears of such a thing in slavery? The old New York Tabernacle could have +said, It is not in me;--the modern Boston Music Hall says, It is not in +me. None of the antislavery papers, political or religious, say, We have +heard the fame thereof with our ears. Our Northern instructors on the +subject of slavery, the orators, the Uncle Tom's Cabins, "The Scholar an +Agitator," have never taught us to believe this. The South, we are +instructed to think, is a Golgotha, a valley of Hinnom; compacts with it +are covenants with hell. But here is one holy angel with its music; a +ministering spirit; but is she a Lot in Sodom? Abdiel in the revolted +principality? a desolate, mourning Rizpah on that rock which overlooks +four millions of slaves and their tortures? + +In a less instructed state of mind on this subject, I should once have +said, on reading this letter,--This is slavery. Here is a view of life +at the South. As a traveller accidentally catches a sight of a family +around their table, and domestic life gleams upon him for a moment; as +the opening door of a church suffers a few notes of the psalm to reach +the ear of one at a distance, this letter, written evidently amidst +household duties and cares, discloses, in a touching manner, the +domestic relations of Southern families and their servants wherever +Christianity prevails. It is one strain of the ordinary music of life in +ten thousands of those households, falling accidentally upon our ears, +and giving us truthful, artless impressions, such as labored statements +and solemn depositions would not so well convey, and which theories, +counter-statements, arguments, and invectives never can refute. Our +senior pastor would say that the letter is like the Epistles of +John,--not a doctrinal exposition, but a breathing forth of the spirit +which the evangelical history had inspired. I have come to know more, +however, than I did when I could have had such amiable but unenlightened +feelings. I have read the "Key to Uncle Tom" and the "Barbarism of +Slavery." + +Still, I am sorely puzzled. "Kate," she says, "wanted to have it go, it +had been sick so long; but I knew, when she said it, she did not know +what the parting would be." + +"The parting!" Has she read our Northern abstracts and versions of the +Dred Scott Decision, and are there, in her view, any rights in a negro +which she is bound to respect? Has she not heard that the Supreme Court +of the United States has absolved her from all her feelings of humanity? +"The parting!" Where has she lived not to know how, according to our +lecturers, families are parted at the auction-block in the Southern +States without the least compunction? We are constantly told,--has she +not heard it?--that the slave at the South is a mere "chattel," and that +a slave-child is bought and sold as recklessly as a calf, and that a +parting between a slave-mother and her children, sold and separated for +life, is an occurrence as familiar as the separation of animals and +their young, and no more regarded by slave-holders than divorcements in +the barn-yard. This being so, it must follow that when a slave-babe +dies, the only sorrow in the hearts of the white owners is such as they +feel when a colt is kicked to death or a heifer is choked. This must be +so, if all is true which is meant to be conveyed when we are told so +often at the North that the slave is a mere "chattel." Therefore I am +puzzled by this lady's tears for the mother of this little black babe. +She says of the mother of that poor little negro infant slave, "I knew +she did not dream what the parting would be." I repeat it, my theory of +slavery, that which I hold in common with all enlightened friends of +freedom, requires that this lady should have a debased, imbruted nature, +for she owns human beings, has made property of God's image in man. And +now I feel creeping over me a dreadful temptation to think that one may +hold fellow-creatures in bondage and yet be really humane, gentle, and +as good as a Northerner! What fearful changes in politics would come +about should our people believe this! It cannot be that our great party +of Freedom can ever go to pieces and disappoint the hopes of the world; +yet this would be the case, if the feelings stirred by this letter +should gain a general acceptance. I cannot gainsay the facts. Here is +the letter. May it never see the light; people are much more influenced +by such things than by mere logic, and oh, what would befall the nation +should our Northern excitement against slavery cease, and should we +leave the whole subject to the South and to God! "What if people should +come to believe that the Southerners--fifteen or sixteen States of this +Union--are as humane, Christian, and conscientious as the North! + +Who will resolve my painful doubts? I do crave to know what possible +motive this lady could have had in taking so much thought and care about +the last resting-place of this poor little black "chattel." You and your +husband, dear lady, seem to be as kind and painstaking as though you +knew that a fellow-creature of yours was returning, "ashes to ashes, +dust to dust." + +One great Northern "friend of the slave" tells us that the slaves at the +South are degraded so to the level of brutes, that baptizing them and +admitting them to Christian ordinances is about the same as though he +should say to his dogs, "I baptize thee, Bose, in," etc. This, he tells +us, he repeated many times here, and in England.[1] Nothing but love of +truth and just hatred of "the sum of all villanies" could, of course, +have made him venture so near the verge of unpardonable blasphemy as to +speak thus. Yet your feelings and behavior toward this babe are in +direct conflict with his theory. Pray whom am I to believe? + + [Footnote 1: See "Sigma's" communications to the _Boston Transcript_, + August, 1857.] + +Perhaps now I have hit upon a solution. Some people, Walter Scott is an +instance, bury their favorite dogs with all the honors of a decorated +sepulture. Rather than believe that your slaves are commonly regarded by +you as your fellow-creatures, having rights which you love to consider, +or, that you do not mercilessly dispose of them to promote your selfish +interests, we, the Northern people, who have had the very best of +teachers on the subject of slavery, learnedly theoretical, reasoning +from the eternal principles of right, would incline to believe that your +interest in the burial of this little slave-babe was merely that which +your own child would feel on seeing her kitten carefully buried at the +foot of the apple-tree. + +One thing, however, suggests a difficulty in feeling our way to this +conclusion. I mention it because of the perfect candor which guides the +sentiments and feelings of all Northern people in speaking of slavery +and slave-holders. + +The difficulty is this: Who was "poor old Timmy"? Some old slave in your +father's family, I apprehend. You seem sad at finding that his grave is +not in the best place. "The water rises within three feet of the +surface;"--we infer, from the regret which you seem to feel at this, +that you have some care and pity for your old slaves, which extends even +to their graves. But we had well nigh borrowed strength to our +prejudices from this place of old Timmy's grave, and were saying with +ourselves, Thus the slave-holders bury their slaves where the water may +overflow them; but you seem to apologize to your father for Timmy's +having such a poor place for his remains by saying, "His own" (Timmy's) +"family selected his burying-place, and probably did not think of this." +Very kind in you, dear madam, to speak so. "The friends of the slave" +are greatly obliged to you for such consideration. You say, "His own +family selected his burying-place." Do slaves have such a liberty? Can +they go and come in their burying-grounds and choose places for the +graves of their kindred? This is being full as good to your servants, in +this particular, as we are at the North to our domestics. You thought +poor old Timmy's grave was not in a spot sufficiently choice for this +little babe's grave, and, it seems, you inclosed a spot, and inaugurated +it by the burial of this child, for the last resting-place of other +babes, the kindred of this child and of your other servants. This looks +as though there were some domestic permanence in some parts of the South +among the servants of a household; and as though the birth and death of +a child have some other associations with you than those which belong to +the breeding and sale of poultry. We are truly glad to think of all +this. It is exceedingly pleasant to have a good opinion of people, much +more so than to believe evil of them, and to accuse them wrongfully. + +In speaking thus to you, I make myself think--and I hope I do not seem +self-complacent in saying it, for you must have learned from the tone of +my remarks, if from no other source, that self-complacency is not a +Northern characteristic, especially in our feelings toward the +South--but I make myself think, by this candid admission of what seems +good in you, of a venturesome remark by Paul the Apostle to your brother +slave-holder Philemon, in that epistle in which he sends back the slave +Onesimus,--a very trying epistle to us at the North, though on the +whole, many of us keep up our confidence in inspiration notwithstanding +this epistle, especially as it is explained to us by some at the North +who know most of Southern slavery, our inbred hatred of which, it is +insisted by some of our best scholars, should control even our +interpretation of the word of God. Paul speaks to this slave-holder, +Philemon, of "the acknowledging of every good thing which is in +you,"--which we think was exceedingly charitable, considering that it +was said to a holder of slaves; and perhaps quite too much so; for the +truth is not to be spoken at all times, and especially not of those who +hold their fellow-men in bondage. I am often constrained to think that +it was an inconsiderate, unwise thing in the Apostle to take this +favorable view of that slave-holder; he may, however, have written by +permission, not by commandment; that would save his inspiration from +reproach; for had he been inspired in writing this epistle, I ask +myself, Would he not have foreseen our great Northern conflict with the +mightiest injustice upon which the sun ever shone? and would he not have +foreseen how much aid and comfort that epistle would give the friends of +oppression on this continent? One first truth in the minds of the most +eminent "friends of freedom" is this: "Slavery is the sum of all +villanies." Other truths follow in their natural order; among them the +question of the inspiration of the Bible has a place; but slavery leads +some of them to think lightly, and to speak disparagingly, of the Bible, +because it comes in conflict with their theories regarding +slave-holding, which is certainly not always referred to in Scripture in +the tone which we prefer. There was the Apostle James, too, writing +about "works" in the same unguarded manner as Paul when speaking of +slaves and slave-holders. Pity that he could not have let "works" alone, +seeing it was so important for the other Apostles to establish the one +idea of justification by faith. He made great trouble for Luther and his +companions in their contest with Popery. Luther had to reject his +epistle; "_straminea epistola_" he called it,--an epistle of +straw,--weak, worthless; and he denied its inspiration, because it +conflicted with his doctrine of "faith alone." So much for trying to be +candid and just, and for presenting the other side of a subject, or of a +man, when the spirit of the age is averse to it, and candor is in +danger of being looked upon as a time-serving thing. Neither Paul nor +James, however, had felt the tonic, bracing effect of good anti-slavery +principles, or they would not have written, the one such a letter to a +slave-holder, and the other such a back-oar argument against "faith +alone." However, I am disposed to think well of Paul and James, +notwithstanding these the great errors of their lives. Indeed I can +almost forgive them, when I am reading other things which they said and +did. You will please acknowledge, therefore, my dear madam, that in +giving you credit for kind feelings toward a poor slave and its mother, +we are disposed to be just; yet I beg of you not to think that I abate +one jot or tittle of my belief that, in theory, slavery is "the sum of +all villanies," "an enormous wrong," "a stupendous injustice." + +I have just been reading your letter once more, and the foolish tears +pester me so that I can scarce see out of my eyes. I find, dear madam, +that you have known a bitter sorrow which so many parents are carrying +with them to the grave. Your words make me think so of little graves +elsewhere, that I forget for the time that you are a slave-holder. Nor +can I hardly believe that your touching words are suggested by the death +of a slave's babe, when you speak of "the heavy earth piled on the +tender little breast." O my dear lady! has a slave's babe "a tender +little breast"? Then you really think so! And you a slave-holder! +"Border Ruffianism," perhaps, has not yet reached your heart; and yet I +suppose--forgive me if I do you wrong--that slave-holders' hearts +generally need only to be removed to the "borders," to manifest all +their native "ruffianism." Can you tell me whether there are any mothers +in Missouri (near Kansas) who feel toward their slaves who are mothers, +as you do? There are so many people from the North in Kansas (near +Missouri) who have gone thither to prevent you and your brethren and +sisters from owning a fellow-creature there, that I trust their +influence will in time extend through all Missouri, and that white +mothers in that State will everywhere have such humane feelings toward +the blacks as we and you possess. + +All that I ask of you now, is, that you give Kate her liberty at once. +Oh, do not say, as I fancy you will, There is not a happier being than +Kate in all the land of freedom. "Fiat justitia," dear madam, "ruat +coelum." I cannot conceive how being "owned" is anything but a curse. +Really, we forget the miseries of the Five Points, and of the dens in +New York, Boston, Buffalo, and other places at the North, the hordes in +the city and State institutions in New York Harbor, Deer Island, Boston, +and all such things, in our extreme pity for poor slave-mothers, like +Kate, whose children, when they get to be about nine or ten years old, +are liable to be sold. Honest Mrs. Striker came to work in our family, +not long since, leaving her young child at home in the care of a young +woman who watched it for ten cents a day. I said to her, Dear Mrs. +Striker, are you not glad that you live in a free state, and not where, +when you return like a bird to its nest at night, you may find your +little one carried off, you know not where, by some man-stealer, you +know not whom?--We honor your kind feelings, madam, but you are not +aware, probably, what overflowing love and tender pity there is among us +Northerners, toward your slaves and their children. We are +disinterested, too; for we nearly forget our own black people here at +the North, and more especially in Canada, to care for you and your +people. And though hundreds of innocent young people are decoyed into +our Northern cities yearly from the country and are made the victims of +unhallowed passions, yet the thought that some of your young people on +those remote, solitary plantations, can be compelled by their masters to +do wrong on pain of being sold, fills us with such unaffected distress +that we think but little of voluntary or compulsory debauchery in our +own cities; but we think of dissolving the Union to rid ourselves of +seeming complicity with such wickedness as we see to be inherent in the +relation of master and slave. We at the North should all be wicked if we +had such opportunities; we know, therefore, that you must be. Because +you will not let us reprove you for it, we cut off our correspondence +with your Southern ecclesiastical bodies. But I began to speak of little +graves. You will see by my involuntary wandering from them how full our +hearts are of your colored people, and how self-forgetful we are in our +desires and efforts to do them good. And yet some of your Southern +people can find it in their hearts to set at nought these our most +sacred Northern antipathies and commiserations! + +But I constantly hear some of your words in your letter striking their +gentle, sad chimes in my ears. "It is not the parting alone, but the +helplessness that looked to you for protection which you could not +give;" "the emptiness of the home to which you return when the child is +gone." + +Now, for such words, I solemnly declare that, in my opinion, you, dear +madam, never had a helpless slave look to you for protection which you +could give and which you refused; you, surely, never made a slave's home +desolate by taking her child from her. No, such words as those which I +have just quoted from your letter, are a perfect assurance that neither +you nor your kindred, within your knowledge, are guilty of ruthless +violations of domestic ties among your colored people. Otherwise, you +could not write as you do about "desolate homes" and "the child gone." +While I read your letter and think of you, I am reminded of those words: +"Is not this he whom they seek to kill?" Why, if the insurgents' pikes +were aimed at you and your child, I would almost be willing to rush in +and receive them in my own body. Yet I would not be known at the North +to have spoken so strongly as this. O my dear madam, if there were only +fifty righteous people (counting you) in the South, people who knew what +"desolate homes" and "the child gone" mean, I should almost begin to +hope that our Southern Gomorrah might be spared. + +But I fear that I am trespassing too far away from my sworn fealty to +Northern opinions and feelings. I begin to fear that I may be tempted to +be recreant to my inborn, inbred notions of liberty, while holding +converse with you, for there is something extremely seductive to a +Northerner in slavery; it is like the apple and the serpent to the +woman; so that whoever goes to the South, or has anything to do with +slave-holders, is apt to lose his integrity; there is a Circean +influence there for Northern people; thousands of once good, +anti-slavery men now lie dead and buried as to their reputations here at +the North, in consequence of having to do with the seductive +slave-power; they would fill Bonaventura Cemetery, in Savannah; the +Spanish moss, swaying on the limbs of its trees, would be, in number, +fit signals of their subjection to what you call right views on the +subject of slavery. + +Though I fear almost to hold converse with you, yet, conscious of my +innate love of liberty, I venture to do so. Bunker Hill is within twenty +miles of my home. When I go to that sacred memorial of liberty, I strive +to fortify my soul afresh against the slave-power. After hearing +favorable things said, in Boston, about the South, I can go to Faneuil +Hall, and there, the doors being carefully shut, walk enthusiastically +about the room, almost shouting, "Sam. Adams!" "James Otis!" +"Seventy-Six!" "Shade of Warren!" "No chains on the Bay State!" +"Massachusetts in the van!" "Give me liberty or give me death!" I can +enjoy the privilege of looking frequently on certain majestic figures in +our American Apocalypse, under the present vial,--but I need not name +them. I meet in our book-stores with "Lays of Freedom," never sung by +such as you. I see in the shop-windows the inspiring faces, in +medallion, of those masterpieces of human nature, "the champions of +freedom," our chief abolitionists;--and shall I, can I, ever succumb to +the slave-power, even though it approach me through the holy, +all-subduing charms of woman's influence? No! dear madam, ten thousand +times, No! "Slave-power!" to borrow Milton's figure when speaking of +Ithuriel and Satan, the word is as the touch of fire to powder, to our +brave anti-slavery souls. You have, perhaps, seen a bull stopping in the +street, pawing the ground, throwing the dust over him and covering +himself with a cloud of it, his nose close to the earth, and a low, +bellowing sound issuing from his nostrils. Your heart has died within +you at the sight. You have been made to feel how slight a defence is +fan, or sunshade, against such an antagonist, though you should make +them to fly suddenly open in his face. No enemy of his was in sight, so +far as you could perceive; you wondered what had excited his belligerent +spirit; but he saw at a very great distance that which you could not +see; he heard a voice you could not hear, giving occasion to this show +of prowess. That fearful combatant on the highway, dear madam, is the +North, and you are the distant foe. You may affect to smile, perhaps, at +the valorous attitudes, the show of mettle in the bull, but you have no +idea, as I had the honor to say before, how sturdy is our hatred of the +slave-power and how ready we are to do battle with it. We paw in the +valley, and are not afraid. + +Never think to delude us, my dear lady, with the thought that slavery in +our Territories means such ladies as you owning Kates and their little +babes, and having such hearts toward them as you seem to have; for that +would take away a large part of the evil in slavery. Nor must you expect +us, in thinking of slavery as extending into our Territories, to picture +to ourselves an accomplished gentleman and lady searching a cemetery for +a spot to be the grave of a little slave-babe, and behaving themselves +as though they had feelings toward it and its mother irrespective of the +market-price of slaves. "Border Ruffians" are the archetypes of our +ideas respecting all who wish to extend slavery into our Territories. On +the score of humanity, madam, we have no objection to you and your +husband taking Kate and living in Kansas; how perfectly harmless that +might seem to many! for, no doubt, you and Kate are perfectly happy as +mistress and servant; you would need domestics there, and how could they +and you be better pleased than if they and you were just as Kate and you +now are to each other? but, O dear madam, that would be slavery, and we +are under sworn obligations here at the North to oppose the owning of a +human being with indiscriminate hatred. Say not it seems hard that if +you wish to live in Kansas, for example, you cannot have liberty to go +there with Kate, who is as much attached to you, I make no doubt, as any +Northern or English servant is to a household. Perhaps it does seem +perfectly natural and harmless, and no doubt Kate's relation to you is +as gentle and pleasant, almost, as that of an adopted member of a +family, who is half attendant, and half companion; this we understand. +You see nothing terrible in such a relation. O dear madam, you have the +misfortune to have been born under the blinding, blighting influence of +slavery, and cannot see things in the true, just light in which they +appear to us, whose minds are unprejudiced and clear, and whose moral +sentiments on this great subject are more correct and elevated. What is +making all this trouble in our nation? I will answer you in the burning +words of a Northern clergyman in his speech at a meeting called to +sympathize with the family of John Brown, after his death by martyrdom: +"The Slave-Power itself, standing up there in all its deformity in the +sight of Northern consciences,--that is the cause, [applause] and there +the responsibility belongs."[2] Yes, you are sinning against the +Northern conscience! It is settled forever that you are evil-doers in +holding your present relation to the slave. We are bound to hem you in +as by fire, till, like a scorpion so fenced about, you die by your own +sting. We must proclaim liberty to your captives. Step but one foot with +Kate on free soil, and our watchmen of liberty, set to break every yoke +and help fugitives on their way from the house of bondage, will be +around you in troops, and shout in her ear those electrifying and +beatifying words, "You are a free woman!" There her chains will drop; +she will cease to be a slave, and become a human being. + + [Footnote 2: _Boston Courier_, Nov. 26, 1859.] + +Must I refer to your letter once more? I hope to destroy its spell over +me. But I wish at times that I had never seen that letter. "Tell Mammy +that it is a great disappointment to me that her name is not to have a +place in my household." Your little slave-babe, Kate's child, you named +Cygnet, because Mammy's name is Cygnet, and she and your mother grew up +together, and she has been your kind, faithful servant and friend, as +much friend as servant, during all your youth till you were married. And +you seek to perpetuate her name in your own household, and to have a +little Cygnet grow up with your own little Susan. "I was always pleased +with the idea that my Susan and little Cygnet should grow up together; +but it seems best that it should not be so, or it would not be denied." +All this is very sweet and beautiful; but now let me tell you, honestly, +what the spontaneous thought of a Northerner is while meditating on such +an apparently lovely picture. Here it is: Suppose that Susan and little +Cygnet, when both are three years old, are playing in your front-yard +some morning, and a cruel slave-trader should look over the fence, and +say to your husband, "Fine little thing there, sir; take a hunderd and a +ha'f for her?" I ask, Would not your husband (perhaps in need, just +then, of money to pay a note) lay down his newspaper, invite the fellow +in to drink, and go through the opening scene of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," +coaxing up the fellow's price; and finally, would he not sell little +Cygnet while her mother was out of sight, push poor little Susan into a +room alone to cry her eyes out, and you and your husband pocket the +money? Many of us at the North, dear madam, if you will take my +unworthy self as a specimen, and I am a very moderate anti-slavery man +and no fanatic, are quite as ready to believe such things of you as the +contrary. We have read "Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +Nothing could exceed the disgust and ridicule which your letter would +meet with at the hands of some of our best anti-slavery men. I am +thinking of it, just now, as in the hands of Rev. Mr. Blank. The other +day I saw a cambric muslin handkerchief, richly embroidered, blow past +me out of a child's carriage. As I turned to get it, a dog seized it, +shook it, put both his paws on it, rent it, made rags of it, threw it +down, snatched it up, and seemed vexed that there was no more of it to +tear. So will our abolitionists serve your letter, should they ever see +it. And, my dear madam, though I disapprove their temper and language, +yet I must confess that I sympathize with them in their principles, the +only difference between them and me being that of social position and +manners. I must tell you that, after all, you are probably unaware of +the deception which you are practising on yourself, in supposing that +you are really as loving and gentle toward a slave-mother and her child +as some might infer. Let but a good sale tempt you! I wait to know +whether you would then write such a letter. We have a ready answer to +all the kind and good things which are said about you, in this, which +you will see and hear in all our speeches and essays, namely, "Slavery +is the sum of all villanies." That is to all our thoughts and reasonings +about slavery what the longitude of Greenwich is to navigation. All your +clergy, all your physicians, all your judges and lawyers, all your +fathers and mothers, your gentlemen and ladies, all your children, are +heaped together by us in one name, to us an awful name,--"Slave-power." +We think about you as we do of Egypt, with Israel in bondage. + +And now that allusion furnishes me with an argument against your letter, +which I must, in conclusion, and sorely against many of my feelings, let +fall, like a stone, upon it, and crush it forever. Pharaoh's daughter +was touched with the cry of the little slave-babe, Moses; but what does +that prove? that Egyptian bondage was not "an enormous wrong," a +"stupendous injustice," "the sum of all villanies"? or that a Red Sea +was not already waiting to swallow up the slave-holders, horse and foot? + +You may write a thousand such letters, all over the South; but though +they delude me for a while, it is only until the moisture which they +raise to my eyes from my heart, by the pathos in them, dries up, and +leaves my vision clear of all the blinding though beautiful mists of +that error which has diffused itself over one half of this goodly land, +and, I grieve to add, which has fallen upon many even here in New +England, recreant sons of liberty, traitors to the memories of Faneuil +Hall and Bunker Hill. + + +LETTER FROM MR. NORTH, INCLOSING THE FOREGOING. INFLUENCE OF THE LETTER +UPON HIS WIFE. + +MY DEAR MR. A. BETTERDAY CUMMING:-- + +I have, as you see, complied with your request, and herewith I send you +my thoughts and feelings in view of the good Southern lady's letter. I +came near, once or twice, abandoning some of my long-cherished +principles, under the influence of the letter and of the reflections to +which it gave rise. But I have been enabled to retain my integrity. I am +sorry to say that the letter has made me some trouble through its effect +on my wife, to whom, incautiously, I read it. Very soon after I began to +read, I perceived that some natural drops were finding their way down +her tear-passage, leading her to a frequent use of the handkerchief. By +this means she interrupted me, I should say, six or eight times, during +the reading, and as soon as I had finished she rose and left the room. + +I remained, and wrote a large part of the accompanying reflections, and, +near midnight, on repairing to my room, I found that Mrs. North was +asleep. She waked me in the morning by asking me if I was asleep. I told +her that I would gladly listen to what she had to say. She said, "Will +you not please, my dear, stop the ----, and the ----," (naming two +newspapers,) "and take others?" + +"Why," said I, "what is the matter with them?" + +She began to weep again. In a few moments she said, "I would give the +world if I could have a conversation with that Southern lady." + +"I fear," said I, "that it would have a deleterious effect on your +attachment to the principles of liberty." + +"Liberty!" said she. "Oh, how foolish I have been! I see now that there +is another side to that question." + +"I hope, my dear," said I, "that you will say and do nothing to occasion +any reproach. Certainly, there are two sides to every question. If you +manifest any surprise at finding that there is another side to the +Liberty question, I fear that some will quote to you the fable of the +mouse who was born in a meal-chest." + +"I never heard of it," said she. + +"Why," said I, "the mouse one day stole up to the edge of the chest, +when the cover had been left open, and, looking round on the +barn-chamber, she said, 'Dear me, I had no idea that the world was half +so large.'" + +"The cover has been down and the meal has been in my eyes long enough," +said she. "I have been so much accustomed for a long time to read in our +papers about 'enormous wrong,' 'stupendous injustice,' 'the +slave-breeders,' 'sum of all villanies,' that, unconsciously, I have +come to think of the South, indiscriminately, as though they were Robin +Hood's men, or"-- + +"O my dear," said I, "you must have known that there are many good +people at the South, notwithstanding slavery." + +"How can there be one good man or woman there," said she, "if all that +those newspapers say of slave-holding be true? Husband, depend upon it +we have been believing a great lie. Just think of that letter. What a +tale many of those words reveal. When the infants of our former servants +die, do our ladies write such letters about them? I should judge that +owning a fellow-creature softens and refines the heart, if this letter +is any sign, instead of making them all barbarians. All the newspapers +and novels in the world cannot do away the impressions which that +letter has made on my mind. I tell you, husband, having slaves is not +the unmitigated curse to owners nor to slaves that we have been taught +to believe." + +"Perhaps," said I, interrupting her, "you would like to live at the +South, and own a few." + +"I could not be hired by wealth," said she, "to have them for help, even +here. I never did like them; and when I think that there are good men +and women who do, and who are as kind to the poor creatures as this dear +lady, I think that we should give thanks to God." + +"Oh, the Southern people are not all like this good lady, by any means," +said I. + +"'Peradventure,'" said she, "'there be fifty righteous.' There must be +tens of thousands. People like this lady are very apt to make good the +saying of the blackberry pickers when they see a blackberry, 'Where +there's one there's more.' The letter reads as though it were an +every-day thing, a matter of course, for this lady to be kind and loving +to the blacks; and for my part I bless any one who has anything to do +for her or for those like her. Our papers never tell us such stories as +this letter contains. No, they, do not love to hear them, I fear; but if +a slave is beaten or ill-treated, then the chimes begin, 'enormous +wrong,' 'stupendous injustice,' 'sum of all villanies.'" + +"Why, my dear," said I, "you are getting to be pro-slavery very fast." + +"Never," said she, "if you mean by that, as I suppose you do, approving +all that is involved in slavery and all that is committed under the +system." + +"But," said I, "your present feeling toward this Southern lady may +insensibly lead you to believe that it is right to own a +fellow-creature. Does not Cowper say,-- + + "'I would not have a slave to till my ground, + To carry me, to fan me while I sleep + And startle when I wake, for all the wealth + That sinews bought and sold have ever earned?'" + +"How Kate must 'startle' and go into convulsions with terror every time +this mistress wakes!" she replied. "If Cowper had written in Alabama, +instead of describing a state of slavery such as existed in the British +possessions, and not, as in the South, mixed up with his every-day life; +if the first face with which he had become familiar as a babe had been a +black face, the face of his mother's 'slave' loving him, and nursing +him, and he, in turn, had tended his old 'Mammy' in her decrepitude, his +imagination would have contained some other pictures than those in the +lines which you quote. Had there been a Mrs. Cowper, I fancy she would +have been like this lady; and perhaps we should have seen Mr. Cowper +acting the kind part of this lady's husband toward a slave-mother and +her babe, his 'property,' so called. I lay awake here, last night, while +you were writing, and thought it all over. What were you writing about +so long? I wished that I had a pencil and paper near me. Those English +and French people who got rid of slavery as one gets rid of a bunion, +know nothing about slavery mingled with our very life-blood. How +self-righteous they are! Our people, too, are perpetually quoting what +Thomas Jefferson said about slavery in his day. Pray, has there been no +progress? Why are we not permitted to hear what Southern men, as good as +Jefferson, now say about modern slavery?" + +"My dear," said I, "perhaps you are not fully qualified as yet to judge +of this great subject in all its relations. The greatest and wisest men +are divided in opinion about it." + +"Great subject!" said she, "please let me interrupt you; there is but +one side to it, I should judge, from reading our papers. What do some of +the 'greatest and wisest men,' on the other side, have to say for +themselves? Are they all 'friends of oppression,' 'enemies of freedom,' +'minions of the slave-power,' 'dough-faces'? Husband, I am thoroughly +disgusted. I have been compelled to have uncharitable feelings toward +thousands of people like this Southern lady; I confess I have really +hated them, as I hate men-stealers and pirates. This letter has +convinced me of my sin. It is like the Gospel in its effect upon me." + +"But, my dear," said I, "recollect that good people may be in great +error, and we read, 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not +suffer sin upon him.' Now, to hold a fellow-being in bondage,--how can +it be otherwise than 'stupendous injustice'?" + +"I wonder," said she, "if Kate feels that she is in 'bondage' to this +lady. I wonder if she would not think it cruel, if her mistress should +set her free." + +"But it is wrong," said I, "to hold property in a human being, whether +the bondman be in favor of it or not." + +"'Property!'" said she. "I should like to be such 'property,' if I were +a black woman. If it were wrong in the abstract," said she, "it might +not be in practice." + +"Oh," said I, "what a pro-slavery idea that is! where did you learn it?" + +"I learned it," said she, "at our corn-husking, when the Squire read +extracts from John Quincy Adams's speech about China, in which he said +that if China would not open her trade to the world, it would be right +to make war upon her. Now war is wrong, but circumstances sometimes make +it right. So with holding certain men in slavery, under certain +circumstances. I cannot believe that it is right to go and enslave whom +we will; but the blacks being here, I can see that it may be the very +best thing for all concerned that they should be owned. This may be +God's way of having them governed and educated." + +I found that I was getting deeper into the subject than I intended, and, +besides, it was time to rise. As I left the room, she said, "You _will_ +change those papers, won't you? then we will have some more pleasant +talks about this subject." She called to me from the door, "Please don't +send back the lady's letter; I wish to copy it." This is my reason for +not sending the letter with my reply to it. You will certainly give me +credit for candor in telling you all that my wife said. However, it is +so easily answered that I need not fear to intrust you with it. + +Yours, for the slave, +A. FREEMAN NORTH. + + +P.S. After all, I concluded to retain this, and wait till my wife had +made what use she desired of the letter, that I might be sure and return +it to you safely. In the mean time, I have changed the papers. How +irresistible a pleading woman is, especially a wife. Her very want of +logic makes her more so, when we are good-natured. She came upon me with +just such another supplication a few mornings since. As soon as she +awoke, she said, "Husband, do please have our parlor window-sashes let +down from the top." "For ventilation?" said I. "Yes," said she, +"partly;" but I saw that she smiled. "What has made you think of it so +suddenly?" said I. "Do you not want to catch some more canaries?" said +she. "I suspect," said I, "that you would like to have ours escape." +"Perhaps," said she, "that would be a relief to you from your present +embarrassment." Then I saw that all this was banter. She wished to teaze +me a little. The truth is, I have two fine singing canaries and a +mocking-bird. Some of my pro-slavery friends delight to pester me about +them. They say that they mean to issue a habeas corpus, and take them +before Justice Bird, (who, you know, queerly enough, happens to be +United States Commissioner,) and inquire if they be not restrained of +their freedom. I tell them that man has dominion over all the fowls of +the air. But they say, "Then might makes right! Is it not a fine thing +that such a lover of liberty and friend of freedom and enemy of +oppression should keep those little prisoners for his selfish +gratification. Come, be a practical emancipationist to the extent of +your ability; set the South an example; break every yoke." "They are +better off with me," said I; "the hawks or cats would catch them, or +they would die from exposure." "Expediency!" said one of them; "do +justice, if the heavens fall." "Fye at _justitia_!" said one, who +pretended to take my part. "_Ruat coelum_, Let them rush to heaven," +replied the other. "Parse _coelum_, please, sir," said my boy in the +Academy. "Yes, past the ceiling," said the lawyer, pretending to +misunderstand him; "that's right, my son;"--and more wretched punning of +the same sort. Hence Mrs. North's pretended supplication about the +window-sashes. She has been in excellent spirits ever since I stopped +the papers. She says that she wonders at herself so calm and happy. I +heard her yesterday calling at the stairs to a little lisping English +waiting-maid, who cannot pronounce _s_: "Judith," said she, "did you not +hear the parlor-bell?" Judith walked up, and said, "Mitthith North, +lately you've rung tho eathy, that motht of the time I thought it mutht +be a acthident, and didn't come up at futht. I thpect the wireth ith got +ruthty." Mrs. North said nothing, but afterward, in relating the affair +to me, she said she truly believed that it was owing to my stopping the +papers. For she could remember how often she went to the bell-rope +saying to herself as she pulled it, "sum of all villanies!" then +"enormous wrong," with another pull, and then "stupendous injustice," +with another. Several times she says Judith has rushed up to the parlor +with "Ma'am, whath the matter! the bell rung three timth right off." She +thinks that her nervous system will last longer without the papers than +with them. As she told me this, she was shutting down the lid of the +piano for the night. As it fell into its place, the strings set up a +beautiful murmur. "Oh, hear that!" said she; "how solemn it is!" "I +suppose," said I, "you would not have heard it, if those papers had been +in the house." I shall not tell you, a bachelor, what she said and did. +I trust that her views on the great subject of freedom will get adjusted +by and by; and I am debating with myself what papers to take, having +been obliged, for my own edification, to become a subscriber to the +reading-room. There, however, I meet with a good many pro-slavery +prints, and I am tempted to look into them; after which I frequently +feel as though I should pull a bell-rope three times. A.F.N. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE. + + "Heaven pities ignorance: + She's still the first that has her pardon sign'd; + All sins else see their faults; she's, only, blind." + + MIDDLETON: _No Help like a Woman's._ + + +[Accompanying note, from A. BETTERDAY CUMMING to A. FREEMAN NORTH. + +MY DEAR MR. NORTH,-- + +With many thanks for your kindness and frankness, and with my warmest +congratulations to Mrs. North for the pleasant effect which the Southern +lady's letter has had upon her, I send you another document, hoping that +she will read it to you. It will not be worth while for me to say +anything about this production. It purports to be from a young man in +one of our New England literary institutions, whose aunt, with her +husband, was residing at the South for the health of a niece, a sister +to this young man;--they being orphans. The letter is so entirely in the +same key with your feelings that you cannot fail to be interested. +Knowing that you love rare specimens in everything, I send you this as +"the only one of its kind," or as we say, "_sui generis_."--A.B.C.] + + +---- College, ---- -- ----. + +MY DEAR AUNT,-- + +I have not heard from you but once since your arrival at the South. It +is because sister is more unwell? or because you are very busy with +your arrangements for the winter? or is it because, as I more than half +suspect, you are so much overcome by your first observation and +experience of slavery, that you have but little strength left to write +to me from that "---- post of observation, darker every hour"? Perhaps +you are mustering courage to tell me of the sights which you have seen, +the little while that you have been among the poor, enslaved children of +the sun in our Southern house of bondage. "Afraid to ask, yet much +concerned to know," I wait impatiently for a letter from you. I expect +to make great use of its details among my fellow-students, many of whom, +I mourn to say, have their hearts case-hardened against the story of +oppression. They will show an interest in everybody and everything +sooner than in the slave and his wrongs. They are not only callous on +that subject, but they laugh at your zeal and call it hard names. + +No one can tell what I suffer in the cause of freedom, through my +well-meant endeavors to interest and instruct others on the subject +which absorbs my thoughts. I know that I shall have your sympathy; and +when I come to hear from you what your own eyes have seen, ere this, in +slavery, I shall esteem all my sufferings in the cause of the slave as +light as air. + +I employ the intervals of study in walking among the beautiful scenery +of the village and its environs, if haply I may meet with some to whom I +may open my mind on this great theme. The last time that I went out for +this purpose, I met with a sad sight. A horse was running away with a +buggy, while between the body of the carriage and the wheel I saw +depending a foot, which I at once inferred was that of a lady. The horse +rushed by, and sure enough, a young lady had fallen on the floor of the +buggy, holding the reins, evidently entangled and embarrassed in her +posture, uttering the most heart-rending cries and shrieks, with +intermingled calls to the horse to stop. + +I could not help looking at the horse, as he passed, with feelings of +strong displeasure. To think that anything having an ear to hear and a +sensibility to feel should be so heedless of the cries of distress, +roused up my soul to indignation. As I reflected, however, it occurred +to me that no doubt this horse had been subjected to unkind treatment +from his youth up. I began to blame his owners. Had the law of kindness +been observed in the early management of this horse, doubtless he would +have regarded the first appeal of this young lady to him. May we not +hope, dear Aunt, that a new era is dawning upon us with regard to the +universal triumph of love and kindness over oppression of every kind, +and that the brute creation will partake of its benign influences? The +tone and manner in which horses are spoken to often sends a chill to my +heart. + +This reminds me, if you will excuse longer delay in my narrative, of +some unfavorable impressions which I received lately on my way to +Boston, with regard to the imperious manner in which a traveller is +assailed by advertisements on the fences, as you pass through the +environs of the city. Every few miles, as the cars passed along, I saw, +printed on the rough boards of a fence: "Visit" so and so; "Use" so and +so; "Try" so and so. I would not be willing to say how often my +attention was caught by those mandatory advertisements. At last I became +conscious of some feeling of resistance. Whether it was that I began to +breathe the air of Bunker Hill, and the atmosphere which nourishes our +most eminent friends of freedom, so many of whom, you know, live in +Boston and vicinity, I cannot tell; but I found myself saying, with +quite enough resentment and emphasis, "I will not 'use' so and so; I +will not 'try' so and so; especially, I will not 'visit' so and +so,--First, It will not be convenient. Secondly, I have no occasion to +do so. Thirdly, I do not know the way; but, Finally, I do not like to be +addressed in this manner, as an overseer of a Southern plantation +addresses a slave. I am not a slave. I am a Massachusetts freeman." This +way of speaking to people, dear Aunty, must be discountenanced. It will, +by and by, beget an aptitude for servile obedience; the eye and ear +becoming accustomed to the forms of domination, we shall have yokes and +chains upon us before we are aware. Some one says, "Let me write the +songs for a nation, and I care not who makes her laws." So say I, Let me +write imperative advertisements on fences and buildings, and all +resistance to Southern encroachments and usurpation will soon be in +vain. + +But to resume my narrative. I began to look round, as soon as my +excitement about the runaway horse would allow, for some one to whom I +could open my overburdened mind on the subject of freedom. I espied a +man with an immense load of chairs, from a factory in our neighborhood, +as I supposed, on his way to Boston. Four horses drew the load, which I +saw was very heavy; not so heavy, I thought with myself, as that which +four millions of my fellow-men are this moment laboring with, over the +gloomy hills of darkness in our Southern States. I felt impelled to +address the driver on this great theme. So, before he had reached the +top of the hill, I called out,-- + +"Driver!" + +Perhaps there was more suddenness and zeal in my call than was +judicious, but the driver immediately said "Whoa!" to his horses, and he +ran hither and thither for stones to block the wheels to keep his load +from running back, down hill. + +I felt encouraged, by this, to think that he was of a kind and pliable +disposition; and seeing the wheels fortified, and the horses at rest, I +felt more disposed to hold conversation with the man. "Who knows," I +said to myself, "but that I may now make one new friend for the slave?" + +"A warm day," said I. + +"Yes, sir," said he, a little impatiently, I thought, The sun was very +hot, an August morning, no air stirring, well suited to make one think +of toil and woe under our Southern skies. + +"Have you ever been at the South?" said I, wiping my forehead. + +"No, sir," said he, picking out a knot in the snapper of his whip, +evidently to hide his embarrassment while waiting to know the drift of +my question. The sight of his whip kindled in my soul new zeal for the +poor slaves, knowing as I did how many of them were at that moment +skipping in their tortures and striving to flee from the piercing lash. + +"Your toil in the hot sun with your load, my dear sir," said I, "is well +fitted to impress you with the thought of the miseries under which four +millions of your fellow-men are every day groaning in our Southern +country. I make no doubt that you are grateful for the blessings of +freedom which we enjoy here at the North. I wish to ask whether you are +doing anything against oppression; whether you belong to any Association +whose object is"-- + +"What on airth did you stop me for," said he, quite impatiently, and +yet with a lingering gleam of respect, and with some hesitancy at any +further rudeness of speech. + +"My dear sir," said I, "four millions of Southern slaves are this very +hour groaning under sorrows which no tongue"-- + +"You"--(he hesitated a moment, and surveyed me from head to foot, and +then broke out,)--"putty-headed, white-birch-looking, nateral--stoppin' +a load right near the crown of a hill, no gully in the road, such a day +as this, and--'Ged ehp,'"--said he to his horses, as the stones under +the wheels that moment began to give way; and then he drew his lash +through one hand, with a most angry look. I really thought that I should +have to feel that lash. The thought instantly nerved me:--I'll bear it! +it's for the slave; let me remember them, I might have added, that are +whipped as whipped with them; but at that moment the horses had reached +the hill-top, and the driver was by their side. + +He called back, as he passed round the rear of his load to the nigh side +of his team. I caught only a few of his last words;--"take your backbone +for a for'ard X." I snapped my thumb and finger at him, though not +lifting my arm from my side. The human spinal column, with its vertebræ, +for an axle-tree of a wagon! And yet, I immediately thought, the poor +negro's back is truly "the for'ard X" of the great wagon of our American +commerce. But I let him depart. + +Salutary impressions, I cannot question, dear Aunty, were made upon his +mind. He had heard some things which would occupy his thoughts in his +solitary trudge on his way to Boston. That thought comforted me as I was +writhing a little on my way home, under his opprobrious epithets; for +you know that I was always sensitive when addressed with reproachful +words. + +I could not help recalling and analyzing his scalding words of contempt. +I took a certain pleasure in doing so, because, as I saw and felt the +power of each in succession, I remembered what awful abuses flow from +the tongues of Southern masters and mistresses continually, as they goad +on their slaves to their work, or reproach them for not bringing in the +brick for which they had given them no straw. So it was comparatively a +light affliction for me to remember that I had been called by such hard +names. "Putty-headed!" said he. I infer, dear Aunty, that he must have +worked in the painter's department, and had been familiar with putty; +hence he drew the epithet, into whose signification I did not care to +inquire. "White-birch-looking!" I suppose he referred to the impression +of imbecility which we have in seeing a perfectly white tree in the +woods among the deep green of the sturdier trees. He may have referred +to the effect of sedentary habits on my complexion. However, I soon +forgot the particulars of his insulting address, retaining only the +impression that I had suffered, and that willingly, in the bleeding +cause of freedom. + +It was a great relief to me that, just at that moment, a very fine dog +approached me and fawned upon me, then ran ahead, and seemed afraid that +I should send him back. After a while I tried to drive him away, but he +insisted on following me, and I have no doubt that I might have secured +him, had I wished to do so. I was not a little inclined, at one time, to +take him home with me, and to keep him as a companion in my walks. But +he had a collar with his own name, Bruno, upon it, and the name of his +owner. The question of right occurred to me. I debated it. Applying some +of the self-evident truths established by our own Independence, I almost +persuaded myself that I might rightfully take the dog. I reasoned thus: +1. All dogs are born free and equal. 2. They have an inalienable right +to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 3. All governments +derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. These +principles, breathed in, from childhood, with the atmosphere of our +glorious "Fourth," I did not hesitate to apply in the case of the dog. I +do not know what practical conclusion I might have arrived at, but +suddenly I lost sight of Bruno in consequence of a new adventure, in the +process of which he disappeared. + +A matronly looking lady came suddenly out of a gate, with a cup in one +hand containing a teaspoon, and a brown earthen mug in the other hand. +She pushed the gate open before her, easily; but I saw that she was +embarrassed about shutting it. I stepped forward and assisted her. + +"Some kind office for the sick, I dare say," said I. + +"A woman in that plastered house is very sick," said she; "I have just +fixed some marsh-mallow for her, to see if it will ease her cough. Sorry +to trouble you, sir, but my cup was so full that I could not use my +hands." + +"I suppose," said I, "madam, if you will allow me to detain you a +moment,"-- + +"I am afraid my drink in the cup will get cold, sir, but"-- + +"Only a moment, madam," said I; (for I did not feel at liberty to walk +with her;) "only a moment; I am led to think, by your kindness to this +poor woman, of the millions of bond-people in our Southern country who +never feel the hand of love ministering to their sick and dying"-- + +"O you ignorant thing!" said she, pouring the contents of the cup into +the mug, and then setting the cup on the mug, all without looking at me; +"where were you born and bred? You must be an abolitionist. Southern +ladies are the very best of nurses; and as to their slaves when they are +sick,--why their hearts are overflowing--why!" said she, "I could tell +you tales that would make you cry like a baby--the idea! millions of +slaves sick and neglected! Do you belong to ---- College?" + +"Yes, madam," said I. + +"Sophomore?" said she. + +"Yes, madam." But it was a cutting question. She had an arch look as she +asked it. + +"Well sir," said she, with a graceful air, in a half averted direction, +"you have some things to learn about your fellow-countrymen which are +not put down in your Moral Philosophies. Please do not betray your +ignorance on subjects about which you are evidently in midnight +darkness." She was some ways from me, but I heard her continue: "Was +there ever anything like this Northern ignorance and prejudice about the +Southern people!" + +I had nothing to do but resume my lonely walk. My sense of desolateness +no tongue can tell. I whistled for Bruno, but in vain. She called me "an +ignorant thing," said I. Ignorant on the subject of slavery! How easy it +is to misjudge! Have I steadied free-soil papers all these years only to +be called "an ignorant thing!" I could graduate to-day from this +institution, though only in my second year, if the examination were +confined to the subject of slavery. I have thoroughly understood the +theory; I have learned by heart the codes of the iniquitous system. I +know it root and branch, from pith to bark. All the lecturers on the +subject have not labored in vain, nor spent their strength for nought, +with me. And now to be called "ignorant!" Just as though I could not +reason, that is, draw inferences from premises, make deductions from +facts. There is the great fact of slavery; it is "the sum of all +villanies;" men holding their fellow-men in bondage for the sake of +gain; the heart naturally covetous, oppressive, and cruel, where power +is unlimited. As though the law of kindness could, in such +circumstances, possibly prevail and mitigate the sorrows of the bondman! +The direct influence of slavery is to debase, to make barbarous, to +petrify; I know as well as though I saw it that the South must be full +of neglected, perishing objects, cast out to perish in their sicknesses. +You doubtless are acquainted, dear Aunty, with the great change in the +mode of reasoning introduced by Lord Bacon. We reason now from facts to +conclusion; this is called the inductive method, to collect facts, then +draw inferences. The facts which I have collected on the subject of +slavery, in my reading and hearing, lead me to a perfect theory on the +subject, and my confidence in that theory is all which it could be if, +like you, I were now seeing it verified with my own eyes. + +I reason on this subject of slavery, just as our philosophers reason +about the moon. You have learned, dear Aunt, ere this, that there is no +water in the moon. Certain things are observed by our telescopes, in the +moon, from which we are sure that there is no water there. Now there are +certain given facts in slavery. Slavery is Barbarism. It consists in +holding men to compulsory servitude. The human heart is avaricious; it +gets all it can, and keeps all it gets. Give it complete power over a +human being, and there are no limits to its cupidity and wrong-doing, +but the finite nature of the thing itself. Hence, does it not follow +that there can be no disinterestedness, no tender mercies in slavery? +Yes, dear Aunt, as we are perfectly sure that there can be no water in +the moon, so are we sure, by the same unerring rule of reasoning +according to the inductive philosophy, that there is not one drop of +water in slavery for the parched lips of a dying slave. I stated this to +a member of our Junior Class who is a wonderful metaphysician. He was +kind enough to say that he could discover no flaw in the logic. Your +letter, which, I trust, is now on its way to me, I know will fully +confirm my theory and conclusion. + +This lady had probably been reading some miserable cant about Southern +humanity, for there are people everywhere who take the wrong side of +every subject, from sheer obstinacy. What can disprove the laws of human +nature? They require that things should be at the South as our theories +lay them down. + +In our Institution I mourn to say there is much opposition to the +principles of freedom. Not only so, but the students, many of them, mock +at us who stand up against oppression. + +You may not be aware, dear Aunty, that I have a habit, in walking, of +keeping my hands firmly clenched, and my thumbs laid flat and pressed +down over the knuckles of my forefingers. This, I am aware, gives the +thumbs a flattened look. One of our principal pro-slavery students +delights to laugh at me to my face. Perhaps I am wrong in connecting +everything with this all-absorbing theme, but, truly, my thoughts all +run in that direction. Mother and you were accustomed to send me on +errands when I was little, and you placed your money in my right hand +and mother hers in my left, because, on my return to our house, your +room was on the right hand of the entry. So I used to go along, holding +your respective moneys in my palms, with my thumbs stopping the +apertures. And now I am persecuted for the fidelity which led me to +acquire a habit that cleaves to me to this day. But little did I dream, +dear Aunty, when I padded along like a straight footed animal in the +water, instead of having the free use of my open palms to aid me in +walking, that I was acquiring a habit to be to me an inlet of torture in +behalf of our manacled four millions, whose hands feel the galling bonds +of slavery. I take it joyfully, because it is all for the slave. + +The day that I came home from my two interviews and efforts just +related, a pro-slavery student, a Senior, invited me into his room. He +is exceedingly kind and generous, though, I am sorry to say it, a friend +of oppression. He gave me a splendid apple, the first which I had seen +for the season. He dusted my coat with his feather-duster, and he even +dusted my boots. He asked me how far I had been walking. I told him all +which I had said and done, thinking that it would profitably remind him +of the great subject. He roared with laughter. "Three cheers for +Gustavus;" "isn't that rich;"--waving, all the while, the +feather-duster, and breaking out with fresh peals, as I related one +thing after another. The noise which he made brought in several of the +students from neighboring rooms, and he related my stories to them as +they stood with their thumbs and fingers holding open their text-books +at the places where they were studying. They were a curious looking set, +in their dressing-gowns, slippers, and smoking-caps; and the most of +them, unfortunately, happened to be pro-slavery, and advocates of +oppression; by which I mean, not in favor of my mode of viewing and +treating the subject of slavery. One of them was so amused and excited +that he lost all self-control. He threw down his book, caught me with +his two hands about the waist, and tickled me so that I fell upon the +floor. Then they raised a shout. We have cool nights here, sometimes, in +the warmest weather, and we keep, on the foot-boards of our beds, cotton +comforters, called _delusions_, because they are so downy and light. Two +of the students took the Senior's comforter and laid it on me; then four +of them sat down, one on each corner, to keep me underneath. I have told +you that it was a sultry August day. I thought that I should smother. I +told them so, as well as my choked voice would allow; but one of them +said, in a soft, meek tone, as I writhed in distress, "Hush, Gustavus, +lie still; you are certainly laboring under a delusion." This was all +the more painful from its being so cruelly true, in a literal sense, +while I knew that they had reference to my views with regard to freedom, +in the word "delusion." What sustained me in those moments, dear Aunty? +It was not that I had myself stood by when this trick was played on +Freshmen, and encouraged it by my actions; no, a higher and holier power +than conscience of wrong-doing wrought upon me in those moments. Oh, I +thought, the very cotton which fills this comforter, was cultivated by +the hand of a slave. And shall I complain at being nearly smothered by +it, when I remember what an incubus slavery is to the poor creature who +gathered this cotton, and what an incubus it is to our unhappy land? I +was delivered at last from my load, because my tormentors were tired of +their sport. Would that there were some prospect that they who load +cruel burdens on the slave were increasingly tired of their work! + +They would not, however, let me rise. So, thought I, when we have taken +the burden of slavery off from the poor negro, unholy prejudice against +color keeps him from rising to a level with the rest of the community. I +begged that I might get up. They told me that my morning exertions +required longer rest. I told them that I must get my Greek. Whereupon +one of them stood over me, with his arms raised in a deploring attitude, +and said,-- + + "Sternitur infelix!-- + --Et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." + +This, dear Aunty, is the lamentation of a Latin poet over a Greek +soldier lying prostrate on the battle-field, far from home;--"and dying +he remembers his sweet Greece." So they made game of me with the help of +the Classics, giving poignancy to their jokes by polishing the tips with +classical allusions. While I was under the "delusion," they sung +snatches of Bruce's Address to his army; and when they came to the words + + "Who so base as be a slave?-- + Let him turn and flee," + +one of them ran a cane under the delusion and punched me with it, +keeping stroke to the music. This was little short of profaneness. They +asked me if the chair-maker's harnesses were probably made by free or +slave labor, alluding, unfeelingly, to a mistake which I made in a +recitation one day, when two of those very students had kept me talking +about slavery up to the very moment when the recitation-bell rang, so +that I had not looked at my lesson. There are men in my class, and +these were some of them, who, I am told, are plotting to prevent my +having the first appointment, to which they know that my marks at +recitation entitle me. But may I never be so prejudiced against those +who differ from me on the subject of slavery as to deny them credit for +things which they have fairly earned. I leave this to the avowed enemies +of human rights. For the cause of the slave, I must gain the first +appointment. + +I alluded, just now, to my feelings at witnessing tricks played on the +Freshmen. Had the Sophomores asked my advice before they played those +tricks, I should have dissuaded them; but when they played them, with +such courage and enterprise, I stood before them with admiration. But +while I was under that quilt, I found that I did not admire the +Sophomores at all, any more than I did the Seniors who then had me in +their power. + +The enemies of freedom, in College, had a great triumph the other +evening. One of them, in one of the Literary Societies, read an Original +Poem, the title of which was, "The Fly-time of Freedom." He spoke of +"our glorious summer of Liberty" being infested and pestered with noisy, +provoking things, which he characterized under the names of dor-bugs, +millers, and all those creatures which fly into the room when the lamp +is lighted; the swarms of black gnats which are about your head in the +woods; horse-flies which stick, and leave blood running; and +devil's-darning-needles. One brave man here, a great "friend of +freedom," who, they falsely say, loves to be persecuted, and longs for +martyrdom, and interprets everything that way, he described as a miller, +who seems to court death in the flame. I think he aimed at me in +speaking of soft, harmless bugs which creep over your newspaper or book. +Many faces were turned to me as he repeated these lines. I am sorry to +say the piece was much applauded. It has put back the cause of +emancipation in College, I fear, a term. + +The following introduction to another piece was written, and was read, +at the same meeting, by a member of my own class. I fear that there is a +sly hit intended by the writer, which I do not discern, at somebody, or +something, related to freedom. This I suspected from the applause it +excited on the part of those who I know are the most deadly foes we have +to free institutions. I obtained a copy of this introduction. It will +serve, at least, to show you, dear Aunty, what a variety of topics we +have to excite our minds here in College. You can exercise your +discretion about letting uncle read it, as it is on a subject of some +delicacy. The writer says,-- + +"I am collecting facts from our daily papers illustrating the Barbarism +of Matrimony. My list of wives poisoned, beaten, maimed for life by +their husbands, and of divorces, cruel desertions, the effects on wives +of intemperance in husbands, is truly fearful. I make no question that +there are some happy marriages. But a relation which affords such +peculiar opportunities for cruelty to women, must sooner or later +disappear. No doubt the time will come when marriage will be deemed a +relic of barbarism, and a bridal veil be exhibited as one of the mock +decorations of the unhappy victims. Human nature in man is not good +enough to be trusted with such a responsibility as the happiness of +woman. Let Bachelors of Arts, on our parchments, suggest to us our duty +to aid, through our example, as well as by words, in breaking this +dreadful yoke, bidding those innocent young women who are now, perhaps, +fearfully looking at us as their future oppressors, to be forever free. +In the language of young Hamlet: 'I say, we will have no more +marriages.'" + + * * * * * + +Just before dark one evening, I was sitting in my room, meditating on +the great theme which absorbs my thoughts. My eye was caught by the +bright bolt of my door-lock, the part of the bolt between the lock and +the catch showing, beyond question, that the door was fastened. Some one +on the outside had turned a key upon me. + +I had the self-possession to be quiet, for my mind had been calmed by +reflecting, in that twilight hour, that now one more day of toil for the +poor slaves was over. + +But as I looked at the bolt, my attention was diverted by something near +the top of the door, moving with a strange motion. It was black; it +opened and shut. I drew toward it. I found that it was the leg of a +turkey, the largest that I ever saw. It was held or fastened in the +ventilator over the door, while some one on the outside was evidently +pulling the tendons of the claw, making it open and shut. + +There it performed its tragi-comic gibes for several minutes. + +I resumed my seat, unterrified, of course, and proceeded to turn the +spectre to good account. I addressed it, in a moderate tone; though I +think that I used some gesticulation. Said I: Personation of the +Slave-power! predatory, grasping, black! thinkest thou a panting +fugitive lies hid under my "delusion?" or wouldst thou seize a freeman? +The Ægis of Massachusetts is over me. Gape! Yawn! Thou art powerless; +but thy impudence is sublime.--Ten or fifteen voices then solemnly +chanted these words:-- + + "Emblem of Slavery + Clutching the Free! + We've digested the turkey + That gobbled oil thee. + Sure as THANKSGIVING hastened, + Cock-turkey! thy hour, + Thanksgivings shall blazon + Thy downfall, Slave-power! + + "The Slave-power has talons, + Like Nebuchadnezzar; + Slaves are the Lord's flagons + Our modern Belshazzar + From the Temple of Nature + Has stolen away. + 'Mean!' 'Mean!' be writ o'er him! + Wrath! canst thou de"-- + +Here screams of laughter, and a scampering in the entry, and the +turkey's leg tumbling into my room, ended the trick and their +cantillation. I was wishing to hear, in the next stanza, the idea that +as the tendons of the claw were worked by a foreign power, so slavery at +the South owes its activity to Northern influence. Perhaps it is due to +myself to say that the word scampering, a few lines above, has no +revengeful reference, in its first syllable, to the author of the trick. +The cause of humanity, I find, has a tendency to make one cautious and +charitable in his use of words. + +They have anti-slavery meetings in the village, now and then, which I +attend. All the talent of the place, and the truly good, are there. One +evening, when the excitement rose high, a tall, awkward young man +mounted the stage, and said that he wanted to offer one resolution as a +cap-sheaf. You will infer, dear Aunty, that he was an agriculturist. He +lifted his paper high up in one hand, while his other hand was extended +in the other direction, and so was his foot under that hand. He looked +like Boötes, on the map of the heavens, which we used to take with us, +you know, in studying the comet. "Read it!" "Read it!" said the meeting. +"I will," said he, flinging himself almost round once, in his +excitement, reminding me of a war-dance, and then taking his sublime +attitude again; when he read,-- + +"Resolved, Mr. Cheerman, fact is, that Abolition is everything, and +nuthin' else is nuthin'." + +Some of the younger portion of the audience wished to raise a laugh, but +the reddening, angry faces of the prominent friends of the slave were +turned upon them instantly, and overawed them. + +All were silent for a moment, when the Chairman rose to speak. He was a +short man, with reddish hair, and his teeth were almost constantly +visible, his lips not seeming to be an adequate covering for them. He +had, moreover, a habit of snuffing up with his nose,--in doing which his +upper lip, what there was of it, played its part, and made him show his +teeth by frequent spasms. Being a little bow-legged, he made an awkward +effort in coming to the front of the stage; but we all love him, because +he is such a vigorous friend of freedom, looking as though he would +willingly be executioner of all the oppressors in the land. He said that +he "utterly concurred" with the mover in the spirit of his resolution; +it was not, to be sure, in the usual form of resolutions, but that could +easily be fixed; and he would suggest that it be referred to the +Standing Committee of the Freedom League. "I agree to that," said the +pro-slavery Senior who gave me that entertainment in his room, (but who, +by the way, being a friend of oppression, had no right to speak in a +meeting in behalf of freedom;) "I agree to that," said he, "Mr. +Chairman, and I move that the School-master be added to the Committee." +What a cruel laugh went through the meeting! while the most +distinguished friends of the slave had hard work to control their faces. + +I could not help going to the mover of the resolution after the meeting; +and, laying two fingers of my right hand on his arm, I said, "Don't be +put down; he tried to reproach you for not being college-bred; he had +better get the slaves well educated before he laughs at a Massachusetts +freeman for not being a scholar."--He tossed his black fur-skin cap +half-way to his head, and he wheeled round as he caught it, saying, +"Don't care, liberty's better'n larnin', 'nuff sight."--"Both are good," +said I, "my friend, and we must give them both to the slave."--"Give 'em +the larnin' after y'u've sot 'em free!" said he; "I'll fight for 'em; +don't want to hear nuthin' 'bout nuthin' else but liberty to them that's +bound." He stooped and pulled a long whip and a tin pail from under the +seat of the pew where he had been sitting, making considerable noise, so +that the people, as they passed out, turned, and the sight of him and +his accoutrements made great sport for some whose opinions and feelings +were the least to be regarded. I saw in him, dear Aunty, a fair specimen +of native, inbred love of liberty and hatred of oppression, +unsophisticated, to be relied on in our great contest with the +slave-power. I have been told, since the meeting, that his Christian +name is Isaiah. + +The meeting that evening appointed me a delegate to an Anti-slavery +Convention which is to be held before long. I am expected to represent +the College on the great arena of freedom. They have done me too much +honor. Since my appointment, the students have sent me, anonymously, +through the post-office, resolutions to be presented by me at the +Convention. I have copied them into a book as they came in, and I will +transcribe them for you and send them herewith. The spirit of liberty +is, on the whole, certainly rising among the students. As the blood of +the martyrs is the seed of the Church, I cannot but hope that my trials +in the cause of freedom have wrought good in the Institution. Some who +send in these resolutions privately, are, no doubt, secret friends, +needing a little more courage to face the pro-slavery feeling and +sentiment which are all about them. Some one who read these resolutions +suggested the idea of their being a burlesque. I repudiated the idea at +once. They will commend themselves to you, dear Aunty, I am sure, as +honest and truthful. + +The President called me to his room yesterday, and asked me about the +treatment which I received from those Seniors. While I was telling him +of it, I noticed that he kept his handkerchief close to his face almost +all the time. I thought at first that his nose bled, or that he had a +toothache; but I afterward believed that he was weeping at the story of +my wrongs. A Southerner, in the Junior Class, said he had no doubt that +the President was laughing heartily all the time. None but a minion of +the slave-power could have suggested this idea. The President felt so +much that he merely told me to return to my room. + +But I perceive, by the students with letters and papers in their hands, +that the mail is in. I will add a postscript, if I find a letter from +you; and I will send on the resolutions at once. Write soon, dear Aunty, +to your loving nephew, and to + +Yours for the slave, +Gustavus. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RESOLUTIONS FOR A CONVENTION. + + "Nay, and thou'lt mouth, + I'll rant as well as thou."--HAMLET. + + +I. + +_Resolved_, That the continued practice of wild geese to visit the South +for the winter, flying over free soil--Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill, +Faneuil Hall,--on their way to the land of despotism, cannot be too +loudly deplored by all the friends of freedom in the North; and that the +laws of nature are evidently imperfect in not yielding to the known +anti-slavery sentiments of this great Northern people so far as to make +the instincts of said geese conform to our most sacred antipathies and +detestations. + + +II. + +_Resolved_, That the abolitionists of Maine, and of the British +Provinces, resident near the summer haunts of said geese, be requested +to consider whether measures may not be adopted whereby anti-slavery +tracts, and card-pictures illustrating the atrocious cruelties of +slavery, and appeals to the consciences of the South, or at least +instructions to the colored people as to their right and duty to assert +their liberty, may not be fastened to these birds of passage, to make +them apostles of liberty; so that while they continue to disregard the +bleeding cause of humanity, their very cackle may be converted into lays +of freedom. + + +III. + +Whereas we read in the Revelation a description of the wall of heaven as +having "on the South three gates," a number equal to that assigned to +the North, + +_Resolved_, That this description being in total disregard of the great +modern anti-slavery movement, the book which contains it cannot have +been divinely inspired; and that a true anti-slavery Bible would have +represented those pro-slavery gates as shut, with the inscription over +them: Enter from the North. + + +IV. + +_Resolved_, That the great abolitionist who represents himself in his +speeches as baptizing his dogs, in just ridicule of the baptism of +chattel slaves, is worthy, with his dogs, of a place in the heavens +among the constellations; and that anti-slavery astronomers be requested +to make a Southern constellation for them somewhere near the head of The +Serpent, as rivals to "_Canes Venatici_," which pro-slavery astronomers +no doubt designed, in blasphemous profanation of the heavens, to +represent their bloodhounds hunting fugitive slaves, placing it in +disgusting proximity to our own Northern _Ursa Major_. And the friends +of the slave are hereby invited to make that new constellation their +cynosure, vowing by it, and anti-slavery lovers arranging their +matrimonial engagements, if possible, so as to plight their troth only +when it is in the ascendant. + + +V. + +_Resolved_, That we shall hail it as a sign of progress and an omen for +good, when anti-slavery women, with the sensibility which belongs to +their sex, shall become so interpenetrated with the sentiments of +freedom, that they can distinguish by the sense of taste the oyster +grown in James River, Richmond, Virginia, and handled by the toil-worn +slave, from that which grew on free soil. + + +VI. + +_Resolved_, That our noble anti-slavery poets be requested to compose +sonnets addressed to the whippoorwill, appealing to that sorrowful-tuned +bird by our associations with his name, and by his own historic +relationship to the victims of oppression, to desert the South and to +frequent our woods and pastures in greater numbers, that the +sensibilities of our people may be continually touched by his notes and +his name, so suggestive of the monstrous lash which rules over one half +of this great nation. And the anti-slavery members of the Legislature +are hereby requested to seek legislative enactments whereby the +whippoorwill may be further domiciliated at the North, and be provided +with protection during the winter season. + + +VII. + +_Resolved_, That bobolinks, blue jays, orioles, martins, and swallows, +who visit the rice-fields of the South, and live upon the unrequited +toil of four millions of our fellow-men, should not, upon their return, +be viewed with favor by the friends of equal rights at the North, but +should be destroyed by sportsmen as a sacrifice to outraged humanity. +And no true anti-slavery taxidermist will, in our judgment, be found +willing to stuff the skin of one of those mean and traitorous birds for +any public or private ornithological show-case. + + +VIII. + +_Resolved_, That one subject of great interest, well suited to occupy +the attention of Massachusetts freemen and friends of liberty the +current year, is this: Whether the great whips in Dock Square, Boston, +which stand professedly as signs before the doors of whip-makers' shops, +but are in the very sight of Faneuil Hall, shall be allowed to remain +within that sacred precinct of liberty; and that we tender our thanks to +those who are investigating the question whether the whips were not +originally placed, and are not now maintained, there by the slave-power, +in mockery of our Northern hatred of oppression. + + +IX. + +_Resolved_, That, if it be true that the steel pen which signed the bill +for the removal of a Judge of Probate for doing an accursed duty as U.S. +Commissioner, was taken from the Council Chamber and is now in the +possession of one who has driven it into the edge of his chamber-door +casement, and every night hangs his watch upon it, at the head of his +bed, with the infatuated notion that thereby, through some "most fine +spirit of sense," the tick of a death-watch will disturb the political +dreams of our Massachusetts rulers, we hereby declare that this is most +chimerical and visionary, and that the great party of freedom in +Massachusetts need not feel the slightest apprehension that our rulers +have the least misgivings as to the morality of their conduct in the +removal of said officer, nor that they fear political retribution for +that deed; nor do we believe that the death-watch will ever tick in the +ear of freedom in Massachusetts. + + +X. + +_Resolved_, That in the acquiescence of many at the North in the entire +justice of a universal massacre, by the slaves, of their masters, +including women and children, we recognize a state of preparedness for +the proscription and banishment of all who do not come up to the high +abolition standard; but that in carrying out that project, we ought +first to seek the reclamation of the victims, and therefore that due +inquiry ought to be made concerning the most effective modes of +persuasion, as, for example, thumb-screws, racks, wheels, scorpions, +water-dropping for the head, bags of snakes, tweezers, and steel-pointed +beds, it being apparent that our agony for the slave cannot be satisfied +except by his liberation, or by the forcible subjection to us of all who +oppose it. And we do hereby request all the friends of freedom now +travelling in despotic countries to make inquiry as to the most approved +methods of persuading the mind by appeals to it through the +sensibilities of the flesh, and to be prepared with this information +against the time when the sublime march of abolition philanthropy shall +arrive at the limits of forbearance with all the Northern advocates of +oppression. + + +XI. + +Whereas no one who holds slaves can be a Christian; and whereas Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob were slave-holders, Abraham himself having owned more +slaves than any Southerner; and whereas a synonyme of heaven, in the New +Testament, is "Abraham's bosom;" and whereas no true friend of freedom +can consistently have Christian communion with slave-holders, + +_Resolved_, That we look with deep interest to the introduction among us +of the principles of the Hindoo philosophy and religion (including the +transmigration of souls), through tentative articles in our magazines; +by which there is opening to us a way of escape from that heaven one +exponent of which is, to lie in the bosom of a slave-holder. + + +XII. + +And in conclusion, + +_Be it Resolved_, That Bunker Hill was since Mount Sinai, that Faneuil +Hall is far in advance of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness; and that our +anti-slavery literature is immeasurably beyond epistles to Philemon and +other inspired pro-slavery tracts. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE GOOD NORTHERN LADY'S LETTER FROM THE SOUTH. + + "No haughty gesture marks his gait, + No pompous tone his word; + No studied attitude is seen, + No palling nonsense heard; + He'll suit his bearing to the hour, + Laugh, listen, learn, or teach. + With joyous freedom in his mirth, + And candor in his speech."--ELIZA COOK. + + +[My friend, A. Freeman North, having read the foregoing, returned it +with a hasty note, in pencil, saying, "Please send me the Aunt's reply, +if you have it, or can procure it." I accordingly sent it, and we have +it here.] + +MY DEAR NEPHEW,-- + +Your letter came while we had gone into the country for a fortnight. +Hattie is much improved, and I trust will soon be well. I gave her your +letter to read. She told me that she could not find it in her heart to +wonder at you for it; for once she should probably have written very +much in the same strain. + +It was Easter Monday afternoon when our steamboat reached the wharf. We +took an open carriage and drove toward the hotel. As we reached the +centre of the city, the place seemed to be full of colored people, who +evidently had just come out of their meeting-houses. This was our first +view of the blacks. Our driver had to stop frequently while they were +crossing the streets, and we had full opportunity to enjoy the sight. +Hattie exclaimed, after looking at them a few moments,-- + +"Why, Uncle, they are human beings!" + +"What did you suppose they were?" said he. + +"Uncle," said she, "these cannot be slaves. Where do you suppose the +yokes are?" + +"Now, Hattie," said he, "you were not so simple as to suppose that they +wore yokes, like wild cows and swine." + +"Why," said she, "our papers are always telling about their being +'reduced to a level with brutes,' and every Sabbath since I was a child, +it seems to me, I have heard the prayer, 'Break every yoke!' Last Sabbath +our minister, you remember, said, 'Abraham was a slave-holder, David a +murderer, and Peter lied and swore.' Why, Uncle, these black people look +like gentlemen and ladies! If slave-holders are like murderers and +thieves, these cannot be their slaves!" + +"Ask that elderly gentleman," said your Uncle. He was stopping for our +carriage to pass,--a portly man, with a ruffled shirt, and a +rich-looking cane, the end of which he kept on the ground, holding the +top of it at some distance from him. + +"Please, sir, will you tell me if these are the slaves?" said Hattie. + +He looked round, while he kept his arm and the top of his cane +describing large arcs of a circle. + +"They are our colored people, Miss," said he, exchanging a smile with +your Uncle and me. + +"Well, sir," said Hattie, more earnestly than before, "are they +slaves?" + +He politely nodded assent, but was apparently interested by something +which caught his eye. He then took out a snuff-box, and, looking round +about him while opening it, said,-- + +"Some of them dress too much, Miss,--too much, altogether." + +"Kid gloves of all colors," said Hattie, soliloquizing. "Red morocco +Bibles and hymn-books. What a white cloud of a turban! Part of the +choir, I take it,--those, with their singing-books. Elegant spruce young +fellow, isn't he, Aunt? with the violoncello. Venerable old couple, +there! over eighty, both of them. Well," continued Hattie, "I will give +up, if these are the slaves." + +"Don't make up your mind too suddenly," said your Uncle; "you will see +other things." + +"Uncle," said she, "what I have seen here in fifteen minutes shows me +that at least one half of that which I have learned at the North about +the slaves is false. Our novels and newspapers are all the time +misleading us." + +"And yet," said your Uncle, "perhaps everything they say may be true by +itself; it may have happened." + +"Why, Aunt," said she, "such a load is gone from my mind since looking +upon these colored people that I feel almost well. Why, there's a +wedding!" said she. "Driver, do stop! Uncle, please let us go in." + +They left me, and went into a meeting-house, where a black bridegroom, +in a blue broadcloth suit, white waistcoat, kid gloves, patent-leather +shoes, and white hose, and an ebony bride, in white muslin caught up +with jessamines, and a myrtle wreath on her head, had gone in, followed +by a train of colored people. The white people, invited guests, it +seems, were already assembled. The sexton told your Uncle that the +parties were servants, each to a respectable family. This was a new +picture to Hattie. She said that in looking back to the steamboat, an +hour ago, the revelations made to her by what she had seen and heard, in +that short time, all new, all surprising and delightful, afforded her +some idea of the sensations of a soul after it has been one hour within +the veil. We sat in the carriage, and saw the procession pass out, when +the choir, who had been in the church before the wedding, practising +tunes, resumed their singing. + +"Now the idea," said Hattie, after we had listened awhile, "that they +can forget that they are slaves long enough to meet and practise +psalm-tunes!" + +"You evidently think," said your Uncle, "that they would not sing the +Lord's songs, if this were to them a strange land." + +"They certainly have not hung their harps upon the willows by these +rivers of Babylon," said Hattie. + +"Why, some of our people at the North are to-day writhing in anguish, +because of these slaves, and are imprecating God's vengeance, and +praying that the slaves may get their liberty, even by violence, while +the slaves themselves are practising psalm-tunes!"-- + +"And getting married," said your Uncle. + +"Yes, Sir," said Hattie, "and this week our ---- paper will come to us +from New York loaded with articles about 'bondage' and 'sum of all +villanies,' and 'poor, toil-worn slaves.' Toil-worn! I never saw such a +lively set of people. Do see that little mite of a round black child, in +black jacket and pants; he looks like a drop of ink; Oh, isn't he +cunning! Little boy! what is your"-- + +"Come, come!" said your Uncle, "you are getting too much excited; you +will pay for all this to-morrow with one of your headaches." + +But a new surprise awaited us. The driver stopped opposite a large, +plain-looking building, and told us that we had better step in. On +entering, we involuntarily started back, for I never saw a house more +densely filled; and all were blacks. It was a sable cloud; but the sun +was in it. The choir were singing a select piece. The principal +_soprano_, an elegant-looking black girl, dressed in perfect taste, held +her book from her in her very small hand covered with a straw-colored +glove. The singing was charming. We asked a white-headed negro in the +vestibule what was going on. + +"Why, it is Easter Monday, Missis." + +"Is this an Episcopal church?" + +"No; Baptist." + +"What are all these people here for?" said your Uncle. + +"Why, to worship, Sir, I hope. It's holiday." + +"Do they go to church, holidays?" + +"Why," said he, with a smile and bow, "some of the best of 'em, p'raps." + +We returned to the carriage. + +"Think," said your uncle, "of two thousand people at the North spending +a part of 'Artillery Election Day' in Boston, for example, in going to +church!" + +"Well," said Hattie, "if I were not to live another day, I would bless +God for having let me live to see these things. I am so glad to find +people happy who I had supposed were weeping and wailing." + +We admonished her that she had not seen the whole of slavery. + +A very interesting coincidence happened to us the next day. We took tea +at Rev. Mr. ----'s. A splendid bride-cake adorned the table. As Hattie +was admiring the ornaments on the cake, the lady of the clergyman smiled +and said,-- + +"This is from a colored wedding." + +Sure enough, that black bride whom we saw the day before had sent her +minister's wife this loaf. Said Miss ----, "I was hurrying to get a silk +dress made last week, but my dressmaker put me off, because she was +working for Phillis B.'s wedding." + +We both gave a glance at Hattie. She sat gazing at Miss ----, her lips +partly open, her eyes moistened,--a picture in which delight and +incredulity were in pleasant strife. + + * * * * * + +We have been in the interior a fortnight. One thing filled me with +astonishment, soon after I came here, namely, to find widow ladies and +their daughters, all through the interior of Southern States, living +remote from other habitations, surrounded by twenty, fifty, or a hundred +slaves. Hattie and I spent a week with a widow lady, whose head slave +was her overseer. There was not a white man within a mile of the house. +More than twenty black men, slaves, were in the negro quarter. I awoke +the first night, and said to Hattie,-- + +"Do you know that you are 'sleeping on a volcano'?" + +"What do you mean, Aunt? You frighten me." + +"Well, it will not make an eruption to-night," said I. "We will examine +into it to-morrow." + +At breakfast I asked the lady how she dared to live so. I told her that +we at the North generally fancied Southern people sleeping on their +arms, expecting any night to be murdered by their slaves. + +"It ought to be so, ought it not?" said she, "according to your Northern +theory of slavery; and it may get to be so, if your people persist in +some of their ways. My only fear is of some white men who live about two +miles off. I keep two of my men-servants in the house at night as a +protection against white depredators." + +"But," said Hattie, "there have been insurrections. Are you not afraid +that your slaves will rise and assert their liberty?" + +The lady smiled and was evidently hesitating whether to answer seriously +or not, when Hattie continued,-- + +"Aunt! now I see what you meant by our sleeping on a volcano." + +"Yes," said I, "we at the North often speak of you Southerners as +sleeping on a volcano. Our idea is that the blacks here are prisoners, +stealing about in a sulky mood, vengeance brooding in their hearts, and +that they wait for their time of deliverance, as prisoners in our +state-prison watch their chance to escape." + +"Well," said she, "believe I am the only slave on the premises. I am +sure that no one but myself is watching for a chance to escape. I would +run away from these people if I could. But what shall I do with them? I +am not willing to sell them, for when I have hinted at leaving, there is +such entreaty for me to remain, and such demonstrations of affection and +attachment, that I give it up. + +"Here," said she, "are seven house-servants, large and small, to do work +which at the North a man and two capable girls would easily do. I have +to devise ways to subdivide work and give each a share. My husband +carried it so far that he had one boy to black boots and another shoes, +and these two 'bureaus' were kept separate." + +"Oh," said I, "what a curse slavery is to you!" + +"As to that," said she, "it is the negroes who are a curse, not their +slavery. So long as they are on the same soil with us, the subordination +which slavery establishes makes it the least of two evils. If there is +any curse in the case, it is the blacks themselves, not their slavery. +Were it not for their enslavement to us, we should hate them and drive +them away, like Indiana and Illinois and Oregon and Kansas. Now we +cherish them, and their interests are ours. + +"Two distinct races," said she, "never have been able to live together +unless one was subordinate and dependent. This, you know, all history +teaches. Your fanatics say it should not be so; they talk about liberty, +equality, and fraternity, and put guns and pikes into the hands of the +inferior race, here, to help them 'rise in the scale of being,' as they +term it. What God means to accomplish in this matter of slavery I do not +see. + +"Suppose, merely for illustration," said she, "that cotton should be +superseded. Vast numbers of our slaves might then be useless here. What +would become of them? We should implore the North to relieve us of them, +in part. Then would rise up the Northern antipathy to the negro, +stronger, probably, in the abolitionist than in the pro-slavery man; and +as we sought to remove the negroes northward and westward, the Free +States would invoke the Supreme Court, and the Dred Scott decision, and +then we should see, with a witness, whether the black man has 'any +rights' on free soil 'which the' original settlers 'are bound to +respect.' Think of bleeding Kansas, even, refusing to incorporate +negro-suffrage in her constitution, when left free to follow the +dictates of common sense, and a wise self-interest. I sometimes think +that that one thing, as a philosophical fact, is worth all the trouble +which Kansas has cost. It cannot be 'unholy prejudice against color.' It +is human nature asserting the laws which God has established in it. + +"I never," said she, "find abolitionists quoting the whole of the verse +which says: 'and hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth.'" + +"What," said I, "do they leave out?" + +"'And hath fixed the bounds of their habitations,' are some of the next +words," said she. + +But you will tire of this. I will resume my story. I will only say that +I told the lady that some of my gentleman friends would call her a +strong-minded woman. + + * * * * * + +Your letter made me think of something which happened to a lady, a +fellow-traveller of ours, a few weeks, ago. She came here to visit a +lady whose husband owns one hundred and fifty slaves. The morning after +she reached the plantation, as she told me, she was awaked by the +cracking of whips. She listened; human voices, raised above the ordinary +pitch, were mingling with the sounds. She lay till she could endure it +no longer. Coming down to the piazza, she saw a white man mending a +harness on a horse. "Those whips," said she, inquiringly,--"they have +rather interfered with my peace. Any of the colored people been doing +wrong?" He hesitated, and kept on fixing his harness, till, finally, he +turned round,--for he had been standing with his back to her and, as she +supposed, to hide his chagrin at being questioned on so trying a +subject. "Truth is, Madam," said he, taking a large piece of tobacco and +a knife from his pocket, and helping himself slowly,--"truth is, we have +so much of this work to do, we have to begin early. Sorry it disturbed +you;" and he gathered up the reins and drove off. + +The whips kept up their racket. "Here," said she to herself, "is the +house of Bondage. How can I spend a month here?" She thought that she +would peep round the house. Yet she feared that she should be considered +as intruding into things which she had better not meddle with. But the +screams became so fearful that she could no longer restrain herself. She +rushed round the corner of the house, and came full against a black +woman rinsing some fustian clothes in a tub near the rain-spout. "Do +dear tell me," said she, "what they are doing to those people. Who is +whipping them? What have they done?" The black woman stopped, and looked +round without taking her hands from her tub, and then said, as she went +on rinsing, "Lorfull help you, Missis, dem's de young uns scaring de +birds out of de grain." + +What bliss there was to her in that moment of relief! Six or eight +little negroes were sauntering about at their morning work, each having +a rude whip, with tape for a snapper, interrupting the hungry birds at +their breakfast. + +I expected to see a wretched, down-trodden, alms-house looking set of +creatures; for the word _slave_, and all the changes which are rung on +that word, made me think only of people who are convicts, such as you +see in the state-prison yard at Charlestown, Mass. I never expected that +they would look me in the face, but would skulk by me as a spy or enemy. +A Christian heart is overjoyed to find what religion and society have +done for these colored people. If one who had never heard of "slavery" +should be set down here, the Northern idea of "bondage" would not soon +occur to him. + +In the Presbytery which includes Charleston, S.C., there are two +thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine church-members, and of these one +thousand six hundred-and thirty-seven, more than one half, are colored. +In State Street, Mobile, there is a colored Methodist Church who pay +their minister, from their own money, twelve hundred dollars a year. Not +long since they took up a voluntary contribution for Home Missions, +amounting to one hundred and twenty dollars. Their preacher was sent by +the Conference, according to rotation, into another field, and the +blacks presented him with a valuable suit of clothes. + +You see things here, good and evil, side by side, and mixed up together, +one thing counterbalancing another. If you reason theoretically upon +this subject, as you do "about the moon," to quote from your letter, it +is enough to make one almost a lunatic, and I do not wonder that some of +our good people at the North, who pore over this subject in this way, +are on the borders of insanity. + +My great mistake at the North with regard to this subject of slavery +was, I reasoned about it in the abstract, instead of considering it in +connection with those who are slaves under our laws, bound up with us in +our civil constitution. Things might be true or false, right or wrong, +in connection with the enslavement of a race who had never been slaves, +which cannot be applied to the colored people of the South. Hence, the +arguments and the appeals founded on the wrongfulness of reducing you or +me to slavery are obviously misapplied when used to urge the +emancipation of these slaves. Moreover, my thoughts about slavery were +governed by my associations with the word _slave_, in its worst sense. +This is wholly wrong, and it is the source of most of our mistakes on +this subject. + +Dreadful things happen here to some of the slaves in the hands of +passionate men. One slave who had run away was caught, and was beaten +for a long time, and melted turpentine was then poured upon his wounds. +He lingered for several hours. But the horror and execration which this +deed met with were no greater at the North than at the South. It cannot +be denied that slavery, as well as marriage, affords peculiar +provocations and facilities for cruel deeds,--according to the doctrine +of your friend and fellow-Sophomore. But in which section there is the +more of unpunished wickedness, I am slow to pronounce, for I do not wish +to condemn my own people, nor to justify others in their sins. An +excellent minister in Cincinnati not long since preached a sermon on +murder, in which he stated that "during his residence in that city, +there had been more than one hundred murders, or an average of two a +month, while in no instance had the perpetrator been executed." Reading +lately of a husband at the North throwing oil of vitriol from a bottle, +filled for the purpose, over his wife's face and neck, and of a Northern +clergyman feeding his young wife, as she sat on his knee, with apple on +which he had sprinkled arsenic, I questioned whether human nature were +not about the same everywhere. The theoretical right of a master, in +certain cases, to put his slave to death, without judge or jury, is +controlled by the self-interest of the owner who, of course, does not +recklessly destroy his own property. The slave-codes are no just +exponent of the actual state of things in slavery. For example,--by law +a master may not furnish his slave with less than a peck of corn a week. +This has a barbarous look. But to see the slaves feasting on the fat of +the land you certainly would not be reminded of the "peck of corn," +except by contrast. There must be some legal standard, below which if +an inhuman master falls in providing for his servant, he can be +prosecuted. Hence the "peck of corn." By the will of an eminent citizen +at the North, establishing courses of lectures for all coming time, the +pay of each lecturer is to be determined by the market value, at the +time, of a bushel of wheat. This is a fair standard for the unit of +measure. + +In arguing with one who should insist that the abuses in slavery are a +reason for breaking up the institution in this country, I should feel +justified in maintaining that there are as many instances of a happy +relation between, master and servant in the Southern country as there +are happy marriages in the same number of households anywhere. Let there +be four millions of an inferior, dependent race mixed up with a superior +race, anywhere on earth, and of course, while human nature is what it +is, there will be hardships, wrong-doings, oppressions, and barbarisms. +At the North, we get scraps of anguish in the newspapers relating to +hardships at the South; and many pore upon them till they make +themselves half-crazed. All the circumstances serving to qualify the +narrative are sometimes withheld, and the stories are told with dramatic +art. There is sorrow enough everywhere to furnish material for such kind +of writing, especially to those who make it their calling, or find it +for their interest, to publish it. But the goings-on of life, at the +South, with its alleviations and comforts, the practical mitigations of +an oppressive system, theoretical evils qualified by difference of +color, constitution, and history, and all the goodness and mercy which +Christianity and a well-ordered state of society provide, we at the +North do not see. Nor do our people consider that running away, and the +complaints of the slaves, are partly chargeable to the discontent and +restlessness of human nature; but we seem to take it for granted that +every one who flees from the South is as though he had escaped from a +prison-ship. + +While at the North, I remember reading an article, signed with initials, +in a prominent Massachusetts magazine, which contained this sentence: +"Arsenic is universally in possession of the negroes; but it is +considered the part of wisdom, where families are poisoned, that the +fact should be kept as secret as possible." This was brought very +powerfully to my mind one day on passing through King Street, in +Charleston, and seeing for a painted sign over an apothecary's shop, a +tall, benevolent-looking negro, in his shirt sleeves, behind a golden +mortar, with the pestle in his hands, as though at work. + +Now, I thought with myself, as I stood and enjoyed the sight, what a +palpable and eloquent, though undesigned and silent, refutation that is, +of all such Northern chimeras. If poisons are mixed with articles of +food or medicine by the negroes with any noticeable frequency, the sign +of a negro compounding medicines for public sale would surely be, to +customers, the most detersive sign which an apothecary could erect over +his premises. That little incident, and things like it, which are +meeting you at every turn, show the state of things here to be in +pleasing contrast to the horrors with which the imaginations of many of +us Northerners are peopled. I find, in the "Charleston Mercury," a good +cut of this "negro and golden mortar," and I send it to you as an +appropriate answer to much of your letter. + +Our landlord, driving us about the country the other day, and needing +silver change, came to a gang of slaves in a field, and cried out, +"Boys, got any silver for a five dollar gold piece?" Several hands went +into as many pockets, at once, and a lively fellow among them getting +the start, jumped over the fence, and changed the money. I had been here +a month when I received your letter, and when I read it I at first +laughed as heartily, I suspect, as "the pro-slavery Senior" did. Then I +pitied you, and I pitied myself for my own former ignorance, and I +pitied very many of our Northern people, and, not the least, such +persons as poor "Isaiah," who I know are honest, but are grievously +misled. The word slavery is, to us, an awful word. Very much of our +anti-slavery feeling is a perfectly natural instinct. You cannot see +Java sparrows in a cage, nor even a mother-hen tied to her coop, without +a lurking wish to give them liberty. On thinking of being "a slave," we +immediately make the case our own, and imagine what it would be for us +to be in bondage to the will of another. We cannot easily be convinced +that this is not exactly parallel with being one of the slaves at the +South, nor that to be a slave does not have these things for its +inseparable conditions, which, we imagine, are always obtruding their +direful visages; namely, "auction-block," "overseer," "whip," +"chattelism," "separations," "down-trodden," "cattle." Hence it is easy +for orators and preachers to work on our sympathies. There are scattered +facts enough to justify any tale which any public speaker chooses to +relate. I confess that my respect for many of our Northern people has +not risen, as I see them from this point of view. They ought not to be +so easily duped, so ready to believe evil, so quickly carried away by +partial representations, and so unwilling to take comprehensive views of +such a subject as this. I condemn myself in speaking thus; I partly +blame the novel-writers, and the editors of party papers, and political +leaders. But we ought at the North to understand this subject better, +to listen willingly to information from great and good men who have +spent their lives among the slaves, and to discriminate between the evil +and the good. The result may be that we shall not change our inbred +views, nor cease to dissent from those who advocate slavery as a +necessary means of civilization in its highest forms; but we shall +certainly differ from those who declare it to be, practically, an +unmitigated curse to all concerned. I am often made to wish that the +Southerners could be relieved of our Northern hostility and its effects +upon them, just to see them laboring, as they then would, to correct +certain evils which ought to be redressed. We are all apt to neglect our +duty, more or less, when we are suffering abuse. + +Educate this people, some years longer, in the way in which they are +going on, and they cannot be slaves in any objectionable sense. Tens of +thousands of them, now, are not slaves in any such sense, and they never +can be; they could not be recklessly sold at auction; the owners would +revolt at it, and those in want of servants would meet with great +competition in obtaining such as these. A church-member who should +separate husband and wife for no fault, would be disciplined at the +South as surely as for inhumanity at the North. But oh, we say at the +North, only to think, that all those fine-looking people whom Hattie saw +from the barouche, that Monday afternoon, were liable on Tuesday morning +to have their kid gloves and finery taken from them, and to be marched +off to the auction-block! Hence our commiseration. And it is a most +groundless commiseration. + +One thing is especially impressed on my mind. There being sins and evils +in slavery, as all confess, there are men and women here who are +perfectly competent to manage them without our help. There is nothing +that seems to me more offensive than our self-righteousness, as I must +call it, at the North, in exalting ourselves above our fathers and +brethren of all Christian denominations at the South; as though there +were no conscience, no Christian sensibility, no piety here, but it must +all be supplied from the North. When I hear these Southern ministers +preach and pray, and see them laboring for the colored people, and then +think of our designation of ourselves at the North, "friends of the +slave," and remember that all our anti-slavery influence has been +positively injurious to the best interests of the slave at the South, I +have frequently been led to exclaim, What an inestimable blessing it +would be to this colored race, and to our whole land, if anti-slavery, +in the offensive sense of that word, could at once and forever cease! +and I have as often questioned in my own mind whether slavery has not +been, and is not now, the occasion of more sin at the North than at the +South, and whether we at the North are not more displeasing in the sight +of God for the things which are said and done there, in connection with +anti-slavery, than the South with all the sins and evils incident to +slave-holding. I am coming to this belief. + +The people who most frequently excite my commiseration are the free +blacks. They are "scattered and peeled." The Free States dread their +coming; they cannot rise in the Slave States. Even the slaves look down +upon them, sometimes. "Who are you?" said a slave to a free black, in my +hearing; "you don't belong to anybody!" Some States have given them +notice to quit, within a specified time, or they must be sold. Some here +insist that slavery is the only proper condition for the blacks, and +they would reduce them back to bondage. Others remonstrate at this as +cruel. Surely it is a choice of evils for them, to be free, or to be +slaves, if they remain here. There is one thought that affords a ray of +consolation,--they are better off, in either condition, than they once +were in Africa. It is unquestionable to my mind that their relation to +the whites, even in bondage, is, as the general rule, mercy to them, +while they are on the same soil with the whites. Allow it to be +theoretically wrong to be a slave,--it is, under existing circumstances, +protection and a blessing, compared with any arrangement which has yet +been proposed. I have not sufficient patience to argue with those, North +or South, who contend for slavery as a normal condition. I should be +called at the North "pro-slavery;" but the North is in a passion on this +subject. I am not, and I never can be, an advocate for this relation, in +itself, but as a present necessity. + +I once heard a speaker at an anti-slavery meeting at home say, "They +tell us how elevated the blacks are, how intelligent, how pious; that +shows how fit they are for freedom, how wrong it is to hold such people +in bondage. As much as you raise the slaves in our opinion, you deepen +the guilt of the slave-holder." + +This used to dwell much on my mind. I see the thing differently now. You +remember your Uncle Enoch, from Madras, who made your first Malay kite. +I remember a fable which he told you when he was flying the kite for the +first time. "A kite," he said, "high in the air, reasoned thus: If, +notwithstanding this string, I fly so high, what would I not do, if I +could break away! It gave a dash and became free, and was soon in the +woods." I do not mean to strain the comparison; but, certainly, a +_string_ has raised, and now keeps up, the colored race, here. How they +would do, if the string were cut, let wiser heads than mine decide. +They cannot have my scissors, at present. + +The way to be friends of the slave, I now see, is to be the real friends +of their masters, and to pray that the influences of truth and love may +fill their hearts. Where this is the case, the slaves, as a laboring +class, are better off than any separate class of laboring people on +earth, both for this world and the next. + +As to setting them free at once and indiscriminately, it would be as +unjust to them as it originally was to steal them from Africa. So it +appears to me. What God means to do with them, no one can tell. That He +has been doing a marvellous work of mercy for the poor creatures is +manifest. They were slaves at home; they have changed their situation to +their benefit. I have made up my mind to leave this great problem--the +destiny of the blacks--to my Maker, and, in the mean time, pray in +behalf of the owners, that they may have a heart to act toward them +according to the golden rule. I am glad that I am not oppressed with the +responsibility of ownership. Those who assume it should be encouraged by +us to treat their charge as a trust committed to them for a season. I do +not argue, much less plead, for the continuance of this system; it may +be abolished very soon, but that is with Providence. I have acquired no +feelings toward the institution which would not lead me to rejoice in +emancipation the moment that it would be for the good of the colored +people. + +You are looking for my letter to furnish you with details of horrors in +slavery. Wherever poor human nature is, there you will find imperfection +and sin; and of course power over others is always liable to great +abuses. If I were to follow the plan of those who collect the horrors +of slavery and spread them out before our Northern friends, but should +gather merely the beautiful and touching incidents which I meet with, +and which are related to me, I could make people think that slavery is +not an evil. But I have not seen an intelligent Southerner who, +admitting all that we had said about the happiness of the slaves as a +class, did not go far beyond me in declaring that the presence of a +subject, abject race, cannot fail to be an evil. There is not an +ultraist at the North, whom, if he had their confidence, and were not +put in antagonism to him, the Southerners could not make ashamed, and +put to silence, by telling him evil things about slavery, which he had +never contemplated, and by admitting most fully things which he would +expect them to deny. But they are placed in a false position by his +clamor and anger, which set them against him and his doctrines. They +say, "Allowing all that the North asserts, here are the colored people +on our hands; what are we to do with them?" Not one of the Northern +"friends of the slave," nor all of them together, have ever proposed a +feasible plan with regard to the disposal of the slaves, which would be +kind or even humane to the blacks. Moreover, theoretical arguments +against slavery, and representations of it, from many quarters, are so +palpably wrong, that replies to them and refutations are counted by us +at the North as defences of "oppression;" which they were never designed +to be. I am surprised at the extent and depth of real anti-slavery +feeling at the South. Sometimes I question whether Providence is not +permitting the antagonism of the North and South to continue just to +compel the South to hold these colored people in connection with +themselves for their good, until God's purposes of mercy for them are +accomplished, and "the time, times and half a time" of their captivity +is fulfilled. If Northern resistance to slavery had ceased, perhaps the +South would have rid herself of the blacks sooner than would have been +for their good. + +I hope that you will not think me "a strong-minded woman" in what I here +repeat to you of the opinions and expressions which I have gathered in +listening to the conversation of intelligent people on this subject. I +write these things for your instruction, and also as memoranda for my +own future use. + +It is a cherished idea with many excellent people that the time will +come when there will not be a slave in this land, nor on the earth. If +they mean by this that the time will come when every man in every face +will see a brother and a friend, it is certainly true. But if they mean +by it that ownership in man will come to an end, their opinion and +prophecy are as good as those of men who should undertake to differ from +them, and no better; while both would be entirely presumptuous in being +positive on such a subject. Some people seem to think that, in the good +time coming, it is as though we should dwell out-of-doors, among flowers +and fruits, with few wants, these being supplied by the spontaneous +offerings of nature. + +Others, however, suppose that we shall still need some to shovel, take +care of horses, work over the fire the greater part of the day in +preparing food, go of errands, and, in short, be a serving class. They +suppose that the same sovereign God which distributes instincts, and +wisdom, variously, to animals, and gifts of understanding to men, will, +in the same sovereign way, create men and women with such degrees of +capacity and susceptibility as will lead inevitably to their being +superiors and inferiors, and that this will be, as it is now where love +and kindness reign, the source of the greatest happiness to all +concerned. + +This being so, none of us will venture to say that no one of the +existing races of men will, to the end of time, be of such gentle, +dependent natures as to find their highest happiness and welfare in +being, generally, in the capacity of servants. Some of all races, we do +not object, may be servants to the end of time. No one will say to his +Maker that it will be unjust for Him to put a whole race of men forever +in that serving condition, making them, according to their capacity, +most happy in being so. For "Who hath been His counsellor?" That the +Africans are under a cloud of God's mysterious providence, no one +denies. I will not dictate to my Maker when He shall remove that cloud, +while I still endeavor to mitigate the effects of it upon my +fellow-creatures, the blacks. I do not know that he may not perpetuate, +to the end of time, a relationship of dependency to other races in this +African race. I know nothing about it. But I always feel impelled to say +these things, when I hear good men confidently predicting that ownership +in man will soon and forever come to an end. I reply, It may be in the +highest measure necessary to the happiness of the human family, at its +best estate, that one race, or that races, should be in the relation of +inferiors, finding their very best advantage in the relative place which +a sovereign God has assigned them in the scale of intelligence, by +holding that relation to the end of time. Of course it would cease to be +a curse; it would become one of those subordinate parts in the great +orchestral music of life which subdue and soften it for the highest +effect. If any one gets angry at such an idea, I leave him to his +folly; for he is angry without a cause at me, who have, in this idea, +expressed no wish that it may be true; and he is angry that his Maker +should do a thing which contradicts his pet notions about "freedom." But +the singular fact of slavery in this land, continued and defended under +all political changes, and now having the prospect of being more firmly +established than ever by means of our great national commotion on this +subject, is enough to make a serious mind reflect whether it be wholly +the work of Satan, or whether the providence of God be not concerned in +this great and difficult problem. + +It is certainly remarkable that religion, which once gained such a +footing in Africa, so soon and entirely died out there, but that the +Africans, transported to our land, are of all races the most susceptible +to religious influences. If we should visit a foreign missionary field, +and learn that the mission had been blessed to the extent which has +characterized the labors of Christians at the South for their slaves, of +whom, according to the "Educational Journal," Forsyth, Ga., there are +now four hundred and sixty-five thousand connected with the churches of +all denominations, we should regard it as the chief of all the works of +God in connection with modern missions. It is this providential and +Christian view of slavery which quiets my mind. Now, suppose that, +contemplating a foreign missionary field where such results should be +found, one should object: "But there are evils there; people do not all +treat their dependants as they ought; hardships, cruelties, and some +barbarisms remain;"--we should not, I apprehend, proceed to scuttle such +a ship to drown the vermin. But I can see that Satan must be in great +wrath to find himself spoiled of so many subjects. One stronger than he +has brought here hundreds of thousands, who, in Africa, would have +perished forever, but who are now civilized and Christianized. Satan +would be glad, I think, to see American slavery come to an end. We have +no right to go and steal people in order to convert them; the salvation +of these slaves will not, in one iota, extenuate the guilt and +punishment of those who were engaged in the slave-trade. But "the wrath +of men shall praise Thee." In the writings of anti-slavery men I do not +remember to have met with cordial acknowledgments of what religion has +done for the slaves at the South. They coldly admit the fact, but often +they speak disparagingly of the negro's religion, which is full as good +as that of converts in our foreign missionary fields, as good, judging +from some things in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, as that of some +converts to whom he wrote. Our Northern anti-slavery people cannot bear +to have anything good discovered or praised in connection with slavery. + +My own hopeful persuasion is, that great and marvellous works of Divine +Providence and grace are in reserve for the African people in their own +land, and that we are to prove to have been their educators. Most +sincerely do I hope, however, that the number of scholars and future +propagators of religion and civilization, imported here from Africa, +will not need to be increased, considering that one hundred and fifty +per cent. of deaths by violence take place in procuring a given number +of slaves. This is but one objection; others are sufficiently obvious. +Both parts of that passage of Scripture are exceedingly interesting: +"Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands +unto God." Egypt, the basest of kingdoms, shall yet send forth +first-rate men; and Ethiopia, even, shall be the worshipper of God. I +hope that these prophecies, though fulfilled once, are yet to have their +great accomplishment. This is my persuasion, and I trust that every +nation will be independent; but I shall not discard the Bible, if my +interpretation and hope should fail. Ethiopia is certainly stretching +out her hands unto God in our Southern country. + +Hattie received some papers for children from a young friend at the +North, last week. After attending the colored Sabbath-school in ----, +and teaching a class of nicely-dressed, bright little "slave" girls, and +hearing the school sing their beautiful songs, with melodious voices, +such as, I can truly say, I never heard surpassed at the North, and +after looking upon the teachers, who represented the very flower of +Southern society, the superintendent being a man who would adorn any +station, you cannot fully conceive with what feelings I read, in one of +Hattie's little papers from the North, these lines, set to music for the +use of Northern children: + + "I dwell where the sun shines gayly and bright, + Where flowers of rich beauty are ever in sight; + Here blooms the magnolia, here orange-trees wave; + But oh, not for _me_,--I'm a poor little slave. + + "They say 'Sunny South' is the name of my home; + 'Tis here that your robins and blue-birds are come, + While snows cover nests up, and angry winds rave; + _They_ may rest here,--not _I_; _I'm_ a poor little slave. + + "Here beautiful mothers, 'mid splendors untold. + Their fairy-like babes to their fond bosoms fold; + My mammy's worked out, and lies here in the grave; + There's none to kiss _me_,--I'm a poor little slave. + + "I've heard mistress telling her sweet little son, + What Jesus, the loving, for children has done; + Perhaps little black ones he also will save; + I ask him to take _me_, a poor little slave!" + +No wonder, Gustavus, that you write such letters as your last, fed and +nourished as you are on such things as this. I took it with me that +evening to a missionary party at the house of Judge ----. I read the +lines. The ladies said nothing for a time, till at last one said to me, +"Such things have helped us in seceding." The Judge took the lines, +looked them over, and, smiling, handed them back to me, saying, "Madam, +is Massachusetts a dark place?" "Yes," said a young gentleman, "and the +dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." "Oh," +said I, "how prejudiced you all are!" Whereupon they all laughed. "Now," +said I, "you think, no doubt, that the author of such a piece is malign. +I know nothing of its origin, but I venture to say it was written by one +whose heart overflows with love to everybody, but who is 'laboring under +a delusion.'" I did not tell them of the "delusion" which you were +"under," in the Senior's room, but I said, "I have a nephew in a New +England college who has the Northern evil very badly. But he is so very +kind. Set him to write poetry about the South and he would produce just +such lamentable stanzas." Nothing will cure these fancies, about oranges +and magnolias not blooming for the little negroes, so well as to bring +these good people where they can see them pelting one another with +oranges, such as these poets never dreamed of, and making money by +selling magnolias to passengers at the railway stations. + +"Here beautiful mothers, 'mid splendors untold," etc. I went with the +wife of a planter to her "Maternal Association" of slave-mothers. She +gathers the fifteen mothers among her servants once a fortnight, and +spends an afternoon talking to them about the education of their +children, and reading to them; and when she knelt with them and prayed, +I cried so all the time that I hardly heard anything. Oh what a tale of +love was that Maternal Association! "Here beautiful mothers 'mid +splendors untold," etc.;--those words kept themselves in my thoughts. +Now tell this to some great "friend of the slave," in Massachusetts, and +what will he say?--"All very good, I dare say; hope she will go a little +further, and give those fifteen their liberty." I sometimes say, "Must I +go back to the North, and hear and read such things?" + +Yes, it is such things as these, simple and inconsiderable as you may +deem them, which are dividing us irreconcilably, and breaking up the +Union. It is not Messrs. ----, nor their frenzy, but it is Christian +brethren who allow their Sabbath-school children, for example, to say +and sing, "I've heard mistress telling her sweet little son, what Jesus, +the loving, for children has done," making the impression that such a +Christian mother leaves a colored child in her house, without +instruction, to draw the inference, if it will, that Jesus, perhaps, +will love a "poor little slave!" There are no words to depict the +feeling of injustice and cruelty which this conveys to the hearts of our +Christian friends at the South. "Let us go out of the Union!" they cry, +in their blind grief; but where will they go? for while our Northern +people write and publish and sing and teach their children to sing such +things, we can have nothing but mutual hatred, and perhaps exterminating +wars. We must change. If our Northern people would discriminate, and, +while retaining all their natural feelings against oppression and +man-stealing, would admit that "ownership in man" is not necessarily +oppression nor man-stealing, they would do themselves justice and +contribute to the peace of the country. "But O!" they say, "look at the +iniquitous _system_. If separating families, and destroying marriage, +and liberty to chastise at pleasure, and to kill, are not _sin_, what is +sin?" So they impute the _system_, and everything in it, to the people +who live under it. How a system can be a sin, it would puzzle some of +them, who say that all sin consists in action, to explain. And when they +came to look into the system itself, they would find, that if slavery is +to exist, some laws regulating it are, of necessity, self-protective, +and must be coercive. Even in Illinois, it is enacted that a black man +shall not be a witness against a white man. But if the slaves could +swear in court, every one sees that the whites must be at the mercy of +their servants. The testimony of the honest among them is procured, +though indirectly, and it has weight with juries; but it is a wise +provision to exclude them as sworn witnesses. So of other things, which +theoretically are oppressive, but practically right; while many things +in the system which are rigorous are as little used as the equipments in +an arsenal in times of peace. + +When you quote John Wesley's words and apply them to the South: "Slavery +is the sum of all villanies," you unconsciously utter a fearful slander. +Whatever may have been true of British slavery, in foreign plantations, +in Wesley's day, the good man never would utter such words about our +Southern people could he see and enjoy that which gladdens every +Christian heart. If slavery be, necessarily, "the sum of all villanies," +as you and many use the expression, the relation cannot exist without +making each slave-holder a villain, in all the degrees of villany. You +will do well to look into the cant phrases of "freedom," before you +indulge in the use of them. The bishops and clergy of the noble army of +Methodists in the South would not sustain their great chief in applying +the phrase in question to the actual state of things in the Southern +country. Wesley used those words concerning slavery in foreign colonies; +he had not seen it mixed up with society in England, as it is in the +South. + +Taking the blacks as they are, and comparing them also with what they +would be in Africa, or if set free, to remain in connection with the +whites, slavery is not a curse. To be free is, of course, in itself a +blessing. But it depends on many things whether, under existing +circumstances, being a slave here is practically a curse. Our people +generally insist that it must be, and therefore that it is. Here they +are mistaken, as I now view the subject. The British people and the +French, looking at the blacks in a colony, settle the question of +emancipation in their own minds without much difficulty. But it would be +found to be a different thing to emancipate the colored race, to live +side by side with the English people in the mother-country. In that +case, a contest between the two races for the possession of power, and +innumerable offences and practical difficulties, would, in time, lead to +the extermination, or expatriation, of one of the two races, or to their +intermarriage, if the universal history of such conjunction of races is +any guide. + +I do not wonder that the good lady with the "marsh-mallow" exclaimed so +at your groundless commiseration of the sick among the slaves. You have +no more idea of the practical relation between the whites and the +blacks, the owners and the slaves, than most of the English people, who +have never been here, have of our Federal and State relations. + +I will tell you an incident which I know to be literally true. + +A lady from a free state was visiting at the South. Calling upon a +married lady, a near relative of one who has been Vice-President of the +United States, she found her with a little sick black babe at her +breast. + +The Northern lady started with astonishment. I am not informed whether +she was what is called among us a "friend of the slave;" the eminent +lady friend whom she visited certainly was such, in the best sense. The +Northern lady's feelings of repugnance would not be found to be peculiar +to her among our Northern people. The little babe died on the lap of the +Southern lady. + +So you see that there are more things here than are dreamed of in your +philosophy. When you stigmatize the Southerners as oppressors, my only +consolation for you is that you know not what you do. Imagine, now, the +Rev. Mr. Blank, at the North, relating that little incident: "Behold and +see this monstrous picture of infinite hypocrisy: The Slave-power with a +slave at its breast! Yes, rather than lose one or two hundred dollars' +worth of human "property," a distinguished lady slave-holder will give +her nourishment to a slave-infant. So they fatten the accursed system +out of their own bodies and souls." Such is a fair specimen of this +man's frenzy; and there are multitudes all over the Free States who will +listen to such language and applaud it. But how cruel it is, how low and +wicked! I pray Heaven to deliver you from being an abolitionist in the +cast of your mind, your temper, and spirit. Nothing gives me such an +idea of the world of despair as when I read ultra anti-slavery speeches. +I see how the lost will hate God's mysterious providence, and revile it; +and how they will fight with each other, and pour out their furious +invective and sarcasm and vituperation, and scourge one another with +their fiery tongues, as they now do, when some one of the party appears +to falter. If there were not something truly good in connection with +slavery amid all its evils, I think such men would not oppose it. + +Pray, who are these gentlemen, and who are their extremely zealous +anti-slavery friends of more respectable standing, that they should have +such immense instalments of sympathy and pity for the "poor slave"? +Their neighbors are as susceptible as they to every form of human +sorrow; they know as much, their judgments are as sound, their motives +are as good as theirs. Had these zealous people made new discoveries, +or, were the subject of slavery new, we might give them credit for being +on the hill-tops, while we were in the vales. This passionate sympathy, +on the part of some, for "the down-trodden," as they call the negroes, +is not like zeal for a theological, or a political, or a scientific, +doctrine, which would justify its adherents in rebuking the error and +indifference of others; for if slavery be as they represent it, the +proofs of it must be as self-evident as starvation. What if a class of +men among us should rage against those who do not contribute largely to +the Syrian sufferers, as the zealous anti-slavery people reproach and +even revile those who do not see slavery with their eyes? We should then +say, "Friends, who are you, that you should claim to have all the +virtuous sensibility?" + +But more than this,--I doubt, I venture to deny, and that on +philosophical grounds, the true philanthropy of these people. For true +love and kindness always create something of their own kind where they +have full power. Are there any words or acts of love, kindness, +gentleness, mercy, toward others, in the speeches and doings of the +zealous anti-slavery people? + +I wish that you had been with me, one evening, in a corner of the +Methodist meeting-house, where I sat and enjoyed the slaves' +prayer-meeting. I had been filled with distress that day by reading, in +Northern papers, the doings and speeches at excited meetings called to +sympathize with servile insurrection. In this prayer-meeting the slaves +rose one after another, went in front, and repeated each a hymn, then +resumed their seats, while some one, moved by the sentiments of the +hymn, would lead in prayer. A white gentleman presided, according to +custom, and I was the only other white person present. Going to that +meeting with the impressions upon my heart of the terrible excitements +which you were witnessing at home, and saying to myself, "O my soul, +thou hast heard the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war!" you +cannot imagine what my feelings were when the largest negro that I ever +saw rose and stood before the desk, and repeated the following hymn by +Rev. Charles Wesley. The first lines, you may well suppose, startled me, +and made me think that the insurrection had reached even here. + + "Equip me for the war, + And teach my hands to fight; + My simple, upright heart prepare, + And guide my words aright. + + "Control my every thought, + My whole of sin remove; + Let all my works in thee be wrought, + Let all be wrought in love. + + "Oh, arm me with the mind, + Meek Lamb! that was in thee; + And let my knowing zeal be join'd + With perfect charity. + + "With calm and temper'd mind + Let me enforce thy call; + And vindicate thy gracious will, + Which offers life to all. + + "Oh, may I love like thee, + In all thy footsteps tread; + Thou hatest all iniquity, + But nothing thou hast made. + + "Oh, may I learn the art, + With meekness to reprove; + To hate the sin with all my heart, + But still the sinner love." + +You must read this hymn to "Isaiah," and tell him about the +prayer-meeting. While the "friends of the slave," as you call them, are +holding such humiliating meetings as you describe, in behalf of the +slaves, and are vexing themselves and chafing under the imagination of +their unmitigated sorrows and "oppression," the slaves themselves, all +over the South, are holding prayer-meetings, and are blessing God that +they are "raised 'way up to heaven's gate in privilege." As I sat in +that prayer-meeting I could almost have risen and asked the prayers of +the slaves in behalf of many at the North who are making themselves and +others nearly insane on their behalf. But I thought of my former +ignorance and prejudice, and said, "And such were some of you." + +I will tell you some of the little incidents which meet one every day, +and which give you impressions respecting the relations between the +whites and blacks, full as instructive as those received in any other +way. + +Crossing a public street, which is steep, in the city of ----, a +truckle-cart came by me at great speed, drawn by a white boy, with +another white boy pushing, and seated in it, erect and laughing, was a +fine-looking black boy of about the same age as his white playmates. +Around the corner of another street there came by me, with a +skip-and-jump step, two white girls, about thirteen years old, and +between them--the arms of the three all intertwined--was another girl of +the same age, as black as ebony. On they went jumping, and keeping step, +and singing. + +I had not been accustomed to such sights in Beacon Street, on my visits +to Boston. "Friends of the slave," as we most surely are, and some of us +being decorated with that name by way of distinction, significant of our +all-absorbing business "to raise the black man at the South to the +condition of a human being," when we get them there we are not greeted +in the streets with pictures of white and black children on such terms +as appeared in these two casual incidents. Nothing at first struck me +with greater wonder at the South than to see the most fashionably +dressed ladies in the most public streets stop to help a black woman +with a burden on her head, if she needed assistance, or to hold a gate +open for a man with a wheelbarrow. + +One white boy cried to another across a street, "Come along, it's most +time to be in school." The other answered, in a petulant tone, "I a'n't +going to school." A tall, white-headed negro was passing; his black +surtout nearly touched the ground; he had on his arm a very nice +market-basket, covered with a snow-white napkin, and in his right hand a +long cane. Hearing what the last boy said, he came to a full stand, put +down his basket, clasped his long cane with both hands, and brought it +down on the brick sidewalk with three quick raps, and then a rap at each +of these points of admiration: "What! what! what!" said he, drawing +himself up to express surprise, and calling out with magisterial voice; +"Go to school! my son! go to school! and larn! a heap!" the cane making +emphasis at every expression. The white boy retreated under the +impression of a well-deserved, though kind, rebuke. He did not call the +old man "nigger," nor in any way insult him. + +But here is an incident of a different kind. + +Standing to talk with a man who had charge of my baggage, in the +passage-way between the baggage-room and the colored passengers' +apartment. I saw a white man with a pert, flurried manner and coarse +look ascend the steps of the cars, and behind him a tall graceful black +man, a little older than the other, with signs of gentleness and dignity +in his appearance. As he stooped and turned, his air and carriage would +have commanded attention anywhere. The white man, seeing him enter the +wrong door, cried out to him with an impudent voice, ordered him back, +pointed him to the proper room, and told him to go in there and make +himself "oneasy," with a laugh at his own attempt at inaccurate talk as +he cast a glance at some white men standing by. The black man was his +slave. The natural and proper order of things was reversed in their +relation to each other. + +I looked at the black man as he took his seat, and, without being +observed, I kept my eye on his face. He cast his eye out of the window, +as though to relieve a struggle of emotions, but a calm expression +settled down upon his features. + +A Southern gentleman, a slave-holder, witnessing the scene with me, +said,-- + +"Disgusting! There, madam, you have one of the great evils of +slavery,--irresponsible power in the hands of men who are not fit to be +intrusted with authority over others. No man, I sometimes think, ought +to be allowed to hold slaves till he has submitted to examination as to +character, or brings certificates of a good disposition. I know that +man. His father was from ---- [a New England State.] He is what we call +a torn-down character. His neighbors all"--but the signal was given for +starting, and the conversation was broken off. + +My first thought was, How glad I would be to set that man free from such +bondage! The next thought was, Where would I send him to be free from +"the power of the dog?" I had been reading, in a Boston paper, a lecture +delivered in Boston, by a distinguished "friend of the slave," against +Mr. Webster and Mr. Choate, before an "immense audience." I thought, How +much better it is to be a Christian slave, even to this master, than to +sit in the seat of the scornful, applauding such a lecture! + +The poor slave was having his probation and discipline, as we all have +ours, and he was suffering, as we all do in our turns, from an impudent +tongue. Little did he think that a fellow-creature, looking at him at +that moment, was reminded, by his meekness under insult, of Him, our +example, who, under such provocation, opened not his mouth, and that I +was made to remember, as I stood there and received instruction from +him, that the best alleviation and cure of anguished sensibility under +ill-treatment is in this same silence, and in thoughts of Jesus. + +After the cars had started, I took my Bible from my carpet-bag, and read +these passages: "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not +only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is +thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering +wrongfully." Then this is enforced by the example of our incarnate God +and Saviour, who is held up to Christian slaves as their example; and in +this connection, not only in this passage, but elsewhere in speaking to +slaves, the Apostle brings in the most sublime truths relating to +redemption. You will be struck with this in reading what is said to +slaves, that in several cases, the train of thought proceeds directly +from their condition and its duties, to the most sublime and beautiful +truths of salvation. How divinely wise did these exhortations to slaves +appear to me, that morning, in contrast with the spirit of the Northern +abolitionist, and his talk about "Bunker Hill," "'76," and his +"grandfather's old gun over the mantel-piece," and his injunctions to +slaves as to the duty of stealing, and even murdering, if necessary, to +effect their liberty. This is not the spirit of the New Testament. The +idea of submission on the part of "servants" to "masters," of "pleasing +them well in all things," of "fear and trembling," "not purloining but +showing good fidelity in all things," is not found in the Gospel of the +abolitionist. He complains that we do not send the true Gospel to the +South. There are passages in the Epistles addressed to slaves, which, if +faithfully regarded, would make fugitive slave laws for the most part +needless. No wonder that the New Testament, with its exhortations to +meekness and patience under suffering, and the duty of those who are +"under the yoke," and of masters as being "worthy of honor," and the +caution that the slave do not take undue liberty where his master is a +believer, nor assert the doctrine of equality in Christ as a ground for +undue familiarity, or disobedience, is repudiated by the vengeful spirit +of the abolitionist. How well the Apostle understood him! "If any man +teach otherwise," that is, contrary to these injunctions as to the duty +of slaves who have believing masters, "he is proud, (that is the leading +feature of his error) he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about +questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, +evil surmisings." What an anomaly it would be to have an abolition +convention opened with reading a collect of Paul's inspired directions +to masters and slaves. + +But we never hear anything quoted from the Bible on the subject but +"break every yoke!" "let the oppressed go free!" "undo the heavy +burdens!" I was telling a slave-holder of the frequency with which we +hear these expressions in public prayer. "I could join in every one of +them," said he; "I am for breaking every yoke, South and North, +unbinding every heavy burden, and destroying every form of oppression. +But they must be actual, not theoretical, nor imaginary." + +This gentle slave in the cars, we will suppose, refuses opportunities to +escape, but complies with the exhortations of the New Testament, +"enduring grief, suffering wrongfully." His master is at last touched by +his meekness, his "not answering again." I should relate only that which +I know to have happened, should I say, that one day this master is +filled with distress on account of sin. He goes out into the +cotton-field and finds Jacob. + +"Jacob," he says, "I am a great sinner. Jacob, I feel that I am sinking +into hell. Jacob, pray for me. I mean to turn about, if I live." + +"Dats jest what I've sought de Lord for, massa, dis six months coming +New Year. Let's go up into de loft; it's whar I've wrastled for you in +prayer." + +He leads the way. The floor of the loft is covered with cotton-seed. A +wheelbarrow is in the middle of the floor. Jacob takes off his jacket, +and with it brushes the cotton-seed away from one side of the +wheelbarrow, lays the jacket down for his master to kneel upon, and goes +to the other side. Like Jacob at Peniel, he has power over the angel, +and prevails; he weeps and makes supplication unto him. The master +breaks out in prayer. He rises and says,-- + +"Jacob, forgive me if I've been unkind to you; I've seen that you are a +Christian; now if you want to leave me for anybody else, say so." + +"Thank you, massa; only sarve de Lord with gladness for all de good +things he has done for you, and I'll sarve you de same. Please go home +and tell missis; she told me to pray for you; 'twill finish up her joy." + +This is better than running away and going to Canada. Those Christians +who send the Gospel to the South by missionaries and religious tracts, +to promote such scenes as this, do a better work than though they +withheld missionaries and tracts from one half of the nation, and called +it "Standing up for Jesus." + +I am sometimes inclined to put down all that I see and hear, good and +bad, and publish a book to satisfy my truly candid but mistaken friends +at the North as to the real truth on this subject. But I have in mind +the way in which similar works have already been received and treated by +an unreasoning, passionate North. I have amused myself sometimes in +imagining what certain writers would say to some of the incidents which +I have related in this letter. Let me attempt to show you the spirit and +manner of our Northern reviewers when one ventures to state favorable +things relating to slavery. I will take some of the incidents already +related in this letter and let these men review them. I am perfectly +familiar with their style, from having been employed in helping your +uncle prepare the notices of new publications for the "---- Review." +Here, then, I will give you first a supposed notice of my little book, +should I make one, from a Northern religious newspaper, quoting, in all +cases, the identical expressions from articles which I have read:-- + +"'The authoress, it seems, is yet in her Paradise of slavery.' Her +'opulent friends' and the slave-holders generally, it would appear, got +up little tableaux for her, to impose on her good-nature. Knowing the +times when she took her daily walks, they put the fattest and sleekest +black boy whom they could find, into a truckle-cart, and made two of the +sons of the 'most opulent' citizens race down hill with him. Slavery, +therefore, is not the bad thing she and we had supposed. The female +teacher of a school in the neighborhood of her daily walk was suborned, +most probably, by the 'opulent' ladies of the place, to practise another +pleasing trick. Two white girls and a black girl were made to practise +running with their arms interlocked, and one day, as our friend came in +sight, they were pushed out to astonish her with one instance of white +girls hugging a negro slave-child. No doubt our friend, on seeing these +three together, soliloquized as follows:-- + + "See Truth, Love, and Mercy in triumph descending, + All nature now glowing in Eden's first bloom." + +The old negro, respectable and well off, was one of those rare +exceptions to surrounding degradation which you now and then see in +Southern cities. The poor slave in the cars, gentle, timid, quivering, +was the true exponent of slavery. Had our authoress filled her book with +such illustrations exclusively, she would have written more truthfully, +more for her reputation with the real 'friends of the slave,' and, we +confess, more in accordance with our taste." + +A writer in a very respectable publication at the North, already +referred to, gave us several years ago a curious piece of criticism on +some publication which he regarded as too favorable to slavery. His +pages, some of them, were crowded with daggers, in the shape of +exclamation marks,--two, three, four, and, in one instance, five, at the +end of quotations from the book under review. It was he that made the +assertion about the "arsenic," as being "universally in the hands of the +slaves." + +I shall now let him review my little stories. I quote many of his +words:-- + +"'To show the ignorance and simplicity of our travelling' lady, we give +the following,--and what will the North say to this new argument in +favor of slavery? namely, a truckle-cart! a black boy riding!! two white +boys giving him a ride!!! and three girls, one of them black! arm in +arm!! romping. 'It is not the fault of this writer, that she cannot +understand a principle;' 'she is a New England Orthodox,'--'and a fair +specimen of the limitations of that type of mankind.' 'But does not the +lady know,' why negro boys are put in truckle-carts? 'If not, any of her +Southern friends could have told her.' We can tell her; 'we have lived +at the South.' These white boys were sent on an errand with their cart, +and to increase its momentum down hill, and, withal, to tease and worry +a fellow-creature, with a skin not colored like their own, they made +this poor slave-boy get in. She should have seen the poor creature +trudging home, up hill, under a Southern sun, after the little white +tyrants had done with him, unless it was the case, which we more than +half suspect, that the ride was a stratagem to convey the poor child to +the auction-block. 'How the merry dogs,' the white boys, must have +laughed at this Northern lady's complacent looks at them. She had no +tears for the poor old white-headed negro, who, hearing the word +'school' from the lips of his white young masters, had such a rush of +sorrow come over his soul at the thought of the midnight ignorance in +which the slave-driver's whip had kept him, that he actually dropped his +burden in the public street, and uttered incautious words, for which, no +doubt, old as he was, he caught a terrible flogging. "Why, in the name +of humanity, did not the authoress load her pages, as she might so +easily have done, with scenes like that in the cars? There is slavery! +patent! undisguised! In the other cases it is slavery, indeed, but +covered with the pro-slavery lady's snow-white napkin." + +Here is a review of me and of my little stories, by a distinguished New +England divine, and author. He has written much on slavery. Having +prepared notices of some of his writings on this subject, I am familiar +with his turns of thought and modes of expression. I have great regard +for him, and always read him with pleasure and profit, not excepting +when he writes as follows, in doing which he has the approbation of +large numbers among the Northern clergy of all denominations, except the +Episcopalians,--who, more than other Northern ministers, are remarkably +free from ultraisms. + +"Concerning the truckle-cart, 'we would say this,' that unquestionably +'the moral power' of the incident was all which the writer assumes, but +its 'logical sequences' 'we utterly deny.' Slavery is evil, and only +evil, and that continually; now, to infer that agreeable relations can +subsist between the children of masters and the children of slaves under +the 'immense, malignant, and all-pervading influence of slavery,' +abhorred of Heaven and all good men, does violence to all sound +principles of reasoning, and is at war with 'the manifest rules of +Providence.' + +"And as to the three girls 'we are prepared to say' that the author 'did +not look deep enough' into the philosophy of human motives under the +controlling power of slavery. For slavery makes men improvident, and +their children also; (see 'Judge Jay,' 'Weld on Slavery,' etc.) These +white girls, therefore, probably had no money in their pockets; it was +the time of recess; they were hungry; the black child we presume had +money in her pocket, for by the authoress's own showing (in the story of +a slave changing a gold piece for the landlord), slaves may have money +of their own. Had our authoress followed her trio down to the +confectioner's, there she might have seen these white children cajoling +the poor black, and making her treat them; in preparation for which they +affected to put their arms around her; but, in the true diabolical +spirit of slavery, it was only to devour. + +"We have no space to enter philosophically into the instruction afforded +us by the old negro and the schoolboys; but there is deep meaning in it, +which the true friends of the slave, who may read it, will do well to +ponder. The old negro is the prophetic representation of his +down-trodden race, crying with bewildered accents, he heeds not where, +'Go to school! boys; go to school!' Let a united North echo back his +words, suiting their political action to them, and saying to the colored +children, with an authority which shall shake the very pillars of the +Union, 'Go to school, boys! go to school!' + +"Nor can we, for the tears which dim our sight, speak as we would of +the wretched master and his amiable slave in the cars. The sketch +reminded us of the best in 'Uncle Tom.' We need books filled with such +pictures, to electrify the slumbering sensibilities of the North. Wanton +candor in speaking of slavery, is the most unpardonable of sins. There +is a time to tell the whole truth; but the wise man says. There is 'a +time to keep silence.'" + +I did not pretend, Gentlemen Reviewers, that my little, pleasing +incidents were arguments in favor of slavery; you should not have been +so alarmed; you are really rude; I almost feel disposed to say to you, +for each of my tales, as the Rosemary said to the Wild Boar,-- + + "Sus, apage! haud tibi spiro;" + +which, not having a poetical friend near to translate for me, I venture +to render as follows:-- + + "Thus to the Boar replied the Rosemary: + O swine, depart! I do not breathe for thee." + +In noticing the manner in which many Northern writers, some of them +amiable men, receive the candid views and statements of travellers and +visitors at the South, I have been made to think of a company of the +owls, such as you see in Audubon, listening to the reading of David's +one hundred and fourth Psalm, in which he describes nature. Not a smile +of satisfaction; on the contrary, if you + + "Molest the ancient, solitary reign" + +of prejudice in their minds against the South, they either mope, or make +a sad noise. With regard to others, are there any limits to their anger +and denunciations? You may, without difficulty, imagine how this +appears to the Southerner, who knows the truthfulness of the +representations which excite this passionate resentment, and how much +the character of the North for ordinary candor falls in his esteem, and +how little disposed he is to heed their admonitions, and how absurd +their demands upon his ecclesiastical bodies to suffer their +remonstrances, appear, together with their subsequent withdrawal of +fellowship for the reason publicly assigned; namely, that the South will +not let them admonish her "in the Lord." Indeed, whatever may be true of +slavery, the South looks on the great body of zealous anti-slavery +people as being in as false and unnatural a state of excitement as the +Massachusetts people were in the times of witchcraft. A great delusion +is over the minds of many at the North, like one of our eastern +sea-fogs. It always makes a Southerner merry, when listening, in New +York or Boston, for example, to a lecture, if the speaker concludes a +sentence with some allusion to "freedom," and the people clap and stamp. +That the blood should tingle in our veins at so slight a cause, makes +him think that we are certainly in need of something worthy of our great +excitability, and that we are thankful for small favors in that way. He +does not think less than we of liberty where an occasion makes that name +and idea appropriate; but that the condition of his slaves should +reconsecrate for us all the old battle-cries of freedom, seems to him +pitiably weak. It shows him how incompetent we are to deal with the +acknowledged evils of slavery; and there are those at the South who are +stirred up by us to take extreme views of an opposite kind, which good +people there very generally deplore. + +A Southern lady here tells me that some time since, being on a visit at +the North, she received through the post-office anonymous letters with +extracts from newspapers containing little items of woe, declared to +have been experienced at the South, with here and there delirious abuse +of slave-holders and frenzied words about freedom. She could have +matched every one of them, she said, with wife-murders at the North, +during her visit. In dealing with people like the slaves, of course men +of brutal passions, provoked by their stupidity and negligence, or +exasperated by their crimes, and, in cases of ungovernable anger, +venting their displeasure upon their negroes under slight or merely +imaginary affronts, give occasion to tales of distress which are nowhere +mourned over more deeply than at the South. These cases are the natural +results of a superior and inferior class of society, standing in the +relation, the one to the other, of proprietor and dependant, and such +evils are not peculiar to this institution. Human nature is the same +everywhere. The South is willing to have the abuses of irresponsible +power among them compared with abuses, discomforts, disadvantages +elsewhere. Grant that an owner may abuse his liberty; ownership leads to +more of care and protection than of abuse and cruelty. The slaves are +here; the question is not, What would be the best possible condition for +these people under the sun, but, What is best for them, being on this +soil. "Set them all free," is the answer of some. Half the ministers at +the North every Sabbath pray for the slaves thus: "Break every yoke; let +the oppressed go free." If this means, Give the slaves their liberty, +this would be their most direful calamity; they would be chased away +from every free state, in process of time, and the Dred Scott decision +would be invoked, even in Massachusetts, by its present most bitter +opposers, and in its most misrepresented forms, as a defence of the +American white race against the blacks. "Set them free and hire them!" +is the reply of others. This, among other effects, would make them a far +more degraded people than they now are. Slavery keeps them identified +with the whites; they are more respectable and respected by far, in this +relation, than they can be, in the circumstances of the case, if they +are detached from the whites. There is no expression which conveys a +more absolute error than this, and we often meet with it: "He ceased to +be a slave, and became a man." I read lately the report of a lecture at +the North, by an eminent gentleman, of great moral worth, and highly +respected. He said, "A man cannot be, voluntarily, a slave, without +having his manhood crushed out of him." That might be true in our case; +but having seen manhood forced into benighted natures here, and splendid +specimens of man as the result, I was, by this remark, reminded again of +the delusiveness which there is sometimes in the best of logic. You gave +us a good specimen in your admirable illustration of no water in the +moon. A comparison of the slaves with the free negroes of the North, and +in Canada, and with the free colored population in some of the Slave +States, will satisfy any impartial spectator that manhood is full as +conspicuous in the slaves, as a body, as in the free negroes. + +Here are two extracts from Northern papers, which, true or false, awaken +compassion in every human bosom toward the free colored people. Indeed, +allowing these statements, so unfavorable to them, to be mostly false, +it reveals the antipathy of the white to the colored race when the +blacks come to seek equality with the whites. Let these free blacks be +mixed up in large proportions with society in England and Scotland, and +if Canadians feel as they are here represented, we may be sure that the +present tone of the British people with regard to American slavery and +the blacks, would also be modified. But here are the extracts:-- + + "Getting Sick of Them.--The colored persons of Toronto, having had a + meeting to denounce Colonel John Prince, a member of the Canadian + Parliament, for speaking against them, he publishes a reply, in + which he says,-- + + "'It has been my misfortune, and the misfortune of my family, to + live among those blacks (and they have lived upon us) for + twenty-four years. I have employed hundreds of them, and with the + exception of one, named Richard Hunter, not one of them has done for + us a week's honest labor. I have taken them into my service, fed and + clothed them, year after year, on their arrival from the States, and + in return have generally found them rogues and thieves, and a + graceless, worthless, thriftless set of vagabonds. This is my very + plain and simple description of the darkies as a body, and it would + be indorsed by all the Western white men, with very few + exceptions.'" + + "Underground R.R. Return Trains.--The 'Cleveland Plaindealer' states + that every steamboat arriving at that place brings back from Canada + families of negroes, who have formerly fled to the Provinces from + the States. They are principally from Canada West. They describe the + life and condition of the blacks in Canada as miserable in the + extreme. The West is, therefore, likely to have large accessions to + its colored population. The Canada folks do not want them, and have + shown a disposition in their Parliament, and otherwise, to + discourage their coming to, or remaining in the Provinces. In some + instances, the question of ejecting those now resident there, has + been discussed. Our Western States will be likely to experience a + similar attack of the _black vomito_, when they shall have become + satisfied with this peculiar Southern luxury. In some localities the + superabundant free negro population has already become a burden, + while in others they are under severe restrictions, which amount + almost to an exclusion from the limits of the state. + + "Should this exodus from Canada continue to any great extent, it + would throw such a burden upon those states which have adopted the + most liberal policy towards the negro, that it would occasion a + reaction in the public sentiment which would compel them to abandon + their abolition doctrine and practice, for their own + self-protection. We should then hear of fewer attempts to abduct + slaves from the slave-holding states; and abolitionists would be + content to allow slaves to remain under the care and protection of + their masters. Even though at heart sympathizing with the oppressed + and task-worn negro, and yearning towards him with all the love of + the professed philanthropist, he would still be permitted to toil + and bleed; for now that the route to Canada has been closed, there + is no alternative but to take them to their own bosoms." + +Compare with this the condition of the free blacks in South Carolina. +The amount of property held by them is $1,600,000; their annual taxes, +$27,000; and the free blacks own slaves to the amount of $300,000 in +value. + +The above statements teach us that any attempts to force the Southern +slaves away from their present relation, are in violation of the laws of +Providence concerning them. If they become free in a natural way, and +can provide for themselves, or be provided for, it is well; otherwise, +the South, and their present relation to the white race, are the bounds +of their habitation fixed for them by an all-wise God, till his purpose +concerning them as a race shall be made manifest. The people of the Free +States ought to thank God that the South is willing to keep the colored +people. Instead of inflaming our passions against the abstract +wrongfulness of holding fellow-men in bondage, we should consider that +theoretical justice to the slaves as a whole would be practical +inhumanity. The destiny of the colored race here is a dark problem. But +it is not for us to penetrate the future. When God is ready to finish +his purposes with regard to their continuance with us, He will open a +way for their liberation; in the mean time it is our duty to protect +them from their own improvidence and from the neglect and degradation +which they would suffer at the hands of the Free States. Instead of +aiding slaves to escape, or rejoicing when we hear of runaways, I say we +should feel grateful, on our own account, and for the slaves, that the +South is willing to harbor them, and we ought to consider that the very +best thing to be done for them is to encourage the South in treating +them well, mitigating their trials and sorrows, and, in short, complying +with the Apostle's doctrine and exhortations as to the duty of masters. + +But we have a way, at the North, of delivering over our Southern +brethren to supposed terrible liabilities in their relation to the +slaves. "They are sleeping on a volcano;" "they keep weapons under their +pillows;" "they are always in fear." And when a servile insurrection +takes place, many close their eyes and lift their hands, and say, +"Perhaps the day of retribution is come! They have been 'sinning against +the Northern conscience;' they have been resisting our well-meant +efforts for their good; we would not stir up the slaves against them," +(some kindly say,) "but if they rise, did not Jefferson say, 'There is +not an attribute of the Almighty that would take part with the whites?'" +Thus we prefer to take Jefferson's opinion on this subject, though +hundreds as good and wise as he, and quite as decided in their +acceptance of the Christian religion, differ totally from him. In +strictly political matters, many of the same people who love to quote +Jefferson against modern slave-holders, are of opinion that time and +experience give modern statesmen some advantages in their judgments. As +to Jefferson's oft-quoted remark, above cited, it appears to me that if +the Almighty has anywhere set the seal of his divine blessing, clear and +broad, it is on the Christian influence of our Southern friends upon +this colored race. + +It is humiliating to me, in looking back to the North, to see how +injudicious and weak we are in pouring out our sympathy upon a fugitive +slave, without discrimination. The lecture before the Boston audience, +already mentioned, contains a perfect illustration of Northern credulity +in the case of fugitive slaves. The lecturer tells us that while reading +the printed report of Mr. Everett's Oration at the inauguration of the +Webster statue, a fugitive slave appeared at his door, and, baring his +breast and back, showed him the marks of the branding-iron, and the +scars from the lash. At the sight, he says, the paper dropped from his +hand. He "thought of Webster and the Fugitive Slave Law." + +Now this negro was, just as likely as not, one of those characters whom +we call jail-birds. If so, and he had lived at the North, instead of +branding-iron and stripes, he might have had parti-colored pants, and +manacles, and a record of ten or twenty years in the state's prison. But +because he ran away from the South, he straightway became, as a matter +of course, a martyr and a saint. Perhaps he was, truly, a saint; and +perhaps he was not. + +Looking out of the window in a hotel the other day, we saw two white +men leading up a black man with a leather bridle around his neck. + +"Here, Hattie," said your Uncle, "here is slavery; now you have it in +full bloom." + +The poor fellow was crying and protesting and begging to be released. +Your Uncle stepped out and spoke to a very respectable gentleman whom he +met on the piazza. He could not refrain from expressing some feeling at +the sight of a fellow-creature so literally "reduced to the level of the +brutes." I did not hear the whole of the conversation, for my attention +was diverted by two roosters who just then flew at each other and were +assailed by a troop of black urchins who tried to scare them apart, +pulling their tail-feathers and uttering ludicrous cries. + +"You are from the North, sir, I take it," said the gentleman, in reply +to your Uncle. + +"I am, sir," said your Uncle. "Do you often bridle your slaves in this +way, in these parts? I am seeking for information on the subject of +slavery." + +"I shall be happy to give you any," said the gentleman. "I am here as a +magistrate." + +"I am one at home," said my husband. + +"One of these white men who led the negro," said the gentleman, "was +riding on horseback, and was attracted to a by-place by the screams of a +child, and found this black man attempting violence upon a black girl +ten years old. He knocked the fellow down and held him, and called for +help. A white man who came up took the bridle from the horse, to secure +the villain with it. They have with difficulty kept the negroes from +putting him to death." + +"We are all ready, sir," said a sheriff to the gentleman. + +"Will you walk into the hall?" said the magistrate to your Uncle. + +But the stage-coach was waiting for him, and we were soon on our way. +Your Uncle was silent for nearly fifteen minutes, when he said,-- + +"What is that passage, Hattie, about answering a matter before you +understand it?" + +I gave Hattie my Bible, and, after a while, she read: + +"He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame +unto him. The spirit of a man"-- + +"That will do, child," said your Uncle, "I wanted only that one verse." + + * * * * * + +I should be glad to transfer some of this Southern ease and beauty of +manners to the North. I wish that we could see more of these Southern +ladies and gentlemen there. They stay away very much, because they +cannot bring servants with them. Whole families would rejoice to visit +our Northern shores and mountains for summer residences, were it not for +this. When our passions subside, and we can look at this subject fairly, +we shall repeal the statutes which prevent a Southerner from residing in +a free state for a season, with his or her servant. The people of +Massachusetts, for example, can easily appreciate the hardship of being +kept away from a clime which they would visit for health or recreation, +by the fear of being set upon by a mob of whites and blacks seeking to +drag a wet-nurse, for example, before a court to be interrogated whether +she does not wish to leave us. How long will our warm-hearted, +hospitable people allow such things? The answer, from ten thousand +tongues, will be, So long as Southern people imprison colored seamen +from the North!--If Southern slaves should come here and make trouble +between our domestics and us, and we should forbid their coming, the +cases would be more nearly parallel.--Moreover, it will be said that the +manner in which people from the North have in many instances of late +been treated at the South, does not encourage the hope and prospect of +amicable intercourse. This is certainly so; and therefore what have we +to look for but everlasting hatred and strife? and that whether we be +one nation or two confederacies. + +A distinguished Southern gentleman came home from his visit to the +North, where he had received great attentions, and he filled his hearers +with his enthusiastic admiration of us for our wonderful ingenuity in +all the arts of life. + +"It is astonishing," said he, "how they work everything into shape, and +create instruments for their purposes. But," said he, "there is one +thing in which they are deficient. They are omnipotent with matter, but +they do not know how to govern men. If they did," said he, "there would +be no chance for us in any form of contest with them." + +I was much entertained, and I said to him that I supposed his remarks +would need qualification on both sides; but I was greatly impressed, as +I often am here, with the secret, strong attachment which there is in +Southern hearts to the North as a part of the country, irrespective of +its anti-slavery views and feelings. Its climate and institutions and +arts and scenery are adapted to their diversified wants. "The North and +the South, Thou hast created them." God made the North for the South, +and the South for the North, and our acts of non-intercourse are in +violation of his will. We are in a war of "conscience," inflamed by +doctrinal error on our part. It allows no "conscience" to the other +side. The state of our "consciences" at the North is jury, judge, and +executioner. There is no "conscience," we think, in Southern churches, +ministers, judges, citizens, except that which is defiled. Probably +there is not on earth this day a greater despot, or one more prepared +for inquisitorial proceedings, than "Northern Conscience." + +No doubt I should be contented and happy to be a slave-holder, had I +been born and bred here, but I rejoice that I belong to a free state. I +love to think of my capable girls, my "help." at home, who make the +household go like clock-work, instead of having a swarm of servants who +do only half as much, and only half as well. I am glad, too, that my +children live in a climate favorable to labor, and are not born to be +waited upon. But I am ashamed of those who erect these things into an +invidious comparison, and with a supercilious, reproachful spirit. God, +who made us of one blood, has fixed the bounds of our habitations. I +love these Southerners as I never loved new acquaintances before. But I +prefer a state of society free from slavery: yet this makes me love +those to whom God has given a South country, and imposed upon it a +necessity, at present at least, to employ the African race as +cultivators of the soil. It has often disturbed my feelings to hear some +people inveigh reproachfully against the Southern country, as comparing +unfavorably with neighboring free states. Going up the Ohio River one +day, a Northern gentleman pointed to some poor-looking lands in Kentucky +on the one hand, and some flourishing fields of Ohio on the other. +"There, ladies and gentlemen," said he, "is slavery," pointing to +Kentucky, "and there," turning to the other side, "is freedom." + +"Now," said an intelligent Ohioan, "if you will excuse me for saying +it, I regard that as clear humbug. What is cultivated on either side? +The products of Kentucky, if raised in Ohio, would give the same look to +her lands. It is not slavery and freedom that make the difference; it is +the difference between large staples sown over large territories, and +smaller staples raised on smaller fields. Kentucky's soil would be +exhausted just as fast under free labor, so long as she cultivated her +present crops." + +I long to see some clear running water. Our streams and brooks in New +England are not appreciated till one comes to this part of the land. I +long to see some good grass. I yearn for some hills. I would sail again +along our rock-bound coast; Oh for a walk on its beaches, to see the +tunnellings of the sea in the rocks, and the spouting-horns. But what a +relief it is to be in a section where the Christian religion is so +generally accepted, and the swarms of errorists and sectarians which +abound elsewhere are comparatively unknown. Here, the lowest class, in +which error would be prolific, is under instruction, to a great degree. +I see now why it is that false views about slavery are a great stimulant +to heretical views and feelings;--they are a convenient substitute for +the love and zeal which true Christianity supplies. The human mind, +where it is accustomed to act freely, must be impelled by some +master-passion; and when true religion does not supply it, error stands +ready to satisfy the demand. + +On the whole, I am persuaded that our Northern people behave full as +well under the anti-slavery excitement as Southerners would if their +consciences were perverted like ours, and we were the objects of their +opposition. I think that a change will come over us. At the North, you +have heard the wind, at midnight, after a warm rain, in winter, haul out +to the north-west, and you know what a piping time we then have of it, +and how the clear cold air, the next morning, and the bright sun, excite +and cheer us. There has been with us for a long time at the North, in +our political and religious atmosphere, a warm, foggy, unwholesome +drizzle of weak, fanatical feeling, with now and then gusts of wind and +scud,--a kind of weather most abhorred by mariners. But we hope that the +wind is changing, and that "fair weather cometh out of the North." God +will not suffer us to live long, we earnestly hope, in this condition of +misunderstanding and hatred, for it would be contrary to his established +laws that we should long continue to be one nation with such feelings +toward each other. The change will be in the North. Slavery will come to +be regarded as not in itself a sin, and the evils incident to it will be +left for those immediately concerned to bear them or seek their removal. +Or, if we become divided, the Southern section may extend its conquests +into the whole southern part of the American continent, and spread the +institution of slavery over that vast domain. God may have purposed that +the good which has flowed to the African race in this land by its +connection with us, shall be extended to millions more, not by +importation, we may suppose, but by propagation here. I say this to show +that fanatical opposers of slavery may be employed under God as the +instruments of extending slavery to the very limits of habitable land in +the southern parts of our continent. We have tried in vain at the North, +for thirty years, to abolish slavery. It is time either to cease, or to +try some entirely different influences. + +But I must close my long letter. When you write again, I have no doubt +that you will have seen some things in a new light. Tell me more about +your studies. I was interested in your way of describing things. I only +wondered that, with your occasional sense of the ludicrous, you should +not have been aware of the impression which you yourself must have made +on others. Burns's "giftie," "to see oursel's," etc., we all, more or +less, need. I told Hattie the other day that I thought some parts of +your letter did you very great credit, but that the monomania of the +North has fallen upon you, and that you have it, as it seemed to me, in +one of its worst forms. Some it makes fierce, others, flat, according as +the victim is, naturally, more or less amiable. + +Your mother gave you in charge to me in her last sickness, and I must do +all in my power for your best good. I have, therefore, told you some +things which I have seen and considered. These you must now add to the +facts of your "inductive philosophy." Your definition of "pro-slavery," +and "friends of oppression," is a fair illustration of a prevailing +state of mind at the North:--"Pro-slavery--_i.e._, do not agree with me +in my manner of viewing and treating the subject." This you will +correct. Excuse my freedom, but you have no father nor mother now, to +advise and guide you, and you must let me be your Mentor in some things. +I shall keep your letter and let you see it perhaps ten years hence. Be +careful what newspapers you read. Those which abound with low, +opprobrious language about the South and Southerners, avoid. There are +some low Southerners about here who go around buying up refractory and +vicious negroes; they are the dregs of society; but I have listened, +with others, at the North, to men, on the subject of "freedom," who, I +think, would take kindly to this business, and they would be as hearty +in it as they are now in vilifying it. The "Legrees" are not confined to +the South. Do not incline your ear to those who systematically inveigh +against slavery, making it their principal business. You will invariably +find that there is something false and wrong in their principles as well +as spirit. Be careful to what influences you commit your thoughts and +your taste. + +You need not become a friend of oppression; you need not approve of +"auction-blocks," and "separation of families;" slavery can exist when +these are done away. Until you are appointed and commissioned as a +minister of righteousness to Southern Christians and ministers, I advise +you to blot slavery out of the list of topics about which you are called +to express the least concern. The South will work out the problem for +herself, with the help of that God who has evidently appointed her to do +a great work for the African race, and all the more perfectly and +speedily as our Northern people let her entirely alone as to the moral +relations of the subject. + +You subscribe yourself, "Yours for the slave;" I shall subscribe myself, +"Yours for preaching the Gospel to every creature." + +With the strongest love, +Your affectionate Aunt. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. + + "The sages say dame Truth delights to dwell, + Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well. + Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope + That pull the grave old gentlewoman up." + + PETER PINDAR. + + +My friend, Mr. North, having read the foregoing letters, wrote me a note +requesting me to come and spend an evening with him and his wife, and +answer some questions occasioned by these letters. The lady was earnest +that I should do so. + +After being seated before a cheerful fire in my friend's house, while it +was raining violently, so that we felt defended from all interruption, +my friend said,-- + +"Here, first of all, is the Southern lady's letter to her father, which, +I suppose, belongs to him, and which you may wish to send back." + +"I do," said I. + +"But, please," said Mrs. North, "let it be published. Add to it the +incident of the Southern lady nursing the sick babe of a slave." + +"O my dear," said her husband, "that would create a false impression. It +would be a pro-slavery tract. It would abate Northern zeal against the +'sum of all villanies.' Something should go forth with such +representations to correct their influence in the Free States. What +would become of the cause of freedom should such stories make their +impression upon the minds of our people?" + +"You might," said I, "make a heading of an auction-block, or +slave-coffle; add the last pattern of a slave-driver's whip; picture a +panting fugitive on his way to the North; give us a ship's hold, with a +black boy just detected among the stowage. You would thus, perhaps, keep +these beautiful, touching illustrations of loving-kindness in +slave-holders from having the least effect." + +"It is very important," said he, seriously, "to keep up a just +abhorrence of slavery here at the North, because"-- + +"Excuse me," said I, "but what do you mean by an abhorrence of slavery?" + +"Why," said he, "is not the Christian world agreed that 'slavery is the +sum of all villanies'?" + +"By no means, in the United States," said I; "you might with as real +truth say that here slavery is the sum of all the loving-kindnesses." + +"Is not that letter of the Southern lady to her father," said he, "as +rare a thing almost as a white crow?" + +"O husband," said Mrs. North, "what an opinion you must have of Southern +society!" + +"Is not Gustavus," said I, "a perfect representative of the North, on +the subject of slavery? Does not ultra anti-slavery find or make +everybody, as the Aunt says, either fierce or flat?" + +"You do not believe so," said he. + +"Neither do you believe," said I, "that where Christianity has exerted +the same influence on the hearts of men and women as on yours, and all +the humanizing and elevating influences of society prevail, that letter +is a rare product." + +"I cannot believe," said he, "that one can own a fellow-creature, hold +God's image as property, and be a true Christian. This lady is an +exception which does not destroy the general rule." + +"My dear sir," said I, "you are an abstractionist. You make the best +possible condition under the sun your standard, to which you would make +all men and things conform, instead of allowing for the vast +inequalities, the necessities, the mutual dependence, the long +historical conditions of men, as individuals and races. A race or class +of human beings may be in such a condition, that being 'owned' by a +superior race will be, in their circumstances, a real mercy and a great +blessing." + +"O my dear sir," said he, "I weep over the degradation of your moral +sense. 'Owning a fellow-creature!' I would not hold property in a human +being 'for all the wealth that sinews bought and sold have ever +earned.'" + +"Thousands of men and women," I replied, "as good in the sight of God as +you or I, think otherwise. There is nothing in the relation of ownership +to a human being which in itself is sinful, or wrong." + +"If it is your purpose," said he, "to argue in favor of oppression, +perhaps we had better not pursue the conversation." + +"Uncharitableness, false judgments, self-righteousness," said I, +"condemning a whole people for the sins of a few, are as truly +'oppression' as anything can be. I plead for no wrongs; I justify no +selfishness in the relation of master and servant; I regard the golden +rule of Christ as the law by which slave-holding should be regulated in +every instance." + +"I never expected," said he, "to live long enough to hear of the golden +rule being applied to slavery! It would be like applying light to +darkness, truth to falsehood, holiness to sin." + +"By what rule," I inquired, "do you think the lady is habitually +governed who wrote the letter which has interested you so much?" + +"Why," said he, "there are good people under every iniquitous system. +These exceptional cases are not the rule of judgment with regard to the +nature and effect of a system." + +"Can you not imagine one man owning another," said I, "under +circumstances, and with motives, and in a temper and spirit which will +make the relation most desirable?" + +"I go further back," said he, "and I deny that it is right for one human +being to own another." + +"Has not God a right," said I, "to place one human being over another as +his owner?" + +"Has God a right," said he, "to countenance theft and oppression?" + +I said to him: "I might follow your example, and answer you by asking, +Has God a right to countenance war? But I will relieve all your +disagreeable apprehensions as to our conversation at once, by saying +that I am not to argue in favor of oppression. If holding a slave is +oppression, it is a sin. And if it be inconsistent with the golden rule, +it is a sin." + +"If that be your doctrine," said he, "we shall soon agree. Now apply the +golden rule to slavery. Are there any circumstances in which you would +yourself be willing to be 'owned'?" + +"Certainly," I replied. + +He rose, and put some lumps of coal upon the fire with the tongs, and +said, "I presume you mean what you say, and that you do not wish to +trifle with the subject." + +"Mr. North," said I, "would you be willing that any one should make you +head-cook in a hotel, engineer in a steamboat, or keeper of a floating +light?" + +"No, Sir," said he. + +"You would, Mr. North," said I, "under given circumstances. You would +petition for such places, get recommendations for them, and count +yourself perfectly happy, if you succeeded in obtaining them. + +"Now look at the slaves. They are a foreign race, we are their civil +superiors, and unless we amalgamate, we intend to remain so. While we +are in this relation, it is a privilege to the blacks to have owners, +but they must use their ownership according to the golden rule. When +this is done, the condition of the blacks, in their present relation to +us, is happy." + +"How often," said he, "do you suppose that it is done?" + +"That," said I, "is another and a very interesting question, which we +will consider soon. You took the ground, as I understood you, that the +law of love would prevent any one from holding a fellow-creature as a +slave. I reply that it would be in perfect accordance with it, as the +blacks at the South are now situated, for the whites to be their humane +owners. But pray what do you mean by 'owning' a human being?" + +"I mean," said he, "having the right to abuse them, domineer over them, +work them as cattle, sell them, and--" + +"Did this Southern lady," said I, while he paused for more words, "ever +acquire a right with her ownership to treat Kate so?" + +"Her laws," said he, "give her a right to punish her; and such +irresponsible power is fearful. She could whip her to death and"-- + +"And be punished for it," said I, "as surely as you would be for +whipping a servant to death." + +"She is at liberty to punish more severely than the case warrants," said +he, "and then she can shield herself under the laws." + +"I presume," said I, "a Northern parent never gives a hasty box on the +ear, never strikes one passionate blow in the chastisement, never shakes +a child a single trill beyond the due harmony of parental affection, +never scourges it with the tongue to momentary madness! What a dreadful +thing parental authority is! Would it not be well to abolish the +authority of parents over children! Indeed, would it not be well to go +further, and interdict the public lands of the United States from being +settled; for as surely as men live there, every form of wickedness will, +in its turn, be perpetrated. How much better the calm and holy silence +of the woods and fields, than if the tumultuous passions of men should +roll over them!" + +"But, my dear sir," said he, "I maintain that oppression is inseparable +from the holding of a slave. I insist that this Southern lady, if all +her feelings and conduct toward her servants are like her letter, is an +exception among her people." + +"No, Sir," said I, "she is the general rule among all decent people, and +there is as much sense of decency and propriety there as with us, as +many good people, kind, humane, generous, and it is as rare a thing for +a servant to be ill-used there, as for our apprentices, and servants, +and even our children. How kind and good you would be, Sir, if +Providence should place a human being under you as his owner, for the +mutual good of both of you." + +"Dear me," said he, "I should try to feel and act just as I suppose +those Southerners do who, you say, are fairly represented by this lady's +letter about the slave-babe." + +"Mr. North," said I, "suppose that the State should make you the +absolute owner of some of those boys who set fire to the Westboro' and +Deer Island institutions. In consideration of your personal +responsibility for them, there is ceded to you all right and title to +their services, and absolute control over them, subject, of course, to +the laws against misdemeanors and crimes against the person. My only +point is this: Where would be the sinfulness of that relation? All that +would be sinful about it would be in your neglect or violation of your +duty as a master." + +"How glad all this makes me feel," said he, "that I am not troubled with +slaves. If we do not like our servants or apprentices, we can get rid of +them." + +"Then," said I, "you surely ought to pity those who are bound to their +slaves and have to put up with a thousand things which you say we can +escape by changing our help." + +"But," said he, "can they not sell off their slaves when they please?" + +"Suppose, however," said I, "that they happen to be humane, as Mr. North +is, and as we all are in the Free States! and that they are unwilling to +turn off a poor helpless creature for her faults, to be sold, and to go +they know not where!" + +"Slavery," said Mr. North, "is surely a great curse. I am so glad that I +live under free institutions." + +"Who made us to differ from the South in this respect? How came those +blacks there? Whose ships, whose money, imported them? You remember that +it was by the votes of Free States, that the importation of slaves was +continued for eight years beyond the time when the Southern States had +voted in the Convention that it should cease. And now what would you +have the South do with the slaves, to-day?" + +"Set them all free," said he, "'break every yoke; proclaim liberty to +the captives, the opening of the prison-doors to them that are bound.'" + +"Allow me," said I, "to smile at your simplicity, for you are very +child-like, not to say childish, in your feelings. You would have the +colored people universally go free. Do you really think that Kate is +worse off in being what you call a slave, than that young, free black +woman who keeps a stall and sells verses and knives near our Park?" + +"O dear sir," said he, "liberty is a priceless boon; liberty"-- + +"Liberty to what?" said I. + +"Why," said he, "liberty not to be sold, nor to be beaten, nor to be +subject to the wicked passions of a master." + +"Would you rather," said I, "have your daughter a servant in a Southern +family, brought up as a playmate with the children, a sharer in many of +their gifts, a partner with their parents, as the children grew up, in +the pride and joy of the parents, an honored member of the wedding party +when a daughter is married, one of the principal mourners when the bride +departs, identified with the history of the family, provided for in the +will, a support guaranteed to her by law in sickness and old age, and +that, too, not in a pauper establishment, but in her owner's home, and +when the parents die, if she survives, taken by some branch of the +family or neighbor from regard to her and to them; her moral and +religious character improved under their training, a respectable +standing in society conferred upon her by her connection with them, her +religious privileges sacredly secured to her, any insult redressed as +though it were the family's personal affair; she a partaker of their +food and of all their comforts, and followed to her grave with respect +and love; or, for the sake of 'priceless liberty,' 'heaven's best gift +to man,' would you prefer to see her seated under the iron fence of a +park, an old umbrella tied to the pickets for her shelter, and she, in +rain and sunshine, selling 'Old Dan Tucker,' 'Jim Crow, Illustrated,' +and pea-nuts, and sleeping you know not where? Which lot would you +choose for a child? Which is best for this world and the next? In one +case, she is 'owned,' she is 'a slave;' and in the other, she is a free +woman." + +"You have no right," said he, with some warmth, "to take the best +condition in slavery, and the very worst in freedom, and compel me to +choose." + +"'Best condition in slavery!'" said I; "is there any 'best' in being a +slave, in not being free? Does it admit of degrees? Is not being 'owned' +such a curse, such an unmixed iniquity in its essence, that to compare +its best estate with the worst in freedom, is like comparing the best +devil with the most inferior saint? Is not a devil's nature incapable of +comparison as good, better, best, with anything which is not, in its +nature, devilish? According to your conversation just now, it seemed as +though being 'owned' always implied an unmitigated transgression; and +now when I inquire whether you would prefer degradation to the iniquity +of being 'owned' in comfort and usefulness, respectability and +happiness, you shrink from the question. If freedom in the abstract is +the best thing under the sun, of course you will prefer it to everything +else. No happy condition, no happy prospect for this life, and the life +to come can, in your view, make being 'a slave,' as you call it, capable +of being compared with this abstract privilege of being free. In this +you and your friends labor under a huge mistake, and it poisons all your +views and feelings about slavery. When you denounce slave-holders and +slavery, and depict the condition of the slave in your awful colors, +they at the South know that in hundreds of thousands of instances, as it +regards masters and slaves, all that you say is practically false; you +are carried away by your zeal against a theoretical wrong. + +"Now suppose that instead of starting with the theoretical wrong and +getting only such facts as illustrate it, you should travel through the +South to pick up such letters as you consider this, respecting Kate, to +be;--what a pleasing view might be presented of the slaves' condition in +cases without number!" + +"But," said he, "there are terrible evils underlying these fair features +of slavery." + +"True," said I, "but why, in the name of truth and love do you never +hear such a letter as this read on the platforms of Northern abolition +societies? What mingled groans and hisses and shrieks for freedom, and +then what an emptying of the demoniacal epithets there would be, if such +a letter should be offered. One case of whipping would have more effect +than a thousand such letters, in your assemblies and newspapers. No one +from the continent of Europe would infer from those meetings that such +beings as Kate and her little babe, and this lady and her husband and +father, existed even in fiction, but that slave-holders are Legrees, and +the slaves their victims. What a beautiful effect it would have on us +and on the South, if touching tales of loving-kindness between masters +and slaves, instances of perfect happiness in that relation, should be +cited, and then you should enter your candid, but decided opposition to +the system, to its extension, to its evils where it exists. How soon we +should all be found working together, so far as we might, for the +amelioration of the colored race here, with a view to the extinction of +slavery in every form of it in which it is an evil, or a greater evil +than anything which might properly be substituted." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, "husband, what do you say to that?" + +"I like it," said he. + +"But now," said I, "the language of the place of despair is exhausted in +describing and denouncing the South. If a man among us lifts up his +voice to say good things about Southerners, one universal hiss goes up +from all your conventions and anti-slavery prints. He may be seeking the +same end with you, namely, the peaceful removal of slavery, with due +regard to the highest good of all concerned; but let him utter a word in +arrest of your unqualified condemnation of slavery as it actually is, +and there are no persecutors, nor scourges, nor intolerance on the +earth, more fierce and cruel than you and your denunciations." + +"Take it patiently, husband," said Mrs. North, "you know that you +deserve it." + +"I know from this," said I, "if from nothing else, that your theory is +wrong. The truth does not excite such passions in those who love and +seek to promote it. We see that, in cases without number, the present +condition of the slaves is a blessing for both worlds, and that if all +who possess slaves were, as many are, slavery would cease to be any more +of a curse than any dependent condition in this world. There must always +be those who will do every sort of menial work. The great Father of all, +who himself says that he has 'deprived' the ostrich 'of wisdom, neither +hath he imparted to her understanding,' so arranges the capacities of +some that their happiness consists in leaning upon superior intelligence +and capability. + +"The serving people, in some districts of country, are volunteers from +all races; at the South, they consist of one inferior, dependent race, +who for ages have been slaves in their own country, and would be such +even now, if they were there. We will not shut the door of hope forever +upon any part of the human family, as to their elevation among the +tribes of men, but this race has, for a long period of its history, +evidently been undergoing a tutelage and discipline at the hand of +Providence. There is some marvellous arrangement of Providence, it seems +to me, designing that this black race shall lean upon us. Let the same +number of any other immigrant race have gone from us to Canada as of +this colored race, and the world would have heard a better report from +them ere this. They thrive best in connection with us as their masters, +whether it be right or wrong for us to be in such relation to them." + +"But now," said he,--in a persuasive tone, and evidently wishing to turn +the drift of the remarks,--"just set them free, and hire them; we shall +agree then. The slaves will be as well off, and so will their masters." + +"Mr. North," said I, "being owned is, in itself, irrespective of the +character of the master, a means of protection to the negro. Somebody +then is responsible for him as his guardian and provider, and is +amenable to the State for his sustenance. You can easily see that, let +the colored people come to be a hireling class, and their interests and +those of their masters are disjoined. There would be conflicts and +oppressions among themselves; they would fall into a degraded, serf-like +condition; but now each of them partakes of his master's interests, and +rises with him. I am not here pleading for slavery in the abstract, but, +the blacks being on the soil, it is far better for them to be owned than +to be free. Why are the Southwestern States, one after another, passing +laws, or framing their constitutions, to shut out from their borders +free negroes,--people in the very condition into which you would reduce +by wholesale all the blacks in the South? I pray you look and see that +you are an abstractionist, setting what you deem a theoretical wrong +against a practical good, and under the circumstances, a real mercy." + +"But," said Mr. North, "slavery impoverishes the soil, makes the whites +shun labor, feeling it to be degrading, and it keeps the white children +from industrial pursuits, and"-- + +"Please stop," said I, "my dear Sir, and think of what you are saying, +and be not carried away by that popular flood of cant phrases. Now you +know that God has given our Southern friends a south country, nearer +than ours to the tropics. Out-of-door labor there is injurious to the +white people, as you know. They are not to be blamed for this. God has +not given them strength to endure exposure to the sun. Had they a +northern climate, in which the labor required by the mechanic arts could +be performed with safety and comfort, do you not suppose that they +would have the same aptitude and relish as we for handicraft? Their +children cannot be brought up to manual labor to the extent that ours +are, because the God of heaven has ordained their lot in a land less +favorable than ours to toil. His providence, making use of the sins of +men, has placed the blacks here; you and the rest of the world, who +depend upon their cotton, are willing enough to use it in its countless +forms, while you reproach your Maker, as I think, for having caused it +to be raised as he has seen fit to do." + +"But Oh," said Mr. North, "free labor is more profitable than slave +labor. You well know how it affects the soil, and that the great price +of slaves will in time make the system oppressive to the masters, +especially if they are all as considerate as you say they are about +selling." + +"The good Aunt has replied to you as to the soil, and we need not +distress ourselves about the price of slaves; that will regulate itself. +You well understand," said I, "that I am not arguing in favor of slavery +_per se_, nor for the slave-trade, nor for the extension of slavery; but +I contend that where slavery now exists, no one has yet proposed a +scheme which is better than the continuance of ownership, the blacks +remaining on the same soil with their present masters. Nor do I mean to +say that the present system must inevitably continue forever. We must +leave future developments in other hands. Of course there are difficult +problems on such a subject as this. Intelligent Christian gentlemen at +the South say that the best schemes which have been proposed by +Europeans for the substitution of apprenticed negroes for slaves would +make the condition of the negro as far worse than our slavery as the +condition of a degraded negro here is below that of his master. Who will +care for him when he is old, or sick? Granting this apprentice scheme +to be arranged without oppression or sin of any kind, I hold that the +condition of our slaves owned by masters and mistresses, is better than +such a hireling condition, though it have the appearance of liberty." + +"Why so?" inquired Mr. North. + +"The slaves are not treated as hired horses are liable to be treated," I +replied. "We know how a man is likely to treat his own horse, compared +with the horse which he hires. Men nurse their slaves when they are +sick; they provide for them when they are old. By their care and +responsibility for them, and in relieving them from responsibility, they +pay them wages whose market-value, if it could be reckoned in dollars, +would be higher wages than are paid to the same class of laborers in the +land. There are not four millions of the lower class of the laboring +people in any one district of the earth whose condition is to be +compared with that of the Southern slaves for comfort and happiness." + +"I presume," said Mrs. North, "that you would not regard exemption from +responsibility as in itself a blessing. You know how it educates us, how +it sharpens the faculties, how it makes a man more of a man; therefore +is it, after all, any kindness to the slaves, that they are relieved +from responsibility?" + +"I thank you," said I, "for that question. Does it concern us that our +domestic servants are relieved, for the time, of all responsibility for +house-rent, taxes, political duties? + +"Every condition of poverty and toil has its peculiar hardships and +sorrows. But putting together, respectively, all the advantages and the +disadvantages of our slaves, he who looks upon a population with +enlarged views of liabilities and of the inevitable results in the +working of different schemes of labor, and is not so weak or morbid as +to dwell inordinately on real and imaginary wrongs and miseries, which, +after all, if real, are compensated for by advantages or surpassed by +aggregated smaller evils in other conditions, must admit that, the +colored people being here, their being owned is the very best possible +thing for their protection, and the surest guarantee against all their +liabilities to want in hard times, sickness, and old age. + +"Speaking of hard times leads me to say, that if you could put four +millions of laboring people in the Free States, for a winter or during +commercial distresses and the stagnation of every kind of business, in a +position where, while they were still active and useful, a single +thought or care about their sustenance would not visit them, you would +be deemed a philanthropist and public benefactor. There will not be the +same number of people in the laboring class throughout our land next +winter, in any one section, whose comfort and happiness will exceed that +of our slaves." + +"Oh, well," said Mr. North, "all this may be true, but this does not +reconcile me to slavery. Our horses here at the North will all be +comfortably provided for, notwithstanding any money pressure. But I +would rather be a human being and fail, every winter, than be a horse." + +"Husband," said Mrs. North, "do you consider that a parallel case? Mr. +C. is not arguing, as I understand him, that slavery is better than +freedom. He is not persuading us to be slaves rather than free. He takes +these four millions of blacks as he finds them, in bondage, and he asks, +What shall we do with them? You say, Set them free. He says, They are +better off, as a race, in their present bondage, than they would be if +made free, to remain here. Not that they are better off than four +millions of colored people, who had never been slaves, would be in a +commonwealth by themselves." + +"I thank you, Mrs. North," said I, "for your clear and correct statement +of my position. And now I will take up Mr. North's parable about the +horses, and apply it justly. Let hay and grass be exceedingly scarce, +and I had rather take my chance with an owner and be a horse, in a +stable, and at work, than a horse roaming in search of food, chased away +everywhere. The comparison is between horse and horse, and man and man." + +"You make me think," said Mrs. North, "of an interesting passage in a +late magazine, written by a lady. She was on a voyage to Cuba. She +arrived at Nassau. She says, 'There were many negroes, together with +whites of every grade; and some of our number, leaning over the side, +saw for the first time the raw material out of which Northern +Humanitarians have spun so fine a skein of compassion and sympathy. You +must allow me one heretical whisper,--very small and low. Nassau, and +all we saw of it, suggested to us the unwelcome question whether +compulsory labor be not better than none.'"[3] + + [Footnote 3: _Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1859, p. 604.] + +"There is," said I, "this great question of right, with some, as to +slavery: As the State has a right to interpose and send vagrant children +to school, has the world a right to interpose, in certain cases, and +send certain races to labor for the good of mankind? This was the +question which broke upon the lady's mind. It is very interesting to see +the question thus stated, and to notice the graceful touch of apology, +and of playfulness, in the manner of stating it. There was risk, and +even peril, in making the suggestion, but, withal, some moral courage. +Still a lady may sometimes venture where it might not be safe for a +gentleman to go. + +"But the question between us is not, 'Freedom or slavery,' in the +abstract, nor, Whether it is right, in any case, to reduce a people to +slavery; but, What is best for our slaves? All your proofs that freedom +is better than slavery in the abstract, are nothing to the point." + +"It is the foulest blot on our nation in the eyes of the world," said +Mr. North, "that we have four millions of human beings in bondage." + +"Have you read 'Uncle Tom's Cabin?'" I inquired. + +"Ask me," said he, pleasantly, "if I know how to read. Every lover of +liberty and hater of oppression has read 'Uncle Tom.'" + +"That is very far from being true," said I; "but still, you like Uncle +Tom as a character, do you?" + +"You astonish me," said he, "by making a question about it. He is the +most perfect specimen of Christianity that I ever heard of." + +"Among the martyrs," said I, "have you ever found his superior?" + +"No, Sir!" was his energetic answer. + +"Now," said I, "what made Uncle Tom the paragon of perfection?" + +"What made him?" said he. + +"Yes," said I, "what made him the model Christian? You do not reply, and +I will tell you. SLAVERY MADE UNCLE TOM. Had it not been for slavery, he +would have been a savage in Africa, a brutish slave to his fetishes, +living in a jungle, perhaps; and had you stumbled upon him he would very +likely have roasted you and picked your bones. A system which makes +Uncle Toms out of African savages is not an unmixed evil." + +"But," said he, "it makes Legrees also." + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," said I, "it does not make Legrees. There are +as many Legrees at the North as at the South, especially if we include +all the very particular 'friends of the slave.' Legree would be Legree +in Wall Street, or Fifth Avenue; Uncle Tom would not be Uncle Tom in the +wilds of Africa." + +"And so," said he, "it is right to fit out ships, burn villages in +Africa, steal the flying people, bestow them in slave-ships, and sell +them into hopeless bondage!" + +"So you all love to reason," said I, "or seek to force that conclusion +upon us. No such thing. If God overrules the evil doings of men, this is +no reason for repeating the wrong. I am insisting that slavery as it +exists in the South has been a blessing to the African. This does not +warrant you in perpetrating outrages on those who are still in Africa. + +"But the result has been, through the mercy of God as though we had +taken millions of degraded savages out of Africa, and had made them +contribute greatly to the industrial interests of mankind. + +"We have raised them from heathenish ignorance and barbarism to the +condition of intelligent beings. Look at them in their churches and +Sabbath-schools. Slavery has done this. See the colored population of +Charleston, S.C., voluntarily contributing, as they do, on an average, +three dollars apiece, annually, for the propagation of the Gospel at +home and abroad. See the meeting-house of the African Church at +Richmond, Va., a place selected for public speakers from the North to +deliver their addresses in it to the citizens of Richmond, because it is +more commodious than any other public building in the city. Think of the +membership of slaves in Christian Churches; of the multitudes of them +who have died in the faith and hope of the Gospel. Slavery has done +this. The question is whether slavery has been, or is, such a curse, on +the whole, to the African race, that we must now set free the whole +colored population? Please let us keep to the point. The reopening of +the slave-trade is a question by itself. + +"It seems that God had chosen to redeem and save large numbers of the +African race by having them transported to this Christian land. +Philanthropists would not be at the cost and trouble of all this. God +has, therefore, used the cupidity of men to accomplish his purposes, and +he punishes the wicked agents of his own benevolent schemes. His curse +has for ages rested on the African race, and the laws of nature have, to +a great degree, interposed to prevent Christian efforts in their behalf. +God saw fit to change the prison-house, and prison yards and shops of +this race from one continent to another, and New England merchantmen, in +part, have been allowed to be the conveyers. In the process of +transferring these future subjects of civilization and Christianity, +vast misery is endured, as in opening a way by the sword for the +execution of his decrees, great slaughter is the inevitable attendant. I +look at the whole subject of slavery in the light of God's providence. +And I do not see that his providence yet indicates any way for its +termination consistent with the interests of the colored people. + +"As to the extension of slavery, in this land, if the Most High has any +further purposes of mercy for the African race in connection with us, he +will not consult you nor me. He will open districts of our country for +them; if my political party refuses to be the instrument in doing this, +from benevolent motives, or from any other cause, He will make that +party to be defeated, it may be by a party below us in moral principle, +as we view it. This question of slavery, its extension and continuance, +is therefore among the great problems of God's providence. I shall do +all that I properly can to prevent it, and to encourage, and, if called +upon, to aid my brethren now in immediate charge of the slaves, to +fulfil their solemn trust; but anything like impatience and passion at +the existence of slavery, I hold to be a sin against God. I pity those +good men whose minds are so inflamed by the consideration of individual +cases of suffering as not to perceive the great and steadfast march of +the divine administration. Politicians and others who get their places, +or their bread, by easy appeals to sympathy for individual cases of +suffering, are the causes of much misplaced commiseration and of a low, +uninstructed view of the great interests involved in slavery. Yet these +very men who, for selfish purposes, stir up the passions of our people, +by dwelling on cases of hardship in slavery, are greatly disappointed +when Napoleon III., at Villafranca, prematurely terminates a war of +unparalleled slaughter. They would have preferred, for the cause of +constitutional liberty and for its possible influence against the Pope, +that the fighting had continued a month longer; we hear no pathetic +remonstrances from them on the score of the killed and maimed, the +widows and orphans and the childless, of homes made desolate, by this +additional month of battle. Such is man, so inconsistent, so blinded by +party prejudice, so ready to maintain that which, in a change of persons +and places, he will denounce. He will be wholly blinded by individual +acts of suffering to all that is good in a system; and again, the good +to be effected by a war will blind him to the hundreds of thousands of +dead or mutilated soldiers, with five times that number of bleeding +hearts, rifled by the sword of their precious treasures." + +I saw that I had prolonged my remarks to an undue length. We sat in +silence for a little while, looking into the fire, and listening to the +rain against the windows, when Judith called Mrs. North to the door; +and, after some whispering between them, Mrs. North said to her, + +"Oh, bring them in; our company will excuse it." + +The cranberries, it seems, were not doing well over the fire in Judith's +department, and she had hesitatingly proposed that they should be +promoted to the parlor grate, where, after due apologies, they were +placed. They soon began to simmer; then one would burst, and then +another, we pausing unconsciously to hear them surrendering themselves +to their fate, while one mouth, at least, watered at the thought of the +delicious dish which they were to furnish; the rich, ruby color of their +juice in the best cut-glass tureen, and the added spoonful, as a reward +for not spilling a drop on the table-cloth the last time they were +served, coming to mind, with thoughts of early days. And here I was +discussing slavery. Now, while the cranberries were over the fire, +making one feel domestic and also bringing back young days, it was +impossible to be disputatious, had we been so inclined. The Northern +cranberry-meadow and the Southern sugar-plantation seemed mixed up in my +feelings on this subject, qualifying and rectifying each other. Perhaps +the soothing presence of the cranberry saucepan was timely; for, without +any design, a phase of our subject next presented itself which was not +the most agreeable. I broke the silence, and said,-- + +"Mr. North, what do you think is the mission of the abolitionists as a +party, and of all who sympathize with them?" + +"Why," said he, "to abolish slavery, to be sure. What else can it be?" + +"You are mistaken," said I. "The real mission of the abolitionists, thus +far, is, To perpetuate slavery till Providence has accomplished its +plan. You know what Southern synods, and general assemblies, and many of +the ablest men at the South have said about slavery; how they deplored +it, and called upon Christians to seek its extinction. The South would +probably have tried to abolish slavery ere this, if left to themselves. +But they would have failed; and Providence prevented the useless effort. +The influence of those sentiments which prevailed in the General +Assembly of 1818 would have been to remove all the objectionable +features of slavery, at least, preparatory to its final extinction, if +that could be reached. It looked as though Churches generally would, in +obedience to the General Assembly, have made it, in certain cases, the +subject of discipline. Abolitionism, however, began about that time. It +had the effect to make the South defend themselves and slavery too. +Providence saw that the South was weary of the system, and wished to +throw it off. But the years of the captivity appointed of God had not +come to an end. Purposes of mercy for the African race had not been +accomplished; the South must be made willing to hold these poor people +for the 'time, times, and half a time,' ordained of God. To encourage +them, the God of Nature makes the great Southern staple, cotton, to be +in greater demand for the supply of the world; the cotton-gin is +invented, and immediately the slaves are thereby assisted to retain that +hold upon the South which was about to be broken off. All this seems to +me designed, as it certainly has the effect, to perpetuate slavery until +Providence shall indicate measures for the removal of the colored people +among us. This may be delayed for centuries to come. In the mean time, +we at the North, by keeping up our agitation of the subject, have +impressed the South with the importance of being united against us; but +if any of our schemes of emancipation had divided them, it would not +have been for the good of the slaves. So the abolitionists have been +fulfilling their destiny by fighting against Providence to help +perpetuate slavery till the Most High shall disclose his will concerning +it." + +"And helped the South," said Mr. North, "perpetuate violations of the +marriage relation, and to separate families, and to countenance all the +sins in slavery!" + +"Yes, to some degree," said I; "for should we treat them with common +candor and truthfulness, make them feel that we appreciate the +perplexities of the subject, admit for once, and act upon it, that they +are better and more competent 'friends of the slave' than we, it would +be the surest way to put a stop to every evil in slavery. Now they have +little power over a certain class of men among them, who, when measures +are proposed for the relief of the slaves, raise the cry that they are +abolitionists, and excite an odium which deters them from doing many +things which would otherwise be attempted." + +"They might all certainly join," said Mr. North, "one would think, to +prevent the violation of the marriage contract by the slaves, and the +sundering of the marriage tie by the auctioneer." + +"Now," said I, "there are two allegations, and I will answer them. As to +the violation of the marriage covenant by the slaves, are you aware how +many divorces for the same cause are granted in your own state yearly? +You will find, on inquiry, that 'freedom' has nothing to boast of in +this respect. As to the auctioneer, and the separation of the marriage +tie by him, how often do you think that an honest black man, for no +crime, is taken from his wife and sold, or she from him? How often, do +you suppose, are families divided and scattered at the auction-block? If +you will inquire, you will find that the cases are extremely rare; that +in some large districts it has not occurred for several years; and that +in other cases, where it has occurred, regard has been had to the +neighborhood of the purchasers, so that members of the same families +have been within reach of one another. You seem to think that a great +feature, and the most common effect, of slavery is to separate families. +Such is the general belief at the North. Let me remind you that there is +no form or condition of service in the world which has more effect than +slavery to keep families together." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, dropping her work in her lap, "I never thought +of that before." + +"Why," said I, "where will you find in the Free States husband and wife +and children living together as servants in the same family?" + +Said Mrs. North, "It is rather uncommon with us to find two sisters +living together as help in a family. At least, it is always spoken of +and noted as pleasant and desirable." + +"What would Northerners think," said I, "of gathering the old parents +and all the brothers and sisters of their domestics together, in small +tenements near their own dwellings? He who should do this would be +regarded as a very great saint. So that you may as well say that slavery +is a system by which a serving class is kept together in families, as to +say that its purpose and effect is to break up families." + +"Just think," said Mrs. North, "of the serving class in our families +here at the North,--how they are separated by states, by oceans, from +one another!" + +"Be careful, Mrs. North," said I, "how you even hint at such mitigations +in slavery, for you will be denounced as a 'friend of oppression' if you +discern anything in the system but 'villanies.' You never hear such a +feature of slavery, as that of which we have just spoken, recognized +here at the North by our zealous anti-slavery people." + +"Do you not think," said she, "that if we were candid and less +passionate, and viewed the subject as anti-slavery men at the South do, +we should exert far more influence against slavery?" + +"If we exerted any," I replied, "it would be 'far more' than we do now. +If we would only cease to 'exert influence' in that direction, and begin +to learn that the people of the South are as Christian, benevolent, and +good in every respect as we, this first, great lesson, which we all need +to learn, would do us all great good. Self-righteousness is the great +characteristic of the Northern people with regard to the South. Fifteen +States declare that they are justified before God in continuing the +system of slavery. The other States would be ashamed to condemn those +fifteen States for immorality in the discussion of any other subject; +but here they assume that one half of the American nation is convicted +of crime. I take the ground that, if the Churches and the ministry of +those fifteen States say, With all the evils of slavery, it is right and +best that we should maintain it, I will so far yield my convictions as +not to feel that they are less righteous than I." + +"Oh," said Mr. North, "but they have been born and educated under the +system. Of course they must be blinded by it, and their moral sense +perverted." + +"There," said I, "Mr. North, is the 'Northern Evil' again. Oh, what a +shame it is for intelligent people to decry Southern Christians in this +way, and to erect their own moral sense into such self-complacent +superiority! + +"You will see in your church one excellent brother, whose heart is +filled with anguish at the thought of the 'poor slave.' One sits by him +who knows full as much on this and on all subjects as he, who feels that +the people at the South are perfectly qualified to manage this subject, +and that we have no need to interpose. He thinks that if one wishes to +be excited with compassion at the sorrows and woes of men, a short walk +will bring him to certain abodes such as no Southern slave would be +allowed by any human master to inhabit. If he would benefit men as a +class, our own sailors need all his philanthropy. But the good +anti-slavery brother is possessed with the idea that the Southern slave +is the impersonation of injustice and misery, and that those who stand +in the relation of masters are guilty of crimes, daily, which ought to +shut them out of the Church. + +"I have often thought that the most appropriate prayers in our public +assemblies, with regard to slavery, would be petitions against Northern +ignorance and passion with respect to Southern Christians. It is we who +most need to be prayed for. When I think of those assemblies of +Christians of all denominations in the South, with a clergy at their +head who have no superiors in the world, and then hear a Northern +preacher indicting them before God in his prayers, what shall I say? The +verdict of a coroner's inquest, if it were held over some of his hearers +at such a time, might almost be, Died of disgust." + +"Now I desire to know," said Mr. North, "if we are never to pray in +public about slavery? Is it not the great subject before the country, +and are not all our interests in Church and State deeply involved in +it?" + +"While we believe," said I, "that holding slaves is a sin, I take the +ground that praying for the Southerners is a false impeachment. When we +are rid of this error, we do not feel their need of being prayed for any +more than 'all men,' for whom Paul says, 'I will that men pray +everywhere,'--'lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting.' Our +'hands' must be 'holy' when we lift them up for 'all men,' including +Southerners; there must be no 'wrath' in our prayers,--which I am sorry +to say is too easily discerned in prayers against the South; and there +must be no 'doubting' in the petitioners whether their feelings and +motives are right before God. There is as much in the relation of +officers and crews in our merchant vessels, to say the least, to enlist +the prayers of ministers, as in slavery. But this relates to ourselves, +and has not the enchantment of a distant sin. + +"You must bring yourself to believe, Mr. North, that Southern hearts are +in general as humane and cultivated as ours. This, it is true, is a +great demand upon a Northerner." + +"But oh," said he, (we happening to be alone just then,) "the cruelty of +compelling virtuous people, members of Churches, to commit sin, under +pain of being sold." + +"Mr. North," said I, "how do you dare to open your lips on that +subject,--you, with myself, a member of a denomination in which men, +eminent in our pulpits, have--so many of them of late years--fallen. One +would think that we would never cast a stone at the South on that +subject. + +"Some among us seem to think that the power and the opportunity to +commit sin must necessarily be followed by criminal indulgence. They do +themselves no credit in this supposition. They also leave out of view a +natural antipathy which must be overcome, sense of degradation, +probability of detection, loss of character, conscience, and all the +moral restraints which are common to men everywhere; and they only judge +that all who exercise authority over an abject race must, as a general +thing, be polluted. + +"As to opportunities for evil-doing at the South compared with the +North, no one who walks the streets of a Northern city, by day or night, +with the ordinary discernment of one who sets himself to examine the +moral condition of a place, will fail to see that we need not go to the +South to find humiliating proofs of baseness and shame. There is less +solicitation at the South; here it is a nightly trade, without disguise. +At the South the young must go in search of opportunity; here it +confronts them. The small number of yellow children in the interior of +the Cotton States, on 'lone plantations,' is positive proof against the +ready suspicions and accusations of Northern people. Let all be true +which is said of 'yellow women,' 'slave-breeders,' and every form of +lechery, he is simple who does not believe that the statistics of a +certain wickedness at the North would, if made as public as difference +of color makes the same statistics at the South, leave no room for us to +arraign and condemn the South in this particular. Their clergy, their +husbands, their young men, if they are no better, are no worse than we. +But there is nothing in which the self-righteousness created by +anti-slavery views and feelings is more conspicuous than in the way in +which the South is judged and condemned by us with regard to this one +sin. Had the pulpits of the South afforded such dreadful instances of +frailty, for the last ten or fifteen years, as we have had at the North, +what confirmation would we have found for our invectives against the +corrupting and 'barbarous' influence of slavery! + +"How the morbid fancy of a Northerner loves to gloat over occasional +instances of violence at the South, and is never employed in depicting +scenes of betrayal and cruelty which our policemen in large cities could +recount by scores." + +"I saw," said Mr. North, "in a recent paper, that a slave in Washington +County, N.C., was hanged by the sheriff in the presence of three +thousand spectators, for the murder of a white man, whom he shot with a +pistol because he suspected him of undue familiarity with the wife of +the black man. Poor fellow! no doubt he swung for it because he was a +slave. He must let his marriage rights be invaded by the whites, and +bear it in silence, or die." + +Said I, "What a perfect specimen of Northern anti-slavery feeling and +logic have we in what you now say. If a man, on suspicion of you, takes +the law into his hands and shoots you with a pistol, does he not deserve +to die? He does, if he is a white man; perhaps, if he be a slave, that +excuses him! Even where a man is known to be guilty of the crime +referred to, and the husband shoots him, he is apt to have a narrow +escape from being punished. As to bearing such violations of one's +rights in silence under intimidation, there is no more power in +intimidation to save a villain at the South from disgrace and abhorrence +in his community, than at the North." + +"But he can evade prosecution under the statute," said Mr. North, "more +easily at the South than here." + +"When you have served on the grand jury a few terms," said I, "you will +be more charitable toward Southerners. Human nature is the same +everywhere. It makes, where it does not find, occasion for sin. + +"Now you will not understand, in all that I have said, that I am +pleading for slavery, that I desire to have this abject race among us, +that Southerners are purer and better than we. We are both under sin. We +all have our temptations and trials; each form of society has its own +kind of facilities for evil; but the grace of God and all the influences +which bear on the formation and the preservation of character, are the +same wherever Christianity prevails." + +"Well, after all," said he, "it must be a semi-barbarous state of +society, where such a system is maintained." + +"I shall have to send you," said I, "to the 'Hotel des Incurables.' I +think that your judgments are more than semi-barbarous. If you please to +term even the Southern negroes 'semi-barbarous,' you may do so; but you +are bearing false witness against your neighbor. + +"My dear friend," said I, "sum up all the evils of the laboring classes, +of foreigners and the lower orders of society. Take their miseries, +vices, crimes, with all the blessings of freedom and everything else. +Get the proportion of evil to the good. Remember that these classes will +continue to exist among us. Then take the slaves, the lower order at the +South, as foreigners are with us, and say if, on the whole, the +proportion of evil among the slaves is any greater than among the +corresponding classes elsewhere. Do not be an optimist. Acknowledge that +society, in this fallen world, must have elements of evil, by reason at +least of imbecility, want of thrift, misfortune, and other things. You +will not fail to see that slavery with all its evils is, under the +circumstances, by no means, the worst possible condition for the colored +people." + +"Well," said he, "I will think of all you have said. I do not wish to be +an ultraist, nor to shut my eyes against truth. You will wish to go to +bed; there are some further points on which I would know your views, and +we will, if you please, resume the subject to-morrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +OWNERSHIP IN MAN.--THE OLD TESTAMENT SLAVERY. + + "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do + ye even so to them; FOR THIS IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS." + + HOLY WRIT. + + +The rain still poured down in the morning, making it agreeable to us +that we had the prospect of an uninterrupted forenoon for our +conversation. + +So when we found ourselves together again in the course of the forenoon, +by the fire, we opened the discussion. + +Mr. North inquired what I understood by the term "owning a +fellow-creature." + +"I understand by it," I replied, "a right to use, and to dispose of, the +services of another, wholly at my will. That will must be subject to the +whole law of God, which includes the golden rule. I do not mean by it +that a man owns the body of a man in such a sense that he can maim it at +will, or in any way abuse it. Ownership in men is power to use their +services and to dispose of them, at will." + +"Now," said he, "who gives you a right to go to Africa or to a slave +auction and to say to a human being, 'I propose to own you.' How would +you like to have a black man come to you in a solitary place and say, +'My dear Sir, I propose to own you. Henceforth your services are +subject to my will.'?" + +"As to Africa," said I, "and making slaves of those who are now free, we +cannot differ. As to the other part of your question, I will carry the +illustration a little further, and in doing so, will answer you in part. +How would you like to have some Michael O'Connor come to you and say, +'Mr. North, I propose to hire you and pay you wages as my body-servant, +or my ostler.' Why should you not consent? If you do not, why should you +hire Mike himself to serve you in either of those capacities? What has +become of the golden rule, if you hire a man to do work for you which +you would not be hired to do? + +"You are feasting with a company of friends; and your domestics, below, +hear your cheerful talk, and feel the wide difference between your state +and theirs. Why do you not go down and say, 'Dear fellow-creatures, go +up and take our places at table, and let us be servants'? Does the +golden rule require that? Inequalities in human conditions are a wise +and benevolent provision for human happiness, so long as men are +dependent on one another, as they are and ever must be. Some are so +constituted by an all-wise God that they are happier to be in +subordinate situations. Mind is lord; and they, seeing and feeling the +superiority of others, gladly attach themselves to them as helpers, to +be thought for and protected, and to enjoy their approbation. There is +nothing cruel in this, unless it be cruel not to have made all men +equal. There are important influences growing out of these relationships +of superiors and inferiors,--gentleness, kindness, benevolence, in all +its forms, on the one hand, and on the other, respect, deference, love, +strong attachments and identification of interests. + +"As to the remaining part of your question, let me ask, What nation or +tribes are capable of such bondage as the Africans at home inflict and +bear? We never had a right to go and steal them, nor to encourage their +captors in their pillage and violent seizure of the defenceless +creatures; nor do I think that all the blessings which multitudes of +them have received, for both worlds, in consequence of their +transportation from Africa, lessens the guilt of slave-traders; nor are +these benefits any justification of the trade, nor do they afford ground +for its continuance. Nothing can justify it. Such is the voice of the +human conscience everywhere except where covetousness or controversy +prevail. + +"But finding these colored people here, the question upon which you and +I differ, is, What is our duty with regard to them? + +"You say, Set them all free. I reply, The relation of ownership on our +part toward them is best for all concerned. You say, It is wrong in +itself. To say this, I think, is to be more righteous than God." + +"Then you maintain," said he, "that the Most High, in the Bible, +countenances all the atrocities of American slavery." + +"What a strange way," said I, "of arguing, do we very generally find +among anti-slavery men, when their feelings are enlisted, as they are so +apt to be. They take unwarrantable, extreme inferences from what we say, +and oppose these as logical answers to a statement or argument. 'Auction +block' and 'Bunker Hill,' are sufficient answers with them to most of +our reasoning on this subject. But let us look at this point in a +dispassionate manner. + +"But," said I, "before I begin I wish to be distinctly understood as +holding this doctrine; namely, The Bible does not justify us in reducing +men to bondage at our will. God might appoint that certain tribes should +be slaves to others; but before we proceed to reduce men to slavery, our +warrant for it must be clear. + +"If, however, slavery is found by a certain generation among them, and +it is not right and just nor expedient to abolish it, may we not safely +ask, How did the Most High legislate concerning slavery among the people +to whom he gave a code of laws from his own lips? + +"Learning this, we must then consider whether circumstances in our day +warrant, or require, different rules and regulations. + +"But our inquiry into the divine legislation respecting slavery, will +disclose some things which draw largely upon one's implicit faith in the +divine goodness; and if a man is disposed to be a sceptic and his +anti-slavery feelings are strong, here is a stone on which, if that +anti-slavery man falls, he shall be broken, but if it falls on him, it +shall grind him to powder. + +"You will acknowledge this, if you will allow me to speak further on +this subject. + +"Did you ever notice," said I, "with what words Christ concludes his +enunciation of the golden rule? They are a remarkable answer to our +modern infidels, who impugn the Old Testament as far behind the New in +its moral standard. After declaring that the rule by which we should +treat others is self-love, the Saviour says,--'for this is the Law and +the Prophets.' So there was nothing in the Law and Prophets inconsistent +with the golden rule. The golden rule therefore marks the history of +divine legislation from the beginning; and if God appointed slavery, he +ordained nothing in connection with it which was inconsistent with +equal love to one's self and to a neighbor. + +"This deserves to be considered by those who, finding slavery in the Old +Testament appointed by God, begin, as it were, to exculpate their Maker +by saying that the Hebrews were a rude, semi-barbarous people, and that +divine legislation was wisely accommodated to their moral capacity. Now +it is singular, if this be so, that the Mosaic code should be the basis, +as it is, of all good legislation everywhere. The effort to make the +Hebrew people and their code appear inferior, in order to excuse +slavery, is one illustration of the direful effect which anti-slavery +principles have had in lowering the respect of many for the Bible, and +loosening its hold upon their consciences. Now it is to me a perfect +relief on this subject of slavery in the Old Testament, to know that God +appointed nothing in the relation of his people to men of any class or +condition which his people in a change of circumstances, might not be +willing should be administered to them. If slavery was ordained of God +to the Hebrews, it must, therefore, have been benevolent. If we start +with the doctrine that 'Slavery is the sum of all villanies,' no wonder +that we find it necessary to use extenuating words and a sort of +apologetic, protecting manner of treating the divine oracles. After all +it is evidently hard work, with many anti-slavery men to maintain that +reverence for the Old Testament and that confidence in God which they +feel are required of them. So they lay all the responsibility of +imperfection in the divine conduct, to the 'semi-barbarous Hebrews!'--a +people by the way, whose first leader combined in himself a greater +variety, and a higher order, of talent, than any other man in history. +As military commander, poet, historian, judge, legislator, who is to be +named in comparison with the man Moses? + +"We must come to the conclusion," said I, "that the relation of +ownership is not only not sinful, but that it is in itself benevolent, +that it had a benevolent object; for its origin was certainly +benevolent." + +"What was its origin?" said Mrs. North; "I always had a desire to know +how slavery first came into existence." + +"Blackstone tells us," I replied, "that its origin was in the right of a +captor to commute the death of his captives with bondage. The laws of +war give the conqueror a right to destroy his enemies; if he sees fit to +spare their lives in consideration of their serving him, this is also +his right. Thus, we suppose, slavery gained its existence. + +"True, its very nature partakes of our fallen condition; it is not a +paradisiacal institution; it is not good in itself; it is an +accompaniment of the loss which we have incurred by sin. In that light +it is proper to speak of the Most High as adapting his legislation to +the depraved condition of man; but that is no more true of slavery than +of redemption; everything in the treatment of us by the Almighty is an +exponent of our departure from our first estate." + +"Now," said Mrs. North, "all this is a relief to me; for I have always +been sorely tried by remarks seemingly impugning the divine wisdom and +goodness, whenever slavery in the Bible has been under discussion." + +"Please give us an outline," said Mr. North, "of the Hebrew legislation +on this subject." He handed me a Bible. + +"I will try and not be tedious," said I, "and will repeat to you in few +words the principal points of the Hebrew Code, with regard to +involuntary servitude. + + * * * * * + +"Slavery is the first thing named in the law given at Sinai, after the +moral law and a few simple directions as to altars. This is noticeable. +In the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, and in the twenty-fifth chapter +of Leviticus, we find the Hebrew slave-code. The following is a summary +of it:-- + +"1. Hebrews themselves might be bought and sold by Hebrews; but for six +years only, at farthest. If the jubilee year occurred at any time during +these six years, it cut short the term of service. + +"2. Hebrew paupers were an exception to this rule. They could be +retained till the year of jubilee next ensuing. + +"3. Hebrew servants, married in servitude, if they went out free in the +seventh, or in the jubilee year, must go out alone, leaving their wives +which their masters had given them, and their children by these wives, +(if any,) behind them, as their masters' possession. If, however, they +chose to remain with their wives and children, the ear of the servant +was bored with an awl to the door-post, and his servitude became +perpetual. + +"4. Hebrew servants might also, from love to their masters, in like +manner and by the same ceremony, become servants forever. + +"5. Strangers and sojourners among the Hebrews, 'waxing rich,' were +allowed to buy Hebrews who were 'waxen poor,' and who were at liberty to +sell themselves to these sojourners or to the family of these strangers. +The jubilee year, however, terminated this servitude. The price of sale +was graduated according to the number of years previous to the jubilee +year. The kindred of the servant had the right of redeeming him, the +price being regulated in the same way. + +"6. In all these cases in which Hebrews were bought and sold, there were +special injunctions that they should not be treated 'with rigor,' the +reason assigned by the Most High being substantially the same in all +cases, namely, 'For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they +are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the +Lord your God.' + +"7. Liberal provision was to be made for the Hebrew servant at the +termination of his servitude. During his term of service, he was to be +regarded and treated 'as an hired servant and a sojourner.' + +"8. Bondmen and bondmaids, as property, without limitation of time, and +transmissible as inheritance to children, might be bought of surrounding +nations. The children of sojourners also could be thus acquired. To +these the seventh year's and the fiftieth year's release did not apply. + +"Now, Mr. North," said I, "let me proceed to try your faith somewhat. I +will see whether your confidence in divine revelation is sound, for +nothing at the present day has overthrown the faith of many like the +manifest teachings of the Bible with regard to slavery. You have felt +that the Hebrew code is better than ours, so far as it relates to slaves +who were Hebrews. As to the slaves from the heathen, we infer that they +met 'with rigor,' or at least were liable to it; for God continually +enjoins it upon the Hebrews that they shall not use rigor with their +brethren. + +"Now let me mention some things which will try your faith in revelation, +if you are an abolitionist. + +"The Hebrews were allowed to sell their servants to other people. + +"Thus they traded in flesh and blood. This was prohibited in the case of +a Hebrew maid-servant, whom a man had bought and had made her his +concubine. If she did not please him, it was said that--'to sell her +unto a strange nation he shall have no power.' The inference is that +they sold their Gentile slaves, if they pleased, 'to a strange nation.' +Again. When a father or mother became poor, their creditor could take +their children for servants. Thus you read: 'Now there cried a certain +woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying, Thy +servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear +the Lord; and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be +bondmen.' This was according to the law of Moses, in the twenty-fifth of +Leviticus; 'bondmen,' however, meaning here a servant for a term of +years. See also the New Testament parable of the unforgiving servant. + +"This was hard, it will seem to you and to all of us, that if one became +poor in Israel, his children could be attached. Thus the idea of +involuntary servitude, where no crime was, prevailed in the Theocracy. + +"But we come now to something which draws harder upon our faith. + +"We find the Most High prescribing, Exodus xxi. 20, 21, that a master +who kills his servant under chastisement shall be punished (but not put +to death); and if the servant survives a day or two, the master shall +not even be 'punished' for the death of his slave! + +"The reason which the Most High gives is this: '_For he is his money_'! + +"A human being, 'money'! An immortal soul, 'money'! God's image, +'money'! And this the reasoning, these the very words of my Maker! Is it +not astonishing, if your principles are correct, that there has been no +controversy for ages against this? and that the Bible, with such +passages in it should have retained its hold on the human mind? 'He is +his money'! It would have been no different had it read: 'He is his +cotton.' You see that the Most High recognized 'ownership,' 'property in +man.' Why is it said, 'He is his money'? Poole (Synopsis) says,--'that +is, his possession bought with money; and therefore 1. Had a power to +chastise him according to his merit, which might be very great. 2. Is +sufficiently punished with his own loss. 3. May be presumed not to have +done this purposely or maliciously.' + +"Either and all of which explanations, or any other which can be given, +only bring more clearly to view the idea of 'money' as a reason why the +master is not to be punished, for causing the death of a slave by +whipping, if the slave happens to continue a day or two, no matter under +what mutilations and sufferings. + +"Furthermore. We find the Most High decreeing perpetual bondage in +certain cases, and more than all, as we have seen, _the forcible +separation of husband and wife_ among slaves. Let me turn to Exodus xxi. +and read:-- + + "'1. Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. + + "'2. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in + the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. + + "'3. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he + were married, then his wife shall go out with him. + + "'4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him + sons or daughters, _the wife and her children shall be her + master's_, and he shall go out by himself.' + +"I have not finished my reading," said I; "but what do you say to that, +Mr. North?" + +"Read on," said he. + + "'5. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my + wife, and my children, I will not go out free: + + "'6. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, he shall also + bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, and his master shall + bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.' + +"God decreed, therefore, that the marriage of a slave in bondage, in +those days, was dissoluble, as no other marriage was. Divorces among the +Hebrews, allowed for the hardness of their hearts, were not parallel to +the forcible separation of a slave from his wife under the hard +necessity of choice between perpetual bondage with a wife, or freedom +without her. The merciful God who kindly enacted, 'No man shall take the +nether nor the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to +pledge,' and that a garment pawned should be restored before sundown, +that wages should not be withheld over night, yes, the God who +legislated about bird's-nests ordained the dissolution of the marriage +tie between slaves in certain cases, unless the slave husband was +willing for his wife's sake, to be a slave forever! + +"What do you say to this, Mr. North?" I asked again. + +Said Mrs. North, "I begin to see the origin and cause of infidelity +among the abolitionists." + +"Tell me," said Mr. North, "how you view it." + +"On stating this, once," said I, "in a public meeting, I raised a +clamor. Three or four men sprung to their feet, and one of them, who +first caught the chairman's eye, cried out, his face turning red, his +eyes starting from their sockets, his fist clenched, 'I demand of the +gentleman whether he means to approve of all the abominations of +American slavery! Is he in favor of separating husbands and wives, +parents and children? Let us know it, Sir, if it be so. No wonder that +strong anti-slavery men turn infidels when they hear Christian men +defending American slavery from the Bible. No wonder that they say, "The +times demand, and we must have, an anti-slavery constitution, an +anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slavery God." Mr. Moderator, will the +gentleman answer my question,--Do you mean to approve all the atrocities +of American slavery, on the ground that the Bible countenances them?' + +"I was never more calm in my life. I replied, 'Mr. Chairman, taking for +my warrant an inspired piece of advice as to the best way of answering a +man according to his folly, it would be just, should I reply to the +gentleman's question, Yes, I do. But the gentleman, I perceive, is too +much excited to hear me.' + +"He had flung himself round in his seat, put his elbow on the back of +it, and his hand through his hair; he then flung himself round in the +opposite direction, and put his arm and hand as before, and he blew his +nose with a sound like a trombone. + +"I then said, 'Mr. Chairman, if all that the gentleman meant to ask was, +Do you find any countenance under any circumstances, for the relation of +master and slave in the divine legation of Moses,--and this was all +which, as a fair man, not carried away by a gust of passion, he should +have asked me,--my answer was correct and proper. If he wished to know +my views of what is right and proper as to the marriage relation of our +slaves, he should have put the question in a different shape. But first, +Sir,' said I, 'if he dislikes the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, his +controversy must be with his God, not with me. Sinai was, let me remind +him, more of a place than Bunker Hill. I am not a friend of "oppression" +any more than the gentleman; but I trust that had I lived in Israel, I +should never have thought of being more humane than my Maker.' + +"I then proceeded to say that (as before remarked to you) we are not +warranted by the Bible to make men slaves when we please; nor, if +slavery exists, are we commanded to adopt the rules and regulations of +Hebrew slavery. + +"But we do learn from the Bible that property in man is not in itself +sinful,--not even to say of a man, 'He is my money.' + +"Were it intrinsically wrong, God would not have legislated about it in +such ways; for granting, if you please, the untenable distinction about +his 'not appointing' slavery, but 'finding it in existence' and +legislating for it, what necessity could there have been for making such +a law as that relating to the boring of the ear, rather than giving the +slave his wife and children and suffering them all to go free? + +"No, Mr. North," said I, continuing our conversation, "I cannot oppose +the relation of master and slave as in itself sinful; for then I become +more righteous than God. But I must inquire whether it is right, in each +given case, to reduce men to bondage: shall that be, for example, the +mode in which prisoners of war shall be disposed of? or a subjugated +people? or criminals? or, in certain cases, debtors? In doing so, there +is no intrinsic sin; the act itself, under the circumstances, may be +exceedingly sinful; but the relation of ownership is not necessarily a +sin. This, I hold, is all that can be deduced from the Bible in favor of +slavery: The relation is not in itself sinful." + +"But," said Mr. North, "we sinned in stealing these people from Africa; +all sin should be immediately forsaken; therefore, set the slaves free +at once." + +I replied, "Let us apply that principle. You and I, and a large company +of passengers, are in a British ship, approaching our coast. We find +out, all at once, that the crew and half of the passengers stole the +ship. We gain the ascendency; we can do as we please. Now, as all sin +must be repented of at once, it is the duty of the passengers and crew +to put the ship about, and deliver it to the owners in Glasgow! Perhaps +we should not think it best to put in force the '_ruat coelum_' +doctrine, especially if we had had some '_ruat coelum_' storms, and it +was late in the season. But then we should actually be enjoying the +stolen property--the ship and its comforts--for several days, with the +belief that benevolence and justice to all concerned required us to +reach the end of the voyage before we took measures to perform that +justice, which, before, would have been practical folly. + +"Now, please, do not require this illustration to go on all fours. All +that I mean is this: A right thing may be wrong, if done unseasonably, +or in disregard of circumstances which have supervened. + +"But to go a little further, and beyond mere expediency: Can you see no +difference between buying slaves, and making men slaves? While it would +be wicked for you to reduce people to slavery, is that the same as +becoming owners to those who are already in slavery? In one case, you +could not apply the golden rule; in the other, the golden rule would +absolutely compel you, in many instances, to buy slaves. Go to almost +any place where slaves are sold, and they will come to you, if they like +your looks, and, by all the arts of persuasion, entreat you to become +their master. Having succeeded, step behind the scenes, if you can, and +hear them exulting that they 'fetched more' than this or that man. Is +there no difference between this and reducing free people to slavery?" + +"Say yes, husband," said Mrs. North, "or I must say it for you." + +"So that, let me add," said I, "in opposing slavery, I am necessarily +confined to the evils and abuses committed in the relationship of +master. But, even in doing this, why should I be meddlesome? We have a +most offensive air and manner in our behavior towards Southerners, in +connection with their duties as masters. It is perfectly disgusting. I +may oppose slavery, on the grounds of political economy or for national +reasons. But if I mix up with it wrathful opposition to the sin, so +called, or the unrighteousness of holding property in man, it has no +countenance in the Bible. If I speak of it publicly, as a system fraught +with evil, I must discriminate; or they whom I would influence, knowing +that I am mistaken, will regard me as an infatuated enemy, who will +effect more injury than I can repair. As to Mr. Jefferson's testimony, +there are as good and conscientious men at the South in our day as +Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Calhoun was as worthy a witness in all respects." + +"Now tell us," said Mrs. North, "your sober convictions, apart from this +Northern controversy, about that twenty-first chapter of Exodus, where +God directs that slaves, in certain cases, shall be slaves forever; and, +moreover, in certain cases, that slave husbands may have their wives and +children withheld from them, and the husbands leave them forever. How do +you reconcile this with the justice and goodness of God?" + +I said to her, "To make the case fully appear, before we converse upon +it, hear this passage, Leviticus XXV. 44-46:--'Both thy bondmen, and thy +bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round +about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.' So, in the next +verses, 'The children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of +them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they +begat in your land; and they shall be your possession: And ye shall take +them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for +a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever; but over your +brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another +with rigor.' + +"Here, and in all the divine legislation on this subject, a distinction +is made between Hebrews who became slaves, and slaves who were +foreigners, or of foreign extraction, though resident in Israel. Slaves +of Hebrew extraction might go free after six years, and upon the death +of the owner; and in every jubilee year they must all return to freedom, +and be free from every disability by reason of bondage, except where the +ear was bored. + +"Not so with the slaves of foreign extraction; nor even with the Hebrew +whose ear was bored, provided his wife was given him in slavery, and he +had elected to live with her rather than be free. Not even upon the +death of the owner could such slaves be manumitted, as was the case +ordinarily with regard to Hebrew slaves; but property in these Gentile +slaves, and in Hebrew slaves reduced to the same condition, God ordained +should be an 'inheritance,' passing down forever from father to child. + +"No jubilee trumpet was to cheer their hearts. Think what the jubilee +morning must have been to those slaves in hopeless bondage, if bondage +were necessarily such as many fancy. Our abolitionists represent the +bells and guns of our Fourth of July to be a hideous mockery in the ears +of the slaves; and multitudes of our good people ludicrously fancy them +as most miserable on that day, by the contrast of their enslaved +condition with our boasted Independence. Let us borrow this fancy, and +apply it to the Hebrew slave. + +"The jubilee trumpets, and all the joyous scenes of the fiftieth year in +Israel, caused multitudes of slaves in Israel, we will suppose, to +reflect, This Jehovah, God of Israel, has doomed us to hopeless bondage. +We are guilty of having been born so many degrees south or north, east +or west, of these Hebrews. We, by God's providence, are Gentiles. Our +chiefs sold us, and these Hebrews bought us. We were betrayed; we were +driven out of our homes; unjust wars were made upon us, to make us +captives, that we might be sold. And 'the Lord's people' bought us, by +his special edict (Lev. xxv. 44). Our brother-servants, unfortunate +Hebrews, get released in the jubilee year, except these poor creatures +who were so unfortunate as to be married in slavery, and, not being +willing to be divorced, had their ears fastened, with the ignominious +'awl,' to their master's door-post. God could have ordained that they, +with their wives and children, and we, with ours, should have release in +the fiftieth year. But, no! our bondage is forever, and so is theirs; +and our children and their children are to be servants forever. But we +hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are born free and equal, +and have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness. Slavery is the sum of all villanies. Our master's will is our +law; we are subject to his passions; we are chattels; we 'are his +money.' This is the language of your God,--the God whom you worship; and +not only so, but you circumcise us to worship Him! + +"Some benevolent Levite, jealous for the character of his Maker, +replies, 'But God did not institute slavery; He found it in existence, +and he only legislates about it, and regulates it.' + +"A thousand groans are the prelude to the withering answer which the +slaves make to this apology for oppression. + +"'He broke your bonds, it seems,' they cry, 'in Egypt, and in the Red +Sea. Did He "find slavery" on the opposite shore of the Red Sea? Why did +he not merely "legislate for it, and regulate it?" No, He enacted it. +How dare you apologize for your God with such a miserable pretext? He +made the ordinance separating a husband from wife and children, unless +the husband would submit to the indignity of having his ear bored and to +the doom of perpetual bondage, in case his wife was a Gentile. If he +goes away, he must leave his wife and children. Great indulgence have +you in multiplying wives; that is winked at "for the hardness of your +hearts;" but the poor Hebrew must abandon his wife and family if he +chooses freedom! They are his master's "property," "his money," and God +gave the servant these children, knowing that they would be the +"property" of another, and that he would have no unencumbered right to +them; and down through all ages they and their descendants must be +servants. And now you tell us, "God did not institute" this! He only +"found it!" He "regulated it!" Come, blow up your trumpet, reverend +Levite! Go, worship the God of whom you feel half ashamed. Do not ask us +to worship and love a Being who is bound by the laws of fate so that he +cannot do otherwise, if he would, than make one of us a slave forever, +while the man who grinds with me at the same mill, goes with his wife +and children, forever free!'" + +"Those remarks have the true Boston tone," said Mrs. North. + +"Yes," said I, "there were brave men before Agamemnon, Horace tells us. +There is slavery forever," said I, "or the separation of husband and +wife, father and children, unless the man would be a slave forever. What +'partings' there must have been! What struggles in those who concluded +to take the fatal 'awl' through their ears, before they could make up +their minds to be slaves forever. See the hardship of the case. If the +man 'loves his wife and children,' he may be a slave; that love would +make him spend and be spent for them in freedom, in his humble home, +amid the sweets of liberty; but no; if he loves his wife he must take +the bitter draught of slavery with his love. But if he hates her and his +children, he may be free! What a bounty on conjugal fickleness, on +unnatural treatment of offspring!" + +"Was there no Canada?" said Mrs. North, biting off her thread. "O, I +recollect; Hagar went there. I wonder if the angel who remanded her was +removed from office, on his return to heaven." + +"Come, wife," said Mr. North, "there is such a thing as being converted +too much. Please, Sir, will you answer the question as to the +consistency of all this with the divine wisdom and goodness?" + +"That," said I, "is not the question which you wish to ask." + +"I do not understand you," said he; "please to explain." + +"You wish to ask," said I, "how I reconcile these things with your +notions of wisdom and benevolence." + +"Why," said he, "I have my ideas of divine wisdom and goodness, and I +wish to make these things square with them." + +"And that," said I, "is just the rock on which you all split. Your ideas +of the divine goodness must be based on a complete view of the revealed +character and conduct of God. But you and your friends say, 'this and +that ought to be, or ought not to be,' and you try your Maker by that +measure. Now I say, 'he that reproveth God, let him answer it.' Are not +the things which I have quoted, parts of divine revelation, as much as +the flood and the passover?" + +"I see that they are," said Mr. North. + +"Do you believe that God is a spirit infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in +his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth?" + +"I do," said he. + +"You believe this notwithstanding the apostasy, the destruction of Sodom +and Gomorrah, the flood, and the extirpation of the Canaanites." + +"I do," said he, "so long as I receive the Bible as the Word of God." + +"I think," said Mrs. North, "that the loss of the 'Central America' with +her four hundred passengers, tries my faith in God full as much as a +heathen's having his ear bored to spend his days with his wife and +children among God's covenant people." + +"Then you do not worship the Goddess of Liberty, Mrs. North," said +I.--"'Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it. But if thou +mayest be made free, use it rather.'" + +"That," said she, "seems to express my idea about bondage and freedom. +Of course it is not, theoretically, a blessing to be a slave. It may be, +practically, to some. But what strikes me oftentimes is the utter +inability of an abolitionist to say to a slave, under any circumstances, +'Care not for it.' His doctrine, rather, is, 'Art thou called being a +servant? If thou hast a Sharpe's rifle, or a John Brown's pike, use it +rather.' Or, 'Art thou called being a servant? If thou canst run for +Canada, use it rather.' Paul had not an abolitionist mind, that is very +clear. But," she continued, "do relieve my husband and enlighten me +also, by giving us your views about the Old Testament slavery, which I +presume you can do without seeming to arraign the character of God." + +I replied, "This is a sinful race, and we are treated as such. Slavery +is one of God's chastisements. Instead of destroying every wicked nation +by war, pestilence, or famine, he grants some of them a reprieve, and +commutes their punishment from death to bondage. Those whom he allowed +to be slaves to his people Israel were highly favored; they enjoyed a +blessing which came to them disguised by the sable cloud of servitude; +but in their endless happiness many of them will bless God for the +bondage which joined them to the nation of Israel. + +"I look upon our slaves as being here by a special design of +Providence, for some great purpose, to be disclosed at the right time. +Unless I take this view of it, I am embarrassed and greatly troubled; +'perplexed, but not in despair.' The great design of Providence in no +wise abates the sin of those who brought the slaves here, nor does it +warrant us in getting more of them. While this is true, I cannot resist +the thought that God has a controversy with this black race which is not +yet finished. I believe that God withholds from them a spirit and temper +suited for freedom till he shall have finished his marvellous designs. +His destiny with the Jew, as a nation, to the present day, is another +illustration of his mysterious providence with regard to a people. + +"As to the enactment which made the Hebrew servant a slave for life, +thus dooming even one of the covenant people to perpetual bondage, if he +had married in slavery, I see in it several things most clearly. + +"You will have noticed that in every case in which a Hebrew was made a +servant, poverty was the ground of it. 'If thy brother be waxen poor,' +he could sell himself, either to a Hebrew or to a resident alien. He and +his children could also be taken for debt. This seems to us oppressive. + +"Let a family among us be reduced, from any cause, to a condition in +which they cannot maintain themselves, and what follows? The children +find employment, some of them in families, in various kinds of domestic +service. Indented apprenticeships in this commonwealth are within the +memory of all who are forty or fifty years of age. We remember the very +frequent advertisements: 'One cent reward. Ran away from the subscriber, +an indented apprentice,' etc. The descriptions of such fugitives, all +for the sake of absolving the master from liability for the absconding +boy, and sometimes the hunt that was made, with dogs to scent his +tracks, when his return was desired, are far within the memory of the +oldest inhabitant. + +"In Israel, this descent of a family from a prosperous to a decayed +state, and the consequent servitude, were used by the Most High to +cultivate some of the best feelings of our nature. It touched the finest +sensibilities of the soul. Let me read from the fifteenth of +Deuteronomy:-- + + "'And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto + thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt + let him go free from thee. + + "'And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let + him go away empty. + + "'Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy + floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord thy God + hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember + that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God + redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. + + "'And if it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from + thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well + with thee, + + "'Then thou shalt take an awl and thrust it through his ear unto the + door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And also with thy + maid-servant thou shalt do likewise. + + "'It shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free + from thee: for he hath been worth a doubled hired servant to thee, + in serving thee six years; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in + all that thou doest.' + +"Is not this very beautiful and touching, Mrs. North?" + +She said nothing, but hid her face in her little babe's neck, +pretending to kiss it. But Mr. North wiped his eyes. "There is not much +barbarism in that," said he. + +"The golden rule," said I; "for this is the law and the prophets. + +"The people to whom these touching precepts were given by the Most High, +and who were susceptible to these finest appeals, are, as we have said, +sometimes represented as a semi-barbarous people, so gross that God was +obliged to let them hold slaves! Now, could anything be more civilizing, +refining, elevating, than such relationships as this limited servitude +of poor Hebrews created? What scenes there must have been oftentimes, +when the six years were out, and the servant was about to depart, laden +with gifts! And what a scene when, with strong attachment to the family, +the servant declined to be free, and went to the door-post to have his +ear pierced with the awl, to be a servant, and not only so, but to be an +inheritance forever! + +"Is this 'the sum of all villanies,' Mr. North?" said I. "Yet it is +'slavery.' 'Auction-blocks,' 'whippings,' 'roastings,' 'separations of +families,' are not 'slavery.' They are its abuses; slavery can exist +when they cease. I pray you, is such slavery as the God of the Hebrews +appointed, in such cases as these, 'forever,' an unmitigated curse? + +"Now," said I, "go through our Southern country, and you will find in +every city, town, and village just such relationships between the whites +and the blacks as must have existed where these Hebrew laws had effect. +Think of the little slave-babe, and the Southern lady's letter, which +have given occasion to all our conversation. The Gospel, as it subdues +and softens the human heart, will make the relationship of involuntary +servitude everywhere to be after this pattern. Instead of exciting +hatred and jealousy, and provoking war between the whites and blacks, I +am for bringing all the influences of the Gospel to bear upon the hearts +of the white population, to convert them into such masters as God +enjoined the Hebrews to be, and such as the Apostle to the Gentiles +enjoined upon Gentile slave-holders as their models. And I am filled +with sorrow and astonishment as I see some of the very best and most +beloved men among us at the North withholding missionaries and tracts +from the Southern country, and--as Gustavus's aunt said some of these +do--calling it 'standing up for Jesus!' + +"Now," said I, "if such were the injunctions of the Most High as to the +manner in which the Hebrews should treat their Hebrew slaves, it is easy +to see that such a habit with regard to them would serve greatly to +mitigate the sorrows of bondage on the part of Gentile slaves. And thus +the curse of slavery, like sin, and even death, is made, under the +influences of religion, a means of improvement, a source of blessing. +Let but the sun shine on a pile of cloud, and what folds of beauty and +deep banks of snowy whiteness does it set forth, and, at the close of +day, all the exquisite tints which make the artist despair are flung +profusely upon that mass of vapor which but for the sun were a heap of +sable cloud. + +"The minister," said I, "who, Hattie tells us, classed 'Abraham the +slave-holder' with the 'murderer,' and the 'liar and swearer,' knew not +what he did. People who laugh and titter at the 'patriarchal +institution,' need to peruse the laws of Moses again, with a spirit akin +to their beautiful tone; and those who say that to hold a fellow-man as +property is 'sin,' are not 'wiser than Daniel,' but they make themselves +wiser than God. + +"All who sustain the relationship of owner to a human being," said I, +"do well to read these injunctions of the Most High, as very many of +them do, applying them to themselves. And it is also profitable to read +how that a violation of these very slave-laws was, in after years, one +great cause of the divine wrath upon the Hebrews. You will find, in the +thirty-fourth of Jeremiah, that, not content with having Gentile slaves, +the Hebrews violated the law requiring them to release each his Hebrew +slaves once in seven years. + +"'I made a covenant with your fathers,' God says, 'in the day that I +brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, saying, At the end of seven +years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew which hath been sold +unto thee. But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his +servant to return, and brought them unto subjection. Ye have not +hearkened unto me in proclaiming a liberty every one to his +brother;--behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the +sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.' + +"Thus it is evident that the relation of master and servant was +originally ordained and instituted by God as a benevolent arrangement to +all concerned,--not 'winked at,' or 'suffered,' like polygamy, but +ordained,--that it was full of blessings to all who fulfilled the duties +of the relation in the true spirit of the institution; and, moreover, it +is true that there are few curses which will be more intolerable than +they will suffer who make use of their fellow-men, in the image of God, +for the purposes of selfishness and sin; while those who feel their +accountableness in this relation, and discharge it in the spirit of the +Bible, will find their hearts refined and ennobled, and the relationship +will be, to all concerned, a source of blessings whose influences will +bring peace to their souls when the grave of the slave and that of his +owner are looking up into the same heavens from the common earth." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE TENURE. + + "One part, one little part, we dimly scan + Through the dark medium of life's fevering dream; + Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan + If but that little part incongruous seem; + Nor is that part, perhaps, what mortals deem; + Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise."--BEATTIE, _Minstrel_. + + +Mr. North then said, "Let us change the subject a little. Please to tell +us why, in your view, any slave who is so disposed may not run away. +Would you not do so, if you were a slave, and were oppressed, or thought +that you could mend your condition? Where did my master get his right +and title to me? God did not institute American slavery as he did +slavery among the Hebrews. If I were a slave to certain masters, South +or North, I should probably run away at all hazards. I should not stop +to debate the morality of the act. No human being would, in his heart +blame me. It would be human nature, resisting under the infliction of +pain. We catch hold of a dentist's hand when he is drawing a tooth. +Perhaps there may be found some moral law against doing so!" + +"But we are apt," said I, "to take these exceptional cases, and make a +rule that includes them and all others. I have been present when +intelligent gentlemen, Northerners and Southerners, have discussed this +subject in the most friendly manner, though with great earnestness. Once +I remember we spent an evening discussing the subject. I will, if you +please, tell you about the conversation. + +"I must take you, then, to an old mansion at the South, around which, +and at such a distance from each other as to reveal a fine prospect, +stood a growth of noble elms, a lawn spreading itself out before the +house, and the large hall, or entry, serving for a tea-room, where seven +or eight gentlemen, and as many ladies were assembled. + +"A Southern physician, who had no slaves, took the ground that all the +slaves had a right to walk off whenever they pleased. He did not see why +we should hold them in bondage rather than they us, so far as right and +justice were concerned. Some of the slave-holders were evidently much +troubled in their thoughts, and did not speak strongly. My own feelings +at first went with the physician and with his arguments; but I saw that +he was not very clear, nor deep, and his friends who partly yielded to +him, seemed to do so rather under the influence of conscientious +feelings, than from any very well defined principles. This is the case +with not a few at the South, and it was very common in Thomas +Jefferson's days. But the large majority, who were of the contrary +opinion, got the advantage in the argument, and it seemed to me went far +toward convincing the physician, as they did me, that he was wrong. + +"The company all seemed to look toward a judge who was present, to open +the discussion with a statement of his views. He did so by saying, for +substance, as follows:-- + +"'I will take it for granted,' said he, 'that we are agreed as to the +unlawfulness of the slave-trade, past and present. We find the blacks +here, as we come upon the stage. We are born into this relationship. It +is an existing form of government in the Slave States. + +"'Ownership in man is not contrary to the will of God. I also find it +written that "Canaan shall be a servant." Hear these words of +inspiration: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto +his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan +shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in +the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." As the Japhetic +race is to dwell in the tents of Shem, for example, England occupying +India, so I believe the black race is under the divine sentence of +servitude. Moreover, being perfectly convinced of the wrongfulness and +the infinite mischief to all concerned of the forcible liberation of our +slaves, I am assisted in settling, in my own mind, the question as to me +right of individual slaves to escape from service, and our right to +continue in this relationship, conforming ourselves in it always to the +golden rule. + +"'If it be the right of one, under ordinary circumstances, to depart, it +is the right of all. But the government under which they live, in this +commonwealth, recognizes slavery. The constitution and the general +government protect us in maintaining it. The right of our servants to +leave us at pleasure, which could not of course be done without +violence, on both sides, implies the right of insurrection. It is +impossible to define the cases in which insurrection is justifiable, but +the general rule is that it is wrong. Government is a divine ordinance; +men cannot capriciously overthrow or change it, at every turn of affairs +which proves burdensome or even oppressive. God is jealous to maintain +human government as an important element in his own administration. Men +justly in authority, or established in it by time, or by consent, or by +necessity, or by expediency, may properly feel that they are God's +vicegerents. He is on their side; a parent, a teacher, a commander,--in +short, he who rules, is, as it were, dispensing a law of the divine +government, as truly as though he directed a force in nature. Hence, to +disturb existing government is, in the sight of God, a heinous offence, +unless circumstances plainly justify a revolution; otherwise, one might +as well think to interfere with impunity and change the equinoxes, or +the laws of refraction. It is well to consider what forms of government, +and what forms of oppression under them, existed, when that divine word +was written: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For +there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. +Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; +and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." This was +written in view of the throne of the Caesars. + +"'But it is very clear that when a people are in a condition to +establish and maintain another form of government, there is no sin in +their turning themselves into a new condition. In doing so, government, +God's ordinance, evolves itself under a new form, and provided it is, +really, government, and not anarchy, no sin may have been committed by +the insurrection, or revolution, as an act. The result proved that +government still existed, potentially, and was only changing its shape +and adapting itself to the circumstances of the people. If a man or body +of men assert that things among them are ready for such new evolutions, +and so undertake to bring them about, they do it at their peril, and +failing, they are indictable for treason; they may be true patriots, +they may be conscientious men; the sympathies of many good people may be +with them, but they have sinned against the great law which protects +mankind from anarchy. + +"'To apply this,' said the Judge, 'to our subject,--When the time comes +that the blacks can truly say, "We are now your equals in all that is +necessary to constitute a civil state, and we propose to take the +government of this part of the country into our hands," we should still +make several objections, which would be valid. The Constitutions of the +States and of the United States must be changed before that can be done, +and we will presume that this would involve a revolution. Moreover, this +country belongs to the Anglo-Saxon race, with which foreigners of +kindred stocks have intermingled, and they and we object to the presence +of a black race as possessors of some of the states of the Union, even +if it were constitutional. We do not propose to abandon our right and +title to the soil, without a civil war, which would probably result in +the extermination of one or the other party. If you are able to leave us +at pleasure, the proper way will be to do it peaceably, and on just +principles, to be agreed upon between us. + +"'No such exigency as this,' said the Judge, 'is possible. It would be +prevented or anticipated, and relief would be obtained while the +necessity was on the increase and before it reached a solemn crisis. + +"'One of three ways will, in my opinion,' said he, 'bring a solution to +this problem of slavery. + +"'One is, the insurrection of the slaves, the massacre of the whites, +and the forcible seizure and possession of power by the blacks +throughout the South. This would be a scene such as the earth has never +witnessed. I have no fear that it can ever happen. But,' said he, +addressing me, 'I presume that I know, Sir, how your people in the Free +States, to a very considerable extent, think on this point. I will +speak, by-and-by, of the other two ways in which slavery may find its +great result. One, I say, is, by insurrection and then the extermination +of the black race; for that would surely follow their temporary success +if I can trust my apprehensions of the subject.' + +"'Please, sir,' said I, 'let me hear what you think is 'very +considerably' the sentiment at the North on this subject of +insurrection.' + +"'I presume sir,' said he, 'if the slaves should, some night, take +possession of us, and demand a universal manumission, and we should +refuse, and fire and sword and pillage and all manner of violence should +ensue, and our persons and property should be at their will, vast +multitudes of your people, including clergymen, would exclaim that the +day of God's righteous vengeance had come, and they would say, Amen.' + +"'So we interpret Thomas Jefferson's idea,' said I. + +"'I think, Sir,' said he, 'that very many reasonable people of the North +are of opinion that all the attributes of God are against any such +procedure. + +"'In the large sense in which nations speak to each other when they are +asserting their rights, there is no objection to the first clause in the +Declaration of Independence; but when you come to the people of a state, +and one portion of that people rise and assert their right to break up +the constitution of things under which they live, there is no more +pertinency in that clause in the Declaration than there would be in +giving us the reason for a revolution that all men are not far from five +or six feet high. What they say may be true in the abstract, but it +does not prove that men, having come into a state of society, +involuntarily, if you please, have all the freedom and equality which +they would have, if they were each an independent savage in the +wilderness. Society is God's ordinance, not a compact. We have, all of +us, lost some of our freedom and equality in the social state; now how +far is it right that the blacks, being here, no matter how or why, +should lose some of theirs? and how far is it right that we should take +and keep some of it from them, whether for the good of all concerned, or +for the good of ourselves, their civil superiors?--whose welfare, it may +be observed, will continually affect theirs.' + +"The Judge said that he believed that God had, in his mysterious +providence, and of his sovereign pleasure, making use of the cupidity of +white men, placed these blacks here in connection with us for their good +as a race, and for the welfare of the world. He said that his mind could +feel no peace on the subject of slavery, unless he viewed it in this +light. In connection with the great industrial and commercial interests +of our globe, and as an indispensable element in the supply of human +wants, this abject race had been transported from their savage life in +Africa, and had been made immensely useful to the whole civilized world. +'We agree, as I have said,' he continued, 'as to the immorality of those +who brought them here; but he is not fit to reason on this subject, +being destitute of all proper notions with regard to divine providence, +who does not see in the results of slavery, both as to the civilized +world and to negroes themselves, a wise, benevolent, and an Almighty +Hand. Here my mind gets relief in contemplating this subject, not in +abstract reasoning, not in logical premises and deductions, but by +resting in Providence. There are mysteries in it,--as truly so as in the +human apostasy, origin of evil, permission of sin, which confound my +reasonings as to the benevolence of God; in which, however, I, +nevertheless, maintain my firm belief. Here was the great defect in Mr. +Jefferson's views of slavery. In the highest Christian sense, he was not +qualified to understand this subject; he reasoned like one who did not +take into view the providence and the purposes of God, even while he was +saying what he did of there being "no attribute in the Almighty that +would take part with us" in favor of slavery. Standing as I do by this +providential view of the great subject, the assailants of slavery at the +North seem to me, some of them, almost insane, and others, even +ministers of the Gospel, shall I say it? more than unchristian;--there +is a sort of blind, wild, French Jacobinical atheism in their feeling +and behavior; while as to the rest, good people, they are misled by what +Mr. Webster, in one of his speeches in the Senate, called "the constant +rub-a-dub of the press,"--"no drum-head," he says, "in the longest day's +march, having been more incessantly beaten than the feeling of the +public in certain parts of the North." I cannot reason with these men,' +continued the Judge, 'for I confess, at once, that I cannot demonstrate, +either by logic or by mathematics, a modern quitclaim or warranty in +holding slaves. In combating their illogical and unscriptural positions, +I seem to them to be an advocate of the divine right of +oppression,--which I am not. That it is best, however, and that it is +right, for this relation to continue until God shall manifest some +purpose to terminate it consistently with the good of all concerned, I +am perfectly convinced and satisfied. I believe that it has reference +to the great plan of mercy toward our world, and that when the object is +accomplished, the providence of God will, in some way, make it known. It +may be the case, no candid man and believer in revelation and divine +providence will deny it to be possible, that this dispensation with +regard to this colored race will continue for long ages to come, in the +form of bondage. That they are now under a curse, and have been so for +centuries, is apparent. When the curse is to be repealed, God only +knows. I like to cherish the idea that some development is to be made of +immense sources of wealth in Africa, that we have an embryo nation in +the midst of us, whom God has been educating for a great enterprise on +that continent, and when, like California and Australia, the voice of +the Lord shall shake the wilderness of Africa, and open its doors, it +may appear that American slavery has been the school in which God has +been preparing a people to take it into their possession. + +"'EMIGRATION, then,' said he, 'is the second of the three ways in which +this problem of slavery may have its solution. + +"'In preparation for this, I say, God may keep these Africans here much +longer. He may need more territory on which to educate still larger +numbers; and we may see Him extending slavery still further in our land +and on our continent. So that there may be one other way in which the +purposes of God will manifest themselves with regard to the colored race +here, and that is by EXTENSION. + +"'It may be that still greater portions of this land and continent are +to be used, for ages to come, in the multiplication of the black race. I +feel entirely calm with regard to the subject, believing that God has a +plan in all this, and that it is wise and benevolent toward all who fear +Him. While our relation to this people remains, the law of love, the +golden rule, must preside over it. That does not require us to place the +blacks on a level with us in our parlors, nor in our halls of +legislation; and there may be disabilities properly attaching to them +which, though they seem hard, are the inevitable consequence of a +dependent, inferior condition. All this, however, has a benign effect +upon us, if we will but act in a Christian manner, to make us gentle, +kind, generous; and when this is the case, no state of society is +happier than ours. Let Jacobinical principles, such as some of our +Northern brethren inculcate, prevail here, and they at once destroy this +benevolent relation. This relation will improve under the influence of +the Gospel; it has wonderfully improved since Jefferson's day; and +though the time may be long deferred, we shall no doubt see this colored +race fulfilling some great purpose in the earth. I trust that our +Northern friends will not precipitate things and destroy both whites and +blacks; for a servile war would be one of extermination. Many of the +Northern people I fear would acquiesce in it, provided especially, that +we should be the exterminated party. This is clear, if words and actions +are to be fairly interpreted.' + +"'The colored people here, as a race,' said a planter, 'are under +obligations to us as partakers in our civilization. No matter, for the +present, how their ancestors came here;--that does not at all affect +their present obligations to us for benefits received. Now it is not a +matter of course that, having been thus benefited by us, they are at +liberty to go away when they please. This we assert respecting them as a +whole. Are not the blacks, as a race, so indebted to us that we ought +to be consulted as to the time and manner of their departure? We say +that they are. They do not morally possess the right, we think, to sever +the relation when they please.' + +"Said an elderly, venerable man, 'A white woman in the cars, in +Pennsylvania, begged me to hold her infant child for her, while she +fetched something for it. She ran off, leaving the child to me. My wife +and I took the child home, and have been at pains and expense with it. I +question the child's right to say, whenever it pleases, Sir, I propose +to leave you. I have invested a good deal in him, have increased his +value by his being with me, and he has no right to run off with it.' + +"'But,' said the physician, 'how long should you feel that you have a +right to his services?' + +"'I will answer that,' said the gentleman, 'if you will say whether my +general principle be correct. Have I, or have I not acquired just what +all intelligent slave-holders call "property" in that youth, that is, a +right to his services,--not dominion over his soul, nor a right to abuse +him, nor in any way to injure him, but to use his services. Have I not +acquired that right?' + +"'I think you have,' said the physician, 'but with certain limitations.' + +"'The limitations,' said Mr. W., 'certainly are not the wishes, nor +caprices, nor the inclinations, of the boy;--do you think so?' + +"'I agree with you,' said he. + +"'That is all I contend for,' said Mr. W. + +"'But,' said the physician, 'where is your title-deed from your Maker to +own these fellow-creatures? Trace their history back, and they are here +by fraud and violence.' + +"'Thank you, Sir,' said Mr. W., 'that is just the case with my Penn. I +came into possession of him through fraud and violence! I did not sin +when he was thrown upon my hands; though I confess I said, he was--what +we call slavery--an incubus. My right and title to the boy I have never +been able to discover in any handwriting; the mother, surely, had no +right to impose the child upon me; Providence, however, placed it in my +hand. I might have given it immediate emancipation through the window, +or at the next stopping place; or, I might have left the child on its +mother's vacant seat, declining the trust; but I felt disposed to do as +I have done.' + +"'Now,' said the physician, 'will you please tell me, Sir, how long you +feel at liberty to possess this boy as a satisfaction to you for your +pains and expense?' + +"'In the first place,' said Mr. W., 'I have a right to transfer my +guardianship over him to another, if circumstances make it necessary. In +doing so, I must be governed not by selfish motives, but by a benevolent +regard to his welfare, allowing that he is not unreasonable and wicked. +If when he comes of lawful age, he is judged to be still in need of +guardianship, or it is expedient for the good of all concerned that he +should be my ward indefinitely, the law makes me, if I choose, his +guardian, with certain rights and obligations. Even if he could legally +claim his freedom at his majority, circumstances might be such that all +would say he was under moral obligations to remain with me. If I abuse +him, he must consider before God how far it is his duty to bear +affliction, and submit to oppression. There are cases in which none +would condemn him, should he escape. But the rule is to "abide." He has +not, under all the circumstances of our relation to each other, a right +to walk off at pleasure.' + +"The company agreed in this, though the physician made no remark. We +conversed further on the antipathy of the Free States to a large +increase among them of the colored population, ungrateful and perfidious +Kansas, even, withholding civil and political equality from them; their +condition in Canada; their relation to the whites in every state where +they have gone to reside; and we concluded that the South was the best +home for the black man,--that home to become better and better in +proportion as the law of Christian benevolence prevailed. We agreed that +if the South could be relieved of Northern interference, the condition +of the colored people would be greatly improved, in many respects; +especially, we regretted that now we did not have an enlightened public +sentiment at the North to help the best part of the Southern people in +effecting reformations and improving the laws and regulations. Now, the +Northern influence is wholly nugatory, or positively adverse. The +opinions and feelings of calm and candid neighbors and friends have +great influence. This the South does not enjoy. The North is her +passionate reprover; she is held to be, by many, her avowed enemy. In +resistance, and in retaliation, compromises are broken, and every +political advantage is grasped at in self-defence, by the South. +Recrimination ensues, and civil war is threatened. The only remedy is +the entire abandonment by the North of interference with this subject; +but this cannot take place so long as the Northern people labor under +their doctrinal error that it is a sin to hold property in man. Here is +the root of the difficulty. We agreed that if reflecting people at the +North would adopt Scriptural views on that point, peace would soon +ensue; for all the discussions of the supposed or real evils in +slavery, which would then be the sole objects of animadversion, would +elicit truth, and tend to good. If the South felt that the North were +truly her friend, they would both be found cooperating for the +improvement and elevation of the colored race. Every form of oppression +and selfishness would feel the withering rebuke of a just and +enlightened universal public sentiment. But now that the quarrel runs +high as to the sinfulness and wrongfulness of the relation itself, there +is nothing for the South to do but to stand by their arms. + +"One gentleman made some remarks which interested and instructed me more +than anything that was said. He confessed that the whole subject of the +relation of master and servant,--in a word, slavery, was, for a long +time, a sore trouble to him, because he constantly found himself +searching for his right, his warrant to hold his slaves. At last he +resolved to study the Bible on the subject. He naturally turned to the +last instructions of the Word of God with regard to it, and in Paul's +injunctions to masters and servants, he found relief. There he perceived +that God recognized the relationships of slavery, that the golden rule +was enjoined, not to dissolve the relation, but to make it benevolent to +all concerned. He found the Almighty establishing the relation of master +and servant among his own chosen people, and decreeing that certain +persons might be servants forever, being, as he himself terms them 'an +inheritance forever.' + +"Hereupon, he said, his troubles ceased. He gave up his speculations and +casuistry, and concluded to take things as he found them and to make +them better. He became more than ever the friend and patron of his +servants, rendered to them, to the best of his ability that which was +just and equal, felt in buying servants and in having them born in his +household, somewhat as pastors of churches, he supposed, feel in +receiving new members to be trained up for usefulness, here, and for +heaven. He said that he had a hundred and seventy-five servants, and +that he doubted whether there was a happier, or more virtuous, or more +religious community anywhere. + +"'But,' said the young Northern lady, who had recently come to be a +teacher in the family where we visited, 'what will become of them when +you die?' + +"'Why, Miss,' said he, 'what will become of any household when the +parents die? The truth is,' said he, 'I believe in a covenant-keeping +God. I make a practice of praying for my servants, by name. I keep a +list of them, and I read it, sometimes, when I read my Bible, and on the +Sabbath, and on days set apart for religious services. I have asked God +to be the God of my servants forever. I shall meet them at the bar of +God, and I trust with a good conscience. Many of them have become +Christians.' + +"'Do you ever sell them?' said she. + +"'I have parted with some of my servants to families,' he replied, +'where I knew that they would fare as well as with me. This was always +with their consent, except in two or three cases of inveterate +wickedness, when, instead of sending the fellows to the state-prison for +life, as you would do at the North, I sold them to go to Red River, and +was as willing to see them marched off, handcuffed, as you ever were to +see villains in the custody of the officers. But had any of your good +people from the North met them, an article would have appeared, perhaps, +in all your papers, telling of the heart-rending spectacle,--three human +beings, in a slave-coffle! going, they knew not where, into hopeless +bondage! And had they escaped and fled to Boston, the tide of +philanthropy there, in many benevolent bosoms, would have received new +strength in the grateful accession of these worshipful fugitives from +Southern cruelty. Whereas, all which love and kindness, and every form +of indulgence, instruction, and discipline, tempered with mercy, could +do, had been used with them in vain. One was a thief, the pest of the +county, and had earned long years in a penitentiary; but slavery, you +see, kept him at liberty! Another was brutally cruel to animals; another +was the impersonation of laziness. Two of them would have helped John +Brown, no doubt, had he come here, and they might have gained a Bunker +Hill name, at the North, in an insurrection here, as champions of +liberty.' + +"This led to some remarks about the great economy which there is in the +Southern mode of administering discipline and correction on the spot, +and at once, instead of filling jails and houses of correction with +felons. But to dwell on this would lead me too far into a new branch of +our subject. + +"This planter asked the young lady, the school-teacher, if tare and tret +were in her arithmetic? Upon her saying 'yes, in the older books,' he +told her that there was, seemingly, a good deal of tare and tret in +God's providence, when accomplishing his great purposes; and that to fix +the mind inordinately on evils and miseries incident to a great system +and forgetting the main design, was like a man of business being so +absorbed by the deductions and waste in a great staple as to forego the +trade. He said that he thought the Northern mind ciphered too much in +that part of moral arithmetic as to slavery. + +"A very excellent gentleman from the District of Columbia who had held +an important office under government, gave us some valuable information. +He said that the extinction of slavery in New England was not because +the institution was deemed to be immoral or sinful, but from other +considerations and circumstances. It was abolished in Massachusetts, +without doubt, by a clause, in the bill of rights, copied from the +Declaration of Independence. In Berkshire, one township, he believed, +sued another for the support and maintenance of a pauper slave, and the +Supreme Court decided that the bill of rights abolished slavery. The +question was as incidental, he said, as was the question in the Dred +Scott case which the United States Supreme Court decided. This +Massachusetts case was previous to any reports of decisions, and he had +some doubt as to the form in which the suit was brought, but was sure as +to the decision. The question as to abolishing slavery was not submitted +to the people, nor to a Convention, nor to the Legislature. + +"I was specially interested in his account of the way in which the +slave-trade was prohibited by our excellent sister, Connecticut. It was +done by a section prohibiting the importation of slaves by sea or land, +preceded by the following preamble:--'And whereas the increase of slaves +in this state is injurious to the poor, and inconvenient, Be it +therefore enacted.' Another section of the same statute, he said, was +preceded by the following words:--'And whereas sound policy requires +that the abolition of slavery should be effected, as soon as may be +consistent with the rights of individuals, and the public safety and +welfare, Be it enacted,' etc. Then follows the provision that all black +and mulatto children, born in slavery, in that state, after the first of +March, 1784, shall be free at twenty-five years of age. Selling slaves, +to be carried out of the state, was not prohibited before May, 1792; +thus allowing more than eight years to the owners of slaves in +Connecticut to sell their slaves to Southern purchasers! 'There seems to +me,' he said, 'no evidence of superior humanity in this; nor was it +repentance for slavery as a sin.' He thought that if we feel compelled, +by our superior conscientiousness, to require any duty of the South, all +that decency will allow us to demand is, that she tread in our steps. + +"'I think,' said a planter, 'that if pity is due from one to the other, +the South owes the larger debt to the North. There needs to be a great +reformation, namely, The Gradual Emancipation of the Northern Mind from +"Anti-slavery" Error.' + +"'Our English friends, in their zeal against American slavery,' said a +young lawyer, 'seem to forget that the English government, at the Peace +of Utrecht, agreed to furnish Spain with four thousand negroes annually +for thirty years.' + +"'Poor human nature!' said the Judge. 'What should we all do, if we had +not the sins of others to repent of and bewail?' + +"There was a strong friend of temperance in the company from a +north-western state. Travelling in the South for pleasure, some time +ago, he was immediately struck with the comparative absence of +intemperance among the slaves. On learning that the laws forbid the sale +of intoxicating drink to them, and thinking of four millions of people +in this land as delivered, in a great degree, from the curse of +drunkenness, he says that he exclaimed: 'Pretty well for the "sum of all +villanies." The class of people in the United States best defended +against drunkenness are the slaves!' Some admonished him that the +slaves did get liquor, and that white men ventured to tempt them. 'I +don't care for that,' said he; 'of course, there are exceptions; the +"sum of all villanies" is a Temperance Society!' + +"A Northern gentleman, travelling through the South, said, 'As to the +feelings of the North respecting a possible insurrection, I am +satisfied, since visiting in different parts of the South, that a very +common apprehension with us, respecting your liability to trouble from +this source, is exaggerated by fancy. + +"'We have a theoretical idea that you must be dwelling, as we commonly +hear it said, with a volcano under your feet. Very many regard your +slaves as a race of noble spirits, conscious of wrong, and burning with +suppressed indignation, which is ready to break out at every chance. +They think of you at the North as having guns and pistols and spears all +about you, ready for use at any moment. But when I spend a night at your +plantations, the owner and I the only white males, the wife and seven or +eight young children having us for their only defenders against the +seventy or hundred blacks, who are all about us in the quarters, the +idea of danger has really never occurred to me; because my knowledge of +the people has previously disarmed me of fear.' + +"'Emissaries, white and black,' said a planter, 'can, make us trouble; +but my belief is that we could live here to the end of time with these +colored people, and be subject to fewer cases of insubordination by far +than your corporations at the North suffer from in strikes. Your people, +generally, have no proper idea of the black man's nature. God seems to +have given him docility and gentleness, that he may be a slave till the +time comes for him to be something else. So He has given the Jews their +peculiarities, fitting them for His purposes with regard to them; and to +the Irish laborer He has given his willingness and strength to dig, +making him the builder of your railways. If we fulfil our trust, with +regard to the blacks, according to the spirit and rules of the New +Testament, I believe God will be our defender, and that all his +attributes will be employed to maintain our authority over this people +for his own great purposes. We have nothing to fear except from white +fanatics, North and South.' + +"'I have no idea,' said the Judge, 'of dooming every individual of this +colored race to unalterable servitude. I am in favor of putting them in +the way of developing any talent which any of them, from time to time, +may exhibit. More of this, I am sure, would be done by us, if we were +freed from the necessity of defending ourselves against Northern +assaults upon our social system, involving, as these assaults do, peril +to life, and to things dearer than life. But I see tenfold greater evils +in all the plans of emancipation which have ever been proposed than in +the present state of things.' + +"The pastor of the place, who was present, had not taken much part in +the discussion, though he had not purposely kept aloof from it. He was +Southern born, inherited slaves, had given them their liberty one by +one, and had recently returned from the North, where he had been to see +two of them--the last of his household--embark as hired servants with +families who were to travel in Europe. + +"Some of us asked him about his visit to the North. Said he, 'I went to +church one day, and was enjoying the devotional services, when all at +once the minister broke out in prayer for the abolition of slavery. He +presented the South before God as "oppressors," and prayed that they +might at once repent, and "break every yoke," and "let the oppressed go +free." I took him to be an immediate emancipationist, perhaps peculiar +in his views. But in the afternoon I went into another church, and in +prayer the minister began to pray "for all classes and conditions of men +among us." I was glad to see, as I thought, charity beginning at home. +But the next sentence took in our whole land; and the next was a +downright swoop upon slavery; so that I regarded his previous petitions +merely as spiral movements toward the South. If the good man's petitions +had been heard, woe to him and to the North, and to the slaves, to say +nothing of ourselves. + +"'I stopped after service, and, without at first introducing myself, I +asked him if he was in the habit of praying, as he had done to-day, for +slave-holders. He said yes. I asked him if it was a general practice at +the North. He thought it was. I inquired if he would have every slave +liberated to-morrow, if he could effect it. "By all means," said +he.--"Would they be better off?" said I.--"Undoubtedly they would," said +he. "But that is not the question. Do right, if the heavens +fall."--"What would become of them?" said I.--"Hire them," said he; "pay +them wages; let husbands and wives live together; abolish +auction-blocks, and"--"But," said I, "some of the very best of men in +the world, at the South, are decidedly of the opinion that such +emancipation would be the most barbarous thing that could be devised for +the slaves."--"Are you a slave-holder?" said he.--"I was," said I; "but +I have liberated my slaves, and I am in your city to see the last two of +my servants sail with your fellow-citizens ---- and ----" (naming +them).--"You don't say so!" said he. "What did you liberate them +for?"--"I could not take proper care of them," said I, "situated as I +am."--"But," said he, "did you do right in letting them go to sea as you +did? One of them will get no good with that man for a master. I would +rather be your dog than his child."--"Then," said I, "you have +'oppressors' at the North, it seems."--"Well," said he, "some of our +people are not as good as they ought to be."--"It is so with us at the +South," said I.--"Preach for me next Sabbath, Sir," said he.--"Are you +going to stay over?"--"Why," said I, "my dear Sir, would you and your +people like to hear a man preach for you whom you, if you made the +prayer, would first pray for as an 'oppressor?'"--"But you are not an +oppressor," said he.--"But I am in favor of what you call 'oppression,'" +said I.--"One thing I could pray for with you," said I.--"What is that?" +said he.--"Break every yoke," said I. "This I pray for always. But how +many 'yokes,'" said I, "do you suppose there are at the South?"--"I +forget the exact number of the slaves," said he, in the most artless +manner.' + +"Hereupon the company broke out into great merriment. After they had +enjoyed their laughter awhile, my Northern lady-friend said, 'Did you +preach for him?' + +"'Yes,' said the pastor; 'and prayed for him too. + +"'Walking through the streets of that place in the evening, I saw +evidence that no minister nor citizen there was justified in casting the +first stone at the South for immorality. I lifted up my heart in thanks +to God that my sons were not exposed to the temptations of a Northern +city. Being in the United States District Court there, several times, I +had some revelations also with regard to the treatment and the condition +of seamen in some Northern ships, which led me to the conclusion which +I have often drawn,--that poor human nature is about the same, North and +South. + +"'So, when I conducted the services of public worship, I prayed for that +city and for the young people, and alluded to the temptations which I +had witnessed; and I referred also to mariners, and prayed for masters +and officers of vessels who had such authority over the welfare and the +lives of seamen; and I prayed that Christians in both sections of our +land might pray for each other, considering each themselves, lest they +also be tempted, and that they might not be self-righteous and +accusatory; and that our eye might not be so filled with the evils of +other sections of the land as not to see those which were at home. + +"'After service the good brother said, "I suppose you referred in your +prayer to my praying against the South, as you call it. Well," said he, +confidentially, "the truth is, some of our people make this thing their +religion, and they will not abide a man who does not pray against +slavery." Some gentlemen, with their ladies, stopped to speak with me. +One shook me by the hand most cordially. "We are glad to see our good +Southern brethren," said he; "thankful to hear you preach so, and pray +so, too," said he, with an additional shake and a significant look, +while the rest were equally cordial with their assent. One of the +gentlemen took me home with him. "This is most of it politics," said he, +"and newspaper trade, this anti-slavery feeling. The people generally +are not fanatics; they are kind and humane, and their sensibilities are +touched by tales of distress."--"Especially Southern," said I. "Last eve +I read in your papers four outrages which happened within fifteen miles +of this city, and two in your city, which equalled, to say the least, +in barbarity anything that ever comes to my knowledge among our people." + +"'The next Sabbath, as I have since learned, my good brother was very +comprehensive, discriminating, and impartial in his supplications. He +really distinguished between those at the South who "oppress" their +fellow-men, and those who "remember them that are in bonds as bound with +them." But,' said the pastor, 'the most of those who use that latter +expression at the North really think the Apostle had slaves, as a class, +in mind. I have no such belief. I suppose that he referred to persecuted +Christians, suffering imprisonment for their religion, and to all +afflicted persons. + +"'My landlord said to me,' he continued, '"They tell us you are afraid +of free discussion at the South, that you are afraid to have your slaves +hear some things, lest it should excite them to insurrection. How is +this?" + +"'I told him that the slaves, being the lower order of society with us, +were not capable of so discriminating in that which promiscuous +strangers should see fit to say to them as to make it safe to have them +listen to every harangue or to every one who should set himself up to +teach. "Of course," said I, "there are liabilities and dangers in our +state of society. We must use prudence and caution. We have some loose +powder in our magazine. No one denies this. What if one who was rebuked +for carrying an open lamp into the magazine of a ship, should reproach +the captain with being 'an enemy to the light,' and as 'loving darkness +rather than light'?" + +"'While at the North,' said he, 'I read Mr. Buckle on civilization, and +I reflected upon the subject. Being in a great assembly, once or twice, +listening to abolitionist orators, lay and clerical, and hearing their +vile assaults on personal character, their vulgar and reckless ridicule +of fifteen States of our Union, their affected, oracular way of saying +the most trite things as though they were aphorisms, but reminding me of +the piles of short stuff which you see round a saw-mill, and hearing the +great throng applaud and shout, I asked myself whether we have really +made any decided advances in civilization since the Hebrew Commonwealth. +I really doubted whether those orators could have collected an audience +of Hebrews even in the wilderness. Under the "Judges," the people were, +at times, low enough to enjoy such drivelling. The willingness at the +North to hear these men, and to applaud them, gave me a low idea of the +state of society.' + +"'But,' said I, 'confess now that you found specimens of cultivated life +there such as you never saw surpassed.' + +"'I did,' said he, 'many times. And I must tell you,' he added, 'of my +enjoyment in looking on your pastures in autumn,--the sun shining aslant +upon them of an afternoon,--and in noticing what shades of scarlet and +crimson were given to the picture by the whortleberry leaves, which, I +found, contributed most to the coloring of the landscape. I also saw a +peculiarity of the whortleberry's flower, which, when stung by an insect +sometimes swells to twenty-five times its natural size, and becomes a +fungus.' + +"'Now,' said I, 'why not apply this,--perhaps you were intending to do +so,--and say that society at the North is generally like our +whortleberry pastures in autumn, which pleased you so much, with here +and there a fungus, made by the sting of radicalism.' + +"A planter's Northern wife said, 'I should like to move the adoption of +that simile.' + +"'We will have it so,' said the Judge to me, 'if the lady and you tell +us that we must.' + +"'A fungus,' said I, 'gets more attention from one half of the people +who go into the woods, than all the pure and beautiful garniture of the +pastures.' + +"The ladies of our company having been rallied for not having done their +part in the conversation, and also, of course, having been complimented +for keeping silence so long, the wife of one of the planters, a Northern +lady, made this remark that considering how God, in his providence, had +made such provision for the welfare of the human family through slavery +in our land, and, in doing it, had shown mercy and salvation to so many +hundreds of thousands of Africans, she thought it both ungrateful and +narrow-minded in people anywhere to confine all their thoughts to the +incidental evils of the slaves. She said that in the North she was not +an abolitionist, but on coming to the South and finding things so +different from that which her fancy had pictured, she had concluded to +be very charitable toward the most of her Northern friends who she said +were no more in the dark than she herself had been all her days, from +reading newspapers and tales which had concealed one whole side of +slavery from the view of Northern people. She added that she preferred +life at the North without the blacks, but had found more disinterested +benevolence toward them in one year at the South than she had charity to +believe existed in the hearts of all the good people at the North toward +them, counting in even the professional benevolence of the 'friends of +the slave.' + +"After refreshments, the pastor was called upon to read the Scriptures, +and to offer prayer. He read the fifteenth chapter of Revelation. Never +can I forget the impression which one of the verses in that chapter made +upon me, in connection with some of the thoughts awakened by our +conversation about the sovereignty of God as displayed in his dark and +awful dispensations towards races, nations, and men: 'And the seven +angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure +and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.' +'Those who are in any way associated with the administration of God's +great judgments towards their fellow-men,' said he, 'have need of +special purity; and their honor should be like the untarnished gold.' + +"This pastor told me, during the repast, that one day, returning +suddenly from his study in the church just after breakfast, to the house +of one of the gentlemen present, with whom he lived, and who was one of +the wealthiest men in the South, and passing through the parlor to get a +book, he found the room darkened, and the lady of the house kneeling in +prayer with her servants. He of course withdrew at once, but he learned +afterward from one of the 'slaves,' that it was the lady's daily custom. +He often thought of that incident when reading Northern religious +newspapers and noticing their lamentations over 'slave-holding +professors.'" + + * * * * * + +So much for my Southern visit. + +Mrs. North said that in our next conversation she would suggest that we +consider the relation of Christianity to Slavery. I told her that I had +some night thoughts on that subject, which I would with pleasure +submit, at another time. + +As the rain continued, Mr. North and I resorted to the wood-pile in the +shed for exercise, till dinner-time, Mrs. North following us to the +door, and charging us not to converse upon this subject till she should +be present. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS. + + "My equal will he be again + Down in that cold, oblivious gloom, + Where all the prostrate ranks of men + Crowd without fellowship,--the tomb." + + JAMES MONTGOMERY. + + +"I will now relate to you," said I, as we resumed our conversation, "the +thoughts which came to me one night as I lay awake meditating on this +subject. I wrote them down the next day. + +"The subject in our conversation which suggested them was, The relation +of Christianity to slavery. + + * * * * * + +"About the year A.D. 64, two men, travellers from Rome, entered the city +of Colosse, in Phrygia. Asia Minor, both of them the bearers of letters +from the Apostle Paul, then a prisoner at Rome. + +"A Christian Church had been gathered at Colosse. Its pastor was +probably Archippus. Some think that Epaphras was his colleague. This +church, according to Dr. Lardner and others, was most probably gathered +by the Apostle Paul himself. Mount Cadmus rose behind the city, with its +almost perpendicular side, and a huge chasm in the mountain was the +outlet of a torrent which flowed into the river Lycus, on which the city +was built, standing not far from the junction of this river with the +Moeander. + +"One of the two men who bore these letters was a slave. His name was +Onesimus. He robbed his master, Philemon, of Colosse, fled to Rome, +heard Paul preach, was converted, and now by the Apostle is sent back to +his master with a letter, in charge of Tychicus, who, with this +Onesimus, was the bearer of a letter to the Colossian Church. + +"Let us attend the church-meeting. The pastor, Archippus, presides. +Epaphras is at Rome. + +"What an interesting company do we behold as we sit near the pastor's +table, in full view of the audience! The inhabitants of this place were +noted for the worship of Bacchus, and Cybele, mother of the gods; hence +her name, _Phrygia Mater_. Every kind of licentious language and actions +was practised in the worship of these deities, accompanied with a +frantic rage called orgies, from the Greek word for _rage_. This was a +part of their religious worship. From among such people, converts had +been made to Christianity, together with some who had been turned from +Judaism. + +"The letter from the Apostle Paul is brought in and is laid on the +pastor's table, and some account is given of the manner in which it was +received. The letter is read. It refers the Colossians, at the close, to +the bearers, for further information and instructions. 'All my state +shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful +minister and fellow-servant in the Lord. Whom I have sent unto you for +the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your +hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of +you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.' + +"Tychicus relates his story, and, when he has finished, Philemon, a +member of the Church, addresses the meeting. He was evidently a man of +distinction in that community, as we infer from the large number of +persons in his household, (ver. 2,) his liberality to poor Christians, +(ver. 5, 7,) and from the marked respect and deference paid to him by +the Apostle. He also had received a letter from the Apostle, and he asks +leave to read it. + +"He then tells them that Onesimus is present; that he has been sent back +by the Apostle Paul, and with the full, cordial consent of Onesimus +himself. He would ask permission for Onesimus to say a few words. + +"'Come hither,' says the pastor, 'and tell us what the Lord hath done +for thee, and how he hath had mercy on thee.' + +"'Let me wash the saints' feet,' says Onesimus, 'but I am not worthy to +teach in the church.' + +"He proceeds to tell them, in full, of his escape from his master, after +robbing him; of his meeting the Apostle at Rome; of his conversion; of +his voluntary return to spend his days, if such be the will of God, as +the servant of Philemon. + +"The account of these proceedings reaches Laodicea, not far distant, to +which place Paul had also sent a letter, and the Colossians, agreeably +to the Apostle's charge, exchange letters, and no doubt the letter to +Philemon is also read to the Church which is at Laodicea. + +"Whereupon, we will suppose, a controversy at once springs up. There had +already appeared in this region of Phrygia, as we infer from the Epistle +to the Colossians, serious errors, among them a kind of angel worship +and asceticism, or abstinence from things lawful, and a state of things +called Gnosis, (Eng. knowledge,) or Gnosticism, a pervading spirit of +worldly wisdom, science, philosophy, which treated the simplicity which +was in Christ as too rudimental and plain for the human mind, and +therefore sought to furnish it with speculations and mysticism, to +gratify its desires for a more extensive spiritual knowledge than it +seemed to many of them was provided for by Christianity. + +"Among the speculations and theories of those days, we will suppose that +the idea began to prevail that Christianity was inconsistent with +holding a fellow-being in bondage. A motion is made in the Laodicean +Church that a committee be appointed to confer with the Colossian Church +on the return of Onesimus into slavery. Such a motion would have found +ready advocates in the Church at Laodicea, if, as at a later day, they +were 'neither cold nor hot' in religion; in which case any collateral +subjects wholly or partly secular, would have a charm for them. These +supplied that lack of warmth which they were conscious of as to +religion; their church-meeting, no doubt, seemed to them dull, unless a +subject was introduced which gave opportunity for discussion, and for +things which gendered debate, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, +evil surmisings. + +"The result of the conference on the part of the Laodicean Committee +with the Colossian Church was, that a general meeting was appointed to +discuss the subject of the return of Onesimus into slavery. It was a +private session of members of the two churches. They claimed the +privilege as Christians of discussing any question relating to the +government and the laws, taking care that no spies were present; still, +with all their precautions, false brethren made trouble for them by +giving private information to the civil authorities against some of +their number, whom they disliked; and this led to some oppression and +persecution. + +"But the meeting was fully attended. Two members of the church who were +faithful servants to slave-holding brethren were set to guard the doors. +The slaves were allowed to be present and listen to the discussion. This +was carried after much debate, some contending that it would expose the +Christians to just reprehension from the civil authorities; and others +maintaining that it would do the slaves good to hear such doctrines +advanced and enforced as would be quoted from the Apostle relating to +masters and servants. + +"The discussion was opened by a brother from Laodicea, an office-bearer +in the church, a private citizen, devoted to study, and an author of +some repute. He was formerly odist at the festivals of Cybele. His +pieces were collected and published under the title of 'Phrygian +Canticles.' His name was Olamus. + +"He took the ground that Christianity abrogated slavery. He quoted the +well known words of Paul, so familiar to all who had heard him preach: +'In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, +bond nor free; but all are one in Christ.' 'The Spirit of the Lord is +upon me because he hath sent me to preach deliverance to the captives, +the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound.' 'Whatsoever ye +would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them.' + +"He maintained that to own a fellow-creature was inconsistent with this +law of equal love; that it was giving sanction to a feature of +barbarism; that, practically, slavery was the sum of all villanies; an +enormous wrong; a stupendous injustice. + +"If any one should reply that the Mosaic institutions recognized +slavery, he had one brief answer:--'which things are done away in +Christ.' Moses permitted this and some other things for the hardness of +their hearts. Polygamy was allowed by Moses, not by Christianity; its +spirit is against it; the bishop of a church must be 'the husband of one +wife;' slavery is certainly none the less contrary to the spirit of the +gospel. + +"But inasmuch as it is inexpedient to dissolve at once, and in all +cases, the relation of master and slave, he contended that while the +relation continued, it should be regulated by the laws which God himself +once prescribed. Every seventh year should be a year of release; every +fiftieth, year should be a jubilee. And as to fugitives, he would refer +his brethren to that Divine injunction: 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his +master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall +dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in +one of thy gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.' + +"That a slave having escaped from his master could not rightfully be +sent back into bondage, was evident from these considerations: + +"All men are born free and equal, and have an inalienable right to life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If a slave sees fit to walk off, +or run off, or ride off on his master's beast, or sail off in his +master's boat, he has a perfect right to do so. Slavery is violence; +every man may resist violence offered to his person, except under +process of law; the person cannot be taken except for crime, or debt, or +in war; every man owns his body and soul; the person cannot become +merchandise, except for the three causes above named, which he +acknowledged were justifiable causes of involuntary servitude at +present. But to forcibly seize a weaker man, or race, and hold them in +bondage he declared to be in violation of the laws of nature, and +contrary to the Christian religion. + +"If it should be replied that Paul the Apostle countenanced slavery by +sending back Onesimus, he would answer, that Paul was a Jew, and was not +yet freed wholly from Jewish practices and associations of ideas. +Gnosticism has supervened upon the rudimental childhood of spiritual +truth. He believed in progress. It was contrary to the instinct of human +nature to send back a poor fugitive into bondage, and he was glad for +one that he lived in an age when the innate moral sentiments, under the +lucid teachings of our more transcendental scholars were becoming more +and more the all-sufficient guide in the affairs of life. He would, +therefore, publicly disclaim his allegiance to the teachings of the +Apostle Paul, if, upon reflection, Paul should insist that he was right +in remanding Onesimus to be Philemon's property 'forever;' it was well +enough that he should be sent back to restore what he had taken by +theft, provided Philemon would immediately release him; otherwise, to +steal from Philemon was doing no more than Philemon had done to him, in +taking away that liberty which is the birthright of every human being; +and Onesimus probably stole merely to assist his escape. He was +justifiable in doing so. + +"If one should insist that there can be no intrinsic wrong in holding a +fellow-being as property because God allowed Hebrews to sell themselves, +and in certain cases to be servants forever, and directed the Israelites +to buy servants of the heathen round about them, who should be an +inheritance to the children of the Israelites, he would simply say +either that the whole pentateuch which contained such a libel on the +divine character, is thereby proved to be a forgery, or, that if the +pentateuch is to be received, it only proves that in condescension to a +race of freebooters who were employed, as the Israelites were, in bloody +wars of extermination, slavery was allowed them, to prevent, perhaps, +worse evils, and in consistency with their dark-minded, semi-barbarous +condition. In this enlightened age when Greece and Rome had shed +superior light on human relationships and obligations, and especially +since Christ had promulgated the golden rule, the idea that man could +own a fellow-creature was so preposterous that he would be an infidel, +nay, he would go farther, he would be an atheist, rather than believe +it. Our moral instincts are our guide. They are the highest source of +evidence that there is a God, and they are a perfect indication as to +what God and his requirements should be. He was for passing a vote of +disapprobation at the act of Paul the Apostle in sending back Onesimus +into bondage. Tell me not, said he, that the Apostle calls him 'a +brother beloved,' and 'one of you;' these honeyed phrases are but +coatings to a deadly poison. Slavery is evil, and only evil and that +continually. Disguise it as you will, Philemon holds property in +Onesimus. By the laws of Phrygia, he could put Onesimus to death for +running away. He deplored the act as a heavy blow at Christianity. It +would countervail the teachings of the Apostle. He sincerely hoped that +the Epistle to Philemon would not be preserved; for should it be +collected hereafter, as possibly it may, among Paul's letters, unborn +ages might make it an apology for slavery, it would abate the hatred of +the world against the sum of all villanies. He would even be in favor +of a vote requesting Philemon to give Onesimus his liberty at once, even +without his consent, sending him back, with this most unwise and unblest +epistle to Philemon, to Paul, who says that he 'would have retained +him,' but would not without Philemon's consent. He did hope that the +brethren would speak their minds, be open-mouthed, and not be like dumb +dogs. For his part he wanted an anti-slavery religion. He acknowledged +that the truths of the Gospel needed the stimulant of freedom to give +them life and power. + +"His remarks evidently produced a great sensation, for a variety of +reasons, as we may well suppose. + +"A man took the floor in opposition to this Laodicean brother. He was a +Jewish convert, a member of the Colossian Church. His name was +Theodotus. Born a Jew, he had renounced his religion and became a Greek +Sophist, practised law at Scio, and heard Paul at Mars Hill, where, with +Dionysius the Areopagite, with whom he was visiting, he was converted. +He had established himself at Colosse, in the practice of law. He was +unusually tall for a man of his descent, had beautifully regular Jewish +features, and was a captivating speaker. + +"He said that they had 'heard strange things to-day. If they are true, +we have no foundation underneath our feet. Every man's moral sentiments, +it seems, are to be his guide. Where, then, is our common appeal? For +his part he believed that if God be our heavenly Father, he has given +his children an authentic book, a writing, for their guide, unless he +prefers to speak personally with them, or with their representatives. +When he ceased to speak by the prophets, he spoke to us by his Son; and +now that his Son is ascended, I believe,' said he, 'that inspired men +are appointed to guide us, and seeing that they cannot reach all by +their living voice, I believe that the evangelists and apostles are to +furnish us with writings which shall be inspired disclosures of God's +will and our duty. The Old Testament is as truly God's word as ever; +Christ declared that not one jot or tittle should pass from it, till all +be fulfilled. Some of it is fulfilled, in him, the end of the types; +parts of it refer to local and temporary things; all which is not local +and temporary is still binding upon us. At least, the spirit of its laws +is benevolent and wise. Damascus and its scenes are too fresh in the +memories of the brethren to need that I should argue the inspiration of +the Apostle to the Gentiles. His miracles are known to us. Nay, what +miracles are we ourselves, reclaimed from the service of the devil, once +the worshippers of Bacchus and of our Phrygian mother; now, clothed, and +in our right minds. The Apostle claims to speak and act by divine +authority. We must question everything, if we set aside this claim. + +"'I maintain,' said he, 'that the Apostle Paul regards the holding a +fellow-creature as property to be consistent with Christianity. To +prevent all misunderstanding, however, let me declare that he insists on +the golden rule as the law of slave-holding, as of everything else; that +he discountenances oppression, that he warns and threatens us with +regard to it; and that he considers slave-holding as consistent with the +Christian character and happiness of master and slave. + +"'In the very Epistle just received by our Church, and by the hands of +Tychicus and Onesinius himself, from the Apostle, we find these words: +"Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not +with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing +God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not +unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the +inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall +receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of +persons. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; +knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." + +"'Where, in this, is there a word that countenances the wrongfulness of +being a slave, or of holding men as slaves? He directs all his +exhortations to the duties which are to be performed in the relation, +and he leaves the relation as he finds it. He does not enjoin slavery; +he treats it as something which belongs to society, to government, and +he leaves Christianity to regulate it as circumstances shall make it +proper. If any one says that the Apostle was afraid to meddle with it, I +reply, that there was never anything yet that Paul was afraid to meddle +with, if it was right to do so. He "meddled" with Diana of the Ephesians +and her craftsmen; he "meddled" with the "beasts" there; he "meddled" +with idolatry on Mars Hill at Athens, I being witness; he has been +beaten, stoned, imprisoned, and is now the second time before Nero for +his life. Afraid to "meddle" with slavery! I am ashamed of the man who +makes the suggestion. He who thinks it, has never yet understood him. + +"'Now, where in all his teachings has he ever intimated that it is wrong +to hold property in man? Nowhere; I repeat it, nowhere. But is he +ignorant of the nature of slavery? We all know what has lately happened +at Rome, in connection with slavery. The very year that Paul arrives at +Rome, the prefect of the city, Pedanius Secundus, was murdered by his +slave; and agreeably to the laws of slavery all the slaves belonging to +the prefect, a great number, women and children among them, were put to +death indiscriminately, though innocent of the crime.[A] Such is slavery +under the Apostle's eye; and yet'-- + + [Footnote A: Tacitus, _Annals_, xiv. 42.--A thrilling tale. See + Bohn's Classical Library, 53.] + +"'And, therefore,' interrupted the Laodicean brother, 'the Apostle +approves of murdering innocent slaves for the sin of one. That is the +conclusion to which your reasoning will bring us.' + +"'Excusing the brother for interrupting me, I ask, Is that agreeable to +the plain facts in the case?' said the speaker. 'Are the abuses of +parentage chargeable upon the relationship of parent and child? +Moreover, does not the Apostle expressly teach us, in this Epistle, that +such things are wrong? but still, does he condemn the relation of master +and slave? + +"'The tale of that horrid butchery was present to the mind of the +Apostle when he sends Onesimus back into slavery. Moreover, he knew that +by our laws Philemon could put Onesimus to death; yet he sends him back. + +"'It is said by my brother that Paul enunciated principles which in time +would kill slavery, and therefore he did not care to denounce it, but +prudently let it alone. What else, I inquire, did Paul fail to denounce? +and why is this "enormous wrong," this "stupendous injustice," alone, +left to die, without being attacked? No, Paul treated slavery as he did +all other forms of government; he did not denounce government, not even +its despotic forms; for he knew that a despotism may be the best form of +government in some circumstances. But he spoke against the abuse of +power by rulers, and in the same way he speaks against the abuse of +power by the master. + +"'My brother tells us that slavery is "the sum of all villanies." A +comprehensive term, truly. Let us admit the correctness of the phrase. +"All villanies" includes all "the works of the flesh," and the Apostle +enumerates the principal of them, where he says, "Now the works of the +flesh are these;"--concluding his account with the expression, "and such +like." With unsparing denunciation, he portrays each and every +"villany," and shows how the wrath of God is revealed from heaven +against it. + +"'But while he is thus bold and faithful with regard to "all villanies" +in particular, we cannot but think it strange that a thing which is said +to be the "sum" of them all, is nowhere spoken against by the Apostle! +On the contrary, he recognizes the duties which grow out of +slave-holding. + +"'Let us suppose him to do the same with regard to each villany which he +does to that which my brother calls the "sum" of them all. Then we +should hear him say! Murderers, do so and so; thieves, do so and so; and +ye that are mutilated, do so and so; and ye that are pillaged, do so and +so. I am curious to know how my brother will answer this. What are the +religious "duties" of murderers and thieves, but to repent, to forsake +their evil ways at once, and to make lawful reparation? And what are the +"duties" of those whom murderers and thieves assault, but to resist, and +to seek the conviction of the evil-doer? Oh how strange it seems for the +Apostle to counsel masters and slaves to imitate their "Master which is +in heaven," in their relation to each other, if holding men in bondage +be "the sum of all villanies," and how strange for him to send Onesimus +back to the system to behave in it as Christ would act in his place! + +"'Onesimus escapes, we will say, from a gang of murderers, or from a +company of thieves, and the Apostle's preaching is the means of his +becoming a good man. Paul writes a letter to the chief murderer of the +gang, or to the captain of the robbers, sends Onesimus back, and +"beseeches" the brigand for "his son Onesimus," telling him that now he +receives him "forever," and then calls the desperado "our dearly beloved +fellow-laborer"! Why not, with equal propriety, if slavery be, +necessarily, as our brother describes it? There is some mistake in our +brother's theory. + +"'I venture to state the distinction which I think he overlooks, and +which, if observed, will relieve his difficulty. Paul never denounces +government; "the powers that be are ordained of God." He appeals to +"Caesar"; he goes before "Nero"; he never counsels insurrection, nor +denounces government, in whatever hands or under whatever forms it may +be; but he enjoins principles and duties which, if observed, would make +"Caesars," even though they be "Neros," blessings, and their despotisms +even would cease to be a curse. So with slave-holding. It is +incorporated into the state of society; it is, moreover, a relation +which can exist and no sin be committed under the relation; hence, it is +not sin in itself, any more than the throne of Nero is sin in itself; +and the Apostle speaks to the slave-holding Philemon as he would to a +father receiving back a wayward son. + +"'The claim of Philemon to Onesimus rests only on his having purchased +him. Who had a right to sell him? Trace the thing back, and you come to +fraud or violence, or some form of injustice to Onesimus in making him +a slave. Paul knew that this is the case with regard to every slave; yet +he does not "break every yoke," even when, as in this case, he had one +so completely in his hands, and could have broken it in pieces. + +"'But we will suppose, with my brother, that the laws which God ordained +for slavery should prevail under Christianity, if slavery is to exist. +Let every Phrygian, then, a fellow-countryman who has lost his liberty, +go free at the end of six years; and at every fiftieth year, whether six +years be completed or not, since the last seventh year of release, let +all such go free. This, for argument's sake, we approve. But we must +take the whole code. Every foreigner who becomes a slave, and the child +of every such slave, was to be an "inheritance forever." Husbands, who +are Phrygians, must choose, in certain cases, whether to go out free by +themselves, or remain in perpetual bondage with their wives and their +offspring. Paul knew the Jewish laws with regard to slavery; he knew how +favorably they compared with our code; but he says not a word on that +score, and simply sends Onesimus back to his bondage. + +"'Yet see how beautifully the spirit of Christ works itself into the +relation of master and slave, and into Paul's views and feelings with +regard to it. In his letter to our Church, he expressly names Onesimus +as one of the bearers of the epistle. He speaks of him as "one of you," +a resident with us; and he calls this slave "a faithful and beloved +brother." He speaks to Philemon about him as "my son Onesimus whom I +have begotten in my bonds;" "thou therefore receive him, that is, mine +own bowels." "Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother +beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the +flesh and in the Lord." "If thou count me, therefore, a partner, receive +him as myself." + +"'What a comment is this on the words: "In Christ Jesus there is neither +bond nor free." Not that there shall be "no bond," according to the +brother's interpretation; for then it would be equally right to +interpret the other part of the passage literally,--there is no Jew, no +Greek, and none free! How perfectly does the relation become absorbed by +that state of heart which makes it proper for Paul to say: "Art thou +called being a servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made +free, use it rather." Notwithstanding this advice, he sends back this +man-servant. + +"'Paul might have manumitted Onesimus by his authority as an apostle; +this, however, would have been rebellion against government, for our +laws recognize slavery. + +"'My brother says that the Hebrew law forbade the surrender of a +fugitive slave. Yes, if the slave fled into Israel from a heathen +master, he must not be sent back to heathenism; but'-- + +"'But,' said the brother from Laodicea, 'there is no limitation of that +kind. I insist that it was of universal application to slaves of all +kinds.' + +"'Find the passage, if you please (in Deut. xxiii.),' said the Colossian +speaker. + +"The passage was found by the pastor, and was read, as already quoted: +'Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant that is escaped from +his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee even among you, in that +place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him +best; thou shalt not oppress him.' Deut. xxiii. 10, 15. + +"'Now,' said Theodotus, 'it is absurd to say that God proclaimed to all +the servants throughout Israel, If any of you are dissatisfied, for any +cause, and wish to run away, you may do so; and wherever you wish to +live, the people-of that place shall provide a residence for you. After +being there for ever so short a time, if you do not like it, you may +flee again; and so keep moving all your lifetime, the people everywhere +being obliged to allow you a place of abode. Did the Most High mean to +encourage such vagabondism? + +"'No; He merely provided that a fugitive from a heathen master should +not be sent away from the worship of Jehovah into heathenism.' + +"'That is undoubtedly the true meaning,' said the pastor, 'if Theodotus +will allow me to put in a word. "Thee," in that passage, means Israel as +a nation, not each man.' + +"'I thank you, Sir,' said Theodotus; 'and now I maintain that the +injunction not to give up a fugitive to his heathen master, but to keep +him in Israel, is a powerful argument in favor of retaining slaves where +they will be most benefited in their spiritual concerns. God thus makes +the soul of man and its eternal welfare paramount to all external +relations, including slavery.' + +"'May I inquire, then,' said the Laodicean: 'Suppose that Philemon had +been a cruel heathen master, and Onesimus had fled for his life, would +Paul have sent him back?' + +"'If the case were clear and beyond doubt, I am not sure that he would,' +said Theodotus. 'While he would not counsel Onesimus to run away, yet I +can only say, that, fleeing from certain cruelty and death, I doubt if +he would have been remanded. But Paul told servants to be "subject to +their masters," "not only to the good and gentle, but also to the +froward." He speaks to them of "suffering wrongfully;" of "doing well, +and suffering for it;" and he refers the suffering slave to Christ, +"who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, +threatened not." Moreover, he says: "For even hereunto were ye called; +because Christ also _suffered for us_, leaving us an example that ye +should _follow his steps_." That is certainly death.' + +"'If Paul did not send Onesimus back to Philemon, however, it would not +be because it was wrong, in his view, for Philemon to hold him in +bondage; please observe this distinction; but, judging the case by +itself, he would decide whether the slave ought not, under the +circumstances, to have the right of asylum,--Paul himself having once +been "let down by a basket," to escape from the Damascenes. Paul and any +other man would, in certain cases, protect even a fugitive son or +daughter from a father; and this consistently with his recognition of +the parental and filial relation. + +"'Let me remind my brother, and you, my pastor, and my brethren, of one +fact which occurs to me at the moment. Manslayers, in cities of refuge, +were to go free at the death of the High Priest then in office; no such +release, however, was granted to the Gentile slaves, showing that +slavery was not a crime in the estimation of the Most High. Otherwise, +He would have legislated for the departure of slaves from their Hebrew +masters, as He did for manslayers fleeing from the avenger of blood. +Excuse the digression. The thought struck me at the moment.' + +"'I put it to the brother,' said the Laodicean, 'whether he himself would +not flee to Rome, were he a single man, if he should be made a slave to +that monster in human shape, Osander of Hieropolis?' + +"'I cannot say,' replied the Colossian, 'what my temptations might be, +nor how well I should resist them; but slavery being incorporated into +the government, and I being, in the providence of God, sold into bondage +to Osander,--I being either the child of a slave, or one of those who +are called "lawful captives,"--my race, or my capture in war, or my +indebtedness, or my crimes, subjecting me to bondage according to the +constitution of government, I ought to consider my slavery as the mode +which God had chosen for me to glorify him,--by my spirit and temper, by +my words and conduct, by my Christian example in everything, for the +good of Osander's soul, and the honor of religion. I believe that I +should please God more by staying to suffer, and even to die, than to +run away. I doubt even the expediency of running away, as a general +rule. It implies a want of faith. He is the Christian hero who stays +where God has manifestly placed him. + +"'I know,' continued he, 'how easy it is to make this appear ridiculous; +and also how often cases occur in which flight, and even the taking of +life, are proper, under extreme hardships. It is frequently the case +that a servant sees and feels his mental superiority to the man who owns +him. Now one may be so disgusted, and be so constantly vexed and chafed +at this, as to make out a strong case for escaping; another, in the same +circumstances, will feel that God has placed him in charge of his +master's soul, to please him well in all things though he be "froward." +Whether is better, to run off or to "abide"? There can be no doubt how +the Apostle would answer the question. Exceptional cases of extreme +distress do not make a rule; the rule is for each one to "abide" in the +calling in which he is called of God. See what perfect insubordination +would everywhere follow if every one who is oppressed, or believes +himself to be oppressed, should flee: children would desert their +parents; husbands and wives would flee from each other, at any supposed +or real grievance. This is not the Christian rule. Patience and all +long-suffering, obedience, endurance, committing one's self to him that +judgeth righteously, is the temper and spirit of the Gospel. This is the +tone-note of the Sermon on the Mount. At the same time, who blames or +judges harshly a man in peril of his life if, in self-defence, he flees? +I say that Paul would probably judge every fugitive slave case by +itself. One thing is clear: It is not his rule to help a fugitive from +slavery in his flight, as a matter of course. His rule is evidently the +reverse of this. I cannot argue with regard to the exceptions. They +generally provide each for itself. The New Testament rule is for slaves +not to run away; and for us, and for all men, not to encourage them to +do so; but to encourage them to return, and to deal with the masters on +such principles, and in such a fraternal, affectionate way, that the +appeals to their Christian sensibilities may permanently affect their +consciences and hearts. + +"'I stand by the record. Let me forsake it, and I am like Paul's ship +when it was driving up and down in Adria, and neither sun nor stars +appeared. My impulses were not given me as my guide. They are to be +compared with the divine will. Many questions may be asked which I +cannot answer, and many difficulties encompass this subject of +slave-holding which I cannot solve. I abide by the example and teachings +of inspired men, and am safe in following them, even if I cannot +explain everything connected with their principles and conduct to the +satisfaction of others. I only know that if our masters and servants +would take the Apostle Paul's Epistle to Philemon as the rule of their +spirit and life, there would be no such thing as oppression, nor +fugitive servants. Now, as to revolutionizing society to eradicate +slavery, I would no more attempt it than I would try to dig down Cadmus +to dislodge yonder snow and ice upon his top. The sun will in due time +melt them and pour them into the Lycus and the Moeander. So the Gospel, +when it has free course, will dissolve every chain, break every yoke, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' + + * * * * * + +"Philemon was now the first to rise. + +"'I am the master to whom Paul the Apostle sends back my fugitive +servant. This man, Onesimus, is my brother in Christ; in heaven, it may +be, I shall see him far above me as a faithful servant of our common +Lord. He has given a proof of obedience to the Gospel, of submission, of +patience and long suffering, of implicit compliance with the rules of +Christ, which excite my Christian emulation. My endeavor shall be to +imitate Onesimus as he has imitated Christ, and to surpass him in +likeness to that Lord who is meek and lowly in heart. The bonds which +hold Onesimus to me are no stronger than those which bind me to him. +(Great sensation and much emotion.) Can I ever treat this servant in an +unfeeling manner? Can I recklessly sell him? Can I deprive him of +comforts? Can I fail to provide for his highest happiness? God do so to +me and more also, if I prove deficient in these particulars. + +"'Let me ask, What would be the state of things among us if the benign +influences of Christian love pervaded every case of slave-holding as, by +the grace of God, I hope it will in my case? We must have a serving +class; our customs and laws ordain the relationship of involuntary +servitude, property in the services of others, by purchase of their +persons. While this is so, suppose that every servant is an Onesimus and +every master such as I ought to be, under the influence of the Apostle +Paul's directions! It is plain that in no way can we better promote the +spiritual and eternal good of certain men, as the times are, than by +standing in the relation of Christian masters to them. This is the great +thing with Paul. We can mitigate the sorrows of their bondage; we can +compensate for the appointments of providence reducing them to slavery, +by making them the freemen of Christ. While this state of things +continues, it may be a blessing to both parties. God will open a way for +any change which he decrees in our social relation, in his own time and +manner. + +"'Now, let us suppose what would happen if, departing from the rule and +example of Paul, we follow the counsels of our good brother from +Laodicea. The community would be in constant excitement by the departure +of servants asserting each his natural liberty; laws would become rigid; +hardships would be multiplied; cruelties would be perpetuated; +insurrections would become frequent; sacrifices of servants, the +innocent with the guilty, would be made to deter from insubordination. +Instead of the spirit of the Gospel in our dwellings, alienations, +suspicion, jealousy, wrangling, strife, and every form of evil would +prevail. He is no real friend of servant or master who would enforce the +principles of our Laodicean brother. I adhere to the Apostle. If +questioned as to my right to hold Onesimus in bondage, the answer +immediately suggested is that an inspired Apostle sanctions it in my +case. If right in my case, it is right in principle; for if +slave-holding be a violation of rights, I am guilty of that violation, +however humane a master I may be. The Apostle does not reprove me, nor +require me to manumit Onesimus, but tells me that I now receive him +"forever," and he teaches me how to treat him. I could occupy your time +by arguing the abstract question relating to property in the services of +men,--but I rest my case for the present on the letter of Paul the +Apostle, brought to me by the hand of my fugitive servant, returning to +what the laws call his bonds. + +"'Let me add a few words, however, on the general subject, to the +argument of Theodotus. + +"'Our good brother from Laodicea tells us that slavery and polygamy are +"twin barbarisms." He argues that slavery was winked at, like polygamy; +was "suffered," by the Most High. But I propose to refute this, and I +will throw myself on your candor to judge if I succeed. + +"'God, in Eden, appointed the marriage of one man and one woman to be +the law of matrimony. "And wherefore one?" says the prophet. "He had the +residue of the spirit," and could have ordained otherwise. "Wherefore +one?" The answer is, "that he might seek a godly seed." The arrangement +was for the highest elevation of the race. + +"'Polygamy is in direct conflict with the ordinance of God. Of course +God never ordained it. On the contrary, the appointment in Eden was +equivalent to a prohibitory act, which Jesus Christ revived, forbidding +polygamy, and the Apostles have enjoined upon us that we observe the law +of marriage as given in paradise. + +"'So much for polygamy. God never recognized it. The edict requiring +the marriage of a childless widow to the brother of her husband, takes +it for granted that a man would leave but one widow. + +"'But how is it with slavery? God never forbade it; he recognized it; +when He framed the Jewish code it was perfectly easy to exclude slavery; +but hardly are the Ten Commandments out of his lips when He ordains +slave-holding, gives particular directions about it, decrees that +certain persons shall be an inheritance forever. Jesus Christ never +uttered one word against slavery, though he did against polygamy; the +Apostles have never written nor preached to us against slavery, but on +the contrary here is the Apostle to the Gentiles sending back a servant +escaped from his master; and in that letter on the pastor's table he +enjoins duties on masters and slaves. I have confidence that my brother +will not again class slavery with polygamy, for it would be a reflection +upon divine wisdom and justice. + +"'One thing more. My brother says slavery is the sum of all villanies. + +"'But did not the Most High God place his people in slavery for seventy +years, in Babylon? This does not prove that slavery is a good thing, in +itself; for by the same proof heathenism might be shown to be a +blessing. Slavery was a curse, a punishment; but still, God would not +have made use of slavery to punish his people, if, theoretically and +practically, it is by necessity all which my brother alleges. It surely +did not, in that case, prove a "villany" to Babylon. They were the best +seventy years of their probationary state, when that people held the +Jews in captivity. Now I beg not to be misunderstood nor to have my +meaning perverted. I am not pleading for slavery. I simply say that God +would not have put his people, whom He had not cast off forever, into +slavery, if slavery, _per se_, were the sum of all villanies, or, if the +practical effect of it on them would be, necessarily, destruction, or +inconsistent with his purposes of benevolence. I will add, that every +people and every man, who hold others in bondage, should be admonished +that when God puts his captives, his bondmen, into their hands, He is +most jealous of the manner in which the trust is discharged. I do think, +I say it here with all possible emphasis, it is the most delicate, the +most solemn, the most awful responsibility, to stand in the relation of +master to a bondman. + + * * * * * + +"No further discussion was had at that time, the hour being late, and so +the meeting was closed with prayer and singing. Masters and servants +joined to chant a hymn, of which the following, written many years after +by Gregory of Nazianzum, might almost seem to be the expansion:-- + + "'Christ, my Lord, I come to bless Thee, + Now when day is veiled in night, + Thou who knowest no beginning, + Light of the eternal light. + + "'Thou hast set the radiant heavens, + With thy many lamps of brightness, + Filling all the vaults above; + Day and night in turn subjecting + To a brotherhood of service, + And a mutual law of love. + + "'Own me, then, at last, thy servant, + When thou com'st in majesty; + Be to me a pitying Father, + Let me find thy grace and mercy; + And to Thee all praise and glory + Through the endless ages be.' + +"Leaning on the arm of Onesimus, Philemon returned to bless his +household. + + * * * * * + +"Thus far," said I, "you have my Night Thoughts." I asked Mr. North if +he accepted the present New Testament Canon as correct? He said that he +did. I then inquired if he regarded the Scriptures as the only and +sufficient rule of faith and practice. + +To this he also agreed. I then asked him if he did not think that, in +making up the canon, that is, in directing what books and epistles +should go into it, God had reference to the wants of all coming times? +He signified his assent. I then asked his attention to a few thoughts +connected with that point. + +"Here is the Epistle to Philemon, placed by the hand of the Holy Spirit +himself in the Sacred Canon. It is on a small piece of parchment, easily +lost; the wind might have blown it from Philemon's table out of the +window, beyond recovery; it was not addressed to a Church, to be kept in +its archives; it is a private letter, subject to every change in the +condition of a private citizen. Yet, while the epistle to Laodicea, sent +about the same time, is irrecoverably lost, this little writing, +addressed to a private man, goes into the Bible, by direction of God! + +"Do you not suppose," said I, "that God had a meaning in this beyond +merely informing us how a master received a servant back to bondage?" + +"What further purpose do you think there was in it?" said he. + +"I only know," said I, "that slave-holding was to be a subject, as has +proved to be the case, which would involve the interests of at least +two of the continents of the earth, one of them being then unknown. Here +the Church of God was to have large increase. Here, too, slavery was to +exist, and to thrill the hearts of millions of citizens from generation +to generation. It is very remarkable that one book of the Bible, which +was to be made known to all nations by the commandment of the +everlasting God, for the obedience of faith, should be exclusively on +the subject of slavery, and that the whole burden of the Epistle should +be, The Rendition of a Fugitive Slave!" + +"This never occurred to me before," said Mr. North. + +"Suppose," said I, "that instead of sending back Onesimus, the epistle +had been a private letter from Archippus at Colosse to Paul at Rome, +clandestinely aiding Onesimus to escape from Philemon, and that Paul had +received Onesimus and had harbored him, and had sent him forth as a +missionary, and that not one word of comment had appeared in the Bible +discountenancing the act. What would have happened then?" + +"Then," said Mrs. North, "one thing is certain; the business of running +off slaves to Canada would now have been more brisk even than it is at +present." + +"Why?" said I. + +"Simply because," said she, "the New Testament would have sanctioned the +practice of running off slaves." + +"Why, then," said I, "does it not now equally countenance the 'running' +of slaves back to their masters?" + +"Please answer that for me, husband," said Mrs. North. + +He smiled, and rose to put some coal on the fire. We waited for his +words. + +"Well," said he, "I do not know but it is all right, provided the master +be in each case a Philemon." + +"That is a good word," said I. "You show that the Bible has an +ascendency in your mind. You will be safe in following the Bible +wherever it leads you, even into slave-holding, if it goes so far. But I +must now question you a little. You may answer me or not, as you please. + +"One day a black man appears at your door, and says, 'I have just +escaped from the South. I was owned by Rev. Professor A.B. of New +Orleans. I preferred liberty to slavery, and here I am.' Would you +shelter him, and encourage his remaining here, and, if necessary, send +him to Canada?" + +"What would you have me do?" said he. + +"Take him in," said I, "if you please, and give him some breakfast. You +would not object to this. After breakfast you have family prayers. 'Can +you read, Nesimus?' you inquire. 'O yes, master; missis and the young +missises taught us all to read.' Your little boy hands him, with the +rest, a Testament, and names the place of reading. Strange to say, +yesterday you finished 'Titus,' and the portion to be read in course is +'Philemon!'" + +"Almost a providence," said Mrs. North. + +"How would you feel, Mr. North?" said I. + +"Why, feel? How should I feel?" said he. "You will answer for me, +perhaps, and say, 'Read Philemon; pray; and then say, Come, Nesimus, I +am going to send you back to Professor A.B. I will write a letter to +him, and pay your passage.'" + +"What objection would you make to this?" said I. + +He thought a moment, and in the meanwhile his shrewd wife said,-- + +"Why, husband, do you hesitate? Say this: 'What! I? and Bunker Hill +within a day's march of my house, and grandfather's old sword over my +library door?'" + +"I am sick of hearing about Bunker Hill in this connection," said he. +"Any one would think that it is one of the 'sacred mountains' in Holy +Writ." + +"But," said his wife, "If some of Paul's ancestors had had Bunker Hill +privileges and influences, do you think Paul would have written the +Epistle to Philemon? Unfortunate Apostle! Say," said his wife again, +before he spoke, "that you believe in progress, that that epistle might +have been right enough in its day, but that now 'we need an anti-slavery +Bible and an anti-slavery God.'" + +She made up a very expressive smile as she said it and stretched her +work across her knee. + +"Yes," said I, "the Bible is antiquated! God never gave a written +revelation to be a perpetual guide to the end of time! I can supersede +the Epistle to Philemon: Mrs. North, Hebrews; you, James; and another +the whole of the Old Testament." + +"Now," said Mr. North, "I will tell you what I have been thinking of all +this time. + +"I will put you into bondage in Algiers or Tunis. Somebody has bought +you or captured you. But by some means you escape to me at Gibraltar. +Now I will read 'Philemon' to you, and send you back to your Algerine +master. What objection can you make to this, as a believer in +inspiration?" + +I answered, "If I were a slave in my own country, and slavery existed in +Algiers, you would need to consider the relation which existed between +this country and Algiers. If the governments had treaties with each +other, the surrender of persons held to service in either of the +countries would probably be provided for, and then you would have to +consider whether you would obey what is called the 'higher law,' or +yield me to the requisition of the proper authorities. This brings up +the question of the rendition of fugitive slaves, which we have just +considered. + +"But being free in my own country, and having been, therefore, +unlawfully sold into Algerine Slavery, or having been captured, or +stolen, you would, I trust, make proper resistance in my behalf." + +"But," said Mr. North, "The ancestors of my fugitive friend Nesimus, +were taken from freedom in their own land and were reduced to slavery. +Must he and his descendants be slaves forever for the sin of the +original captors, or for the misfortune of his ancestors?" + +"Birth in slavery long established makes all the difference in the +world, Mr. North," said I. "If I am born in slavery, under a government +ordaining slavery, that is a different case from that of one taken out +of a passenger ship and sold as a slave." + +"Then if you and your wife," said he, "were taken out of a passenger +ship, and you should happen to have a child born in slavery, that child +must remain a slave, even if you go free?" + +"No, Sir," said I; "the child born under such circumstances is as +rightfully free as its parents. But take this case: I, being captured +and held as a slave, my master gives me a wife, lawfully a slave. Then, +the child born of her is lawfully a slave. You see the distinction. God +recognized it. The condition of both is a limitation and qualification +of natural rights. So the lapse of time qualifies the right to collect +debts, bring suits for libel, or slander, and for the right of way, or +for the possession of land. Will we live under law? or shall each man +or any set of men set up laws for their own conscience?" + +"Then," said he, "If a slave-trader lands a cargo of slaves from Africa, +at Florida, I have no right to buy them; they are not lawfully slaves. +Is that your belief?" + +"Assuredly," said I; "and if the fugitive whom I have supposed you to be +sending back to the gentleman at New Orleans, were a fugitive from the +cargo just imported from Africa, you would be sustained by the law of +the land in delivering him from bondage; he was piratically taken; the +laws would make him free, and punish his captors, if the laws were +faithfully executed." + +"But a poor fellow born in slavery must remain a slave!" he replied. + +"He is not lawfully a slave," I said, "if his parents were both of that +cargo. But if his father had received a wife from his master, then the +child is lawfully a slave." + +"How do you establish that distinction?" said he. + +"The child is born of one known to be, herself, lawfully a slave. It is +born under a constitution of government which recognizes slavery; while +that government provides for slavery, the child must submit or violate +an ordinance of God, unless freedom can be had by law, or by justifiable +revolution." + +"I feel constrained," said Mr. North "to hold that liberty is the +inalienable right of every human being, except in cases of crime." + +"You mean," said I, "that every human being is entitled to all the civil +rights and immunities which others enjoy." + +"Yes," said he, "in proportion to his age, and his capacity. Minors, and +the imbecile, are entitled to protection, but may not be oppressed." + +"Ah," said I, "how soon you find your general rules intercepted and +qualified by circumstances. Minors, and the imbecile, then, may not be +admitted to equal privileges with us. But are not all men born free and +equal?" + +"Now let me add to 'minors' and 'the imbecile' one more class. There are +two races existing together in a certain country. One has always been, +there, a servile race. The other are the lords of the soil; the +institutions of the country are by their creation; they have acquired a +perfect right and title to the government. + +"You know, from all history, that two races never could, and never did +live together on the same soil, unless they intermarried, or one was +subject to the other. You admit this historical fact. + +"It is proposed, now, by some, to give the subject race a right to vote +and to hold office, so that their equality in all things shall be +acknowledged." + +"Pray," said Mr. North, "will you object to this? Has not God 'made of +one blood all nations of men'?" + +"Yes," I replied, "but read on, in that same verse:--'and hath +determined the bounds of their habitation.' There is a law of races; +races must have antipathies, unless they intermarry; he who seeks to +confound them may as well labor for the conjugation of all the tribes of +animals. He and his results would prove to be monsters. + +"The Anglo Saxon race on this continent properly say to the Negro, 'If +by conquest you get possession of the land, we must, of course, succumb +to you. We are now in possession, and mean so to continue. Hard, +therefore, as it seems not to let you vote in parts of the country where +your numbers are such as to endanger our majority, or afford temptation +to demagogues to inflame your prejudices and passions by historical +appeals to them, and severe as it may seem not to let you form military +companies, (which would also be mischievous in the same way) we +nevertheless propose to exclude you from this right of suffrage, and +from separate organizations, for our own defence, and that we may +preserve our institutions for our proper descendants. We are very sorry +that our English ancestors began to impose you upon us, and that Newport +and Salem vessels brought so many of you here into slavery; but we +cannot think of requiting you for this by jeoparding our own peace; nor +would it be kind to you, as things are, to be made prominent in any way +as a class. When the Northern people are, generally, your true friends, +and cease to use you in an offensive manner, to excite civil war, we +shall join to elevate you in every way consistent with your true +interests.' + +"There will be cases of extreme hardship," said I, "if a slave, fleeing +from the South, however unjustifiably, nevertheless becomes surrounded +here with a family, and the owner comes and claims him. There are +principles of natural humanity which come into force at such a time to +modify or set aside a claim. I know, indeed, that to build a valuable +house on land not mine, does not vacate the land-owner's title; and, +moreover, I know what may be alleged on the principle illustrated by +Paley, who speaks of a man finding a stick and bestowing labor on it +which is more in value than the stick itself. These cases of slaves who +have gained a settlement here, call for the utmost kindness and +forbearance between the sectional parties in controversy; clamor will +never settle them, nor the sword; but the reign of good feeling will +cause justice to flow down our streets like a river, and righteousness +like an overflowing stream." + +"As we have conversed a good deal upon this subject," said Mr. North, +"perhaps we may bring our conversation to a close as profitably as in +any other way by your telling us, summarily, what you think of this +whole perplexing subject; what would you have me believe; how ought a +Christian man, who desires to know and do the will of God, to feel and +to act with regard to it? Good men, I see, are divided about it; I +respect your motives, I approve many of your principles, I cannot object +to your conclusions, in the main. Let us know what you consider to be, +probably, the ultimate issue of the whole subject." + +"I will do so with pleasure," said I. + +"But," said Mrs. North, "let us wait till after dinner." + +"As the storm is over," I said to her, "I must go home, but we will have +one more council fire, if you please, and end the subject." + +So in the afternoon, my kind friends gave me their attention while I +made my summing up in the next and concluding chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE FUTURE. + + "It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind rest in providence, move in + charity, and turn upon the poles of truth." + + LORD BACON. + + +"Slavery, as human nature now is, cannot be otherwise than one of the +Almighty's curses upon any race which is subject to bondage. + +"True, it may nevertheless, be an amelioration of their original state; +they may fall into the hands of a Christian people, and hundreds of +thousands of them be civilized, and be converted to Christianity; +redeemed from a barbarous condition they may contribute immensely to the +general good of the race both as producers and consumers. Wherever +commerce needs them, unquestionably they will do more good to the world +by being compelled to work than by wearing out their miserable and +useless existence in Africa. + +"All this may be true; still, is it not a curse to be hewers of wood and +drawers of water? Does not God say to Israel that if they sin, they +'shall be the tail and not the head?' National degradation, exposing a +people to be the prey and the captives of a superior race, is, of +course, a curse, though, like death itself, and even sin, it may, by the +grace of God, turn to good. Still, it is a curse. + +"But in governing a fallen world like ours, God now and then ordains +the subjection of one race to another; and he makes bondage one of his +ordinances as truly as war. The extermination of the Canaanites by the +sword, was an ordinance of Heaven. War is a part of God's method in +governing the world; as well as sickness and death. + +"I never had any sympathy for that amiable but weak concern for the +character of God which represents him as finding slavery in existence +and merely legislating about it, and doing the best he can with an +inevitable evil. This view belongs to a system which makes God, as it +seems to me, the most unhappy Being, continually striving to destroy +that which sprung up contrary to his plan. To dwell on this, however, +would lead us too far into theological questions. + +"I tremble to think of our responsibility as a nation in being put in +charge of a people with whom God has some terrible controversy for their +own sins and those of their ancestors. + +"Through our abuse of power, God may say to us, 'I was a little angry, +and ye helped on the affliction.' God's purposes in having the chastised +nation afflicted, will be accomplished, but He will punish every one who +inflicts the chastisement with a selfish, unchristian spirit. + +"Our people generally take it for granted that slavery is like one of +the self-limiting diseases of childhood, to be outgrown, and to cease +forever, in process of time, and before many years have passed away. + +"The ground of this conclusion is a doctrinal error, namely, that +slave-holding, the relation of master and servant, ownership, property +in man, or by whatever name slavery may be designated, is in itself +wrong, and that as soon as practicable it will be abjured and no man +will stand to another in the relation of master, or owner. But whether +for good or for ill, slavery will be in existence at the last day. We +read that 'every bondman and every freeman' will see the sign of the Son +of Man. + +"But should slavery be at any time, or in any country, or part of a +country, utterly extinguished, it will ever remain true that ownership, +or property in man is not in itself wrong, and that it may be benevolent +to all concerned. It is interesting to recollect that in proportion as +human relations are cardinal, or vital, they approach most nearly to +ownership, as in the case of parent and child. The highest relation of +all, that between man and God, finds its most perfect expression in +terms conveying the idea of ownership on the part of God. 'For ye are +not your own;--therefore glorify God in your body and spirit which are +God's.' If God should send one of us to a distant part of the universe, +under the charge of an angel, where superior intelligence and wisdom +were needful for our safety in temptation and amid the bewildering +excitements of new scenes, ownership for the time being, absolute +dominion over us, on the part of the angel, would be in the highest +measure benevolent. In those days when universal love reigns, it is just +as likely as not that there will be more 'ownership' in man than ever +before. By ownership I mean such relationships as we see in the +households of those who are represented in the letter of the Southern +lady to her father. There we see the weak, the unfortunate, the +dependent nature clinging to the stronger, and receiving support and +comfort, and even honor, from those who in rendering kindness and in +receiving service have their whole being refined and cultivated to the +highest degree. There are no rigors in those relationships; everything +which contributes to the welfare and happiness of a serving class is +enjoyed, and all its liabilities to care and sorrow are removed, to as +great a degree as ever happens in this world. + +"Allowing that there are always to be inequalities of mind and +condition, and that what we call menial services will need to be +performed; that there must be those who will have a disposition and +taste to work over a fire all day and prepare food; and that men of +business or study will not all be able to groom their own horses and +wash their vehicles; and that possibly the Coleridges and Southeys, and +their friends the Joseph Cottles, may, from being absorbed in their +ideal pursuits, still be ignorant of the way to get off a collar from a +horse's neck, and must call upon a servant-girl to help them, we shall +need those who will be glad to be servants forever, and who will require +for their own security that their employers shall 'own' them, and thus +be made responsible for their support and protection. This may always be +necessary for the highest welfare of all concerned. But the history of +this relationship in connection with our human nature has been such, to +a great extent, that we associate with it only the idea of pillage, +oppression, cruelty. Already there are cases without number in which no +such idea would ever be suggested to a spectator, and they will increase +in proportion as Christianity prevails. There is more real 'freedom' in +thousands of these cases of nominal slavery than in thousands who are +nominally free. How did it happen that the Hebrew servant, who chose to +stay with his master rather than leave his wife and children, was not +made nominally free, and apprenticed or hired? Why was his ear bored, +and perpetual relations secured between him and his master?" + +"For the master's security, I presume," said Mr. North. + +"I should say," said I, "for the mutual benefit of both. The master then +became responsible for him; his support was a lien on his estate, the +children must always be responsible for his maintenance. The awl made its +record in the master's door-post, as well as in the servant's ear. + +"Now, suppose," said I, "that God chooses to supply this nation with +menial servants to the end of time. Suppose that he has designed that +one race, the African, shall be the source from which he will draw this +supply, and that down through long generations he proposes to make this +black race our servants, seeking at the same time, by means of this, +their elevation, by connecting them with us, and keeping up the +relation; and that for the permanence of the relation, and for the +security of all concerned, there should be 'ownership,' such as he +himself ordained when he prescribed the boring of the ear? For my part, +I cannot see in this 'the sum of all villanies,' 'an enormous wrong,' 'a +stupendous injustice.' Yet this would be slavery. I am not arguing for +such a constitution of things. As was before observed, the whole black +race may, in a few years, be swept off from the country; but who will +undertake to say that, as the people of other nations have been employed +by Providence to make our railroads and canals, the black race may not +be employed for a much longer term to be our servants, both North and +South, both East and West? And who will say that the tenure of +'ownership' may not be the wisest and most benevolent arrangement for +all concerned? I repeat it, I am not arguing for this; I am only trying +to show you that the present abuses in slavery are no valid argument +against the relation itself; that this may remain when the abuses cease, +and therefore that at the present time we ought to discriminate in our +arguments against slavery, and direct our assaults, if we continue to be +assailers, against its abuses." + +"On one disagreeable subject," I said to him aside, "I will make this +general remark: The Southern slaves are, as a whole, a religious people; +their religion, indeed, is of a type corresponding to their condition. +But still, if the South were one festering pool of iniquity, as many at +the North fancy, would the colored people show such evidences as they do +of moral and spiritual improvement? Look at Hayti. A very large majority +of the children are not born in wedlock. Slavery is a moral restraint +upon the Southern colored people. Evil as slavery is, it is, in many +things, taking the slaves as they are, a comparative blessing." + +"But," said Mr. North, "our people generally insist that abuses, +oppression, cruelty, are so inherent in slavery that they cannot be +removed without destroying the relation itself." + +"Here," said I, "is the mistake under which Southerners perceive that we +labor, and which prevents us from having the least influence with them. + +"This, however, is unquestionably true: as human nature is, we would not +choose to give men unlimited power over their fellow-men who are slaves. +If, in the course of events, it is found by good men that the abuses +flowing from such power are inevitable, that legislative enactments and +public opinion cannot control the relation, their consciences will not +be quiet till it is abolished. I am willing to confide this to men as +good as we, acting as they will on their responsibility to God. It may +be, that the system, stripped of everything which can be taken away, +will be perpetuated, for the best good of the slave and his master. + +"But," said I, "while this perpetual relation of the black race to us is +possible, and may be the design of a benevolent God for our happiness +and that of the Africans, and while I love to use it in replying to +those who, with short-sighted and somewhat passionate reasoning, as I +think, contend that slavery must utterly be rooted out of the land, I +confess that my own thoughts turn to the Continent of Africa as the +great object for which an all-wise God has permitted slavery to exist on +our shores. + +"I love to look at American slavery in connection with the future +history of that great African continent, containing one hundred and +fifty millions of people. History and discovered relics make the +Ethiopian race to be older even than Egypt. The once powerful nations of +Northern Africa, Numidia, Mauratania, as well as the Egyptian builders +of pyramids, have disappeared, or they exist only in a few Coptic +tribes; and even they are of doubtful origin. But the Ethiopian people, +notwithstanding the slave-trade which has extended its degrading +influence far and wide among them, and though civilization long since +departed from their tribes, have continued to increase till now they are +the most numerous of the human families except the Chinese. The +slave-holding nations which have pillaged them forages, have not been +able to destroy them. Ethiopia may well say, stretching out her hands to +God, 'Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all +thy waves.' It is sublime to think what triumphs of redemption there are +yet to be on that African continent. But how little, apparently, from +all that they ever say, do some of our abolitionist friends seem to +think about Africa as a future jewel in Immanuel's diadem! Utterly +foreign from all their thoughts appears to be the great plan of +Providence which by means even of slavery in this land, has done so much +to extend the work of human salvation among the African race. And there +are some ministers of the Gospel and professed Christians, I regret to +observe, who reply to all that you say about the vast proportion, to +white converts, of converts among the colored people, in a manner which +would awaken great fears in the most charitable breast with regard to +their own personal interest in the salvation by Christ, did we not all +know how far we may be blinded by passion. If you visit in the South, +you will find that African missions take the deepest hold on the hearts +of Southern Christians. The time will come, God hasten it! when they and +we will be united in plans and efforts for the good of the African race. + +"But I am not in favor of stealing Africans from their native land to +bring them here, even though it were certain that the majority of them +would be converted to God. We are not to do evil that good may come. If +Providence makes it plain that tribes of them shall be removed to new +districts of our country, suitable measures can and will be devised for +that purpose. That they are better off here, even in slavery, than in +their own land, under present circumstances, I do not see how any one +can question; but that does not justify man-stealing. I remember to have +seen a letter from a Missionary in Africa, in which he says, speaking of +the slaves and of the South, 'Would that all Africa were there; would +that tribes of this unhappy people could be transferred to the +privileges which the slaves at the South enjoy. I would rather take my +chance of a good or bad master, and be a slave at the South, than be as +one of these heathen people. In saying this, I refer both to this world +and the next'. I need not say, he is an enemy to the slave-trade. + +"A missionary who had spent much time among the Zulu people, was +appealed to by a zealous anti-slavery person to commiserate our slaves +as being so much worse off than the Zulus. 'Madam,' said he, 'if our +Zulus were in the condition of your slaves, eternity would not be long +enough to give thanks.' + +"Mrs. North," said I, "you will not impute it to mere gallantry when I +appeal to you if we may not generally measure the refinement and +elevation of society by the position of woman, and by the sentiments and +manners of the other sex with regard to yours. The deference, the +delicate attentions, the gentleness, the refinement of behavior, in word +and act, which you inspire, are both the means and the evidence of the +highest cultivation. In public and in private life, in assemblies, +public conveyances, at table, around the evening lamp, in all the +intercourse of the family, the susceptibility of impression, the +restraints and the chastised utterances, in word and action, of +husbands, fathers, brothers and friends, which are due to the presence +of woman, are a correct gauge of civilization and refinement." + +"All right," said Mr. North, bowing very politely to his wife. + +"Nowhere," said I, "do we see this more conspicuously than in Southern +society. Chivalry there seems to blend with the genial influences of +Christianity, and together they give a tone and manner to Southern life +which is peculiar. + +"I am often struck with a Southern gentleman's reverence, here at the +North, for the female sex. He is displeased at seeing daughters serving +at table in boarding-houses kept by their worthy parents or widowed +mothers. We, indeed, respect a young woman who serves us in this manner, +(if we reflect at all,) and we resent rudeness or an unfeeling mode of +addressing those who are in such situations. But the Southern gentleman +goes further. He has, perhaps, not been accustomed to see the daughter +of a white family serve. When a respectable young woman, therefore, at a +boarding-house, brings him his tea, he feels impelled to rise and ask +her to be seated, and to wait upon her. I have been an eye-witness to +scenes of this kind, and have been much pleased and not a little amused +at some exhibitions of the feeling. If our sentiments toward the sex, +and their position in social life, mark the degree of civilization and +cultivation in a community, I am compelled to accord a high degree of it +to Southern society, in its best estate. + +"This is one effect of slavery. It takes mothers, wives, daughters, away +from occupations which, though honorable, do not always elevate them in +the eyes of the other sex. Perhaps there is no value (and some will say +it) in all this; that every labor and service is right and good for +woman; and that we are to prefer a state of society where woman does +these things with her own hands, instead of having them done for her, +and that this is our only safeguard against luxury and degeneracy. I +will not debate it. I am only showing that, tried by an ordinary +test,--the position of woman,--Southerners are really not barbarians." + +"I verily believe," said Mrs. North, "that if you take the Southern +constitution and give it a Northern training, the result is as perfect a +specimen of man or woman as is to be found on earth." + +"People at the North," said I, "may, in their zeal against slavery, make +light of the abounding sustenance which the slaves enjoy, and call it a +low and gross thing in comparison with 'freedom;' but, in the view of +all political economists and publicists, how to feed the lower classes +is a great problem. It is solved in slavery. + +"There is another topic," I added, "which is interesting and important. + +"Here," said I, taking a newspaper-slip from my wallet, "is something +which fairly made me weep. It is a picture of one of our poor, virtuous, +honest New England homes, in which I would rather dwell and suffer, than +be an 'oppressor' with my hundreds of slaves, and wealth counted by +hundreds of thousands. A slave-holder, blessed be God, is not a synonyme +of 'oppressor;' nor are the slaves as a matter of course 'oppressed.' +Our people to a great extent think otherwise, and it is useful to see +how we appear to others when this error leads us into folly. This little +picture in the newspaper-slip gives us a transient look into an abode +whose honest poverty and want are made more painful by evil-doing under +the influence of fanaticism." + +I then read to my friends the following from a Southern paper;--I here +omit the names which are given in full:-- + +"The touching letter which was found on the body of ---- ----, one of +the insurgents, from his sister in ----, ----, has been published. The +following paragraph in that letter is a suggestive one: + +"'Would you come home if you had the money to come with? Tell me what +it would cost. Oh! I would be unspeakably happy if it were in my power +to send you money, but we have been very poor this winter. I have not +earned a half-dollar this winter. Mattie has had a very good place, +where she has had seventy-five cents a week; she has not spent any of it +in the family, only a very little for mother. Father has had very small +pay, but I think he has more now; he is a watchman on the ---- ----, +that runs from here to ----.' + +"Here, says the Southern editor, is a family, one of thousands of +families in New England in similar circumstances, where one daughter +thinks it a 'very good place' where she can get seventy-five cents a +week; another has not earned a half-dollar during the winter, and all +are 'very poor;' yet the son and brother goes off and deserts a mother +and sisters thus situated,--a mother and sisters who, though poor, have +evidently the most affectionate feelings and tender sensibilities,--for +the purpose of liberating a class of people, not one of whom knows +anything of the want or privation from which his own family is +suffering, or who would not look without contempt upon such remuneration +as seemed the height of good fortune to the destitute sisters and mother +of this abolitionist. When we bear in mind the intelligence and +sensibilities which characterize the wives and daughters of the poorest +classes equally with the richest in New England, it is most amazing that +men should overlook such misery at their own doors--nay, should forsake +their own kith and kin who are suffering under it--the mother who bore +them, the sisters who love them with all a sister's tender and +solicitous love, and run off to emancipate the fattest, sleekest, most +contented and unambitious race under heaven." + +"This shows," said I, "how God has set one thing over against another, +in this world. You and Mrs. Worth and myself would rather be the poor +honest 'watchman,' or earn our 'seventy-five cents a week,' with +'Mattie,' or even, with the loving sister who writes this letter, 'not' +have 'earned a half-dollar this winter,' than be the 'sleekest' of +well-fed slaves. + +"Yet, when we are summing up the evils of slavery in the form of +indictments, we must honestly confess that it is no small thing to feed +a whole laboring class in one half of a great country with bread enough +and to spare." + +Mrs. North asked if I had ever seen a slave-mart, or if I knew much by +observation of the domestic slave-trade. + +"Yes," said I, "and it is in connection with this feature of slavery +that we at the North are most easily and most painfully affected. Some +of the most agonizing scenes are enacted at these auctions. They are a +part of slavery; so is the domestic slave-trade, which is the necessary +removal of the slaves from places where they cannot have employment, to +regions where their labor is in demand. In no other way can they be +disposed of, unless they are at once freed; and with many the evils of +the domestic slave-trade are the most powerful argument in favor of +emancipation. That there are grievous trials and sorrows, as well as +wrongs and violence, in the disposal of slaves, is known to all. As to +those who are to remain within the State, we are told to go, if we will, +and inquire into the history of slaves who are to be publicly sold, and +take the number of cases in which a wanton disregard of a slave's +feelings can be detected. An owner is compelled to part with his +property in his slave; or, the slave is taken for debt; estates are to +be divided; an owner dies intestate; titles are to be settled, +mortgages foreclosed, the number of the household is to be reduced; and +for these and numerous other reasons new owners are to be sought for the +slaves. Here is a man and his wife and children to be sold. There is a +general interest felt in arranging the sale so that the family may be in +the same neighborhood. This is for the interest of the owners; it +promotes contentment and cheerfulness in the servants. Cases of hardship +are the exceptions to the general rule in disposing of servants. +Admitting all that can properly be said of such cases, and of the +various other evils connected with it, the question recurs, What is to +be done but increasingly to mitigate the sorrows of the bondmen, to +cultivate a kind and generous disposition toward them, and to prepare +them, as far and as fast as the good of all concerned will warrant, for +any other condition which Providence may in time point out? My belief +is, that if you take four millions of laboring people anywhere under the +sun, and put down in separate columns the good and the evil in their +conditions, the balance of welfare and happiness, from the supply of +their wants, will be found to be greater among our Southern slaves than +elsewhere. But, still, this leaves them slaves. My reply to myself, when +I say this, is, They were so in their own land; or, they were in a +condition of fearful degradation and misery. Their God is their judge; +we have not increased their degradation; woe to us if we add needless +sorrows to their lot. But as for thrusting them up to an ideal state of +elevation, before their time and ours has come, I am not disposed to aid +in it. Moreover, Southern Christians are doing all that we would do if +in their place; I will not affect to be more humane or just than they; +this is our great error. + +"Here," said I, "is another view of the subject": + + "In the sale of slaves (in America) nothing but labor is + transferred. It passes from master to master, as it passes, in + countries of hired labor, from employer to employer. The mode in + which the transfer is made differs in the two systems of labor. The + slave-laborer is never compelled to hunt for work and starve till he + finds it. Is this an evil to the laborer? Would it be thought an + evil, by the hired man in Europe, that his employer should be + obliged, by-law, to find him another employer before dismissing him + from service? + + "But, it is said, the slave is too much exposed to the master's + abuse of power; he is liable to wrongs without a remedy; and, so + far, his condition is below that of the hired laborer. + + "If this be true at all, it is true as regards the able-bodied hired + man only. But take into the account children and women, those, for + example, that work naked in coal-mines, or wives whose sufferings + from the brutal treatment of husbands daily fill the reports of + police courts; take these into the reckoning, and the difference in + the consequences of abused power will be very small. The negro-slave + is as thoroughly protected as any laborer in Europe. He is protected + from every other man's wrong-doing by the ready interference of his + master; he is guarded from the master's abuse by the laws of the + land, and a vigilant, earnest public opinion. Let all cruelty be + punished; let all abuse of power be restrained; but to abolish the + relation of master and slave, because there are bad masters and + ill-treated slaves, would not be a whit wiser than to abolish + marriage, because there are brutal husbands and murdered wives. + + "Yet, surely, it will be said, it must be admitted, after all, that + slavery is an evil. Yes, certainly, it is an evil; but in the same + sense only in which servitude or hired labor is an evil. To gain + one's bread by the sweat of one's brow, is a curse. But it is a + curse attended with a blessing. It is an evil that shuts out a + greater evil. Labor for wages, labor for subsistence, and + subjection to the authority of employer or master, are the + conditions on which alone the laboring masses, white or black, can + live with advantage to themselves and to society."--_De Bow's + Review_, _Jan_. 1860, pp. 56, 57. + +Mr. North asked if I did not think that the colored people should be +assisted in their efforts to get an education. + +"There are collegiate institutions," I told him, "for colored people, in +Oxford, Pa., and in Xenia, O. With great sorrow have I observed, that +applications to aid these institutions and to endow others for similar +purposes have been received with coldness and distrust by many who could +have made liberal contributions, for no other reason than the suspicion +that they were designed by Abolitionists to thrust forward the colored +man in an offensive manner. I have known the name of a leading +Abolitionist to be the death of a subscription-paper for such an +institution. This was a bitter prejudice. When philanthropy with regard +to the colored race among us falls into its natural channel, we shall +see the South and the North opening wide the doors of usefulness in +every department for which the colored people shall, any of them, +manifest an aptitude. The idea that this race is to be debarred from any +and every development of which it is capable, is not entertained by any +respectable people at the South. The negro at the South is not doomed, +by the Christian people, to an inexorable fate. They will help him rise +as fast and as far as God, in his providence, shows it to be his will to +employ any or all of that race in other ways than those of servitude. + +"'If American slavery,' says one, 'be the horrid system of cruelty, +ignorance, and wickedness represented by some writers of fiction and +paid defamers of our institutions, how happens it that those who have +been reared in the midst of it, when freed and planted in Africa at +once exhibit such capacity for self-government and self-education, and +set such examples of good morals? + +"'Have the negroes under British care at Sierra Leone made similar +progress in improvement? Do the free colored subjects of Britain in the +West Indies show the capacity, industry, and intelligence manifested by +the Liberians, whose training was in the school of American servitude? +Nor have the best specimens of this tutelage been sent out. Thousands +and tens of thousands of colored servants in the Southern States are +church-members, instructed in their duties by faithful Christian +teachers, and the children are trained in the fear and love of God.'--I +then observed, + +"I have come to this conclusion: if Southern Christians say to us, as +they do, Auction-blocks, separation of families, and similar features of +slavery, in the limited and decreasing extent to which they prevail, are +as odious to us as to you;--we tolerate these things as parts of a +system which we all feel to be an evil, and which we are constantly +striving to ameliorate;--I will leave the whole subject in their hands; +I will trust them in this as I would in anything and everything; I feel +absolved from all responsibility to God or to them with regard to the +matter." + +"Pray tell me," said Mrs. North, "what is all this discussion about 'the +territories,' and keeping slavery out of them?" + +"I told her that slavery, which fifteen States of the Union maintain as +a part of their domestic life, is, by many of the people in the Free +States, regarded as they regard the plague and death; they prescribe +certain degrees of latitude as barriers to it, as though they enacted +thus: 'North of 36° 30' whooping-cough is prohibited, measles are +forbidden, cholera-morbus is forever interdicted.' They regard +slave-holders as living in a moral pestilence, and seeking to carry it +with them into new districts. + +"But, practically," I said, "the thing will now regulate itself, and +both sides are contending very much for an abstract right. It is a war +of feeling, and no one knows where it will end. If the North would say, +'Free labor, which cannot thrive where slavery exists, requires an +amicable division and allotment of the territorial regions; let us agree +where our respective systems shall prevail,'--there would be no +difficulty. But the effort has been to shut out slavery, as men use +sanitary legislation and quarantine to keep out a pestilence. This is +treating fifteen States of the Union as polluted and polluting. Hence +they say, We cannot live together as one people, and we will not." + + * * * * * + +"What do you honestly think," said Mr. North, "is the true cause of our +present national calamities?" + +"They are owing," said I, "originally, to the peculiar state of feeling +on the part of the North toward the South. This was not in consequence +of injury experienced; for slavery had not inflicted injury upon the +North; but, right or wrong, Northern disapprobation of slavery, and the +ways of manifesting it, are the fountain-head of our present national +trouble. Let great numbers in one section of such a nation as this +conscientiously disapprove of their brethren in another section, and not +only so, but hold them guilty of an immoral and an inhuman system, and +deal with them in such ways as Conscience, that most merciless of +inquisitors and persecutors, alone employs, and if the indicted section +be not exasperated, it will be because the accusation is true,--that +their system has destroyed their manhood." + +"But my hope and belief," said he, "are, that all these changes are to +result in the overthrow of slavery." + +"I can only say," said I, in answer to such a remark, "that he who +expects relief from our trouble through the eradication of slavery, and +urges on secession and division as the means to effect it, is in danger +of having his enthusiasm counted as fanaticism, if not madness." + +"How I wish," said he, "that we could join and buy up these slaves and +set them free." + +"Kind and well meant as this proposal is," said I, "nothing is really +more offensive to the South. It implies that her conscience is debauched +by self-interest, and that by offering to remunerate her if she will +part with what we call her ill-gotten booty we shall assist her to +become virtuous. Such a proposal makes her feel that fanaticism has +assumed the calmness which is its most hopeless symptom." + +"Then," said he, "is the North to change all its opinions?" + +I said, "If this implies the abandonment of moral or religious principle +in the least degree, Never. Our only hope lies in our possibly being in +the wrong, and in magnanimously changing our views and feelings, and our +behavior. This, upon conviction, it will be most noble to do for its own +sake, leaving the effect of it to Him by whom actions are weighed, and +to those who, we shall have concluded, are naturally as magnanimous and +just as we, and who, if guilty of oppression, were liable to the very +same accusation when we first confederated with them, and when Northern +slave-importers put their hands with Southern slave-holders to the +Declaration of Independence, both averring that all men are created free +and equal. + +"We seem now to have concluded that we have put ourselves entirely +right, and that our Southern brethren are entirely wrong." + +"I cannot feel," said Mr. North, "that we are to blame for having our +opinions, and for expressing them honestly and fearlessly. What more +have we done?" + +I replied, "They say that we have held them up to universal execration; +that we have quoted, with readiness, the testimony of foreign nations +against them,--of nations who know nothing of domestic slavery like +ours, mixed up with the qualifying influences of our own civilization; +that our imaginative literature has made them odious, associating +cruelty and vulgarity with the relation of slave-holding; that we have +labored to cripple their Institution, hoping to destroy it; that we have +striven to save the District of Columbia from their system as from +corruption; that a thousand millions of dollars of their property we +have treated as contraband, and have made it perilous for them to +recover it; that we have lain in wait and molested them in their transit +through our borders, with their servants, to embark for sea. We dispute +their right to go with their servants into territories jointly acquired, +and belonging by constitutional right equally to them as to ourselves. +This, they say, has not been a just and sincere demand for an equitable +division of territory in view of the naturally conflicting interests of +slave labor and free, but rather a vindictive determination to hem in +the slave-holder, to force the scorpion into fires where he shall die of +his own sting, or,--to borrow the metaphor, with the language, of a +present Senator from Massachusetts,--where the 'poisoned rat shall die +in his own hole.' + +"Two confederacies or one, our prospect is fearful if we continue to +feel and act toward each other after this temper, and to cherish our +respective grievances." + +"There is another side to all this," said Mr. North. "I ascribe the +excitement at the South to the loss on their part of political power, or +to a grasping spirit which breaks compromises, and which requires that +the national legislation be always shaped in its favor." + +"But," said I, "if we can trust the convictions of just men, in private +life, at the South,--men removed from all suspicion as to the purity of +their motives,--it is certain that our Northern feelings toward +slave-holders, and the expressions of those feelings in ways which have +been applauded among us for many years, are the real causes of the +irritation and exasperation which have brought us to the present brink. + +"Now, as these two sections must continue to exist, side by side, they +will go on to repel each other until either slavery ceases, or a change +of feeling takes place in the non-slaveholding section. Secession and +permanent division will not cure the trouble, but will increase it. +Moreover, the contrariety of feeling between people in the +non-slaveholding States, made intense by the departure of the Southern +section, may inaugurate hostilities among ourselves more fearful than +those which drive away the Southern people. + +"Perhaps we are to be two nations. I cannot but regard this as the +greatest calamity which will have happened to the cause of human +improvement. Nor do I see how it will help Northern philanthropy, nor +the negro; but it may be greatly for his injury. The truth is, we must +live together for self-defence against each other, if from no other +consideration. Israel began its downfall in secession, which was +compelled by Rehoboam. + +"But," said I, "let us contemplate a different issue. Let us think what +a result it will be if such a government as ours, whose speedy ruin has +been so often predicted and is still confidently looked for, shall pass +through these trials and dangers without bloodshed, and we become again +a united people. Self-government will then have vindicated itself; +constitutional liberty will have triumphed; arms and coercion will lose +their old authority and power; for there will be an example of a +republican people recovering from convulsions which would have +demolished any throne or power which trusted in the sword. The +serf-boats in ports of the Bay of Bengal, which ride the swift, enormous +surges, are not nailed, but their parts are lashed one to another, and +thus the boats yield easily to the force of the water. Our government +has been likened to them; and now, by yielding, one part to another, +where a theoretically stronger government would have used coercion, we +shall, if it please God, pass safely through these fearful hazards, +furnishing a demonstration, which God may have been preparing by us for +the instruction of mankind, that fraternal blood is not the best +nourishment of the tree of liberty, and that 'wisdom,' resulting in the +victories of peace, 'is better than weapons of war.' + +"I look, therefore, toward some change in Northern feelings with regard +to the South. A change in this respect will end our troubles. Opinions +may not be wholly reversed; people born and bred under totally different +institutions may not, for they cannot wholly, yield their convictions on +controverted sectional topics, even when they cherish mutual respect and +deference; but, the belief that the North will change its feelings +toward the South and its institutions, under a modification of views +entirely consistent with independence of judgment and self-respect, and +that the South will not be wanting in a corresponding temper, rests on +the same conviction as that God does not intend to destroy us by each +other's hands, nor to make the life of the two sections weary with +perpetual hatred and strife." + + * * * * * + +"Our form of government, Mr. North," said I, "is the very best on earth +if it goes well, and the worst if it goes ill. We have no standing army +to fight for an administration as for a throne or dynasty; so that if a +State secedes, the question is how to coerce that people, if it be best +to attempt it. Citizens do not like to march against their brethren. +Think of our taking up arms against our correspondents; against people +that have gone from our churches and settled in that State; against +cousins, and brothers-in-law, and people who lived or did business under +the same roofs with us." + +"It is awkward, indeed," said Mr. North, "especially if they simply +withdraw and hold the fortifications of the general government, in their +own territory, to keep the government from destroying their lives." + +"Why, yes," said Mrs. North, "it would be simple in them, after +seceding, to suffer themselves to be bombarded. But have they any right +to secede?" + +"As to that," said Mr. North, "my mind has been much exercised of late +with this thought: I have always advocated the right of the negroes to +make insurrection, or to flee from oppression. But now their masters +complain of being oppressed by the North. Why have not the masters the +same right to secede from their government as the negro from his?" + +"Well, husband," said his wife, "I think that you are getting on fast." + +"Why," said I, "Mr. North, is not slavery 'the sum of all villanies?' +Did the negro ever consent to his form of government?" + +"Well," said he, "I never consented to be born; I find myself in +existence; I have no more consented to the government of the United +States than I suppose the negroes, generally, have submitted to their +civil condition. My question is, Who shall decide when the Southern +masters say, We are intolerably oppressed; we are under a yoke; 'break +every yoke!' 'let the oppressed go free!' If I interpose and say, 'You +are not oppressed; you are better off as you now are,' is not this the +reply of the masters when we seek to free their slaves? Do we not say +that the oppressed must be the judges of their necessity? And why may I +coerce the master, if it be wrong for him to coerce the negro?" + +"I must let you, work out that question at your leisure, and on your own +principles," said I.--"We were speaking of seizing and holding the forts +and arsenals. The French proverb says, 'It is the first step that +costs.' Seceding involves the necessity of seizing the forts. If they +who do this embarrass other persons in their lawful rights, they must +risk the consequences; but if they secede from the government, the +question is, Do circumstances justify a revolution? for secession is +revolution. Is revolution justifiable in the present case? + +"But not to discuss that question," said I, "all that I wished to say +was this, that our government seems admirably suited for a people who +will behave well under it. We can take care of isolated cases of +rebellion. But if any important part of the country rises up and +departs, it is exceedingly difficult to know what to do. Prevention is +excellent; but cure is next to impossible. So long as there is a general +acquiescence in the exercise of executive power against +insurrectionists, one or more, we have a general government; but when +States depart, we are a house divided against itself. We find that we +have been living, as it were, not so much under paternal authority, as +under fraternal rule. If broken irretrievably, the alternative is to be +divided, or for one part of the country to coerce its neighbors and +brethren. This we find to be extremely inconvenient and really +impracticable without civil war; and after the war,--whose horrors, in +our case, can never be pictured,--we would either find ourselves in the +same divided state as before, or if politically united, it will have +been effected at a cost which it is fearful to contemplate. + +"So that we are illustrating the question, whether such a government as +ours is really practicable,--whether a people can govern themselves. +Already we hear it said, 'We have no government.' The explanation is, We +are not disposed to destroy each other's lives to preserve the +confederation. We can have a monarchy, with its 'divine right,' and with +its standing army, if we choose; or, if we remain as a republic, we must +be liable to just our present exigency. Our only defence, then, +consists in mutual conciliation and agreement. + +"What a land this is," said I, "with its diversified interests and its +unparalleled variety of products,--its agriculture, mechanic arts, +science, and literature. Separation will embarrass every form of +intercourse, and make us hostile." + +"Jews and Samaritans," said Mrs. North. "And all for an idea!" + +"Yes," said I, "and for an idea which to one whole section, and to a +very large part of the people in the other section, is false.--Four +millions of negroes are destroying us. As a foreign writer said, 'In +trying to give liberty to the negro, we are losing our own.'" + +Said Mrs. North, "Can nothing be done to save us?" + +"Bishop Butler tells us, Mrs. North," said I, "that a nation may be +insane as well as an individual. But reason seems to be returning in +some quarters. Secession and its consequences are having a wonderful +effect to open the eyes of people. John Brown's foray and its end were a +providential demonstration of certain errors, which we may conclude will +not soon be revived. Secession is now leading the world to look more +narrowly into the subject of negro slavery. Let me read to you these +extracts from a recent number of 'Le Pays,' Paris. The writer is arguing +that Europe must recognize the Southern confederacy: + + 'But in awaiting these results which would flow from the cordial + welcome given by Europe to the new confederation, let true + philanthropists be assured that they are wonderfully mistaken in + regard to the real condition of the blacks of the South. We + willingly admit that their error is pardonable, for they have + learned the relations of master and slave only from "Uncle Tom's + Cabin." Shall we look for that condition in the lucubrations of that + romance, raised to the importance of a philosophic dissertation, but + leading public opinion astray, provoking revolution, and + necessitating incendiarism and revolution? A romance is a work of + fancy, which one cannot refute, and which cannot serve as a basis to + any argument. In our discussion, we must seek elsewhere for + authorities and material. Facts are eloquent, and statistics teach + us that, under the superintendence of those masters,--so cruel and + so terrible, if we are to believe "Uncle Tom,"--the black population + of the South increases regularly in a greater proportion than the + white; while in the Antilles, in Africa, and especially in the so + very philanthropic States of the North, the black race decreases in + a deplorable proportion. + + 'The condition of those blacks is assuredly better than that of the + agricultural laborers in many parts of Europe. Their morality is far + superior to that of the free negroes of the North; the planters + encourage marriage, and thus endeavor to develop among them a sense + of the family relation, with a view of attaching them to the + domestic hearth, consequently to the family of the master. It will + be then observed that in such a state of things the interests of the + planter, in default of any other motive, promotes the advancement + and well-being of the slave. Certainly, we believe it possible still + to ameliorate their condition. It is with that view, even, that the + South has labored for so long a time to prepare them for a higher + civilization. + + 'In no part, perhaps, of the continent, regard being had to the + population, do there exist men more eminent and gifted, with nobler + or more generous sentiments, than in the Southern States. No country + possesses lovelier, kinder hearted, and more distinguished women. To + commence with the immortal Washington, the list of statesmen who + have taken part in the government of the United States shows that + all those who have shed a lustre on the country, and won the + admiration of Europe, owed their being to that much abused South. + + 'Is it true that so much distinction, talent, and grandeur of soul + could have sprung from all the vices, from the cruelty and + corruption which one would fain attribute now to the Southern + people? The laws of inflexible logic refute these false imputations. + And--strange coincidence--while Southern men presided over the + destinies of the Union, its gigantic prosperity was the astonishment + of the world. In the hands of Northern men, that edifice, raised + with so much care and labor by their predecessors, comes crashing + down, threatening to carry with it in its fall the industrial future + of every other nation. For long years the constant efforts of the + North, and a certain foreign country, to spread among the blacks + incendiary pamphlets and tracts have powerfully contributed to + suspend every Southern movement towards emancipation. Its people + have been compelled to close their ears to ideas which threatened + their very existence.'" + +"But," said Mr. North, "here we have been, for thirty years or more, +living on an anti-slavery excitement. Grant that it is all wrong; will +you ask or expect that we shall change all at once? in a week? or in a +month? or in a year? We will not kneel to anybody; if we change, it must +be upon conviction." + +"I strike hands with you there," said I, "most heartily. Our Southern +friends must understand this; they must now approach us once more with +reason and persuasion. The people at large are in a frame to be reasoned +with and persuaded; for if we can do anything within the bounds of +reason to retain the South in the Union, it will be done. We will say of +concession as the antithesis of secession, as was said of two other +things: 'Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute.' I think that +both sections need forgiveness of God, and of each other." + +"Well," said Mr. North, "after all we shall get along and get through, +even if there should be a separation." + +"Mr. Worth," said I, "when you were studying Cicero, could you +understand--for I could not--how he and other patriots could feel so +strongly about the fortunes of their country as to declare--which they +frequently do--that they would rather die than survive their country's +honor? It has come to me vividly of late. I see it and feel it. The +sunshine will seem to have gone out of our life when we become two +unfriendly nations. + +"It is easy," said I, "for it gratifies some of the lower passions, to +ridicule a whole section of the country for their act of secession or a +disposition towards it; to boast that the South cannot do without us; to +prophesy that they will get sick of it, and wish to return; to express +wonder that they should feel so much hurt; to remind them that, if they +will do as we have always counselled them, there would be no trouble; +and there is a temptation to say, as friends in a quarrel will hastily +say, Let them go. But when they are irrecoverably gone, justifiably or +not, I tell you, Mr. North, there will be mourning in our streets. I +know, indeed, that there are some among us to whom it will be a +carnival; but--" + +"They will have a long Lent after it," said Mrs. North; "pray excuse +me." + +"Ties of kindred," said I, "patriotism, Christian friendships, will not +go down to hopeless graves without leaving behind them sorrows ending +only with life. + +"It appears to me," said I, "that our ship is where nothing but an +immediate calm and then a change of the wind, can save us. If we become +two nations, it may be for judgment and destruction; and it may be for +some great, ultimate good. But it will be hard parting. To think of +having no South! and of their having no North! We shall each become +provincial. We are wonderfully fitted to qualify and improve each the +other. How strange it would be to have these two sections love each +other! No one among us under twenty-five years of age, has probably ever +thought of us but as in controversy." + +"Speaking of Southern life," said Mrs. North, "I have not seen our +friend Grant since he came back from the South." + +"I have seen him," said I, "and have heard his story. He made his home +with an old friend, a clergyman. It was known that he was a stranger, +and at once he was made to feel at home by many of the citizens. The +morning after he arrived, Jack, a servant of a neighboring family, came +into the breakfast-room, with a waiter filled with dishes, which he +deposited on the side-board. 'Master and Missis send their compliments, +and want to know how the family is, and how Mr. Grant is this morning.' +Now they had never seen Mr. Grant; but they knew that he had arrived the +night before. 'Well, Jack,' says Mrs. ----, 'I see you have got some +good things for us.' 'O, not much, Missis; but they thought you and Mr. +Grant would excuse 'em for sending it.' So there were deposited on the +breakfast-table, 'big hominy' in one or two shapes, rare fish, +puff-muffins, and several dishes which called for Jack's +interpretations. 'And Master says, shall he send the carriage round for +you this forenoon? and he will call himself.' The evening talk was +interrupted by a black woman, all smiles, bearing a waiter of ice-cream +and other refreshments, from another house; and so the visit was a +succession of surprises from families who, at the South, count each +other's guests their own. Mr. Grant was a strong anti-secessionist, and +he spent much breath in arguing with the people in private. On his +return to his room, one day, he found a glass dish on the table, filled +with japonicas, camellias, roses, and other early flowers, with the card +of a married lady,--with whom he had had a debate,--inscribed, 'From the +hottest of the Secessionists.' He seems modified in his views a little +about 'the sum of all villanies,' since his return." + +"Yes," said Mrs. North, "and the people here explain it by saying, 'O, +he was fêted, and flattered.' + +"Yes," she continued, "some of our people will sacrifice their +confidence in man or angel, rather than believe anything good about +slavery." + +I said to her, "Add the Bible to those witnesses, Mrs. North." + +"Husband," said she, "please reach me that long, thin, brown-covered +book on the what-not." She then read an extract from the sixty-third +page; it was a book by one now deceased, called, "Experience as a +Minister": + +"I had not been long a minister, before I found this worship of the +Bible as a fetish hindering me at every step. If I declared the +Constancy of Nature's Laws, and sought therein great argument for the +Constancy of God, all the miracles came and held their mythologic finger +up. Even Slavery was 'of God,' for the divine statutes in the Old +Testament admitted the principle that man might own a man, as well as a +garden or an ox, and provided for the measure. Moses and the Prophets +were on its side; and neither Paul of Tarsus, nor Jesus of Nazareth, +uttered a direct word against it." + + * * * * * + +"But here is the sun!" said I. + +"We are all more cheerful," said Mrs. North, "than we were when he left +us; for we have been able to converse on a trying and perplexing +subject with good feelings." + +"Now," said I, "here is the Southern lady's letter, which has given +occasion to all our conversation." + +"It has also introduced us," said Mr. North, "to that goose, Gustavus, +and to his good aunt." + +"What shall I say to the Southern lady," said I, "if I write to her +father?" + +"Tell her," said Mrs. North, "that if she comes to the North she must +come directly to our house and make it her home. If you will allow me, I +will put a note into your envelope to that effect. I shall beg her to +bring Kate with her. Wouldn't I love to see Kate!" + +"My dear," said Mr. North, "do you know what a time there would be if +the lady should bring Kate with her?" + +"The good time coming! I think it would be," said his wife, "to see the +Southern lady and her Kate under our roof." + +"Why," Paid he, "we should all have to go to court?" + +"Well, that would be interesting," said she; "but for what?" + +"Why," said he, "you know that this is free soil: Kate is a slave; she +can have her freedom for nothing if she comes here. Some of our +Massachusetts gentlemen are as chivalrous and attentive to Southern +colored people, as our good friend tells us Southern gentlemen are to a +white woman: a committee would wait on Kate, with an officer of the +peace, and invite her to visit the court-house with them, to be +presented with 'freedom'; and Kate's mistress must go with her, to show +that she is not restraining Kate of her liberty." + +"Why," said Mrs. North, "if I could not be allowed, in visiting Sharon +Springs, to take Judith with me to give me my baths, because she is +free, I should call it barbarism. Who was that gentleman that broke his +collar-bone and seat to you, husband, to get him a nurse?" + +Mr. North said it was a student in a medical school, from the South. + +"Did you find him a nurse?" said she. + +"Yes," he replied; "but he groaned and said, 'Mother wanted to send on +my mammy that nursed me, but your laws will not allow her to come. Now,' +said he, 'mammy will not tamper with your servants here, and entice them +away, as free colored men might do to our slaves if they landed at the +South from your vessels. O, mammy,' said he, 'if I had your 'arbs and +your nursing, what a pleasure it would be to be sick.'" + +"Poor fellow!" said Mrs. North. "What did you say to him?" + +"O," said he, "I told him that we lived under different institutions; +and that when we are among the Romans we must do as the Romans do." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, "if all such prohibitions are not downright +impertinence, then I will give up." + +"It's the law of the land, here," said her husband. + +"Is there no 'Higher Law' in such a case?" said she. "'Higher Law,' I +believe, is sometimes the rule in Massachusetts." + +"Some of our most estimable colored fellow-citizens would attend her," +said I, "and tempt her by their own prosperity and happiness in freedom, +at the North, to cast in her lot with them and abandon her Southern +home, her mistress, and her little charge, Susan; and her own little +Cygnet's grave. They would send her, if she wished, free of charge, to +Canada, and leave her there. She could be perfectly free." + +"Now, what is all this for?" said Mrs. North. "Do the people here really +believe that Kate is 'oppressed?' that her mistress is a tyrant? that +Kate is a victim to the 'sum of all villanies?' that she buffers an +'enormous wrong?' that her mistress does her a 'stupendous injustice?' +If they wish for objects of charity, and will go with me, I will engage +to supply them with 'the oppressed' in any quantity, with some of 'the +down-trodden' also." + +"But, my dear Mrs. North," said I, "''tis distance lends enchantment to +the view.' Besides, to get a slave away from a Southerner is worth +unspeakably more to the cause of human happiness than to help scores of +Northern people." + +"But to be serious," said Mr. North, "we are afraid that slave-holding +may get a foothold in Massachusetts; so we have to challenge every one +who comes here with a slave, to show proof that he or she is not holding +the servant to involuntary servitude among us." + +"But," said Mrs. North, "are the people so conscientiously fearful lest +bondage should get established here in Massachusetts? Is that the true +reason for hurrying every colored servant, who travels here with his or +her invalid master or mistress, before a court to know if he or she +would not prefer to quit the family and the South? It seems to me we are +sadly wanting in good manners." + +"Now, please do not smile at your good wife for her simplicity, Mr. +North," said I, "for I suppose that you are thinking, What have 'good +manners' to do with the 'cause of freedom'? She is right in her +impressions; a lady's sense of propriety against all the world." + +"Do publish the Southern lady's letter by all means," said Mrs. North. + +"How surprised she would be," said I, "to see it in print, or to know +that it had wandered here, and was taking part in the discussions about +slavery." + +"The letter," said Mrs. North, "would, just now, seem like Noah's poor +little dove, wandering over wrecks and desolations." + +"True," said I, "and to finish the illusion, it might come back to her +after many days, and lo! in its mouth an olive-leaf plucked off!" + +"Give my love to her," said Mrs. North; "her letter has made me a better +and happier woman. Now I love my whole country. I do justice in my +feelings to hundreds of thousands whom I have hitherto regarded as +perverse. I now see God's wonder-working providence in connection with +the slave. It seems plain to me in what way the Union can be saved, and +that is, by the general prevalence at the North of such views about +slavery as the very best people at the South declare to be just and +right." + +"You would be deemed simple for saying that, Mrs. North," said I. "But +you are right." + +"Three things," she continued, after a moment's pause, "are more +strongly impressed on my mind; please see if I am right:--That the +relation of master and slave is not in itself sinful; That good people +at the South feel toward injustice and cruelty precisely like us; and, +That Southern Christians can correct all the evils in slavery, or +abolish it, if necessary, better without our aid than with it." + +"Mrs. North," said I, "unless we accept those propositions, the North +and South never can live together in peace; and if we separate, the +Northern conscience will be in a worse condition than ever, and we shall +have long wars." + +"It is a marvellous thing to me," said she, "as I now view it, that our +good Christian people here are not willing to confide in that which good +Southern Christian people say about slavery. We should trust their +judgments, their moral sentiments, their consciences, on any other +subject. How is it that when men and women, who are the excellent of the +earth, tell us the results of their observation, experience, and +reflections, with regard to slavery, we treat them as we do? When +ill-mannered people, who must be vituperative and saucy to every body +and in every thing, behave thus, it is not surprising; but I cannot +explain why truly good men should not either adopt the deliberate +sentiments of good people at the South, or at least consent to leave the +subject, if beyond their faith or discernment, to the responsibility of +Southern Christians. I condemn myself in saying this. But having myself +been converted, I have hope for everybody." + +During this talk, Mr. North was affected somewhat as he said his wife +was when he first read the Southern lady's letter to her. He was a +little incoherent by reason of his emotions; but he made out to say +something about the sweetness and the strength of reconciled affections, +and of the happiness which there would be when it should be proclaimed +that the North and the South are once more friends. + +"What is your whole name, Mrs. North?" said I; "for I shall wish to +speak of you to the Southern lady, if I write to her father." + +"My Christian name," said she, "is Patience." + +"PATIENCE NORTH!" I said to myself, once or twice, as I stood at the +parlor door. I was musing upon the name perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, +and when I looked up, they were each both smiling at me and crying. + +We shook hands, and I went my way. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sable Cloud, by Nehemiah Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SABLE CLOUD *** + +***** This file should be named 14615-8.txt or 14615-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/6/1/14615/ + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Amy Cunningham and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/14615-8.zip b/old/14615-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..454dbaa --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14615-8.zip diff --git a/old/14615.txt b/old/14615.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75d9873 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14615.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8647 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sable Cloud, by Nehemiah Adams + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sable Cloud + A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861) + +Author: Nehemiah Adams + +Release Date: January 6, 2005 [EBook #14615] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SABLE CLOUD *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Amy Cunningham and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +THE SABLE CLOUD: + +A SOUTHERN TALE, + +WITH NORTHERN COMMENTS. + + +BY THE AUTHOR OF +"A SOUTH-SIDE VIEW OF SLAVERY." + + +"I did not err, there does a sable cloud +Turn forth her silver lining on the night" + +MILTON'S COMUS + + +BOSTON: +TICKNOR AND FIELDS. +MDCCCLXI + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by + +TICKNOR AND FIELDS, + +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts + + +RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE +STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H O HOUGHTON + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE +CHAPTER I. +DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT 1 + +CHAPTER II. +NORTHERN COMMENTS ON SOUTHERN LIFE 5 + +CHAPTER III. +MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE 32 + +CHAPTER IV. +RESOLUTIONS FOR A CONVENTION 53 + +CHAPTER V. +THE GOOD NORTHERN LADY'S LETTER FROM THE SOUTH 59 + +CHAPTER VI. +QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 118 + +CHAPTER VII. +OWNERSHIP IN MAN.--THE OLD TESTAMENT SLAVERY 150 + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE TENURE 177 + +CHAPTER IX. +DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS 205 + +CHAPTER X. +THE FUTURE 239 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +DEATH AND BURIAL OF A SLAVE'S INFANT. + + "The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his + master." + + +A Southern gentleman, who was visiting in New York, sent me, with his +reply to my inquiries for the welfare of his family at home, the +following letter which he had just received from one of his married +daughters in the South. + +The reader will be so kind as to take the assurance which the writer +hereby gives him, that the letter was received under the circumstances +now stated, and that it is not a fiction. Certain names and the date +only are, for obvious reasons, omitted. + +THE LETTER. + +MY DEAR FATHER,-- + +You have so recently heard from and about those of us left here, and +that in a so much more satisfactory way than through letters, that it +scarcely seems worth while to write just yet. But Mary left Kate's poor +little baby in such a pitiable state, that I think it will be a relief +to all to hear that its sufferings are ended. It died about ten o'clock +the night that she left us, very quietly and without a struggle, and at +sunset on Friday we laid it in its last resting-place. My husband and I +went out in the morning to select the spot for its burial, and finding +the state of affairs in the cemetery, we chose a portion of ground and +will have it inclosed with a railing. They have been very careless in +the management of the ground, and have allowed persons to inclose and +bury in any shape or way they chose, so that the whole is cut up in a +way that makes it difficult to find a place where two or three graves +could be put near each other. We did find one at last, however, about +the size of the Hazel Wood lots; and we will inclose it at once, so that +when another, either from our own family or those of the other branches, +wants a resting-place, there shall not be the same trouble. Poor old +Timmy lies there; but it is in a part of the grounds where, the sexton +tells us, the water rises within three feet of the surface; so, of +course, we did not go there for this little grave. His own family +selected his burial-place, and probably did not think of this. + +Kate takes her loss very patiently, though she says that she had no idea +how much she would grieve after the child. It had been sick so long that +she said she wanted to have it go; but I knew when she said it that she +did not know what the parting would be. It is not the parting alone, but +it is the horror of the grave,--the tender child alone in the far off +gloomy burial-ground, the heavy earth piled on the tender little breast, +the helplessness that looked to you for protection which you could not +give, and the emptiness of the home to which you return when the child +is gone. He who made a mother's heart and they who have borne it, alone +can tell the unutterable pain of all this. The little child is so +carefully and tenderly watched over and cherished while it is with +you,--and then to leave it alone in the dread grave where the winds and +the rain beat upon it! I know they do not feel it, but since mine has +been there, I have never felt sheltered from the storms when they come. +The rain seems to fall on my bare heart. I have said more than I meant +to have said on this subject, and have left myself little heart to write +of anything else. Tell Mammy that it is a great disappointment to me +that her name is not to have a place in my household. I was always so +pleased with the idea that my Susan and little Cygnet should grow up +together as the others had done; but it seems best that it should not be +so, or it would not have been denied. Tell Mary that Chloe staid that +night with Kate, and has been kind to her. All are well at her house. + + * * * * * + +Of the persons named in this letter, + +KATE is a slave-mother, belonging to the lady who writes the letter. + +CYGNET was Kate's babe. + +MAMMY is a common appellation for a slave-nurse. The Mammy to whom the +message in the letter is sent was nursery-maid when the writer of the +letter and several brothers and sisters were young; and, more than this, +she was maid to their mother in early years. She is still in this +gentleman's family. Her name is Cygnet; Kate's babe was named for her. + +MARY is the lady's married sister. + +CHLOE is Mary's servant. + + +The incidental character of this letter and the way in which it came to +me, gave it a special charm. Some recent traveller, describing his +sensations at Heidelberg Castle, speaks of a German song which he heard, +at the moment, from a female at some distance and out of sight. This +letter, like that song, derives much of its effect from the +unconsciousness of the author that it would reach a stranger. + +Having read this letter many times, always with the same emotions as at +first, I resolved to try the effect of it upon my friend, A. Freeman +North. He is an upright man, much sought after in the settlement of +estates, especially where there are fiduciary trusts. Placing the letter +in his hands, I asked him, when he should have read it, to put in +writing his impressions and reflections. The result will be found in the +next chapter. Mrs. North, also, will engage the reader's kind attention. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NORTHERN COMMENTS ON SOUTHERN LIFE. + + "As blind men use to bear their noses higher + Than those that have their eyes and sight entire." + + HUDIBRAS. + + + "One woman reads another's character + Without the tedious trouble of decyphering." + + BEN JONSON. _New Inn_. + + +So then, this is a Southern heart which prompts these loving, tender +strains. This lady is a slave-holder. It is a slave toward whom this +fellow-feeling, this gentleness of pity, these acts of loving-kindness, +these yearnings of compassion, these respectful words, and all this care +and assiduity, flow forth. + +Is she not some singular exception among the people of her country; some +abnormal product, an accidental grace, a growth of luxuriant richness in +a deadly soil, or, at least, is she not like Jenny Lind among singers? +Surely we shall not look upon her like again. It would be difficult to +find even here at the North,--the humane North, nay, even among those +who have solemnly consecrated themselves as "the friends of the slave," +and who "remember them that are in bonds as bound with them,"--a heart +more loving and good, affections more natural and pure. I am surprised. +This was a slave-babe. Its mother was this lady's slave. I am confused. +This contradicts my previous information; it sets at nought my ideas +upon a subject which I believed I thoroughly understood. + +A little negro slave-babe, it seems, is dead, and its owner and mistress +is acting and speaking as Northerners do! Yes, as Northerners do even +when their own daughters' babes lie dead! + +The letter must be a forgery. No; here it is before me, in the +handwriting of the lady, post-marked at the place of her residence. But +is it not, after all, a fiction? I can believe almost anything sooner +than that I am mistaken in the opinions and feelings which are +contradicted by this letter. In the spirit of Hume's argument against +the miracles of the Bible, I feel disposed, almost, to urge that it +would be a greater miracle that the course of nature at the South in a +slave-holder's heart should thus be set aside than that there should not +be, in some way, deception about this letter. But still, here is the +letter; and it is written to her father, whom she could not deceive, +whom she had no motive, no wish, to delude. Had it been written to a +Northerner, I could have surmised that she was attempting to make false +impressions about slavery, and its influence on the slave-holder. Why +should she tell her father this simple tale, unless real affection for +the babe and its mother were impelling her? This tries my faith. It is +like an undesigned coincidence in holy writ, which used so to stagger my +unbelief. Possibly, however,--for I must maintain my previous +convictions if I can,--possibly her father is such as our anti-slavery +lecturers and writers declare a slave-holder naturally to be, and his +daughter, herself a mother, is seeking to touch his heart and turn him +from his cruelties as a slave-holder by showing him, in this indirect, +beautiful manner, that slave-mothers have the feelings of human beings. +Perhaps I may therefore compromise this matter by allowing, on one hand, +that the daughter is all that she appears to be, and claiming, on the +other, that the father is all that a slave-holder ought to be to verify +our Northern theories. But she herself is a slave-holder, and therefore +by our theory she ought to be imbruted. I beg her pardon, and that of +her father; but they must consider how hard it is for us at the North to +conquer all our prejudices even under the influence of such a +demonstration as her letter. I ask one simple question: Is not this +slave-babe, (and her mother,) of "the down-trodden," and is not this +lady one of the down-treading? And yet she weeps,--not because, as I +would have supposed, she had lost one hundred and fifty dollars in the +child, but as though she loved it like the sick and dying child of a +fellow-creature, of a mother like herself. Now, who at the North ever +hears of such a thing in slavery? The old New York Tabernacle could have +said, It is not in me;--the modern Boston Music Hall says, It is not in +me. None of the antislavery papers, political or religious, say, We have +heard the fame thereof with our ears. Our Northern instructors on the +subject of slavery, the orators, the Uncle Tom's Cabins, "The Scholar an +Agitator," have never taught us to believe this. The South, we are +instructed to think, is a Golgotha, a valley of Hinnom; compacts with it +are covenants with hell. But here is one holy angel with its music; a +ministering spirit; but is she a Lot in Sodom? Abdiel in the revolted +principality? a desolate, mourning Rizpah on that rock which overlooks +four millions of slaves and their tortures? + +In a less instructed state of mind on this subject, I should once have +said, on reading this letter,--This is slavery. Here is a view of life +at the South. As a traveller accidentally catches a sight of a family +around their table, and domestic life gleams upon him for a moment; as +the opening door of a church suffers a few notes of the psalm to reach +the ear of one at a distance, this letter, written evidently amidst +household duties and cares, discloses, in a touching manner, the +domestic relations of Southern families and their servants wherever +Christianity prevails. It is one strain of the ordinary music of life in +ten thousands of those households, falling accidentally upon our ears, +and giving us truthful, artless impressions, such as labored statements +and solemn depositions would not so well convey, and which theories, +counter-statements, arguments, and invectives never can refute. Our +senior pastor would say that the letter is like the Epistles of +John,--not a doctrinal exposition, but a breathing forth of the spirit +which the evangelical history had inspired. I have come to know more, +however, than I did when I could have had such amiable but unenlightened +feelings. I have read the "Key to Uncle Tom" and the "Barbarism of +Slavery." + +Still, I am sorely puzzled. "Kate," she says, "wanted to have it go, it +had been sick so long; but I knew, when she said it, she did not know +what the parting would be." + +"The parting!" Has she read our Northern abstracts and versions of the +Dred Scott Decision, and are there, in her view, any rights in a negro +which she is bound to respect? Has she not heard that the Supreme Court +of the United States has absolved her from all her feelings of humanity? +"The parting!" Where has she lived not to know how, according to our +lecturers, families are parted at the auction-block in the Southern +States without the least compunction? We are constantly told,--has she +not heard it?--that the slave at the South is a mere "chattel," and that +a slave-child is bought and sold as recklessly as a calf, and that a +parting between a slave-mother and her children, sold and separated for +life, is an occurrence as familiar as the separation of animals and +their young, and no more regarded by slave-holders than divorcements in +the barn-yard. This being so, it must follow that when a slave-babe +dies, the only sorrow in the hearts of the white owners is such as they +feel when a colt is kicked to death or a heifer is choked. This must be +so, if all is true which is meant to be conveyed when we are told so +often at the North that the slave is a mere "chattel." Therefore I am +puzzled by this lady's tears for the mother of this little black babe. +She says of the mother of that poor little negro infant slave, "I knew +she did not dream what the parting would be." I repeat it, my theory of +slavery, that which I hold in common with all enlightened friends of +freedom, requires that this lady should have a debased, imbruted nature, +for she owns human beings, has made property of God's image in man. And +now I feel creeping over me a dreadful temptation to think that one may +hold fellow-creatures in bondage and yet be really humane, gentle, and +as good as a Northerner! What fearful changes in politics would come +about should our people believe this! It cannot be that our great party +of Freedom can ever go to pieces and disappoint the hopes of the world; +yet this would be the case, if the feelings stirred by this letter +should gain a general acceptance. I cannot gainsay the facts. Here is +the letter. May it never see the light; people are much more influenced +by such things than by mere logic, and oh, what would befall the nation +should our Northern excitement against slavery cease, and should we +leave the whole subject to the South and to God! "What if people should +come to believe that the Southerners--fifteen or sixteen States of this +Union--are as humane, Christian, and conscientious as the North! + +Who will resolve my painful doubts? I do crave to know what possible +motive this lady could have had in taking so much thought and care about +the last resting-place of this poor little black "chattel." You and your +husband, dear lady, seem to be as kind and painstaking as though you +knew that a fellow-creature of yours was returning, "ashes to ashes, +dust to dust." + +One great Northern "friend of the slave" tells us that the slaves at the +South are degraded so to the level of brutes, that baptizing them and +admitting them to Christian ordinances is about the same as though he +should say to his dogs, "I baptize thee, Bose, in," etc. This, he tells +us, he repeated many times here, and in England.[1] Nothing but love of +truth and just hatred of "the sum of all villanies" could, of course, +have made him venture so near the verge of unpardonable blasphemy as to +speak thus. Yet your feelings and behavior toward this babe are in +direct conflict with his theory. Pray whom am I to believe? + + [Footnote 1: See "Sigma's" communications to the _Boston Transcript_, + August, 1857.] + +Perhaps now I have hit upon a solution. Some people, Walter Scott is an +instance, bury their favorite dogs with all the honors of a decorated +sepulture. Rather than believe that your slaves are commonly regarded by +you as your fellow-creatures, having rights which you love to consider, +or, that you do not mercilessly dispose of them to promote your selfish +interests, we, the Northern people, who have had the very best of +teachers on the subject of slavery, learnedly theoretical, reasoning +from the eternal principles of right, would incline to believe that your +interest in the burial of this little slave-babe was merely that which +your own child would feel on seeing her kitten carefully buried at the +foot of the apple-tree. + +One thing, however, suggests a difficulty in feeling our way to this +conclusion. I mention it because of the perfect candor which guides the +sentiments and feelings of all Northern people in speaking of slavery +and slave-holders. + +The difficulty is this: Who was "poor old Timmy"? Some old slave in your +father's family, I apprehend. You seem sad at finding that his grave is +not in the best place. "The water rises within three feet of the +surface;"--we infer, from the regret which you seem to feel at this, +that you have some care and pity for your old slaves, which extends even +to their graves. But we had well nigh borrowed strength to our +prejudices from this place of old Timmy's grave, and were saying with +ourselves, Thus the slave-holders bury their slaves where the water may +overflow them; but you seem to apologize to your father for Timmy's +having such a poor place for his remains by saying, "His own" (Timmy's) +"family selected his burying-place, and probably did not think of this." +Very kind in you, dear madam, to speak so. "The friends of the slave" +are greatly obliged to you for such consideration. You say, "His own +family selected his burying-place." Do slaves have such a liberty? Can +they go and come in their burying-grounds and choose places for the +graves of their kindred? This is being full as good to your servants, in +this particular, as we are at the North to our domestics. You thought +poor old Timmy's grave was not in a spot sufficiently choice for this +little babe's grave, and, it seems, you inclosed a spot, and inaugurated +it by the burial of this child, for the last resting-place of other +babes, the kindred of this child and of your other servants. This looks +as though there were some domestic permanence in some parts of the South +among the servants of a household; and as though the birth and death of +a child have some other associations with you than those which belong to +the breeding and sale of poultry. We are truly glad to think of all +this. It is exceedingly pleasant to have a good opinion of people, much +more so than to believe evil of them, and to accuse them wrongfully. + +In speaking thus to you, I make myself think--and I hope I do not seem +self-complacent in saying it, for you must have learned from the tone of +my remarks, if from no other source, that self-complacency is not a +Northern characteristic, especially in our feelings toward the +South--but I make myself think, by this candid admission of what seems +good in you, of a venturesome remark by Paul the Apostle to your brother +slave-holder Philemon, in that epistle in which he sends back the slave +Onesimus,--a very trying epistle to us at the North, though on the +whole, many of us keep up our confidence in inspiration notwithstanding +this epistle, especially as it is explained to us by some at the North +who know most of Southern slavery, our inbred hatred of which, it is +insisted by some of our best scholars, should control even our +interpretation of the word of God. Paul speaks to this slave-holder, +Philemon, of "the acknowledging of every good thing which is in +you,"--which we think was exceedingly charitable, considering that it +was said to a holder of slaves; and perhaps quite too much so; for the +truth is not to be spoken at all times, and especially not of those who +hold their fellow-men in bondage. I am often constrained to think that +it was an inconsiderate, unwise thing in the Apostle to take this +favorable view of that slave-holder; he may, however, have written by +permission, not by commandment; that would save his inspiration from +reproach; for had he been inspired in writing this epistle, I ask +myself, Would he not have foreseen our great Northern conflict with the +mightiest injustice upon which the sun ever shone? and would he not have +foreseen how much aid and comfort that epistle would give the friends of +oppression on this continent? One first truth in the minds of the most +eminent "friends of freedom" is this: "Slavery is the sum of all +villanies." Other truths follow in their natural order; among them the +question of the inspiration of the Bible has a place; but slavery leads +some of them to think lightly, and to speak disparagingly, of the Bible, +because it comes in conflict with their theories regarding +slave-holding, which is certainly not always referred to in Scripture in +the tone which we prefer. There was the Apostle James, too, writing +about "works" in the same unguarded manner as Paul when speaking of +slaves and slave-holders. Pity that he could not have let "works" alone, +seeing it was so important for the other Apostles to establish the one +idea of justification by faith. He made great trouble for Luther and his +companions in their contest with Popery. Luther had to reject his +epistle; "_straminea epistola_" he called it,--an epistle of +straw,--weak, worthless; and he denied its inspiration, because it +conflicted with his doctrine of "faith alone." So much for trying to be +candid and just, and for presenting the other side of a subject, or of a +man, when the spirit of the age is averse to it, and candor is in +danger of being looked upon as a time-serving thing. Neither Paul nor +James, however, had felt the tonic, bracing effect of good anti-slavery +principles, or they would not have written, the one such a letter to a +slave-holder, and the other such a back-oar argument against "faith +alone." However, I am disposed to think well of Paul and James, +notwithstanding these the great errors of their lives. Indeed I can +almost forgive them, when I am reading other things which they said and +did. You will please acknowledge, therefore, my dear madam, that in +giving you credit for kind feelings toward a poor slave and its mother, +we are disposed to be just; yet I beg of you not to think that I abate +one jot or tittle of my belief that, in theory, slavery is "the sum of +all villanies," "an enormous wrong," "a stupendous injustice." + +I have just been reading your letter once more, and the foolish tears +pester me so that I can scarce see out of my eyes. I find, dear madam, +that you have known a bitter sorrow which so many parents are carrying +with them to the grave. Your words make me think so of little graves +elsewhere, that I forget for the time that you are a slave-holder. Nor +can I hardly believe that your touching words are suggested by the death +of a slave's babe, when you speak of "the heavy earth piled on the +tender little breast." O my dear lady! has a slave's babe "a tender +little breast"? Then you really think so! And you a slave-holder! +"Border Ruffianism," perhaps, has not yet reached your heart; and yet I +suppose--forgive me if I do you wrong--that slave-holders' hearts +generally need only to be removed to the "borders," to manifest all +their native "ruffianism." Can you tell me whether there are any mothers +in Missouri (near Kansas) who feel toward their slaves who are mothers, +as you do? There are so many people from the North in Kansas (near +Missouri) who have gone thither to prevent you and your brethren and +sisters from owning a fellow-creature there, that I trust their +influence will in time extend through all Missouri, and that white +mothers in that State will everywhere have such humane feelings toward +the blacks as we and you possess. + +All that I ask of you now, is, that you give Kate her liberty at once. +Oh, do not say, as I fancy you will, There is not a happier being than +Kate in all the land of freedom. "Fiat justitia," dear madam, "ruat +coelum." I cannot conceive how being "owned" is anything but a curse. +Really, we forget the miseries of the Five Points, and of the dens in +New York, Boston, Buffalo, and other places at the North, the hordes in +the city and State institutions in New York Harbor, Deer Island, Boston, +and all such things, in our extreme pity for poor slave-mothers, like +Kate, whose children, when they get to be about nine or ten years old, +are liable to be sold. Honest Mrs. Striker came to work in our family, +not long since, leaving her young child at home in the care of a young +woman who watched it for ten cents a day. I said to her, Dear Mrs. +Striker, are you not glad that you live in a free state, and not where, +when you return like a bird to its nest at night, you may find your +little one carried off, you know not where, by some man-stealer, you +know not whom?--We honor your kind feelings, madam, but you are not +aware, probably, what overflowing love and tender pity there is among us +Northerners, toward your slaves and their children. We are +disinterested, too; for we nearly forget our own black people here at +the North, and more especially in Canada, to care for you and your +people. And though hundreds of innocent young people are decoyed into +our Northern cities yearly from the country and are made the victims of +unhallowed passions, yet the thought that some of your young people on +those remote, solitary plantations, can be compelled by their masters to +do wrong on pain of being sold, fills us with such unaffected distress +that we think but little of voluntary or compulsory debauchery in our +own cities; but we think of dissolving the Union to rid ourselves of +seeming complicity with such wickedness as we see to be inherent in the +relation of master and slave. We at the North should all be wicked if we +had such opportunities; we know, therefore, that you must be. Because +you will not let us reprove you for it, we cut off our correspondence +with your Southern ecclesiastical bodies. But I began to speak of little +graves. You will see by my involuntary wandering from them how full our +hearts are of your colored people, and how self-forgetful we are in our +desires and efforts to do them good. And yet some of your Southern +people can find it in their hearts to set at nought these our most +sacred Northern antipathies and commiserations! + +But I constantly hear some of your words in your letter striking their +gentle, sad chimes in my ears. "It is not the parting alone, but the +helplessness that looked to you for protection which you could not +give;" "the emptiness of the home to which you return when the child is +gone." + +Now, for such words, I solemnly declare that, in my opinion, you, dear +madam, never had a helpless slave look to you for protection which you +could give and which you refused; you, surely, never made a slave's home +desolate by taking her child from her. No, such words as those which I +have just quoted from your letter, are a perfect assurance that neither +you nor your kindred, within your knowledge, are guilty of ruthless +violations of domestic ties among your colored people. Otherwise, you +could not write as you do about "desolate homes" and "the child gone." +While I read your letter and think of you, I am reminded of those words: +"Is not this he whom they seek to kill?" Why, if the insurgents' pikes +were aimed at you and your child, I would almost be willing to rush in +and receive them in my own body. Yet I would not be known at the North +to have spoken so strongly as this. O my dear madam, if there were only +fifty righteous people (counting you) in the South, people who knew what +"desolate homes" and "the child gone" mean, I should almost begin to +hope that our Southern Gomorrah might be spared. + +But I fear that I am trespassing too far away from my sworn fealty to +Northern opinions and feelings. I begin to fear that I may be tempted to +be recreant to my inborn, inbred notions of liberty, while holding +converse with you, for there is something extremely seductive to a +Northerner in slavery; it is like the apple and the serpent to the +woman; so that whoever goes to the South, or has anything to do with +slave-holders, is apt to lose his integrity; there is a Circean +influence there for Northern people; thousands of once good, +anti-slavery men now lie dead and buried as to their reputations here at +the North, in consequence of having to do with the seductive +slave-power; they would fill Bonaventura Cemetery, in Savannah; the +Spanish moss, swaying on the limbs of its trees, would be, in number, +fit signals of their subjection to what you call right views on the +subject of slavery. + +Though I fear almost to hold converse with you, yet, conscious of my +innate love of liberty, I venture to do so. Bunker Hill is within twenty +miles of my home. When I go to that sacred memorial of liberty, I strive +to fortify my soul afresh against the slave-power. After hearing +favorable things said, in Boston, about the South, I can go to Faneuil +Hall, and there, the doors being carefully shut, walk enthusiastically +about the room, almost shouting, "Sam. Adams!" "James Otis!" +"Seventy-Six!" "Shade of Warren!" "No chains on the Bay State!" +"Massachusetts in the van!" "Give me liberty or give me death!" I can +enjoy the privilege of looking frequently on certain majestic figures in +our American Apocalypse, under the present vial,--but I need not name +them. I meet in our book-stores with "Lays of Freedom," never sung by +such as you. I see in the shop-windows the inspiring faces, in +medallion, of those masterpieces of human nature, "the champions of +freedom," our chief abolitionists;--and shall I, can I, ever succumb to +the slave-power, even though it approach me through the holy, +all-subduing charms of woman's influence? No! dear madam, ten thousand +times, No! "Slave-power!" to borrow Milton's figure when speaking of +Ithuriel and Satan, the word is as the touch of fire to powder, to our +brave anti-slavery souls. You have, perhaps, seen a bull stopping in the +street, pawing the ground, throwing the dust over him and covering +himself with a cloud of it, his nose close to the earth, and a low, +bellowing sound issuing from his nostrils. Your heart has died within +you at the sight. You have been made to feel how slight a defence is +fan, or sunshade, against such an antagonist, though you should make +them to fly suddenly open in his face. No enemy of his was in sight, so +far as you could perceive; you wondered what had excited his belligerent +spirit; but he saw at a very great distance that which you could not +see; he heard a voice you could not hear, giving occasion to this show +of prowess. That fearful combatant on the highway, dear madam, is the +North, and you are the distant foe. You may affect to smile, perhaps, at +the valorous attitudes, the show of mettle in the bull, but you have no +idea, as I had the honor to say before, how sturdy is our hatred of the +slave-power and how ready we are to do battle with it. We paw in the +valley, and are not afraid. + +Never think to delude us, my dear lady, with the thought that slavery in +our Territories means such ladies as you owning Kates and their little +babes, and having such hearts toward them as you seem to have; for that +would take away a large part of the evil in slavery. Nor must you expect +us, in thinking of slavery as extending into our Territories, to picture +to ourselves an accomplished gentleman and lady searching a cemetery for +a spot to be the grave of a little slave-babe, and behaving themselves +as though they had feelings toward it and its mother irrespective of the +market-price of slaves. "Border Ruffians" are the archetypes of our +ideas respecting all who wish to extend slavery into our Territories. On +the score of humanity, madam, we have no objection to you and your +husband taking Kate and living in Kansas; how perfectly harmless that +might seem to many! for, no doubt, you and Kate are perfectly happy as +mistress and servant; you would need domestics there, and how could they +and you be better pleased than if they and you were just as Kate and you +now are to each other? but, O dear madam, that would be slavery, and we +are under sworn obligations here at the North to oppose the owning of a +human being with indiscriminate hatred. Say not it seems hard that if +you wish to live in Kansas, for example, you cannot have liberty to go +there with Kate, who is as much attached to you, I make no doubt, as any +Northern or English servant is to a household. Perhaps it does seem +perfectly natural and harmless, and no doubt Kate's relation to you is +as gentle and pleasant, almost, as that of an adopted member of a +family, who is half attendant, and half companion; this we understand. +You see nothing terrible in such a relation. O dear madam, you have the +misfortune to have been born under the blinding, blighting influence of +slavery, and cannot see things in the true, just light in which they +appear to us, whose minds are unprejudiced and clear, and whose moral +sentiments on this great subject are more correct and elevated. What is +making all this trouble in our nation? I will answer you in the burning +words of a Northern clergyman in his speech at a meeting called to +sympathize with the family of John Brown, after his death by martyrdom: +"The Slave-Power itself, standing up there in all its deformity in the +sight of Northern consciences,--that is the cause, [applause] and there +the responsibility belongs."[2] Yes, you are sinning against the +Northern conscience! It is settled forever that you are evil-doers in +holding your present relation to the slave. We are bound to hem you in +as by fire, till, like a scorpion so fenced about, you die by your own +sting. We must proclaim liberty to your captives. Step but one foot with +Kate on free soil, and our watchmen of liberty, set to break every yoke +and help fugitives on their way from the house of bondage, will be +around you in troops, and shout in her ear those electrifying and +beatifying words, "You are a free woman!" There her chains will drop; +she will cease to be a slave, and become a human being. + + [Footnote 2: _Boston Courier_, Nov. 26, 1859.] + +Must I refer to your letter once more? I hope to destroy its spell over +me. But I wish at times that I had never seen that letter. "Tell Mammy +that it is a great disappointment to me that her name is not to have a +place in my household." Your little slave-babe, Kate's child, you named +Cygnet, because Mammy's name is Cygnet, and she and your mother grew up +together, and she has been your kind, faithful servant and friend, as +much friend as servant, during all your youth till you were married. And +you seek to perpetuate her name in your own household, and to have a +little Cygnet grow up with your own little Susan. "I was always pleased +with the idea that my Susan and little Cygnet should grow up together; +but it seems best that it should not be so, or it would not be denied." +All this is very sweet and beautiful; but now let me tell you, honestly, +what the spontaneous thought of a Northerner is while meditating on such +an apparently lovely picture. Here it is: Suppose that Susan and little +Cygnet, when both are three years old, are playing in your front-yard +some morning, and a cruel slave-trader should look over the fence, and +say to your husband, "Fine little thing there, sir; take a hunderd and a +ha'f for her?" I ask, Would not your husband (perhaps in need, just +then, of money to pay a note) lay down his newspaper, invite the fellow +in to drink, and go through the opening scene of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," +coaxing up the fellow's price; and finally, would he not sell little +Cygnet while her mother was out of sight, push poor little Susan into a +room alone to cry her eyes out, and you and your husband pocket the +money? Many of us at the North, dear madam, if you will take my +unworthy self as a specimen, and I am a very moderate anti-slavery man +and no fanatic, are quite as ready to believe such things of you as the +contrary. We have read "Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +Nothing could exceed the disgust and ridicule which your letter would +meet with at the hands of some of our best anti-slavery men. I am +thinking of it, just now, as in the hands of Rev. Mr. Blank. The other +day I saw a cambric muslin handkerchief, richly embroidered, blow past +me out of a child's carriage. As I turned to get it, a dog seized it, +shook it, put both his paws on it, rent it, made rags of it, threw it +down, snatched it up, and seemed vexed that there was no more of it to +tear. So will our abolitionists serve your letter, should they ever see +it. And, my dear madam, though I disapprove their temper and language, +yet I must confess that I sympathize with them in their principles, the +only difference between them and me being that of social position and +manners. I must tell you that, after all, you are probably unaware of +the deception which you are practising on yourself, in supposing that +you are really as loving and gentle toward a slave-mother and her child +as some might infer. Let but a good sale tempt you! I wait to know +whether you would then write such a letter. We have a ready answer to +all the kind and good things which are said about you, in this, which +you will see and hear in all our speeches and essays, namely, "Slavery +is the sum of all villanies." That is to all our thoughts and reasonings +about slavery what the longitude of Greenwich is to navigation. All your +clergy, all your physicians, all your judges and lawyers, all your +fathers and mothers, your gentlemen and ladies, all your children, are +heaped together by us in one name, to us an awful name,--"Slave-power." +We think about you as we do of Egypt, with Israel in bondage. + +And now that allusion furnishes me with an argument against your letter, +which I must, in conclusion, and sorely against many of my feelings, let +fall, like a stone, upon it, and crush it forever. Pharaoh's daughter +was touched with the cry of the little slave-babe, Moses; but what does +that prove? that Egyptian bondage was not "an enormous wrong," a +"stupendous injustice," "the sum of all villanies"? or that a Red Sea +was not already waiting to swallow up the slave-holders, horse and foot? + +You may write a thousand such letters, all over the South; but though +they delude me for a while, it is only until the moisture which they +raise to my eyes from my heart, by the pathos in them, dries up, and +leaves my vision clear of all the blinding though beautiful mists of +that error which has diffused itself over one half of this goodly land, +and, I grieve to add, which has fallen upon many even here in New +England, recreant sons of liberty, traitors to the memories of Faneuil +Hall and Bunker Hill. + + +LETTER FROM MR. NORTH, INCLOSING THE FOREGOING. INFLUENCE OF THE LETTER +UPON HIS WIFE. + +MY DEAR MR. A. BETTERDAY CUMMING:-- + +I have, as you see, complied with your request, and herewith I send you +my thoughts and feelings in view of the good Southern lady's letter. I +came near, once or twice, abandoning some of my long-cherished +principles, under the influence of the letter and of the reflections to +which it gave rise. But I have been enabled to retain my integrity. I am +sorry to say that the letter has made me some trouble through its effect +on my wife, to whom, incautiously, I read it. Very soon after I began to +read, I perceived that some natural drops were finding their way down +her tear-passage, leading her to a frequent use of the handkerchief. By +this means she interrupted me, I should say, six or eight times, during +the reading, and as soon as I had finished she rose and left the room. + +I remained, and wrote a large part of the accompanying reflections, and, +near midnight, on repairing to my room, I found that Mrs. North was +asleep. She waked me in the morning by asking me if I was asleep. I told +her that I would gladly listen to what she had to say. She said, "Will +you not please, my dear, stop the ----, and the ----," (naming two +newspapers,) "and take others?" + +"Why," said I, "what is the matter with them?" + +She began to weep again. In a few moments she said, "I would give the +world if I could have a conversation with that Southern lady." + +"I fear," said I, "that it would have a deleterious effect on your +attachment to the principles of liberty." + +"Liberty!" said she. "Oh, how foolish I have been! I see now that there +is another side to that question." + +"I hope, my dear," said I, "that you will say and do nothing to occasion +any reproach. Certainly, there are two sides to every question. If you +manifest any surprise at finding that there is another side to the +Liberty question, I fear that some will quote to you the fable of the +mouse who was born in a meal-chest." + +"I never heard of it," said she. + +"Why," said I, "the mouse one day stole up to the edge of the chest, +when the cover had been left open, and, looking round on the +barn-chamber, she said, 'Dear me, I had no idea that the world was half +so large.'" + +"The cover has been down and the meal has been in my eyes long enough," +said she. "I have been so much accustomed for a long time to read in our +papers about 'enormous wrong,' 'stupendous injustice,' 'the +slave-breeders,' 'sum of all villanies,' that, unconsciously, I have +come to think of the South, indiscriminately, as though they were Robin +Hood's men, or"-- + +"O my dear," said I, "you must have known that there are many good +people at the South, notwithstanding slavery." + +"How can there be one good man or woman there," said she, "if all that +those newspapers say of slave-holding be true? Husband, depend upon it +we have been believing a great lie. Just think of that letter. What a +tale many of those words reveal. When the infants of our former servants +die, do our ladies write such letters about them? I should judge that +owning a fellow-creature softens and refines the heart, if this letter +is any sign, instead of making them all barbarians. All the newspapers +and novels in the world cannot do away the impressions which that +letter has made on my mind. I tell you, husband, having slaves is not +the unmitigated curse to owners nor to slaves that we have been taught +to believe." + +"Perhaps," said I, interrupting her, "you would like to live at the +South, and own a few." + +"I could not be hired by wealth," said she, "to have them for help, even +here. I never did like them; and when I think that there are good men +and women who do, and who are as kind to the poor creatures as this dear +lady, I think that we should give thanks to God." + +"Oh, the Southern people are not all like this good lady, by any means," +said I. + +"'Peradventure,'" said she, "'there be fifty righteous.' There must be +tens of thousands. People like this lady are very apt to make good the +saying of the blackberry pickers when they see a blackberry, 'Where +there's one there's more.' The letter reads as though it were an +every-day thing, a matter of course, for this lady to be kind and loving +to the blacks; and for my part I bless any one who has anything to do +for her or for those like her. Our papers never tell us such stories as +this letter contains. No, they, do not love to hear them, I fear; but if +a slave is beaten or ill-treated, then the chimes begin, 'enormous +wrong,' 'stupendous injustice,' 'sum of all villanies.'" + +"Why, my dear," said I, "you are getting to be pro-slavery very fast." + +"Never," said she, "if you mean by that, as I suppose you do, approving +all that is involved in slavery and all that is committed under the +system." + +"But," said I, "your present feeling toward this Southern lady may +insensibly lead you to believe that it is right to own a +fellow-creature. Does not Cowper say,-- + + "'I would not have a slave to till my ground, + To carry me, to fan me while I sleep + And startle when I wake, for all the wealth + That sinews bought and sold have ever earned?'" + +"How Kate must 'startle' and go into convulsions with terror every time +this mistress wakes!" she replied. "If Cowper had written in Alabama, +instead of describing a state of slavery such as existed in the British +possessions, and not, as in the South, mixed up with his every-day life; +if the first face with which he had become familiar as a babe had been a +black face, the face of his mother's 'slave' loving him, and nursing +him, and he, in turn, had tended his old 'Mammy' in her decrepitude, his +imagination would have contained some other pictures than those in the +lines which you quote. Had there been a Mrs. Cowper, I fancy she would +have been like this lady; and perhaps we should have seen Mr. Cowper +acting the kind part of this lady's husband toward a slave-mother and +her babe, his 'property,' so called. I lay awake here, last night, while +you were writing, and thought it all over. What were you writing about +so long? I wished that I had a pencil and paper near me. Those English +and French people who got rid of slavery as one gets rid of a bunion, +know nothing about slavery mingled with our very life-blood. How +self-righteous they are! Our people, too, are perpetually quoting what +Thomas Jefferson said about slavery in his day. Pray, has there been no +progress? Why are we not permitted to hear what Southern men, as good as +Jefferson, now say about modern slavery?" + +"My dear," said I, "perhaps you are not fully qualified as yet to judge +of this great subject in all its relations. The greatest and wisest men +are divided in opinion about it." + +"Great subject!" said she, "please let me interrupt you; there is but +one side to it, I should judge, from reading our papers. What do some of +the 'greatest and wisest men,' on the other side, have to say for +themselves? Are they all 'friends of oppression,' 'enemies of freedom,' +'minions of the slave-power,' 'dough-faces'? Husband, I am thoroughly +disgusted. I have been compelled to have uncharitable feelings toward +thousands of people like this Southern lady; I confess I have really +hated them, as I hate men-stealers and pirates. This letter has +convinced me of my sin. It is like the Gospel in its effect upon me." + +"But, my dear," said I, "recollect that good people may be in great +error, and we read, 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not +suffer sin upon him.' Now, to hold a fellow-being in bondage,--how can +it be otherwise than 'stupendous injustice'?" + +"I wonder," said she, "if Kate feels that she is in 'bondage' to this +lady. I wonder if she would not think it cruel, if her mistress should +set her free." + +"But it is wrong," said I, "to hold property in a human being, whether +the bondman be in favor of it or not." + +"'Property!'" said she. "I should like to be such 'property,' if I were +a black woman. If it were wrong in the abstract," said she, "it might +not be in practice." + +"Oh," said I, "what a pro-slavery idea that is! where did you learn it?" + +"I learned it," said she, "at our corn-husking, when the Squire read +extracts from John Quincy Adams's speech about China, in which he said +that if China would not open her trade to the world, it would be right +to make war upon her. Now war is wrong, but circumstances sometimes make +it right. So with holding certain men in slavery, under certain +circumstances. I cannot believe that it is right to go and enslave whom +we will; but the blacks being here, I can see that it may be the very +best thing for all concerned that they should be owned. This may be +God's way of having them governed and educated." + +I found that I was getting deeper into the subject than I intended, and, +besides, it was time to rise. As I left the room, she said, "You _will_ +change those papers, won't you? then we will have some more pleasant +talks about this subject." She called to me from the door, "Please don't +send back the lady's letter; I wish to copy it." This is my reason for +not sending the letter with my reply to it. You will certainly give me +credit for candor in telling you all that my wife said. However, it is +so easily answered that I need not fear to intrust you with it. + +Yours, for the slave, +A. FREEMAN NORTH. + + +P.S. After all, I concluded to retain this, and wait till my wife had +made what use she desired of the letter, that I might be sure and return +it to you safely. In the mean time, I have changed the papers. How +irresistible a pleading woman is, especially a wife. Her very want of +logic makes her more so, when we are good-natured. She came upon me with +just such another supplication a few mornings since. As soon as she +awoke, she said, "Husband, do please have our parlor window-sashes let +down from the top." "For ventilation?" said I. "Yes," said she, +"partly;" but I saw that she smiled. "What has made you think of it so +suddenly?" said I. "Do you not want to catch some more canaries?" said +she. "I suspect," said I, "that you would like to have ours escape." +"Perhaps," said she, "that would be a relief to you from your present +embarrassment." Then I saw that all this was banter. She wished to teaze +me a little. The truth is, I have two fine singing canaries and a +mocking-bird. Some of my pro-slavery friends delight to pester me about +them. They say that they mean to issue a habeas corpus, and take them +before Justice Bird, (who, you know, queerly enough, happens to be +United States Commissioner,) and inquire if they be not restrained of +their freedom. I tell them that man has dominion over all the fowls of +the air. But they say, "Then might makes right! Is it not a fine thing +that such a lover of liberty and friend of freedom and enemy of +oppression should keep those little prisoners for his selfish +gratification. Come, be a practical emancipationist to the extent of +your ability; set the South an example; break every yoke." "They are +better off with me," said I; "the hawks or cats would catch them, or +they would die from exposure." "Expediency!" said one of them; "do +justice, if the heavens fall." "Fye at _justitia_!" said one, who +pretended to take my part. "_Ruat coelum_, Let them rush to heaven," +replied the other. "Parse _coelum_, please, sir," said my boy in the +Academy. "Yes, past the ceiling," said the lawyer, pretending to +misunderstand him; "that's right, my son;"--and more wretched punning of +the same sort. Hence Mrs. North's pretended supplication about the +window-sashes. She has been in excellent spirits ever since I stopped +the papers. She says that she wonders at herself so calm and happy. I +heard her yesterday calling at the stairs to a little lisping English +waiting-maid, who cannot pronounce _s_: "Judith," said she, "did you not +hear the parlor-bell?" Judith walked up, and said, "Mitthith North, +lately you've rung tho eathy, that motht of the time I thought it mutht +be a acthident, and didn't come up at futht. I thpect the wireth ith got +ruthty." Mrs. North said nothing, but afterward, in relating the affair +to me, she said she truly believed that it was owing to my stopping the +papers. For she could remember how often she went to the bell-rope +saying to herself as she pulled it, "sum of all villanies!" then +"enormous wrong," with another pull, and then "stupendous injustice," +with another. Several times she says Judith has rushed up to the parlor +with "Ma'am, whath the matter! the bell rung three timth right off." She +thinks that her nervous system will last longer without the papers than +with them. As she told me this, she was shutting down the lid of the +piano for the night. As it fell into its place, the strings set up a +beautiful murmur. "Oh, hear that!" said she; "how solemn it is!" "I +suppose," said I, "you would not have heard it, if those papers had been +in the house." I shall not tell you, a bachelor, what she said and did. +I trust that her views on the great subject of freedom will get adjusted +by and by; and I am debating with myself what papers to take, having +been obliged, for my own edification, to become a subscriber to the +reading-room. There, however, I meet with a good many pro-slavery +prints, and I am tempted to look into them; after which I frequently +feel as though I should pull a bell-rope three times. A.F.N. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MORBID NORTHERN CONSCIENCE. + + "Heaven pities ignorance: + She's still the first that has her pardon sign'd; + All sins else see their faults; she's, only, blind." + + MIDDLETON: _No Help like a Woman's._ + + +[Accompanying note, from A. BETTERDAY CUMMING to A. FREEMAN NORTH. + +MY DEAR MR. NORTH,-- + +With many thanks for your kindness and frankness, and with my warmest +congratulations to Mrs. North for the pleasant effect which the Southern +lady's letter has had upon her, I send you another document, hoping that +she will read it to you. It will not be worth while for me to say +anything about this production. It purports to be from a young man in +one of our New England literary institutions, whose aunt, with her +husband, was residing at the South for the health of a niece, a sister +to this young man;--they being orphans. The letter is so entirely in the +same key with your feelings that you cannot fail to be interested. +Knowing that you love rare specimens in everything, I send you this as +"the only one of its kind," or as we say, "_sui generis_."--A.B.C.] + + +---- College, ---- -- ----. + +MY DEAR AUNT,-- + +I have not heard from you but once since your arrival at the South. It +is because sister is more unwell? or because you are very busy with +your arrangements for the winter? or is it because, as I more than half +suspect, you are so much overcome by your first observation and +experience of slavery, that you have but little strength left to write +to me from that "---- post of observation, darker every hour"? Perhaps +you are mustering courage to tell me of the sights which you have seen, +the little while that you have been among the poor, enslaved children of +the sun in our Southern house of bondage. "Afraid to ask, yet much +concerned to know," I wait impatiently for a letter from you. I expect +to make great use of its details among my fellow-students, many of whom, +I mourn to say, have their hearts case-hardened against the story of +oppression. They will show an interest in everybody and everything +sooner than in the slave and his wrongs. They are not only callous on +that subject, but they laugh at your zeal and call it hard names. + +No one can tell what I suffer in the cause of freedom, through my +well-meant endeavors to interest and instruct others on the subject +which absorbs my thoughts. I know that I shall have your sympathy; and +when I come to hear from you what your own eyes have seen, ere this, in +slavery, I shall esteem all my sufferings in the cause of the slave as +light as air. + +I employ the intervals of study in walking among the beautiful scenery +of the village and its environs, if haply I may meet with some to whom I +may open my mind on this great theme. The last time that I went out for +this purpose, I met with a sad sight. A horse was running away with a +buggy, while between the body of the carriage and the wheel I saw +depending a foot, which I at once inferred was that of a lady. The horse +rushed by, and sure enough, a young lady had fallen on the floor of the +buggy, holding the reins, evidently entangled and embarrassed in her +posture, uttering the most heart-rending cries and shrieks, with +intermingled calls to the horse to stop. + +I could not help looking at the horse, as he passed, with feelings of +strong displeasure. To think that anything having an ear to hear and a +sensibility to feel should be so heedless of the cries of distress, +roused up my soul to indignation. As I reflected, however, it occurred +to me that no doubt this horse had been subjected to unkind treatment +from his youth up. I began to blame his owners. Had the law of kindness +been observed in the early management of this horse, doubtless he would +have regarded the first appeal of this young lady to him. May we not +hope, dear Aunt, that a new era is dawning upon us with regard to the +universal triumph of love and kindness over oppression of every kind, +and that the brute creation will partake of its benign influences? The +tone and manner in which horses are spoken to often sends a chill to my +heart. + +This reminds me, if you will excuse longer delay in my narrative, of +some unfavorable impressions which I received lately on my way to +Boston, with regard to the imperious manner in which a traveller is +assailed by advertisements on the fences, as you pass through the +environs of the city. Every few miles, as the cars passed along, I saw, +printed on the rough boards of a fence: "Visit" so and so; "Use" so and +so; "Try" so and so. I would not be willing to say how often my +attention was caught by those mandatory advertisements. At last I became +conscious of some feeling of resistance. Whether it was that I began to +breathe the air of Bunker Hill, and the atmosphere which nourishes our +most eminent friends of freedom, so many of whom, you know, live in +Boston and vicinity, I cannot tell; but I found myself saying, with +quite enough resentment and emphasis, "I will not 'use' so and so; I +will not 'try' so and so; especially, I will not 'visit' so and +so,--First, It will not be convenient. Secondly, I have no occasion to +do so. Thirdly, I do not know the way; but, Finally, I do not like to be +addressed in this manner, as an overseer of a Southern plantation +addresses a slave. I am not a slave. I am a Massachusetts freeman." This +way of speaking to people, dear Aunty, must be discountenanced. It will, +by and by, beget an aptitude for servile obedience; the eye and ear +becoming accustomed to the forms of domination, we shall have yokes and +chains upon us before we are aware. Some one says, "Let me write the +songs for a nation, and I care not who makes her laws." So say I, Let me +write imperative advertisements on fences and buildings, and all +resistance to Southern encroachments and usurpation will soon be in +vain. + +But to resume my narrative. I began to look round, as soon as my +excitement about the runaway horse would allow, for some one to whom I +could open my overburdened mind on the subject of freedom. I espied a +man with an immense load of chairs, from a factory in our neighborhood, +as I supposed, on his way to Boston. Four horses drew the load, which I +saw was very heavy; not so heavy, I thought with myself, as that which +four millions of my fellow-men are this moment laboring with, over the +gloomy hills of darkness in our Southern States. I felt impelled to +address the driver on this great theme. So, before he had reached the +top of the hill, I called out,-- + +"Driver!" + +Perhaps there was more suddenness and zeal in my call than was +judicious, but the driver immediately said "Whoa!" to his horses, and he +ran hither and thither for stones to block the wheels to keep his load +from running back, down hill. + +I felt encouraged, by this, to think that he was of a kind and pliable +disposition; and seeing the wheels fortified, and the horses at rest, I +felt more disposed to hold conversation with the man. "Who knows," I +said to myself, "but that I may now make one new friend for the slave?" + +"A warm day," said I. + +"Yes, sir," said he, a little impatiently, I thought, The sun was very +hot, an August morning, no air stirring, well suited to make one think +of toil and woe under our Southern skies. + +"Have you ever been at the South?" said I, wiping my forehead. + +"No, sir," said he, picking out a knot in the snapper of his whip, +evidently to hide his embarrassment while waiting to know the drift of +my question. The sight of his whip kindled in my soul new zeal for the +poor slaves, knowing as I did how many of them were at that moment +skipping in their tortures and striving to flee from the piercing lash. + +"Your toil in the hot sun with your load, my dear sir," said I, "is well +fitted to impress you with the thought of the miseries under which four +millions of your fellow-men are every day groaning in our Southern +country. I make no doubt that you are grateful for the blessings of +freedom which we enjoy here at the North. I wish to ask whether you are +doing anything against oppression; whether you belong to any Association +whose object is"-- + +"What on airth did you stop me for," said he, quite impatiently, and +yet with a lingering gleam of respect, and with some hesitancy at any +further rudeness of speech. + +"My dear sir," said I, "four millions of Southern slaves are this very +hour groaning under sorrows which no tongue"-- + +"You"--(he hesitated a moment, and surveyed me from head to foot, and +then broke out,)--"putty-headed, white-birch-looking, nateral--stoppin' +a load right near the crown of a hill, no gully in the road, such a day +as this, and--'Ged ehp,'"--said he to his horses, as the stones under +the wheels that moment began to give way; and then he drew his lash +through one hand, with a most angry look. I really thought that I should +have to feel that lash. The thought instantly nerved me:--I'll bear it! +it's for the slave; let me remember them, I might have added, that are +whipped as whipped with them; but at that moment the horses had reached +the hill-top, and the driver was by their side. + +He called back, as he passed round the rear of his load to the nigh side +of his team. I caught only a few of his last words;--"take your backbone +for a for'ard X." I snapped my thumb and finger at him, though not +lifting my arm from my side. The human spinal column, with its vertebrae, +for an axle-tree of a wagon! And yet, I immediately thought, the poor +negro's back is truly "the for'ard X" of the great wagon of our American +commerce. But I let him depart. + +Salutary impressions, I cannot question, dear Aunty, were made upon his +mind. He had heard some things which would occupy his thoughts in his +solitary trudge on his way to Boston. That thought comforted me as I was +writhing a little on my way home, under his opprobrious epithets; for +you know that I was always sensitive when addressed with reproachful +words. + +I could not help recalling and analyzing his scalding words of contempt. +I took a certain pleasure in doing so, because, as I saw and felt the +power of each in succession, I remembered what awful abuses flow from +the tongues of Southern masters and mistresses continually, as they goad +on their slaves to their work, or reproach them for not bringing in the +brick for which they had given them no straw. So it was comparatively a +light affliction for me to remember that I had been called by such hard +names. "Putty-headed!" said he. I infer, dear Aunty, that he must have +worked in the painter's department, and had been familiar with putty; +hence he drew the epithet, into whose signification I did not care to +inquire. "White-birch-looking!" I suppose he referred to the impression +of imbecility which we have in seeing a perfectly white tree in the +woods among the deep green of the sturdier trees. He may have referred +to the effect of sedentary habits on my complexion. However, I soon +forgot the particulars of his insulting address, retaining only the +impression that I had suffered, and that willingly, in the bleeding +cause of freedom. + +It was a great relief to me that, just at that moment, a very fine dog +approached me and fawned upon me, then ran ahead, and seemed afraid that +I should send him back. After a while I tried to drive him away, but he +insisted on following me, and I have no doubt that I might have secured +him, had I wished to do so. I was not a little inclined, at one time, to +take him home with me, and to keep him as a companion in my walks. But +he had a collar with his own name, Bruno, upon it, and the name of his +owner. The question of right occurred to me. I debated it. Applying some +of the self-evident truths established by our own Independence, I almost +persuaded myself that I might rightfully take the dog. I reasoned thus: +1. All dogs are born free and equal. 2. They have an inalienable right +to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 3. All governments +derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. These +principles, breathed in, from childhood, with the atmosphere of our +glorious "Fourth," I did not hesitate to apply in the case of the dog. I +do not know what practical conclusion I might have arrived at, but +suddenly I lost sight of Bruno in consequence of a new adventure, in the +process of which he disappeared. + +A matronly looking lady came suddenly out of a gate, with a cup in one +hand containing a teaspoon, and a brown earthen mug in the other hand. +She pushed the gate open before her, easily; but I saw that she was +embarrassed about shutting it. I stepped forward and assisted her. + +"Some kind office for the sick, I dare say," said I. + +"A woman in that plastered house is very sick," said she; "I have just +fixed some marsh-mallow for her, to see if it will ease her cough. Sorry +to trouble you, sir, but my cup was so full that I could not use my +hands." + +"I suppose," said I, "madam, if you will allow me to detain you a +moment,"-- + +"I am afraid my drink in the cup will get cold, sir, but"-- + +"Only a moment, madam," said I; (for I did not feel at liberty to walk +with her;) "only a moment; I am led to think, by your kindness to this +poor woman, of the millions of bond-people in our Southern country who +never feel the hand of love ministering to their sick and dying"-- + +"O you ignorant thing!" said she, pouring the contents of the cup into +the mug, and then setting the cup on the mug, all without looking at me; +"where were you born and bred? You must be an abolitionist. Southern +ladies are the very best of nurses; and as to their slaves when they are +sick,--why their hearts are overflowing--why!" said she, "I could tell +you tales that would make you cry like a baby--the idea! millions of +slaves sick and neglected! Do you belong to ---- College?" + +"Yes, madam," said I. + +"Sophomore?" said she. + +"Yes, madam." But it was a cutting question. She had an arch look as she +asked it. + +"Well sir," said she, with a graceful air, in a half averted direction, +"you have some things to learn about your fellow-countrymen which are +not put down in your Moral Philosophies. Please do not betray your +ignorance on subjects about which you are evidently in midnight +darkness." She was some ways from me, but I heard her continue: "Was +there ever anything like this Northern ignorance and prejudice about the +Southern people!" + +I had nothing to do but resume my lonely walk. My sense of desolateness +no tongue can tell. I whistled for Bruno, but in vain. She called me "an +ignorant thing," said I. Ignorant on the subject of slavery! How easy it +is to misjudge! Have I steadied free-soil papers all these years only to +be called "an ignorant thing!" I could graduate to-day from this +institution, though only in my second year, if the examination were +confined to the subject of slavery. I have thoroughly understood the +theory; I have learned by heart the codes of the iniquitous system. I +know it root and branch, from pith to bark. All the lecturers on the +subject have not labored in vain, nor spent their strength for nought, +with me. And now to be called "ignorant!" Just as though I could not +reason, that is, draw inferences from premises, make deductions from +facts. There is the great fact of slavery; it is "the sum of all +villanies;" men holding their fellow-men in bondage for the sake of +gain; the heart naturally covetous, oppressive, and cruel, where power +is unlimited. As though the law of kindness could, in such +circumstances, possibly prevail and mitigate the sorrows of the bondman! +The direct influence of slavery is to debase, to make barbarous, to +petrify; I know as well as though I saw it that the South must be full +of neglected, perishing objects, cast out to perish in their sicknesses. +You doubtless are acquainted, dear Aunty, with the great change in the +mode of reasoning introduced by Lord Bacon. We reason now from facts to +conclusion; this is called the inductive method, to collect facts, then +draw inferences. The facts which I have collected on the subject of +slavery, in my reading and hearing, lead me to a perfect theory on the +subject, and my confidence in that theory is all which it could be if, +like you, I were now seeing it verified with my own eyes. + +I reason on this subject of slavery, just as our philosophers reason +about the moon. You have learned, dear Aunt, ere this, that there is no +water in the moon. Certain things are observed by our telescopes, in the +moon, from which we are sure that there is no water there. Now there are +certain given facts in slavery. Slavery is Barbarism. It consists in +holding men to compulsory servitude. The human heart is avaricious; it +gets all it can, and keeps all it gets. Give it complete power over a +human being, and there are no limits to its cupidity and wrong-doing, +but the finite nature of the thing itself. Hence, does it not follow +that there can be no disinterestedness, no tender mercies in slavery? +Yes, dear Aunt, as we are perfectly sure that there can be no water in +the moon, so are we sure, by the same unerring rule of reasoning +according to the inductive philosophy, that there is not one drop of +water in slavery for the parched lips of a dying slave. I stated this to +a member of our Junior Class who is a wonderful metaphysician. He was +kind enough to say that he could discover no flaw in the logic. Your +letter, which, I trust, is now on its way to me, I know will fully +confirm my theory and conclusion. + +This lady had probably been reading some miserable cant about Southern +humanity, for there are people everywhere who take the wrong side of +every subject, from sheer obstinacy. What can disprove the laws of human +nature? They require that things should be at the South as our theories +lay them down. + +In our Institution I mourn to say there is much opposition to the +principles of freedom. Not only so, but the students, many of them, mock +at us who stand up against oppression. + +You may not be aware, dear Aunty, that I have a habit, in walking, of +keeping my hands firmly clenched, and my thumbs laid flat and pressed +down over the knuckles of my forefingers. This, I am aware, gives the +thumbs a flattened look. One of our principal pro-slavery students +delights to laugh at me to my face. Perhaps I am wrong in connecting +everything with this all-absorbing theme, but, truly, my thoughts all +run in that direction. Mother and you were accustomed to send me on +errands when I was little, and you placed your money in my right hand +and mother hers in my left, because, on my return to our house, your +room was on the right hand of the entry. So I used to go along, holding +your respective moneys in my palms, with my thumbs stopping the +apertures. And now I am persecuted for the fidelity which led me to +acquire a habit that cleaves to me to this day. But little did I dream, +dear Aunty, when I padded along like a straight footed animal in the +water, instead of having the free use of my open palms to aid me in +walking, that I was acquiring a habit to be to me an inlet of torture in +behalf of our manacled four millions, whose hands feel the galling bonds +of slavery. I take it joyfully, because it is all for the slave. + +The day that I came home from my two interviews and efforts just +related, a pro-slavery student, a Senior, invited me into his room. He +is exceedingly kind and generous, though, I am sorry to say it, a friend +of oppression. He gave me a splendid apple, the first which I had seen +for the season. He dusted my coat with his feather-duster, and he even +dusted my boots. He asked me how far I had been walking. I told him all +which I had said and done, thinking that it would profitably remind him +of the great subject. He roared with laughter. "Three cheers for +Gustavus;" "isn't that rich;"--waving, all the while, the +feather-duster, and breaking out with fresh peals, as I related one +thing after another. The noise which he made brought in several of the +students from neighboring rooms, and he related my stories to them as +they stood with their thumbs and fingers holding open their text-books +at the places where they were studying. They were a curious looking set, +in their dressing-gowns, slippers, and smoking-caps; and the most of +them, unfortunately, happened to be pro-slavery, and advocates of +oppression; by which I mean, not in favor of my mode of viewing and +treating the subject of slavery. One of them was so amused and excited +that he lost all self-control. He threw down his book, caught me with +his two hands about the waist, and tickled me so that I fell upon the +floor. Then they raised a shout. We have cool nights here, sometimes, in +the warmest weather, and we keep, on the foot-boards of our beds, cotton +comforters, called _delusions_, because they are so downy and light. Two +of the students took the Senior's comforter and laid it on me; then four +of them sat down, one on each corner, to keep me underneath. I have told +you that it was a sultry August day. I thought that I should smother. I +told them so, as well as my choked voice would allow; but one of them +said, in a soft, meek tone, as I writhed in distress, "Hush, Gustavus, +lie still; you are certainly laboring under a delusion." This was all +the more painful from its being so cruelly true, in a literal sense, +while I knew that they had reference to my views with regard to freedom, +in the word "delusion." What sustained me in those moments, dear Aunty? +It was not that I had myself stood by when this trick was played on +Freshmen, and encouraged it by my actions; no, a higher and holier power +than conscience of wrong-doing wrought upon me in those moments. Oh, I +thought, the very cotton which fills this comforter, was cultivated by +the hand of a slave. And shall I complain at being nearly smothered by +it, when I remember what an incubus slavery is to the poor creature who +gathered this cotton, and what an incubus it is to our unhappy land? I +was delivered at last from my load, because my tormentors were tired of +their sport. Would that there were some prospect that they who load +cruel burdens on the slave were increasingly tired of their work! + +They would not, however, let me rise. So, thought I, when we have taken +the burden of slavery off from the poor negro, unholy prejudice against +color keeps him from rising to a level with the rest of the community. I +begged that I might get up. They told me that my morning exertions +required longer rest. I told them that I must get my Greek. Whereupon +one of them stood over me, with his arms raised in a deploring attitude, +and said,-- + + "Sternitur infelix!-- + --Et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." + +This, dear Aunty, is the lamentation of a Latin poet over a Greek +soldier lying prostrate on the battle-field, far from home;--"and dying +he remembers his sweet Greece." So they made game of me with the help of +the Classics, giving poignancy to their jokes by polishing the tips with +classical allusions. While I was under the "delusion," they sung +snatches of Bruce's Address to his army; and when they came to the words + + "Who so base as be a slave?-- + Let him turn and flee," + +one of them ran a cane under the delusion and punched me with it, +keeping stroke to the music. This was little short of profaneness. They +asked me if the chair-maker's harnesses were probably made by free or +slave labor, alluding, unfeelingly, to a mistake which I made in a +recitation one day, when two of those very students had kept me talking +about slavery up to the very moment when the recitation-bell rang, so +that I had not looked at my lesson. There are men in my class, and +these were some of them, who, I am told, are plotting to prevent my +having the first appointment, to which they know that my marks at +recitation entitle me. But may I never be so prejudiced against those +who differ from me on the subject of slavery as to deny them credit for +things which they have fairly earned. I leave this to the avowed enemies +of human rights. For the cause of the slave, I must gain the first +appointment. + +I alluded, just now, to my feelings at witnessing tricks played on the +Freshmen. Had the Sophomores asked my advice before they played those +tricks, I should have dissuaded them; but when they played them, with +such courage and enterprise, I stood before them with admiration. But +while I was under that quilt, I found that I did not admire the +Sophomores at all, any more than I did the Seniors who then had me in +their power. + +The enemies of freedom, in College, had a great triumph the other +evening. One of them, in one of the Literary Societies, read an Original +Poem, the title of which was, "The Fly-time of Freedom." He spoke of +"our glorious summer of Liberty" being infested and pestered with noisy, +provoking things, which he characterized under the names of dor-bugs, +millers, and all those creatures which fly into the room when the lamp +is lighted; the swarms of black gnats which are about your head in the +woods; horse-flies which stick, and leave blood running; and +devil's-darning-needles. One brave man here, a great "friend of +freedom," who, they falsely say, loves to be persecuted, and longs for +martyrdom, and interprets everything that way, he described as a miller, +who seems to court death in the flame. I think he aimed at me in +speaking of soft, harmless bugs which creep over your newspaper or book. +Many faces were turned to me as he repeated these lines. I am sorry to +say the piece was much applauded. It has put back the cause of +emancipation in College, I fear, a term. + +The following introduction to another piece was written, and was read, +at the same meeting, by a member of my own class. I fear that there is a +sly hit intended by the writer, which I do not discern, at somebody, or +something, related to freedom. This I suspected from the applause it +excited on the part of those who I know are the most deadly foes we have +to free institutions. I obtained a copy of this introduction. It will +serve, at least, to show you, dear Aunty, what a variety of topics we +have to excite our minds here in College. You can exercise your +discretion about letting uncle read it, as it is on a subject of some +delicacy. The writer says,-- + +"I am collecting facts from our daily papers illustrating the Barbarism +of Matrimony. My list of wives poisoned, beaten, maimed for life by +their husbands, and of divorces, cruel desertions, the effects on wives +of intemperance in husbands, is truly fearful. I make no question that +there are some happy marriages. But a relation which affords such +peculiar opportunities for cruelty to women, must sooner or later +disappear. No doubt the time will come when marriage will be deemed a +relic of barbarism, and a bridal veil be exhibited as one of the mock +decorations of the unhappy victims. Human nature in man is not good +enough to be trusted with such a responsibility as the happiness of +woman. Let Bachelors of Arts, on our parchments, suggest to us our duty +to aid, through our example, as well as by words, in breaking this +dreadful yoke, bidding those innocent young women who are now, perhaps, +fearfully looking at us as their future oppressors, to be forever free. +In the language of young Hamlet: 'I say, we will have no more +marriages.'" + + * * * * * + +Just before dark one evening, I was sitting in my room, meditating on +the great theme which absorbs my thoughts. My eye was caught by the +bright bolt of my door-lock, the part of the bolt between the lock and +the catch showing, beyond question, that the door was fastened. Some one +on the outside had turned a key upon me. + +I had the self-possession to be quiet, for my mind had been calmed by +reflecting, in that twilight hour, that now one more day of toil for the +poor slaves was over. + +But as I looked at the bolt, my attention was diverted by something near +the top of the door, moving with a strange motion. It was black; it +opened and shut. I drew toward it. I found that it was the leg of a +turkey, the largest that I ever saw. It was held or fastened in the +ventilator over the door, while some one on the outside was evidently +pulling the tendons of the claw, making it open and shut. + +There it performed its tragi-comic gibes for several minutes. + +I resumed my seat, unterrified, of course, and proceeded to turn the +spectre to good account. I addressed it, in a moderate tone; though I +think that I used some gesticulation. Said I: Personation of the +Slave-power! predatory, grasping, black! thinkest thou a panting +fugitive lies hid under my "delusion?" or wouldst thou seize a freeman? +The AEgis of Massachusetts is over me. Gape! Yawn! Thou art powerless; +but thy impudence is sublime.--Ten or fifteen voices then solemnly +chanted these words:-- + + "Emblem of Slavery + Clutching the Free! + We've digested the turkey + That gobbled oil thee. + Sure as THANKSGIVING hastened, + Cock-turkey! thy hour, + Thanksgivings shall blazon + Thy downfall, Slave-power! + + "The Slave-power has talons, + Like Nebuchadnezzar; + Slaves are the Lord's flagons + Our modern Belshazzar + From the Temple of Nature + Has stolen away. + 'Mean!' 'Mean!' be writ o'er him! + Wrath! canst thou de"-- + +Here screams of laughter, and a scampering in the entry, and the +turkey's leg tumbling into my room, ended the trick and their +cantillation. I was wishing to hear, in the next stanza, the idea that +as the tendons of the claw were worked by a foreign power, so slavery at +the South owes its activity to Northern influence. Perhaps it is due to +myself to say that the word scampering, a few lines above, has no +revengeful reference, in its first syllable, to the author of the trick. +The cause of humanity, I find, has a tendency to make one cautious and +charitable in his use of words. + +They have anti-slavery meetings in the village, now and then, which I +attend. All the talent of the place, and the truly good, are there. One +evening, when the excitement rose high, a tall, awkward young man +mounted the stage, and said that he wanted to offer one resolution as a +cap-sheaf. You will infer, dear Aunty, that he was an agriculturist. He +lifted his paper high up in one hand, while his other hand was extended +in the other direction, and so was his foot under that hand. He looked +like Booetes, on the map of the heavens, which we used to take with us, +you know, in studying the comet. "Read it!" "Read it!" said the meeting. +"I will," said he, flinging himself almost round once, in his +excitement, reminding me of a war-dance, and then taking his sublime +attitude again; when he read,-- + +"Resolved, Mr. Cheerman, fact is, that Abolition is everything, and +nuthin' else is nuthin'." + +Some of the younger portion of the audience wished to raise a laugh, but +the reddening, angry faces of the prominent friends of the slave were +turned upon them instantly, and overawed them. + +All were silent for a moment, when the Chairman rose to speak. He was a +short man, with reddish hair, and his teeth were almost constantly +visible, his lips not seeming to be an adequate covering for them. He +had, moreover, a habit of snuffing up with his nose,--in doing which his +upper lip, what there was of it, played its part, and made him show his +teeth by frequent spasms. Being a little bow-legged, he made an awkward +effort in coming to the front of the stage; but we all love him, because +he is such a vigorous friend of freedom, looking as though he would +willingly be executioner of all the oppressors in the land. He said that +he "utterly concurred" with the mover in the spirit of his resolution; +it was not, to be sure, in the usual form of resolutions, but that could +easily be fixed; and he would suggest that it be referred to the +Standing Committee of the Freedom League. "I agree to that," said the +pro-slavery Senior who gave me that entertainment in his room, (but who, +by the way, being a friend of oppression, had no right to speak in a +meeting in behalf of freedom;) "I agree to that," said he, "Mr. +Chairman, and I move that the School-master be added to the Committee." +What a cruel laugh went through the meeting! while the most +distinguished friends of the slave had hard work to control their faces. + +I could not help going to the mover of the resolution after the meeting; +and, laying two fingers of my right hand on his arm, I said, "Don't be +put down; he tried to reproach you for not being college-bred; he had +better get the slaves well educated before he laughs at a Massachusetts +freeman for not being a scholar."--He tossed his black fur-skin cap +half-way to his head, and he wheeled round as he caught it, saying, +"Don't care, liberty's better'n larnin', 'nuff sight."--"Both are good," +said I, "my friend, and we must give them both to the slave."--"Give 'em +the larnin' after y'u've sot 'em free!" said he; "I'll fight for 'em; +don't want to hear nuthin' 'bout nuthin' else but liberty to them that's +bound." He stooped and pulled a long whip and a tin pail from under the +seat of the pew where he had been sitting, making considerable noise, so +that the people, as they passed out, turned, and the sight of him and +his accoutrements made great sport for some whose opinions and feelings +were the least to be regarded. I saw in him, dear Aunty, a fair specimen +of native, inbred love of liberty and hatred of oppression, +unsophisticated, to be relied on in our great contest with the +slave-power. I have been told, since the meeting, that his Christian +name is Isaiah. + +The meeting that evening appointed me a delegate to an Anti-slavery +Convention which is to be held before long. I am expected to represent +the College on the great arena of freedom. They have done me too much +honor. Since my appointment, the students have sent me, anonymously, +through the post-office, resolutions to be presented by me at the +Convention. I have copied them into a book as they came in, and I will +transcribe them for you and send them herewith. The spirit of liberty +is, on the whole, certainly rising among the students. As the blood of +the martyrs is the seed of the Church, I cannot but hope that my trials +in the cause of freedom have wrought good in the Institution. Some who +send in these resolutions privately, are, no doubt, secret friends, +needing a little more courage to face the pro-slavery feeling and +sentiment which are all about them. Some one who read these resolutions +suggested the idea of their being a burlesque. I repudiated the idea at +once. They will commend themselves to you, dear Aunty, I am sure, as +honest and truthful. + +The President called me to his room yesterday, and asked me about the +treatment which I received from those Seniors. While I was telling him +of it, I noticed that he kept his handkerchief close to his face almost +all the time. I thought at first that his nose bled, or that he had a +toothache; but I afterward believed that he was weeping at the story of +my wrongs. A Southerner, in the Junior Class, said he had no doubt that +the President was laughing heartily all the time. None but a minion of +the slave-power could have suggested this idea. The President felt so +much that he merely told me to return to my room. + +But I perceive, by the students with letters and papers in their hands, +that the mail is in. I will add a postscript, if I find a letter from +you; and I will send on the resolutions at once. Write soon, dear Aunty, +to your loving nephew, and to + +Yours for the slave, +Gustavus. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RESOLUTIONS FOR A CONVENTION. + + "Nay, and thou'lt mouth, + I'll rant as well as thou."--HAMLET. + + +I. + +_Resolved_, That the continued practice of wild geese to visit the South +for the winter, flying over free soil--Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill, +Faneuil Hall,--on their way to the land of despotism, cannot be too +loudly deplored by all the friends of freedom in the North; and that the +laws of nature are evidently imperfect in not yielding to the known +anti-slavery sentiments of this great Northern people so far as to make +the instincts of said geese conform to our most sacred antipathies and +detestations. + + +II. + +_Resolved_, That the abolitionists of Maine, and of the British +Provinces, resident near the summer haunts of said geese, be requested +to consider whether measures may not be adopted whereby anti-slavery +tracts, and card-pictures illustrating the atrocious cruelties of +slavery, and appeals to the consciences of the South, or at least +instructions to the colored people as to their right and duty to assert +their liberty, may not be fastened to these birds of passage, to make +them apostles of liberty; so that while they continue to disregard the +bleeding cause of humanity, their very cackle may be converted into lays +of freedom. + + +III. + +Whereas we read in the Revelation a description of the wall of heaven as +having "on the South three gates," a number equal to that assigned to +the North, + +_Resolved_, That this description being in total disregard of the great +modern anti-slavery movement, the book which contains it cannot have +been divinely inspired; and that a true anti-slavery Bible would have +represented those pro-slavery gates as shut, with the inscription over +them: Enter from the North. + + +IV. + +_Resolved_, That the great abolitionist who represents himself in his +speeches as baptizing his dogs, in just ridicule of the baptism of +chattel slaves, is worthy, with his dogs, of a place in the heavens +among the constellations; and that anti-slavery astronomers be requested +to make a Southern constellation for them somewhere near the head of The +Serpent, as rivals to "_Canes Venatici_," which pro-slavery astronomers +no doubt designed, in blasphemous profanation of the heavens, to +represent their bloodhounds hunting fugitive slaves, placing it in +disgusting proximity to our own Northern _Ursa Major_. And the friends +of the slave are hereby invited to make that new constellation their +cynosure, vowing by it, and anti-slavery lovers arranging their +matrimonial engagements, if possible, so as to plight their troth only +when it is in the ascendant. + + +V. + +_Resolved_, That we shall hail it as a sign of progress and an omen for +good, when anti-slavery women, with the sensibility which belongs to +their sex, shall become so interpenetrated with the sentiments of +freedom, that they can distinguish by the sense of taste the oyster +grown in James River, Richmond, Virginia, and handled by the toil-worn +slave, from that which grew on free soil. + + +VI. + +_Resolved_, That our noble anti-slavery poets be requested to compose +sonnets addressed to the whippoorwill, appealing to that sorrowful-tuned +bird by our associations with his name, and by his own historic +relationship to the victims of oppression, to desert the South and to +frequent our woods and pastures in greater numbers, that the +sensibilities of our people may be continually touched by his notes and +his name, so suggestive of the monstrous lash which rules over one half +of this great nation. And the anti-slavery members of the Legislature +are hereby requested to seek legislative enactments whereby the +whippoorwill may be further domiciliated at the North, and be provided +with protection during the winter season. + + +VII. + +_Resolved_, That bobolinks, blue jays, orioles, martins, and swallows, +who visit the rice-fields of the South, and live upon the unrequited +toil of four millions of our fellow-men, should not, upon their return, +be viewed with favor by the friends of equal rights at the North, but +should be destroyed by sportsmen as a sacrifice to outraged humanity. +And no true anti-slavery taxidermist will, in our judgment, be found +willing to stuff the skin of one of those mean and traitorous birds for +any public or private ornithological show-case. + + +VIII. + +_Resolved_, That one subject of great interest, well suited to occupy +the attention of Massachusetts freemen and friends of liberty the +current year, is this: Whether the great whips in Dock Square, Boston, +which stand professedly as signs before the doors of whip-makers' shops, +but are in the very sight of Faneuil Hall, shall be allowed to remain +within that sacred precinct of liberty; and that we tender our thanks to +those who are investigating the question whether the whips were not +originally placed, and are not now maintained, there by the slave-power, +in mockery of our Northern hatred of oppression. + + +IX. + +_Resolved_, That, if it be true that the steel pen which signed the bill +for the removal of a Judge of Probate for doing an accursed duty as U.S. +Commissioner, was taken from the Council Chamber and is now in the +possession of one who has driven it into the edge of his chamber-door +casement, and every night hangs his watch upon it, at the head of his +bed, with the infatuated notion that thereby, through some "most fine +spirit of sense," the tick of a death-watch will disturb the political +dreams of our Massachusetts rulers, we hereby declare that this is most +chimerical and visionary, and that the great party of freedom in +Massachusetts need not feel the slightest apprehension that our rulers +have the least misgivings as to the morality of their conduct in the +removal of said officer, nor that they fear political retribution for +that deed; nor do we believe that the death-watch will ever tick in the +ear of freedom in Massachusetts. + + +X. + +_Resolved_, That in the acquiescence of many at the North in the entire +justice of a universal massacre, by the slaves, of their masters, +including women and children, we recognize a state of preparedness for +the proscription and banishment of all who do not come up to the high +abolition standard; but that in carrying out that project, we ought +first to seek the reclamation of the victims, and therefore that due +inquiry ought to be made concerning the most effective modes of +persuasion, as, for example, thumb-screws, racks, wheels, scorpions, +water-dropping for the head, bags of snakes, tweezers, and steel-pointed +beds, it being apparent that our agony for the slave cannot be satisfied +except by his liberation, or by the forcible subjection to us of all who +oppose it. And we do hereby request all the friends of freedom now +travelling in despotic countries to make inquiry as to the most approved +methods of persuading the mind by appeals to it through the +sensibilities of the flesh, and to be prepared with this information +against the time when the sublime march of abolition philanthropy shall +arrive at the limits of forbearance with all the Northern advocates of +oppression. + + +XI. + +Whereas no one who holds slaves can be a Christian; and whereas Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob were slave-holders, Abraham himself having owned more +slaves than any Southerner; and whereas a synonyme of heaven, in the New +Testament, is "Abraham's bosom;" and whereas no true friend of freedom +can consistently have Christian communion with slave-holders, + +_Resolved_, That we look with deep interest to the introduction among us +of the principles of the Hindoo philosophy and religion (including the +transmigration of souls), through tentative articles in our magazines; +by which there is opening to us a way of escape from that heaven one +exponent of which is, to lie in the bosom of a slave-holder. + + +XII. + +And in conclusion, + +_Be it Resolved_, That Bunker Hill was since Mount Sinai, that Faneuil +Hall is far in advance of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness; and that our +anti-slavery literature is immeasurably beyond epistles to Philemon and +other inspired pro-slavery tracts. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE GOOD NORTHERN LADY'S LETTER FROM THE SOUTH. + + "No haughty gesture marks his gait, + No pompous tone his word; + No studied attitude is seen, + No palling nonsense heard; + He'll suit his bearing to the hour, + Laugh, listen, learn, or teach. + With joyous freedom in his mirth, + And candor in his speech."--ELIZA COOK. + + +[My friend, A. Freeman North, having read the foregoing, returned it +with a hasty note, in pencil, saying, "Please send me the Aunt's reply, +if you have it, or can procure it." I accordingly sent it, and we have +it here.] + +MY DEAR NEPHEW,-- + +Your letter came while we had gone into the country for a fortnight. +Hattie is much improved, and I trust will soon be well. I gave her your +letter to read. She told me that she could not find it in her heart to +wonder at you for it; for once she should probably have written very +much in the same strain. + +It was Easter Monday afternoon when our steamboat reached the wharf. We +took an open carriage and drove toward the hotel. As we reached the +centre of the city, the place seemed to be full of colored people, who +evidently had just come out of their meeting-houses. This was our first +view of the blacks. Our driver had to stop frequently while they were +crossing the streets, and we had full opportunity to enjoy the sight. +Hattie exclaimed, after looking at them a few moments,-- + +"Why, Uncle, they are human beings!" + +"What did you suppose they were?" said he. + +"Uncle," said she, "these cannot be slaves. Where do you suppose the +yokes are?" + +"Now, Hattie," said he, "you were not so simple as to suppose that they +wore yokes, like wild cows and swine." + +"Why," said she, "our papers are always telling about their being +'reduced to a level with brutes,' and every Sabbath since I was a child, +it seems to me, I have heard the prayer, 'Break every yoke!' Last Sabbath +our minister, you remember, said, 'Abraham was a slave-holder, David a +murderer, and Peter lied and swore.' Why, Uncle, these black people look +like gentlemen and ladies! If slave-holders are like murderers and +thieves, these cannot be their slaves!" + +"Ask that elderly gentleman," said your Uncle. He was stopping for our +carriage to pass,--a portly man, with a ruffled shirt, and a +rich-looking cane, the end of which he kept on the ground, holding the +top of it at some distance from him. + +"Please, sir, will you tell me if these are the slaves?" said Hattie. + +He looked round, while he kept his arm and the top of his cane +describing large arcs of a circle. + +"They are our colored people, Miss," said he, exchanging a smile with +your Uncle and me. + +"Well, sir," said Hattie, more earnestly than before, "are they +slaves?" + +He politely nodded assent, but was apparently interested by something +which caught his eye. He then took out a snuff-box, and, looking round +about him while opening it, said,-- + +"Some of them dress too much, Miss,--too much, altogether." + +"Kid gloves of all colors," said Hattie, soliloquizing. "Red morocco +Bibles and hymn-books. What a white cloud of a turban! Part of the +choir, I take it,--those, with their singing-books. Elegant spruce young +fellow, isn't he, Aunt? with the violoncello. Venerable old couple, +there! over eighty, both of them. Well," continued Hattie, "I will give +up, if these are the slaves." + +"Don't make up your mind too suddenly," said your Uncle; "you will see +other things." + +"Uncle," said she, "what I have seen here in fifteen minutes shows me +that at least one half of that which I have learned at the North about +the slaves is false. Our novels and newspapers are all the time +misleading us." + +"And yet," said your Uncle, "perhaps everything they say may be true by +itself; it may have happened." + +"Why, Aunt," said she, "such a load is gone from my mind since looking +upon these colored people that I feel almost well. Why, there's a +wedding!" said she. "Driver, do stop! Uncle, please let us go in." + +They left me, and went into a meeting-house, where a black bridegroom, +in a blue broadcloth suit, white waistcoat, kid gloves, patent-leather +shoes, and white hose, and an ebony bride, in white muslin caught up +with jessamines, and a myrtle wreath on her head, had gone in, followed +by a train of colored people. The white people, invited guests, it +seems, were already assembled. The sexton told your Uncle that the +parties were servants, each to a respectable family. This was a new +picture to Hattie. She said that in looking back to the steamboat, an +hour ago, the revelations made to her by what she had seen and heard, in +that short time, all new, all surprising and delightful, afforded her +some idea of the sensations of a soul after it has been one hour within +the veil. We sat in the carriage, and saw the procession pass out, when +the choir, who had been in the church before the wedding, practising +tunes, resumed their singing. + +"Now the idea," said Hattie, after we had listened awhile, "that they +can forget that they are slaves long enough to meet and practise +psalm-tunes!" + +"You evidently think," said your Uncle, "that they would not sing the +Lord's songs, if this were to them a strange land." + +"They certainly have not hung their harps upon the willows by these +rivers of Babylon," said Hattie. + +"Why, some of our people at the North are to-day writhing in anguish, +because of these slaves, and are imprecating God's vengeance, and +praying that the slaves may get their liberty, even by violence, while +the slaves themselves are practising psalm-tunes!"-- + +"And getting married," said your Uncle. + +"Yes, Sir," said Hattie, "and this week our ---- paper will come to us +from New York loaded with articles about 'bondage' and 'sum of all +villanies,' and 'poor, toil-worn slaves.' Toil-worn! I never saw such a +lively set of people. Do see that little mite of a round black child, in +black jacket and pants; he looks like a drop of ink; Oh, isn't he +cunning! Little boy! what is your"-- + +"Come, come!" said your Uncle, "you are getting too much excited; you +will pay for all this to-morrow with one of your headaches." + +But a new surprise awaited us. The driver stopped opposite a large, +plain-looking building, and told us that we had better step in. On +entering, we involuntarily started back, for I never saw a house more +densely filled; and all were blacks. It was a sable cloud; but the sun +was in it. The choir were singing a select piece. The principal +_soprano_, an elegant-looking black girl, dressed in perfect taste, held +her book from her in her very small hand covered with a straw-colored +glove. The singing was charming. We asked a white-headed negro in the +vestibule what was going on. + +"Why, it is Easter Monday, Missis." + +"Is this an Episcopal church?" + +"No; Baptist." + +"What are all these people here for?" said your Uncle. + +"Why, to worship, Sir, I hope. It's holiday." + +"Do they go to church, holidays?" + +"Why," said he, with a smile and bow, "some of the best of 'em, p'raps." + +We returned to the carriage. + +"Think," said your uncle, "of two thousand people at the North spending +a part of 'Artillery Election Day' in Boston, for example, in going to +church!" + +"Well," said Hattie, "if I were not to live another day, I would bless +God for having let me live to see these things. I am so glad to find +people happy who I had supposed were weeping and wailing." + +We admonished her that she had not seen the whole of slavery. + +A very interesting coincidence happened to us the next day. We took tea +at Rev. Mr. ----'s. A splendid bride-cake adorned the table. As Hattie +was admiring the ornaments on the cake, the lady of the clergyman smiled +and said,-- + +"This is from a colored wedding." + +Sure enough, that black bride whom we saw the day before had sent her +minister's wife this loaf. Said Miss ----, "I was hurrying to get a silk +dress made last week, but my dressmaker put me off, because she was +working for Phillis B.'s wedding." + +We both gave a glance at Hattie. She sat gazing at Miss ----, her lips +partly open, her eyes moistened,--a picture in which delight and +incredulity were in pleasant strife. + + * * * * * + +We have been in the interior a fortnight. One thing filled me with +astonishment, soon after I came here, namely, to find widow ladies and +their daughters, all through the interior of Southern States, living +remote from other habitations, surrounded by twenty, fifty, or a hundred +slaves. Hattie and I spent a week with a widow lady, whose head slave +was her overseer. There was not a white man within a mile of the house. +More than twenty black men, slaves, were in the negro quarter. I awoke +the first night, and said to Hattie,-- + +"Do you know that you are 'sleeping on a volcano'?" + +"What do you mean, Aunt? You frighten me." + +"Well, it will not make an eruption to-night," said I. "We will examine +into it to-morrow." + +At breakfast I asked the lady how she dared to live so. I told her that +we at the North generally fancied Southern people sleeping on their +arms, expecting any night to be murdered by their slaves. + +"It ought to be so, ought it not?" said she, "according to your Northern +theory of slavery; and it may get to be so, if your people persist in +some of their ways. My only fear is of some white men who live about two +miles off. I keep two of my men-servants in the house at night as a +protection against white depredators." + +"But," said Hattie, "there have been insurrections. Are you not afraid +that your slaves will rise and assert their liberty?" + +The lady smiled and was evidently hesitating whether to answer seriously +or not, when Hattie continued,-- + +"Aunt! now I see what you meant by our sleeping on a volcano." + +"Yes," said I, "we at the North often speak of you Southerners as +sleeping on a volcano. Our idea is that the blacks here are prisoners, +stealing about in a sulky mood, vengeance brooding in their hearts, and +that they wait for their time of deliverance, as prisoners in our +state-prison watch their chance to escape." + +"Well," said she, "believe I am the only slave on the premises. I am +sure that no one but myself is watching for a chance to escape. I would +run away from these people if I could. But what shall I do with them? I +am not willing to sell them, for when I have hinted at leaving, there is +such entreaty for me to remain, and such demonstrations of affection and +attachment, that I give it up. + +"Here," said she, "are seven house-servants, large and small, to do work +which at the North a man and two capable girls would easily do. I have +to devise ways to subdivide work and give each a share. My husband +carried it so far that he had one boy to black boots and another shoes, +and these two 'bureaus' were kept separate." + +"Oh," said I, "what a curse slavery is to you!" + +"As to that," said she, "it is the negroes who are a curse, not their +slavery. So long as they are on the same soil with us, the subordination +which slavery establishes makes it the least of two evils. If there is +any curse in the case, it is the blacks themselves, not their slavery. +Were it not for their enslavement to us, we should hate them and drive +them away, like Indiana and Illinois and Oregon and Kansas. Now we +cherish them, and their interests are ours. + +"Two distinct races," said she, "never have been able to live together +unless one was subordinate and dependent. This, you know, all history +teaches. Your fanatics say it should not be so; they talk about liberty, +equality, and fraternity, and put guns and pikes into the hands of the +inferior race, here, to help them 'rise in the scale of being,' as they +term it. What God means to accomplish in this matter of slavery I do not +see. + +"Suppose, merely for illustration," said she, "that cotton should be +superseded. Vast numbers of our slaves might then be useless here. What +would become of them? We should implore the North to relieve us of them, +in part. Then would rise up the Northern antipathy to the negro, +stronger, probably, in the abolitionist than in the pro-slavery man; and +as we sought to remove the negroes northward and westward, the Free +States would invoke the Supreme Court, and the Dred Scott decision, and +then we should see, with a witness, whether the black man has 'any +rights' on free soil 'which the' original settlers 'are bound to +respect.' Think of bleeding Kansas, even, refusing to incorporate +negro-suffrage in her constitution, when left free to follow the +dictates of common sense, and a wise self-interest. I sometimes think +that that one thing, as a philosophical fact, is worth all the trouble +which Kansas has cost. It cannot be 'unholy prejudice against color.' It +is human nature asserting the laws which God has established in it. + +"I never," said she, "find abolitionists quoting the whole of the verse +which says: 'and hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth.'" + +"What," said I, "do they leave out?" + +"'And hath fixed the bounds of their habitations,' are some of the next +words," said she. + +But you will tire of this. I will resume my story. I will only say that +I told the lady that some of my gentleman friends would call her a +strong-minded woman. + + * * * * * + +Your letter made me think of something which happened to a lady, a +fellow-traveller of ours, a few weeks, ago. She came here to visit a +lady whose husband owns one hundred and fifty slaves. The morning after +she reached the plantation, as she told me, she was awaked by the +cracking of whips. She listened; human voices, raised above the ordinary +pitch, were mingling with the sounds. She lay till she could endure it +no longer. Coming down to the piazza, she saw a white man mending a +harness on a horse. "Those whips," said she, inquiringly,--"they have +rather interfered with my peace. Any of the colored people been doing +wrong?" He hesitated, and kept on fixing his harness, till, finally, he +turned round,--for he had been standing with his back to her and, as she +supposed, to hide his chagrin at being questioned on so trying a +subject. "Truth is, Madam," said he, taking a large piece of tobacco and +a knife from his pocket, and helping himself slowly,--"truth is, we have +so much of this work to do, we have to begin early. Sorry it disturbed +you;" and he gathered up the reins and drove off. + +The whips kept up their racket. "Here," said she to herself, "is the +house of Bondage. How can I spend a month here?" She thought that she +would peep round the house. Yet she feared that she should be considered +as intruding into things which she had better not meddle with. But the +screams became so fearful that she could no longer restrain herself. She +rushed round the corner of the house, and came full against a black +woman rinsing some fustian clothes in a tub near the rain-spout. "Do +dear tell me," said she, "what they are doing to those people. Who is +whipping them? What have they done?" The black woman stopped, and looked +round without taking her hands from her tub, and then said, as she went +on rinsing, "Lorfull help you, Missis, dem's de young uns scaring de +birds out of de grain." + +What bliss there was to her in that moment of relief! Six or eight +little negroes were sauntering about at their morning work, each having +a rude whip, with tape for a snapper, interrupting the hungry birds at +their breakfast. + +I expected to see a wretched, down-trodden, alms-house looking set of +creatures; for the word _slave_, and all the changes which are rung on +that word, made me think only of people who are convicts, such as you +see in the state-prison yard at Charlestown, Mass. I never expected that +they would look me in the face, but would skulk by me as a spy or enemy. +A Christian heart is overjoyed to find what religion and society have +done for these colored people. If one who had never heard of "slavery" +should be set down here, the Northern idea of "bondage" would not soon +occur to him. + +In the Presbytery which includes Charleston, S.C., there are two +thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine church-members, and of these one +thousand six hundred-and thirty-seven, more than one half, are colored. +In State Street, Mobile, there is a colored Methodist Church who pay +their minister, from their own money, twelve hundred dollars a year. Not +long since they took up a voluntary contribution for Home Missions, +amounting to one hundred and twenty dollars. Their preacher was sent by +the Conference, according to rotation, into another field, and the +blacks presented him with a valuable suit of clothes. + +You see things here, good and evil, side by side, and mixed up together, +one thing counterbalancing another. If you reason theoretically upon +this subject, as you do "about the moon," to quote from your letter, it +is enough to make one almost a lunatic, and I do not wonder that some of +our good people at the North, who pore over this subject in this way, +are on the borders of insanity. + +My great mistake at the North with regard to this subject of slavery +was, I reasoned about it in the abstract, instead of considering it in +connection with those who are slaves under our laws, bound up with us in +our civil constitution. Things might be true or false, right or wrong, +in connection with the enslavement of a race who had never been slaves, +which cannot be applied to the colored people of the South. Hence, the +arguments and the appeals founded on the wrongfulness of reducing you or +me to slavery are obviously misapplied when used to urge the +emancipation of these slaves. Moreover, my thoughts about slavery were +governed by my associations with the word _slave_, in its worst sense. +This is wholly wrong, and it is the source of most of our mistakes on +this subject. + +Dreadful things happen here to some of the slaves in the hands of +passionate men. One slave who had run away was caught, and was beaten +for a long time, and melted turpentine was then poured upon his wounds. +He lingered for several hours. But the horror and execration which this +deed met with were no greater at the North than at the South. It cannot +be denied that slavery, as well as marriage, affords peculiar +provocations and facilities for cruel deeds,--according to the doctrine +of your friend and fellow-Sophomore. But in which section there is the +more of unpunished wickedness, I am slow to pronounce, for I do not wish +to condemn my own people, nor to justify others in their sins. An +excellent minister in Cincinnati not long since preached a sermon on +murder, in which he stated that "during his residence in that city, +there had been more than one hundred murders, or an average of two a +month, while in no instance had the perpetrator been executed." Reading +lately of a husband at the North throwing oil of vitriol from a bottle, +filled for the purpose, over his wife's face and neck, and of a Northern +clergyman feeding his young wife, as she sat on his knee, with apple on +which he had sprinkled arsenic, I questioned whether human nature were +not about the same everywhere. The theoretical right of a master, in +certain cases, to put his slave to death, without judge or jury, is +controlled by the self-interest of the owner who, of course, does not +recklessly destroy his own property. The slave-codes are no just +exponent of the actual state of things in slavery. For example,--by law +a master may not furnish his slave with less than a peck of corn a week. +This has a barbarous look. But to see the slaves feasting on the fat of +the land you certainly would not be reminded of the "peck of corn," +except by contrast. There must be some legal standard, below which if +an inhuman master falls in providing for his servant, he can be +prosecuted. Hence the "peck of corn." By the will of an eminent citizen +at the North, establishing courses of lectures for all coming time, the +pay of each lecturer is to be determined by the market value, at the +time, of a bushel of wheat. This is a fair standard for the unit of +measure. + +In arguing with one who should insist that the abuses in slavery are a +reason for breaking up the institution in this country, I should feel +justified in maintaining that there are as many instances of a happy +relation between, master and servant in the Southern country as there +are happy marriages in the same number of households anywhere. Let there +be four millions of an inferior, dependent race mixed up with a superior +race, anywhere on earth, and of course, while human nature is what it +is, there will be hardships, wrong-doings, oppressions, and barbarisms. +At the North, we get scraps of anguish in the newspapers relating to +hardships at the South; and many pore upon them till they make +themselves half-crazed. All the circumstances serving to qualify the +narrative are sometimes withheld, and the stories are told with dramatic +art. There is sorrow enough everywhere to furnish material for such kind +of writing, especially to those who make it their calling, or find it +for their interest, to publish it. But the goings-on of life, at the +South, with its alleviations and comforts, the practical mitigations of +an oppressive system, theoretical evils qualified by difference of +color, constitution, and history, and all the goodness and mercy which +Christianity and a well-ordered state of society provide, we at the +North do not see. Nor do our people consider that running away, and the +complaints of the slaves, are partly chargeable to the discontent and +restlessness of human nature; but we seem to take it for granted that +every one who flees from the South is as though he had escaped from a +prison-ship. + +While at the North, I remember reading an article, signed with initials, +in a prominent Massachusetts magazine, which contained this sentence: +"Arsenic is universally in possession of the negroes; but it is +considered the part of wisdom, where families are poisoned, that the +fact should be kept as secret as possible." This was brought very +powerfully to my mind one day on passing through King Street, in +Charleston, and seeing for a painted sign over an apothecary's shop, a +tall, benevolent-looking negro, in his shirt sleeves, behind a golden +mortar, with the pestle in his hands, as though at work. + +Now, I thought with myself, as I stood and enjoyed the sight, what a +palpable and eloquent, though undesigned and silent, refutation that is, +of all such Northern chimeras. If poisons are mixed with articles of +food or medicine by the negroes with any noticeable frequency, the sign +of a negro compounding medicines for public sale would surely be, to +customers, the most detersive sign which an apothecary could erect over +his premises. That little incident, and things like it, which are +meeting you at every turn, show the state of things here to be in +pleasing contrast to the horrors with which the imaginations of many of +us Northerners are peopled. I find, in the "Charleston Mercury," a good +cut of this "negro and golden mortar," and I send it to you as an +appropriate answer to much of your letter. + +Our landlord, driving us about the country the other day, and needing +silver change, came to a gang of slaves in a field, and cried out, +"Boys, got any silver for a five dollar gold piece?" Several hands went +into as many pockets, at once, and a lively fellow among them getting +the start, jumped over the fence, and changed the money. I had been here +a month when I received your letter, and when I read it I at first +laughed as heartily, I suspect, as "the pro-slavery Senior" did. Then I +pitied you, and I pitied myself for my own former ignorance, and I +pitied very many of our Northern people, and, not the least, such +persons as poor "Isaiah," who I know are honest, but are grievously +misled. The word slavery is, to us, an awful word. Very much of our +anti-slavery feeling is a perfectly natural instinct. You cannot see +Java sparrows in a cage, nor even a mother-hen tied to her coop, without +a lurking wish to give them liberty. On thinking of being "a slave," we +immediately make the case our own, and imagine what it would be for us +to be in bondage to the will of another. We cannot easily be convinced +that this is not exactly parallel with being one of the slaves at the +South, nor that to be a slave does not have these things for its +inseparable conditions, which, we imagine, are always obtruding their +direful visages; namely, "auction-block," "overseer," "whip," +"chattelism," "separations," "down-trodden," "cattle." Hence it is easy +for orators and preachers to work on our sympathies. There are scattered +facts enough to justify any tale which any public speaker chooses to +relate. I confess that my respect for many of our Northern people has +not risen, as I see them from this point of view. They ought not to be +so easily duped, so ready to believe evil, so quickly carried away by +partial representations, and so unwilling to take comprehensive views of +such a subject as this. I condemn myself in speaking thus; I partly +blame the novel-writers, and the editors of party papers, and political +leaders. But we ought at the North to understand this subject better, +to listen willingly to information from great and good men who have +spent their lives among the slaves, and to discriminate between the evil +and the good. The result may be that we shall not change our inbred +views, nor cease to dissent from those who advocate slavery as a +necessary means of civilization in its highest forms; but we shall +certainly differ from those who declare it to be, practically, an +unmitigated curse to all concerned. I am often made to wish that the +Southerners could be relieved of our Northern hostility and its effects +upon them, just to see them laboring, as they then would, to correct +certain evils which ought to be redressed. We are all apt to neglect our +duty, more or less, when we are suffering abuse. + +Educate this people, some years longer, in the way in which they are +going on, and they cannot be slaves in any objectionable sense. Tens of +thousands of them, now, are not slaves in any such sense, and they never +can be; they could not be recklessly sold at auction; the owners would +revolt at it, and those in want of servants would meet with great +competition in obtaining such as these. A church-member who should +separate husband and wife for no fault, would be disciplined at the +South as surely as for inhumanity at the North. But oh, we say at the +North, only to think, that all those fine-looking people whom Hattie saw +from the barouche, that Monday afternoon, were liable on Tuesday morning +to have their kid gloves and finery taken from them, and to be marched +off to the auction-block! Hence our commiseration. And it is a most +groundless commiseration. + +One thing is especially impressed on my mind. There being sins and evils +in slavery, as all confess, there are men and women here who are +perfectly competent to manage them without our help. There is nothing +that seems to me more offensive than our self-righteousness, as I must +call it, at the North, in exalting ourselves above our fathers and +brethren of all Christian denominations at the South; as though there +were no conscience, no Christian sensibility, no piety here, but it must +all be supplied from the North. When I hear these Southern ministers +preach and pray, and see them laboring for the colored people, and then +think of our designation of ourselves at the North, "friends of the +slave," and remember that all our anti-slavery influence has been +positively injurious to the best interests of the slave at the South, I +have frequently been led to exclaim, What an inestimable blessing it +would be to this colored race, and to our whole land, if anti-slavery, +in the offensive sense of that word, could at once and forever cease! +and I have as often questioned in my own mind whether slavery has not +been, and is not now, the occasion of more sin at the North than at the +South, and whether we at the North are not more displeasing in the sight +of God for the things which are said and done there, in connection with +anti-slavery, than the South with all the sins and evils incident to +slave-holding. I am coming to this belief. + +The people who most frequently excite my commiseration are the free +blacks. They are "scattered and peeled." The Free States dread their +coming; they cannot rise in the Slave States. Even the slaves look down +upon them, sometimes. "Who are you?" said a slave to a free black, in my +hearing; "you don't belong to anybody!" Some States have given them +notice to quit, within a specified time, or they must be sold. Some here +insist that slavery is the only proper condition for the blacks, and +they would reduce them back to bondage. Others remonstrate at this as +cruel. Surely it is a choice of evils for them, to be free, or to be +slaves, if they remain here. There is one thought that affords a ray of +consolation,--they are better off, in either condition, than they once +were in Africa. It is unquestionable to my mind that their relation to +the whites, even in bondage, is, as the general rule, mercy to them, +while they are on the same soil with the whites. Allow it to be +theoretically wrong to be a slave,--it is, under existing circumstances, +protection and a blessing, compared with any arrangement which has yet +been proposed. I have not sufficient patience to argue with those, North +or South, who contend for slavery as a normal condition. I should be +called at the North "pro-slavery;" but the North is in a passion on this +subject. I am not, and I never can be, an advocate for this relation, in +itself, but as a present necessity. + +I once heard a speaker at an anti-slavery meeting at home say, "They +tell us how elevated the blacks are, how intelligent, how pious; that +shows how fit they are for freedom, how wrong it is to hold such people +in bondage. As much as you raise the slaves in our opinion, you deepen +the guilt of the slave-holder." + +This used to dwell much on my mind. I see the thing differently now. You +remember your Uncle Enoch, from Madras, who made your first Malay kite. +I remember a fable which he told you when he was flying the kite for the +first time. "A kite," he said, "high in the air, reasoned thus: If, +notwithstanding this string, I fly so high, what would I not do, if I +could break away! It gave a dash and became free, and was soon in the +woods." I do not mean to strain the comparison; but, certainly, a +_string_ has raised, and now keeps up, the colored race, here. How they +would do, if the string were cut, let wiser heads than mine decide. +They cannot have my scissors, at present. + +The way to be friends of the slave, I now see, is to be the real friends +of their masters, and to pray that the influences of truth and love may +fill their hearts. Where this is the case, the slaves, as a laboring +class, are better off than any separate class of laboring people on +earth, both for this world and the next. + +As to setting them free at once and indiscriminately, it would be as +unjust to them as it originally was to steal them from Africa. So it +appears to me. What God means to do with them, no one can tell. That He +has been doing a marvellous work of mercy for the poor creatures is +manifest. They were slaves at home; they have changed their situation to +their benefit. I have made up my mind to leave this great problem--the +destiny of the blacks--to my Maker, and, in the mean time, pray in +behalf of the owners, that they may have a heart to act toward them +according to the golden rule. I am glad that I am not oppressed with the +responsibility of ownership. Those who assume it should be encouraged by +us to treat their charge as a trust committed to them for a season. I do +not argue, much less plead, for the continuance of this system; it may +be abolished very soon, but that is with Providence. I have acquired no +feelings toward the institution which would not lead me to rejoice in +emancipation the moment that it would be for the good of the colored +people. + +You are looking for my letter to furnish you with details of horrors in +slavery. Wherever poor human nature is, there you will find imperfection +and sin; and of course power over others is always liable to great +abuses. If I were to follow the plan of those who collect the horrors +of slavery and spread them out before our Northern friends, but should +gather merely the beautiful and touching incidents which I meet with, +and which are related to me, I could make people think that slavery is +not an evil. But I have not seen an intelligent Southerner who, +admitting all that we had said about the happiness of the slaves as a +class, did not go far beyond me in declaring that the presence of a +subject, abject race, cannot fail to be an evil. There is not an +ultraist at the North, whom, if he had their confidence, and were not +put in antagonism to him, the Southerners could not make ashamed, and +put to silence, by telling him evil things about slavery, which he had +never contemplated, and by admitting most fully things which he would +expect them to deny. But they are placed in a false position by his +clamor and anger, which set them against him and his doctrines. They +say, "Allowing all that the North asserts, here are the colored people +on our hands; what are we to do with them?" Not one of the Northern +"friends of the slave," nor all of them together, have ever proposed a +feasible plan with regard to the disposal of the slaves, which would be +kind or even humane to the blacks. Moreover, theoretical arguments +against slavery, and representations of it, from many quarters, are so +palpably wrong, that replies to them and refutations are counted by us +at the North as defences of "oppression;" which they were never designed +to be. I am surprised at the extent and depth of real anti-slavery +feeling at the South. Sometimes I question whether Providence is not +permitting the antagonism of the North and South to continue just to +compel the South to hold these colored people in connection with +themselves for their good, until God's purposes of mercy for them are +accomplished, and "the time, times and half a time" of their captivity +is fulfilled. If Northern resistance to slavery had ceased, perhaps the +South would have rid herself of the blacks sooner than would have been +for their good. + +I hope that you will not think me "a strong-minded woman" in what I here +repeat to you of the opinions and expressions which I have gathered in +listening to the conversation of intelligent people on this subject. I +write these things for your instruction, and also as memoranda for my +own future use. + +It is a cherished idea with many excellent people that the time will +come when there will not be a slave in this land, nor on the earth. If +they mean by this that the time will come when every man in every face +will see a brother and a friend, it is certainly true. But if they mean +by it that ownership in man will come to an end, their opinion and +prophecy are as good as those of men who should undertake to differ from +them, and no better; while both would be entirely presumptuous in being +positive on such a subject. Some people seem to think that, in the good +time coming, it is as though we should dwell out-of-doors, among flowers +and fruits, with few wants, these being supplied by the spontaneous +offerings of nature. + +Others, however, suppose that we shall still need some to shovel, take +care of horses, work over the fire the greater part of the day in +preparing food, go of errands, and, in short, be a serving class. They +suppose that the same sovereign God which distributes instincts, and +wisdom, variously, to animals, and gifts of understanding to men, will, +in the same sovereign way, create men and women with such degrees of +capacity and susceptibility as will lead inevitably to their being +superiors and inferiors, and that this will be, as it is now where love +and kindness reign, the source of the greatest happiness to all +concerned. + +This being so, none of us will venture to say that no one of the +existing races of men will, to the end of time, be of such gentle, +dependent natures as to find their highest happiness and welfare in +being, generally, in the capacity of servants. Some of all races, we do +not object, may be servants to the end of time. No one will say to his +Maker that it will be unjust for Him to put a whole race of men forever +in that serving condition, making them, according to their capacity, +most happy in being so. For "Who hath been His counsellor?" That the +Africans are under a cloud of God's mysterious providence, no one +denies. I will not dictate to my Maker when He shall remove that cloud, +while I still endeavor to mitigate the effects of it upon my +fellow-creatures, the blacks. I do not know that he may not perpetuate, +to the end of time, a relationship of dependency to other races in this +African race. I know nothing about it. But I always feel impelled to say +these things, when I hear good men confidently predicting that ownership +in man will soon and forever come to an end. I reply, It may be in the +highest measure necessary to the happiness of the human family, at its +best estate, that one race, or that races, should be in the relation of +inferiors, finding their very best advantage in the relative place which +a sovereign God has assigned them in the scale of intelligence, by +holding that relation to the end of time. Of course it would cease to be +a curse; it would become one of those subordinate parts in the great +orchestral music of life which subdue and soften it for the highest +effect. If any one gets angry at such an idea, I leave him to his +folly; for he is angry without a cause at me, who have, in this idea, +expressed no wish that it may be true; and he is angry that his Maker +should do a thing which contradicts his pet notions about "freedom." But +the singular fact of slavery in this land, continued and defended under +all political changes, and now having the prospect of being more firmly +established than ever by means of our great national commotion on this +subject, is enough to make a serious mind reflect whether it be wholly +the work of Satan, or whether the providence of God be not concerned in +this great and difficult problem. + +It is certainly remarkable that religion, which once gained such a +footing in Africa, so soon and entirely died out there, but that the +Africans, transported to our land, are of all races the most susceptible +to religious influences. If we should visit a foreign missionary field, +and learn that the mission had been blessed to the extent which has +characterized the labors of Christians at the South for their slaves, of +whom, according to the "Educational Journal," Forsyth, Ga., there are +now four hundred and sixty-five thousand connected with the churches of +all denominations, we should regard it as the chief of all the works of +God in connection with modern missions. It is this providential and +Christian view of slavery which quiets my mind. Now, suppose that, +contemplating a foreign missionary field where such results should be +found, one should object: "But there are evils there; people do not all +treat their dependants as they ought; hardships, cruelties, and some +barbarisms remain;"--we should not, I apprehend, proceed to scuttle such +a ship to drown the vermin. But I can see that Satan must be in great +wrath to find himself spoiled of so many subjects. One stronger than he +has brought here hundreds of thousands, who, in Africa, would have +perished forever, but who are now civilized and Christianized. Satan +would be glad, I think, to see American slavery come to an end. We have +no right to go and steal people in order to convert them; the salvation +of these slaves will not, in one iota, extenuate the guilt and +punishment of those who were engaged in the slave-trade. But "the wrath +of men shall praise Thee." In the writings of anti-slavery men I do not +remember to have met with cordial acknowledgments of what religion has +done for the slaves at the South. They coldly admit the fact, but often +they speak disparagingly of the negro's religion, which is full as good +as that of converts in our foreign missionary fields, as good, judging +from some things in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, as that of some +converts to whom he wrote. Our Northern anti-slavery people cannot bear +to have anything good discovered or praised in connection with slavery. + +My own hopeful persuasion is, that great and marvellous works of Divine +Providence and grace are in reserve for the African people in their own +land, and that we are to prove to have been their educators. Most +sincerely do I hope, however, that the number of scholars and future +propagators of religion and civilization, imported here from Africa, +will not need to be increased, considering that one hundred and fifty +per cent. of deaths by violence take place in procuring a given number +of slaves. This is but one objection; others are sufficiently obvious. +Both parts of that passage of Scripture are exceedingly interesting: +"Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands +unto God." Egypt, the basest of kingdoms, shall yet send forth +first-rate men; and Ethiopia, even, shall be the worshipper of God. I +hope that these prophecies, though fulfilled once, are yet to have their +great accomplishment. This is my persuasion, and I trust that every +nation will be independent; but I shall not discard the Bible, if my +interpretation and hope should fail. Ethiopia is certainly stretching +out her hands unto God in our Southern country. + +Hattie received some papers for children from a young friend at the +North, last week. After attending the colored Sabbath-school in ----, +and teaching a class of nicely-dressed, bright little "slave" girls, and +hearing the school sing their beautiful songs, with melodious voices, +such as, I can truly say, I never heard surpassed at the North, and +after looking upon the teachers, who represented the very flower of +Southern society, the superintendent being a man who would adorn any +station, you cannot fully conceive with what feelings I read, in one of +Hattie's little papers from the North, these lines, set to music for the +use of Northern children: + + "I dwell where the sun shines gayly and bright, + Where flowers of rich beauty are ever in sight; + Here blooms the magnolia, here orange-trees wave; + But oh, not for _me_,--I'm a poor little slave. + + "They say 'Sunny South' is the name of my home; + 'Tis here that your robins and blue-birds are come, + While snows cover nests up, and angry winds rave; + _They_ may rest here,--not _I_; _I'm_ a poor little slave. + + "Here beautiful mothers, 'mid splendors untold. + Their fairy-like babes to their fond bosoms fold; + My mammy's worked out, and lies here in the grave; + There's none to kiss _me_,--I'm a poor little slave. + + "I've heard mistress telling her sweet little son, + What Jesus, the loving, for children has done; + Perhaps little black ones he also will save; + I ask him to take _me_, a poor little slave!" + +No wonder, Gustavus, that you write such letters as your last, fed and +nourished as you are on such things as this. I took it with me that +evening to a missionary party at the house of Judge ----. I read the +lines. The ladies said nothing for a time, till at last one said to me, +"Such things have helped us in seceding." The Judge took the lines, +looked them over, and, smiling, handed them back to me, saying, "Madam, +is Massachusetts a dark place?" "Yes," said a young gentleman, "and the +dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." "Oh," +said I, "how prejudiced you all are!" Whereupon they all laughed. "Now," +said I, "you think, no doubt, that the author of such a piece is malign. +I know nothing of its origin, but I venture to say it was written by one +whose heart overflows with love to everybody, but who is 'laboring under +a delusion.'" I did not tell them of the "delusion" which you were +"under," in the Senior's room, but I said, "I have a nephew in a New +England college who has the Northern evil very badly. But he is so very +kind. Set him to write poetry about the South and he would produce just +such lamentable stanzas." Nothing will cure these fancies, about oranges +and magnolias not blooming for the little negroes, so well as to bring +these good people where they can see them pelting one another with +oranges, such as these poets never dreamed of, and making money by +selling magnolias to passengers at the railway stations. + +"Here beautiful mothers, 'mid splendors untold," etc. I went with the +wife of a planter to her "Maternal Association" of slave-mothers. She +gathers the fifteen mothers among her servants once a fortnight, and +spends an afternoon talking to them about the education of their +children, and reading to them; and when she knelt with them and prayed, +I cried so all the time that I hardly heard anything. Oh what a tale of +love was that Maternal Association! "Here beautiful mothers 'mid +splendors untold," etc.;--those words kept themselves in my thoughts. +Now tell this to some great "friend of the slave," in Massachusetts, and +what will he say?--"All very good, I dare say; hope she will go a little +further, and give those fifteen their liberty." I sometimes say, "Must I +go back to the North, and hear and read such things?" + +Yes, it is such things as these, simple and inconsiderable as you may +deem them, which are dividing us irreconcilably, and breaking up the +Union. It is not Messrs. ----, nor their frenzy, but it is Christian +brethren who allow their Sabbath-school children, for example, to say +and sing, "I've heard mistress telling her sweet little son, what Jesus, +the loving, for children has done," making the impression that such a +Christian mother leaves a colored child in her house, without +instruction, to draw the inference, if it will, that Jesus, perhaps, +will love a "poor little slave!" There are no words to depict the +feeling of injustice and cruelty which this conveys to the hearts of our +Christian friends at the South. "Let us go out of the Union!" they cry, +in their blind grief; but where will they go? for while our Northern +people write and publish and sing and teach their children to sing such +things, we can have nothing but mutual hatred, and perhaps exterminating +wars. We must change. If our Northern people would discriminate, and, +while retaining all their natural feelings against oppression and +man-stealing, would admit that "ownership in man" is not necessarily +oppression nor man-stealing, they would do themselves justice and +contribute to the peace of the country. "But O!" they say, "look at the +iniquitous _system_. If separating families, and destroying marriage, +and liberty to chastise at pleasure, and to kill, are not _sin_, what is +sin?" So they impute the _system_, and everything in it, to the people +who live under it. How a system can be a sin, it would puzzle some of +them, who say that all sin consists in action, to explain. And when they +came to look into the system itself, they would find, that if slavery is +to exist, some laws regulating it are, of necessity, self-protective, +and must be coercive. Even in Illinois, it is enacted that a black man +shall not be a witness against a white man. But if the slaves could +swear in court, every one sees that the whites must be at the mercy of +their servants. The testimony of the honest among them is procured, +though indirectly, and it has weight with juries; but it is a wise +provision to exclude them as sworn witnesses. So of other things, which +theoretically are oppressive, but practically right; while many things +in the system which are rigorous are as little used as the equipments in +an arsenal in times of peace. + +When you quote John Wesley's words and apply them to the South: "Slavery +is the sum of all villanies," you unconsciously utter a fearful slander. +Whatever may have been true of British slavery, in foreign plantations, +in Wesley's day, the good man never would utter such words about our +Southern people could he see and enjoy that which gladdens every +Christian heart. If slavery be, necessarily, "the sum of all villanies," +as you and many use the expression, the relation cannot exist without +making each slave-holder a villain, in all the degrees of villany. You +will do well to look into the cant phrases of "freedom," before you +indulge in the use of them. The bishops and clergy of the noble army of +Methodists in the South would not sustain their great chief in applying +the phrase in question to the actual state of things in the Southern +country. Wesley used those words concerning slavery in foreign colonies; +he had not seen it mixed up with society in England, as it is in the +South. + +Taking the blacks as they are, and comparing them also with what they +would be in Africa, or if set free, to remain in connection with the +whites, slavery is not a curse. To be free is, of course, in itself a +blessing. But it depends on many things whether, under existing +circumstances, being a slave here is practically a curse. Our people +generally insist that it must be, and therefore that it is. Here they +are mistaken, as I now view the subject. The British people and the +French, looking at the blacks in a colony, settle the question of +emancipation in their own minds without much difficulty. But it would be +found to be a different thing to emancipate the colored race, to live +side by side with the English people in the mother-country. In that +case, a contest between the two races for the possession of power, and +innumerable offences and practical difficulties, would, in time, lead to +the extermination, or expatriation, of one of the two races, or to their +intermarriage, if the universal history of such conjunction of races is +any guide. + +I do not wonder that the good lady with the "marsh-mallow" exclaimed so +at your groundless commiseration of the sick among the slaves. You have +no more idea of the practical relation between the whites and the +blacks, the owners and the slaves, than most of the English people, who +have never been here, have of our Federal and State relations. + +I will tell you an incident which I know to be literally true. + +A lady from a free state was visiting at the South. Calling upon a +married lady, a near relative of one who has been Vice-President of the +United States, she found her with a little sick black babe at her +breast. + +The Northern lady started with astonishment. I am not informed whether +she was what is called among us a "friend of the slave;" the eminent +lady friend whom she visited certainly was such, in the best sense. The +Northern lady's feelings of repugnance would not be found to be peculiar +to her among our Northern people. The little babe died on the lap of the +Southern lady. + +So you see that there are more things here than are dreamed of in your +philosophy. When you stigmatize the Southerners as oppressors, my only +consolation for you is that you know not what you do. Imagine, now, the +Rev. Mr. Blank, at the North, relating that little incident: "Behold and +see this monstrous picture of infinite hypocrisy: The Slave-power with a +slave at its breast! Yes, rather than lose one or two hundred dollars' +worth of human "property," a distinguished lady slave-holder will give +her nourishment to a slave-infant. So they fatten the accursed system +out of their own bodies and souls." Such is a fair specimen of this +man's frenzy; and there are multitudes all over the Free States who will +listen to such language and applaud it. But how cruel it is, how low and +wicked! I pray Heaven to deliver you from being an abolitionist in the +cast of your mind, your temper, and spirit. Nothing gives me such an +idea of the world of despair as when I read ultra anti-slavery speeches. +I see how the lost will hate God's mysterious providence, and revile it; +and how they will fight with each other, and pour out their furious +invective and sarcasm and vituperation, and scourge one another with +their fiery tongues, as they now do, when some one of the party appears +to falter. If there were not something truly good in connection with +slavery amid all its evils, I think such men would not oppose it. + +Pray, who are these gentlemen, and who are their extremely zealous +anti-slavery friends of more respectable standing, that they should have +such immense instalments of sympathy and pity for the "poor slave"? +Their neighbors are as susceptible as they to every form of human +sorrow; they know as much, their judgments are as sound, their motives +are as good as theirs. Had these zealous people made new discoveries, +or, were the subject of slavery new, we might give them credit for being +on the hill-tops, while we were in the vales. This passionate sympathy, +on the part of some, for "the down-trodden," as they call the negroes, +is not like zeal for a theological, or a political, or a scientific, +doctrine, which would justify its adherents in rebuking the error and +indifference of others; for if slavery be as they represent it, the +proofs of it must be as self-evident as starvation. What if a class of +men among us should rage against those who do not contribute largely to +the Syrian sufferers, as the zealous anti-slavery people reproach and +even revile those who do not see slavery with their eyes? We should then +say, "Friends, who are you, that you should claim to have all the +virtuous sensibility?" + +But more than this,--I doubt, I venture to deny, and that on +philosophical grounds, the true philanthropy of these people. For true +love and kindness always create something of their own kind where they +have full power. Are there any words or acts of love, kindness, +gentleness, mercy, toward others, in the speeches and doings of the +zealous anti-slavery people? + +I wish that you had been with me, one evening, in a corner of the +Methodist meeting-house, where I sat and enjoyed the slaves' +prayer-meeting. I had been filled with distress that day by reading, in +Northern papers, the doings and speeches at excited meetings called to +sympathize with servile insurrection. In this prayer-meeting the slaves +rose one after another, went in front, and repeated each a hymn, then +resumed their seats, while some one, moved by the sentiments of the +hymn, would lead in prayer. A white gentleman presided, according to +custom, and I was the only other white person present. Going to that +meeting with the impressions upon my heart of the terrible excitements +which you were witnessing at home, and saying to myself, "O my soul, +thou hast heard the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war!" you +cannot imagine what my feelings were when the largest negro that I ever +saw rose and stood before the desk, and repeated the following hymn by +Rev. Charles Wesley. The first lines, you may well suppose, startled me, +and made me think that the insurrection had reached even here. + + "Equip me for the war, + And teach my hands to fight; + My simple, upright heart prepare, + And guide my words aright. + + "Control my every thought, + My whole of sin remove; + Let all my works in thee be wrought, + Let all be wrought in love. + + "Oh, arm me with the mind, + Meek Lamb! that was in thee; + And let my knowing zeal be join'd + With perfect charity. + + "With calm and temper'd mind + Let me enforce thy call; + And vindicate thy gracious will, + Which offers life to all. + + "Oh, may I love like thee, + In all thy footsteps tread; + Thou hatest all iniquity, + But nothing thou hast made. + + "Oh, may I learn the art, + With meekness to reprove; + To hate the sin with all my heart, + But still the sinner love." + +You must read this hymn to "Isaiah," and tell him about the +prayer-meeting. While the "friends of the slave," as you call them, are +holding such humiliating meetings as you describe, in behalf of the +slaves, and are vexing themselves and chafing under the imagination of +their unmitigated sorrows and "oppression," the slaves themselves, all +over the South, are holding prayer-meetings, and are blessing God that +they are "raised 'way up to heaven's gate in privilege." As I sat in +that prayer-meeting I could almost have risen and asked the prayers of +the slaves in behalf of many at the North who are making themselves and +others nearly insane on their behalf. But I thought of my former +ignorance and prejudice, and said, "And such were some of you." + +I will tell you some of the little incidents which meet one every day, +and which give you impressions respecting the relations between the +whites and blacks, full as instructive as those received in any other +way. + +Crossing a public street, which is steep, in the city of ----, a +truckle-cart came by me at great speed, drawn by a white boy, with +another white boy pushing, and seated in it, erect and laughing, was a +fine-looking black boy of about the same age as his white playmates. +Around the corner of another street there came by me, with a +skip-and-jump step, two white girls, about thirteen years old, and +between them--the arms of the three all intertwined--was another girl of +the same age, as black as ebony. On they went jumping, and keeping step, +and singing. + +I had not been accustomed to such sights in Beacon Street, on my visits +to Boston. "Friends of the slave," as we most surely are, and some of us +being decorated with that name by way of distinction, significant of our +all-absorbing business "to raise the black man at the South to the +condition of a human being," when we get them there we are not greeted +in the streets with pictures of white and black children on such terms +as appeared in these two casual incidents. Nothing at first struck me +with greater wonder at the South than to see the most fashionably +dressed ladies in the most public streets stop to help a black woman +with a burden on her head, if she needed assistance, or to hold a gate +open for a man with a wheelbarrow. + +One white boy cried to another across a street, "Come along, it's most +time to be in school." The other answered, in a petulant tone, "I a'n't +going to school." A tall, white-headed negro was passing; his black +surtout nearly touched the ground; he had on his arm a very nice +market-basket, covered with a snow-white napkin, and in his right hand a +long cane. Hearing what the last boy said, he came to a full stand, put +down his basket, clasped his long cane with both hands, and brought it +down on the brick sidewalk with three quick raps, and then a rap at each +of these points of admiration: "What! what! what!" said he, drawing +himself up to express surprise, and calling out with magisterial voice; +"Go to school! my son! go to school! and larn! a heap!" the cane making +emphasis at every expression. The white boy retreated under the +impression of a well-deserved, though kind, rebuke. He did not call the +old man "nigger," nor in any way insult him. + +But here is an incident of a different kind. + +Standing to talk with a man who had charge of my baggage, in the +passage-way between the baggage-room and the colored passengers' +apartment. I saw a white man with a pert, flurried manner and coarse +look ascend the steps of the cars, and behind him a tall graceful black +man, a little older than the other, with signs of gentleness and dignity +in his appearance. As he stooped and turned, his air and carriage would +have commanded attention anywhere. The white man, seeing him enter the +wrong door, cried out to him with an impudent voice, ordered him back, +pointed him to the proper room, and told him to go in there and make +himself "oneasy," with a laugh at his own attempt at inaccurate talk as +he cast a glance at some white men standing by. The black man was his +slave. The natural and proper order of things was reversed in their +relation to each other. + +I looked at the black man as he took his seat, and, without being +observed, I kept my eye on his face. He cast his eye out of the window, +as though to relieve a struggle of emotions, but a calm expression +settled down upon his features. + +A Southern gentleman, a slave-holder, witnessing the scene with me, +said,-- + +"Disgusting! There, madam, you have one of the great evils of +slavery,--irresponsible power in the hands of men who are not fit to be +intrusted with authority over others. No man, I sometimes think, ought +to be allowed to hold slaves till he has submitted to examination as to +character, or brings certificates of a good disposition. I know that +man. His father was from ---- [a New England State.] He is what we call +a torn-down character. His neighbors all"--but the signal was given for +starting, and the conversation was broken off. + +My first thought was, How glad I would be to set that man free from such +bondage! The next thought was, Where would I send him to be free from +"the power of the dog?" I had been reading, in a Boston paper, a lecture +delivered in Boston, by a distinguished "friend of the slave," against +Mr. Webster and Mr. Choate, before an "immense audience." I thought, How +much better it is to be a Christian slave, even to this master, than to +sit in the seat of the scornful, applauding such a lecture! + +The poor slave was having his probation and discipline, as we all have +ours, and he was suffering, as we all do in our turns, from an impudent +tongue. Little did he think that a fellow-creature, looking at him at +that moment, was reminded, by his meekness under insult, of Him, our +example, who, under such provocation, opened not his mouth, and that I +was made to remember, as I stood there and received instruction from +him, that the best alleviation and cure of anguished sensibility under +ill-treatment is in this same silence, and in thoughts of Jesus. + +After the cars had started, I took my Bible from my carpet-bag, and read +these passages: "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not +only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is +thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering +wrongfully." Then this is enforced by the example of our incarnate God +and Saviour, who is held up to Christian slaves as their example; and in +this connection, not only in this passage, but elsewhere in speaking to +slaves, the Apostle brings in the most sublime truths relating to +redemption. You will be struck with this in reading what is said to +slaves, that in several cases, the train of thought proceeds directly +from their condition and its duties, to the most sublime and beautiful +truths of salvation. How divinely wise did these exhortations to slaves +appear to me, that morning, in contrast with the spirit of the Northern +abolitionist, and his talk about "Bunker Hill," "'76," and his +"grandfather's old gun over the mantel-piece," and his injunctions to +slaves as to the duty of stealing, and even murdering, if necessary, to +effect their liberty. This is not the spirit of the New Testament. The +idea of submission on the part of "servants" to "masters," of "pleasing +them well in all things," of "fear and trembling," "not purloining but +showing good fidelity in all things," is not found in the Gospel of the +abolitionist. He complains that we do not send the true Gospel to the +South. There are passages in the Epistles addressed to slaves, which, if +faithfully regarded, would make fugitive slave laws for the most part +needless. No wonder that the New Testament, with its exhortations to +meekness and patience under suffering, and the duty of those who are +"under the yoke," and of masters as being "worthy of honor," and the +caution that the slave do not take undue liberty where his master is a +believer, nor assert the doctrine of equality in Christ as a ground for +undue familiarity, or disobedience, is repudiated by the vengeful spirit +of the abolitionist. How well the Apostle understood him! "If any man +teach otherwise," that is, contrary to these injunctions as to the duty +of slaves who have believing masters, "he is proud, (that is the leading +feature of his error) he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about +questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, +evil surmisings." What an anomaly it would be to have an abolition +convention opened with reading a collect of Paul's inspired directions +to masters and slaves. + +But we never hear anything quoted from the Bible on the subject but +"break every yoke!" "let the oppressed go free!" "undo the heavy +burdens!" I was telling a slave-holder of the frequency with which we +hear these expressions in public prayer. "I could join in every one of +them," said he; "I am for breaking every yoke, South and North, +unbinding every heavy burden, and destroying every form of oppression. +But they must be actual, not theoretical, nor imaginary." + +This gentle slave in the cars, we will suppose, refuses opportunities to +escape, but complies with the exhortations of the New Testament, +"enduring grief, suffering wrongfully." His master is at last touched by +his meekness, his "not answering again." I should relate only that which +I know to have happened, should I say, that one day this master is +filled with distress on account of sin. He goes out into the +cotton-field and finds Jacob. + +"Jacob," he says, "I am a great sinner. Jacob, I feel that I am sinking +into hell. Jacob, pray for me. I mean to turn about, if I live." + +"Dats jest what I've sought de Lord for, massa, dis six months coming +New Year. Let's go up into de loft; it's whar I've wrastled for you in +prayer." + +He leads the way. The floor of the loft is covered with cotton-seed. A +wheelbarrow is in the middle of the floor. Jacob takes off his jacket, +and with it brushes the cotton-seed away from one side of the +wheelbarrow, lays the jacket down for his master to kneel upon, and goes +to the other side. Like Jacob at Peniel, he has power over the angel, +and prevails; he weeps and makes supplication unto him. The master +breaks out in prayer. He rises and says,-- + +"Jacob, forgive me if I've been unkind to you; I've seen that you are a +Christian; now if you want to leave me for anybody else, say so." + +"Thank you, massa; only sarve de Lord with gladness for all de good +things he has done for you, and I'll sarve you de same. Please go home +and tell missis; she told me to pray for you; 'twill finish up her joy." + +This is better than running away and going to Canada. Those Christians +who send the Gospel to the South by missionaries and religious tracts, +to promote such scenes as this, do a better work than though they +withheld missionaries and tracts from one half of the nation, and called +it "Standing up for Jesus." + +I am sometimes inclined to put down all that I see and hear, good and +bad, and publish a book to satisfy my truly candid but mistaken friends +at the North as to the real truth on this subject. But I have in mind +the way in which similar works have already been received and treated by +an unreasoning, passionate North. I have amused myself sometimes in +imagining what certain writers would say to some of the incidents which +I have related in this letter. Let me attempt to show you the spirit and +manner of our Northern reviewers when one ventures to state favorable +things relating to slavery. I will take some of the incidents already +related in this letter and let these men review them. I am perfectly +familiar with their style, from having been employed in helping your +uncle prepare the notices of new publications for the "---- Review." +Here, then, I will give you first a supposed notice of my little book, +should I make one, from a Northern religious newspaper, quoting, in all +cases, the identical expressions from articles which I have read:-- + +"'The authoress, it seems, is yet in her Paradise of slavery.' Her +'opulent friends' and the slave-holders generally, it would appear, got +up little tableaux for her, to impose on her good-nature. Knowing the +times when she took her daily walks, they put the fattest and sleekest +black boy whom they could find, into a truckle-cart, and made two of the +sons of the 'most opulent' citizens race down hill with him. Slavery, +therefore, is not the bad thing she and we had supposed. The female +teacher of a school in the neighborhood of her daily walk was suborned, +most probably, by the 'opulent' ladies of the place, to practise another +pleasing trick. Two white girls and a black girl were made to practise +running with their arms interlocked, and one day, as our friend came in +sight, they were pushed out to astonish her with one instance of white +girls hugging a negro slave-child. No doubt our friend, on seeing these +three together, soliloquized as follows:-- + + "See Truth, Love, and Mercy in triumph descending, + All nature now glowing in Eden's first bloom." + +The old negro, respectable and well off, was one of those rare +exceptions to surrounding degradation which you now and then see in +Southern cities. The poor slave in the cars, gentle, timid, quivering, +was the true exponent of slavery. Had our authoress filled her book with +such illustrations exclusively, she would have written more truthfully, +more for her reputation with the real 'friends of the slave,' and, we +confess, more in accordance with our taste." + +A writer in a very respectable publication at the North, already +referred to, gave us several years ago a curious piece of criticism on +some publication which he regarded as too favorable to slavery. His +pages, some of them, were crowded with daggers, in the shape of +exclamation marks,--two, three, four, and, in one instance, five, at the +end of quotations from the book under review. It was he that made the +assertion about the "arsenic," as being "universally in the hands of the +slaves." + +I shall now let him review my little stories. I quote many of his +words:-- + +"'To show the ignorance and simplicity of our travelling' lady, we give +the following,--and what will the North say to this new argument in +favor of slavery? namely, a truckle-cart! a black boy riding!! two white +boys giving him a ride!!! and three girls, one of them black! arm in +arm!! romping. 'It is not the fault of this writer, that she cannot +understand a principle;' 'she is a New England Orthodox,'--'and a fair +specimen of the limitations of that type of mankind.' 'But does not the +lady know,' why negro boys are put in truckle-carts? 'If not, any of her +Southern friends could have told her.' We can tell her; 'we have lived +at the South.' These white boys were sent on an errand with their cart, +and to increase its momentum down hill, and, withal, to tease and worry +a fellow-creature, with a skin not colored like their own, they made +this poor slave-boy get in. She should have seen the poor creature +trudging home, up hill, under a Southern sun, after the little white +tyrants had done with him, unless it was the case, which we more than +half suspect, that the ride was a stratagem to convey the poor child to +the auction-block. 'How the merry dogs,' the white boys, must have +laughed at this Northern lady's complacent looks at them. She had no +tears for the poor old white-headed negro, who, hearing the word +'school' from the lips of his white young masters, had such a rush of +sorrow come over his soul at the thought of the midnight ignorance in +which the slave-driver's whip had kept him, that he actually dropped his +burden in the public street, and uttered incautious words, for which, no +doubt, old as he was, he caught a terrible flogging. "Why, in the name +of humanity, did not the authoress load her pages, as she might so +easily have done, with scenes like that in the cars? There is slavery! +patent! undisguised! In the other cases it is slavery, indeed, but +covered with the pro-slavery lady's snow-white napkin." + +Here is a review of me and of my little stories, by a distinguished New +England divine, and author. He has written much on slavery. Having +prepared notices of some of his writings on this subject, I am familiar +with his turns of thought and modes of expression. I have great regard +for him, and always read him with pleasure and profit, not excepting +when he writes as follows, in doing which he has the approbation of +large numbers among the Northern clergy of all denominations, except the +Episcopalians,--who, more than other Northern ministers, are remarkably +free from ultraisms. + +"Concerning the truckle-cart, 'we would say this,' that unquestionably +'the moral power' of the incident was all which the writer assumes, but +its 'logical sequences' 'we utterly deny.' Slavery is evil, and only +evil, and that continually; now, to infer that agreeable relations can +subsist between the children of masters and the children of slaves under +the 'immense, malignant, and all-pervading influence of slavery,' +abhorred of Heaven and all good men, does violence to all sound +principles of reasoning, and is at war with 'the manifest rules of +Providence.' + +"And as to the three girls 'we are prepared to say' that the author 'did +not look deep enough' into the philosophy of human motives under the +controlling power of slavery. For slavery makes men improvident, and +their children also; (see 'Judge Jay,' 'Weld on Slavery,' etc.) These +white girls, therefore, probably had no money in their pockets; it was +the time of recess; they were hungry; the black child we presume had +money in her pocket, for by the authoress's own showing (in the story of +a slave changing a gold piece for the landlord), slaves may have money +of their own. Had our authoress followed her trio down to the +confectioner's, there she might have seen these white children cajoling +the poor black, and making her treat them; in preparation for which they +affected to put their arms around her; but, in the true diabolical +spirit of slavery, it was only to devour. + +"We have no space to enter philosophically into the instruction afforded +us by the old negro and the schoolboys; but there is deep meaning in it, +which the true friends of the slave, who may read it, will do well to +ponder. The old negro is the prophetic representation of his +down-trodden race, crying with bewildered accents, he heeds not where, +'Go to school! boys; go to school!' Let a united North echo back his +words, suiting their political action to them, and saying to the colored +children, with an authority which shall shake the very pillars of the +Union, 'Go to school, boys! go to school!' + +"Nor can we, for the tears which dim our sight, speak as we would of +the wretched master and his amiable slave in the cars. The sketch +reminded us of the best in 'Uncle Tom.' We need books filled with such +pictures, to electrify the slumbering sensibilities of the North. Wanton +candor in speaking of slavery, is the most unpardonable of sins. There +is a time to tell the whole truth; but the wise man says. There is 'a +time to keep silence.'" + +I did not pretend, Gentlemen Reviewers, that my little, pleasing +incidents were arguments in favor of slavery; you should not have been +so alarmed; you are really rude; I almost feel disposed to say to you, +for each of my tales, as the Rosemary said to the Wild Boar,-- + + "Sus, apage! haud tibi spiro;" + +which, not having a poetical friend near to translate for me, I venture +to render as follows:-- + + "Thus to the Boar replied the Rosemary: + O swine, depart! I do not breathe for thee." + +In noticing the manner in which many Northern writers, some of them +amiable men, receive the candid views and statements of travellers and +visitors at the South, I have been made to think of a company of the +owls, such as you see in Audubon, listening to the reading of David's +one hundred and fourth Psalm, in which he describes nature. Not a smile +of satisfaction; on the contrary, if you + + "Molest the ancient, solitary reign" + +of prejudice in their minds against the South, they either mope, or make +a sad noise. With regard to others, are there any limits to their anger +and denunciations? You may, without difficulty, imagine how this +appears to the Southerner, who knows the truthfulness of the +representations which excite this passionate resentment, and how much +the character of the North for ordinary candor falls in his esteem, and +how little disposed he is to heed their admonitions, and how absurd +their demands upon his ecclesiastical bodies to suffer their +remonstrances, appear, together with their subsequent withdrawal of +fellowship for the reason publicly assigned; namely, that the South will +not let them admonish her "in the Lord." Indeed, whatever may be true of +slavery, the South looks on the great body of zealous anti-slavery +people as being in as false and unnatural a state of excitement as the +Massachusetts people were in the times of witchcraft. A great delusion +is over the minds of many at the North, like one of our eastern +sea-fogs. It always makes a Southerner merry, when listening, in New +York or Boston, for example, to a lecture, if the speaker concludes a +sentence with some allusion to "freedom," and the people clap and stamp. +That the blood should tingle in our veins at so slight a cause, makes +him think that we are certainly in need of something worthy of our great +excitability, and that we are thankful for small favors in that way. He +does not think less than we of liberty where an occasion makes that name +and idea appropriate; but that the condition of his slaves should +reconsecrate for us all the old battle-cries of freedom, seems to him +pitiably weak. It shows him how incompetent we are to deal with the +acknowledged evils of slavery; and there are those at the South who are +stirred up by us to take extreme views of an opposite kind, which good +people there very generally deplore. + +A Southern lady here tells me that some time since, being on a visit at +the North, she received through the post-office anonymous letters with +extracts from newspapers containing little items of woe, declared to +have been experienced at the South, with here and there delirious abuse +of slave-holders and frenzied words about freedom. She could have +matched every one of them, she said, with wife-murders at the North, +during her visit. In dealing with people like the slaves, of course men +of brutal passions, provoked by their stupidity and negligence, or +exasperated by their crimes, and, in cases of ungovernable anger, +venting their displeasure upon their negroes under slight or merely +imaginary affronts, give occasion to tales of distress which are nowhere +mourned over more deeply than at the South. These cases are the natural +results of a superior and inferior class of society, standing in the +relation, the one to the other, of proprietor and dependant, and such +evils are not peculiar to this institution. Human nature is the same +everywhere. The South is willing to have the abuses of irresponsible +power among them compared with abuses, discomforts, disadvantages +elsewhere. Grant that an owner may abuse his liberty; ownership leads to +more of care and protection than of abuse and cruelty. The slaves are +here; the question is not, What would be the best possible condition for +these people under the sun, but, What is best for them, being on this +soil. "Set them all free," is the answer of some. Half the ministers at +the North every Sabbath pray for the slaves thus: "Break every yoke; let +the oppressed go free." If this means, Give the slaves their liberty, +this would be their most direful calamity; they would be chased away +from every free state, in process of time, and the Dred Scott decision +would be invoked, even in Massachusetts, by its present most bitter +opposers, and in its most misrepresented forms, as a defence of the +American white race against the blacks. "Set them free and hire them!" +is the reply of others. This, among other effects, would make them a far +more degraded people than they now are. Slavery keeps them identified +with the whites; they are more respectable and respected by far, in this +relation, than they can be, in the circumstances of the case, if they +are detached from the whites. There is no expression which conveys a +more absolute error than this, and we often meet with it: "He ceased to +be a slave, and became a man." I read lately the report of a lecture at +the North, by an eminent gentleman, of great moral worth, and highly +respected. He said, "A man cannot be, voluntarily, a slave, without +having his manhood crushed out of him." That might be true in our case; +but having seen manhood forced into benighted natures here, and splendid +specimens of man as the result, I was, by this remark, reminded again of +the delusiveness which there is sometimes in the best of logic. You gave +us a good specimen in your admirable illustration of no water in the +moon. A comparison of the slaves with the free negroes of the North, and +in Canada, and with the free colored population in some of the Slave +States, will satisfy any impartial spectator that manhood is full as +conspicuous in the slaves, as a body, as in the free negroes. + +Here are two extracts from Northern papers, which, true or false, awaken +compassion in every human bosom toward the free colored people. Indeed, +allowing these statements, so unfavorable to them, to be mostly false, +it reveals the antipathy of the white to the colored race when the +blacks come to seek equality with the whites. Let these free blacks be +mixed up in large proportions with society in England and Scotland, and +if Canadians feel as they are here represented, we may be sure that the +present tone of the British people with regard to American slavery and +the blacks, would also be modified. But here are the extracts:-- + + "Getting Sick of Them.--The colored persons of Toronto, having had a + meeting to denounce Colonel John Prince, a member of the Canadian + Parliament, for speaking against them, he publishes a reply, in + which he says,-- + + "'It has been my misfortune, and the misfortune of my family, to + live among those blacks (and they have lived upon us) for + twenty-four years. I have employed hundreds of them, and with the + exception of one, named Richard Hunter, not one of them has done for + us a week's honest labor. I have taken them into my service, fed and + clothed them, year after year, on their arrival from the States, and + in return have generally found them rogues and thieves, and a + graceless, worthless, thriftless set of vagabonds. This is my very + plain and simple description of the darkies as a body, and it would + be indorsed by all the Western white men, with very few + exceptions.'" + + "Underground R.R. Return Trains.--The 'Cleveland Plaindealer' states + that every steamboat arriving at that place brings back from Canada + families of negroes, who have formerly fled to the Provinces from + the States. They are principally from Canada West. They describe the + life and condition of the blacks in Canada as miserable in the + extreme. The West is, therefore, likely to have large accessions to + its colored population. The Canada folks do not want them, and have + shown a disposition in their Parliament, and otherwise, to + discourage their coming to, or remaining in the Provinces. In some + instances, the question of ejecting those now resident there, has + been discussed. Our Western States will be likely to experience a + similar attack of the _black vomito_, when they shall have become + satisfied with this peculiar Southern luxury. In some localities the + superabundant free negro population has already become a burden, + while in others they are under severe restrictions, which amount + almost to an exclusion from the limits of the state. + + "Should this exodus from Canada continue to any great extent, it + would throw such a burden upon those states which have adopted the + most liberal policy towards the negro, that it would occasion a + reaction in the public sentiment which would compel them to abandon + their abolition doctrine and practice, for their own + self-protection. We should then hear of fewer attempts to abduct + slaves from the slave-holding states; and abolitionists would be + content to allow slaves to remain under the care and protection of + their masters. Even though at heart sympathizing with the oppressed + and task-worn negro, and yearning towards him with all the love of + the professed philanthropist, he would still be permitted to toil + and bleed; for now that the route to Canada has been closed, there + is no alternative but to take them to their own bosoms." + +Compare with this the condition of the free blacks in South Carolina. +The amount of property held by them is $1,600,000; their annual taxes, +$27,000; and the free blacks own slaves to the amount of $300,000 in +value. + +The above statements teach us that any attempts to force the Southern +slaves away from their present relation, are in violation of the laws of +Providence concerning them. If they become free in a natural way, and +can provide for themselves, or be provided for, it is well; otherwise, +the South, and their present relation to the white race, are the bounds +of their habitation fixed for them by an all-wise God, till his purpose +concerning them as a race shall be made manifest. The people of the Free +States ought to thank God that the South is willing to keep the colored +people. Instead of inflaming our passions against the abstract +wrongfulness of holding fellow-men in bondage, we should consider that +theoretical justice to the slaves as a whole would be practical +inhumanity. The destiny of the colored race here is a dark problem. But +it is not for us to penetrate the future. When God is ready to finish +his purposes with regard to their continuance with us, He will open a +way for their liberation; in the mean time it is our duty to protect +them from their own improvidence and from the neglect and degradation +which they would suffer at the hands of the Free States. Instead of +aiding slaves to escape, or rejoicing when we hear of runaways, I say we +should feel grateful, on our own account, and for the slaves, that the +South is willing to harbor them, and we ought to consider that the very +best thing to be done for them is to encourage the South in treating +them well, mitigating their trials and sorrows, and, in short, complying +with the Apostle's doctrine and exhortations as to the duty of masters. + +But we have a way, at the North, of delivering over our Southern +brethren to supposed terrible liabilities in their relation to the +slaves. "They are sleeping on a volcano;" "they keep weapons under their +pillows;" "they are always in fear." And when a servile insurrection +takes place, many close their eyes and lift their hands, and say, +"Perhaps the day of retribution is come! They have been 'sinning against +the Northern conscience;' they have been resisting our well-meant +efforts for their good; we would not stir up the slaves against them," +(some kindly say,) "but if they rise, did not Jefferson say, 'There is +not an attribute of the Almighty that would take part with the whites?'" +Thus we prefer to take Jefferson's opinion on this subject, though +hundreds as good and wise as he, and quite as decided in their +acceptance of the Christian religion, differ totally from him. In +strictly political matters, many of the same people who love to quote +Jefferson against modern slave-holders, are of opinion that time and +experience give modern statesmen some advantages in their judgments. As +to Jefferson's oft-quoted remark, above cited, it appears to me that if +the Almighty has anywhere set the seal of his divine blessing, clear and +broad, it is on the Christian influence of our Southern friends upon +this colored race. + +It is humiliating to me, in looking back to the North, to see how +injudicious and weak we are in pouring out our sympathy upon a fugitive +slave, without discrimination. The lecture before the Boston audience, +already mentioned, contains a perfect illustration of Northern credulity +in the case of fugitive slaves. The lecturer tells us that while reading +the printed report of Mr. Everett's Oration at the inauguration of the +Webster statue, a fugitive slave appeared at his door, and, baring his +breast and back, showed him the marks of the branding-iron, and the +scars from the lash. At the sight, he says, the paper dropped from his +hand. He "thought of Webster and the Fugitive Slave Law." + +Now this negro was, just as likely as not, one of those characters whom +we call jail-birds. If so, and he had lived at the North, instead of +branding-iron and stripes, he might have had parti-colored pants, and +manacles, and a record of ten or twenty years in the state's prison. But +because he ran away from the South, he straightway became, as a matter +of course, a martyr and a saint. Perhaps he was, truly, a saint; and +perhaps he was not. + +Looking out of the window in a hotel the other day, we saw two white +men leading up a black man with a leather bridle around his neck. + +"Here, Hattie," said your Uncle, "here is slavery; now you have it in +full bloom." + +The poor fellow was crying and protesting and begging to be released. +Your Uncle stepped out and spoke to a very respectable gentleman whom he +met on the piazza. He could not refrain from expressing some feeling at +the sight of a fellow-creature so literally "reduced to the level of the +brutes." I did not hear the whole of the conversation, for my attention +was diverted by two roosters who just then flew at each other and were +assailed by a troop of black urchins who tried to scare them apart, +pulling their tail-feathers and uttering ludicrous cries. + +"You are from the North, sir, I take it," said the gentleman, in reply +to your Uncle. + +"I am, sir," said your Uncle. "Do you often bridle your slaves in this +way, in these parts? I am seeking for information on the subject of +slavery." + +"I shall be happy to give you any," said the gentleman. "I am here as a +magistrate." + +"I am one at home," said my husband. + +"One of these white men who led the negro," said the gentleman, "was +riding on horseback, and was attracted to a by-place by the screams of a +child, and found this black man attempting violence upon a black girl +ten years old. He knocked the fellow down and held him, and called for +help. A white man who came up took the bridle from the horse, to secure +the villain with it. They have with difficulty kept the negroes from +putting him to death." + +"We are all ready, sir," said a sheriff to the gentleman. + +"Will you walk into the hall?" said the magistrate to your Uncle. + +But the stage-coach was waiting for him, and we were soon on our way. +Your Uncle was silent for nearly fifteen minutes, when he said,-- + +"What is that passage, Hattie, about answering a matter before you +understand it?" + +I gave Hattie my Bible, and, after a while, she read: + +"He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame +unto him. The spirit of a man"-- + +"That will do, child," said your Uncle, "I wanted only that one verse." + + * * * * * + +I should be glad to transfer some of this Southern ease and beauty of +manners to the North. I wish that we could see more of these Southern +ladies and gentlemen there. They stay away very much, because they +cannot bring servants with them. Whole families would rejoice to visit +our Northern shores and mountains for summer residences, were it not for +this. When our passions subside, and we can look at this subject fairly, +we shall repeal the statutes which prevent a Southerner from residing in +a free state for a season, with his or her servant. The people of +Massachusetts, for example, can easily appreciate the hardship of being +kept away from a clime which they would visit for health or recreation, +by the fear of being set upon by a mob of whites and blacks seeking to +drag a wet-nurse, for example, before a court to be interrogated whether +she does not wish to leave us. How long will our warm-hearted, +hospitable people allow such things? The answer, from ten thousand +tongues, will be, So long as Southern people imprison colored seamen +from the North!--If Southern slaves should come here and make trouble +between our domestics and us, and we should forbid their coming, the +cases would be more nearly parallel.--Moreover, it will be said that the +manner in which people from the North have in many instances of late +been treated at the South, does not encourage the hope and prospect of +amicable intercourse. This is certainly so; and therefore what have we +to look for but everlasting hatred and strife? and that whether we be +one nation or two confederacies. + +A distinguished Southern gentleman came home from his visit to the +North, where he had received great attentions, and he filled his hearers +with his enthusiastic admiration of us for our wonderful ingenuity in +all the arts of life. + +"It is astonishing," said he, "how they work everything into shape, and +create instruments for their purposes. But," said he, "there is one +thing in which they are deficient. They are omnipotent with matter, but +they do not know how to govern men. If they did," said he, "there would +be no chance for us in any form of contest with them." + +I was much entertained, and I said to him that I supposed his remarks +would need qualification on both sides; but I was greatly impressed, as +I often am here, with the secret, strong attachment which there is in +Southern hearts to the North as a part of the country, irrespective of +its anti-slavery views and feelings. Its climate and institutions and +arts and scenery are adapted to their diversified wants. "The North and +the South, Thou hast created them." God made the North for the South, +and the South for the North, and our acts of non-intercourse are in +violation of his will. We are in a war of "conscience," inflamed by +doctrinal error on our part. It allows no "conscience" to the other +side. The state of our "consciences" at the North is jury, judge, and +executioner. There is no "conscience," we think, in Southern churches, +ministers, judges, citizens, except that which is defiled. Probably +there is not on earth this day a greater despot, or one more prepared +for inquisitorial proceedings, than "Northern Conscience." + +No doubt I should be contented and happy to be a slave-holder, had I +been born and bred here, but I rejoice that I belong to a free state. I +love to think of my capable girls, my "help." at home, who make the +household go like clock-work, instead of having a swarm of servants who +do only half as much, and only half as well. I am glad, too, that my +children live in a climate favorable to labor, and are not born to be +waited upon. But I am ashamed of those who erect these things into an +invidious comparison, and with a supercilious, reproachful spirit. God, +who made us of one blood, has fixed the bounds of our habitations. I +love these Southerners as I never loved new acquaintances before. But I +prefer a state of society free from slavery: yet this makes me love +those to whom God has given a South country, and imposed upon it a +necessity, at present at least, to employ the African race as +cultivators of the soil. It has often disturbed my feelings to hear some +people inveigh reproachfully against the Southern country, as comparing +unfavorably with neighboring free states. Going up the Ohio River one +day, a Northern gentleman pointed to some poor-looking lands in Kentucky +on the one hand, and some flourishing fields of Ohio on the other. +"There, ladies and gentlemen," said he, "is slavery," pointing to +Kentucky, "and there," turning to the other side, "is freedom." + +"Now," said an intelligent Ohioan, "if you will excuse me for saying +it, I regard that as clear humbug. What is cultivated on either side? +The products of Kentucky, if raised in Ohio, would give the same look to +her lands. It is not slavery and freedom that make the difference; it is +the difference between large staples sown over large territories, and +smaller staples raised on smaller fields. Kentucky's soil would be +exhausted just as fast under free labor, so long as she cultivated her +present crops." + +I long to see some clear running water. Our streams and brooks in New +England are not appreciated till one comes to this part of the land. I +long to see some good grass. I yearn for some hills. I would sail again +along our rock-bound coast; Oh for a walk on its beaches, to see the +tunnellings of the sea in the rocks, and the spouting-horns. But what a +relief it is to be in a section where the Christian religion is so +generally accepted, and the swarms of errorists and sectarians which +abound elsewhere are comparatively unknown. Here, the lowest class, in +which error would be prolific, is under instruction, to a great degree. +I see now why it is that false views about slavery are a great stimulant +to heretical views and feelings;--they are a convenient substitute for +the love and zeal which true Christianity supplies. The human mind, +where it is accustomed to act freely, must be impelled by some +master-passion; and when true religion does not supply it, error stands +ready to satisfy the demand. + +On the whole, I am persuaded that our Northern people behave full as +well under the anti-slavery excitement as Southerners would if their +consciences were perverted like ours, and we were the objects of their +opposition. I think that a change will come over us. At the North, you +have heard the wind, at midnight, after a warm rain, in winter, haul out +to the north-west, and you know what a piping time we then have of it, +and how the clear cold air, the next morning, and the bright sun, excite +and cheer us. There has been with us for a long time at the North, in +our political and religious atmosphere, a warm, foggy, unwholesome +drizzle of weak, fanatical feeling, with now and then gusts of wind and +scud,--a kind of weather most abhorred by mariners. But we hope that the +wind is changing, and that "fair weather cometh out of the North." God +will not suffer us to live long, we earnestly hope, in this condition of +misunderstanding and hatred, for it would be contrary to his established +laws that we should long continue to be one nation with such feelings +toward each other. The change will be in the North. Slavery will come to +be regarded as not in itself a sin, and the evils incident to it will be +left for those immediately concerned to bear them or seek their removal. +Or, if we become divided, the Southern section may extend its conquests +into the whole southern part of the American continent, and spread the +institution of slavery over that vast domain. God may have purposed that +the good which has flowed to the African race in this land by its +connection with us, shall be extended to millions more, not by +importation, we may suppose, but by propagation here. I say this to show +that fanatical opposers of slavery may be employed under God as the +instruments of extending slavery to the very limits of habitable land in +the southern parts of our continent. We have tried in vain at the North, +for thirty years, to abolish slavery. It is time either to cease, or to +try some entirely different influences. + +But I must close my long letter. When you write again, I have no doubt +that you will have seen some things in a new light. Tell me more about +your studies. I was interested in your way of describing things. I only +wondered that, with your occasional sense of the ludicrous, you should +not have been aware of the impression which you yourself must have made +on others. Burns's "giftie," "to see oursel's," etc., we all, more or +less, need. I told Hattie the other day that I thought some parts of +your letter did you very great credit, but that the monomania of the +North has fallen upon you, and that you have it, as it seemed to me, in +one of its worst forms. Some it makes fierce, others, flat, according as +the victim is, naturally, more or less amiable. + +Your mother gave you in charge to me in her last sickness, and I must do +all in my power for your best good. I have, therefore, told you some +things which I have seen and considered. These you must now add to the +facts of your "inductive philosophy." Your definition of "pro-slavery," +and "friends of oppression," is a fair illustration of a prevailing +state of mind at the North:--"Pro-slavery--_i.e._, do not agree with me +in my manner of viewing and treating the subject." This you will +correct. Excuse my freedom, but you have no father nor mother now, to +advise and guide you, and you must let me be your Mentor in some things. +I shall keep your letter and let you see it perhaps ten years hence. Be +careful what newspapers you read. Those which abound with low, +opprobrious language about the South and Southerners, avoid. There are +some low Southerners about here who go around buying up refractory and +vicious negroes; they are the dregs of society; but I have listened, +with others, at the North, to men, on the subject of "freedom," who, I +think, would take kindly to this business, and they would be as hearty +in it as they are now in vilifying it. The "Legrees" are not confined to +the South. Do not incline your ear to those who systematically inveigh +against slavery, making it their principal business. You will invariably +find that there is something false and wrong in their principles as well +as spirit. Be careful to what influences you commit your thoughts and +your taste. + +You need not become a friend of oppression; you need not approve of +"auction-blocks," and "separation of families;" slavery can exist when +these are done away. Until you are appointed and commissioned as a +minister of righteousness to Southern Christians and ministers, I advise +you to blot slavery out of the list of topics about which you are called +to express the least concern. The South will work out the problem for +herself, with the help of that God who has evidently appointed her to do +a great work for the African race, and all the more perfectly and +speedily as our Northern people let her entirely alone as to the moral +relations of the subject. + +You subscribe yourself, "Yours for the slave;" I shall subscribe myself, +"Yours for preaching the Gospel to every creature." + +With the strongest love, +Your affectionate Aunt. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. + + "The sages say dame Truth delights to dwell, + Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well. + Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope + That pull the grave old gentlewoman up." + + PETER PINDAR. + + +My friend, Mr. North, having read the foregoing letters, wrote me a note +requesting me to come and spend an evening with him and his wife, and +answer some questions occasioned by these letters. The lady was earnest +that I should do so. + +After being seated before a cheerful fire in my friend's house, while it +was raining violently, so that we felt defended from all interruption, +my friend said,-- + +"Here, first of all, is the Southern lady's letter to her father, which, +I suppose, belongs to him, and which you may wish to send back." + +"I do," said I. + +"But, please," said Mrs. North, "let it be published. Add to it the +incident of the Southern lady nursing the sick babe of a slave." + +"O my dear," said her husband, "that would create a false impression. It +would be a pro-slavery tract. It would abate Northern zeal against the +'sum of all villanies.' Something should go forth with such +representations to correct their influence in the Free States. What +would become of the cause of freedom should such stories make their +impression upon the minds of our people?" + +"You might," said I, "make a heading of an auction-block, or +slave-coffle; add the last pattern of a slave-driver's whip; picture a +panting fugitive on his way to the North; give us a ship's hold, with a +black boy just detected among the stowage. You would thus, perhaps, keep +these beautiful, touching illustrations of loving-kindness in +slave-holders from having the least effect." + +"It is very important," said he, seriously, "to keep up a just +abhorrence of slavery here at the North, because"-- + +"Excuse me," said I, "but what do you mean by an abhorrence of slavery?" + +"Why," said he, "is not the Christian world agreed that 'slavery is the +sum of all villanies'?" + +"By no means, in the United States," said I; "you might with as real +truth say that here slavery is the sum of all the loving-kindnesses." + +"Is not that letter of the Southern lady to her father," said he, "as +rare a thing almost as a white crow?" + +"O husband," said Mrs. North, "what an opinion you must have of Southern +society!" + +"Is not Gustavus," said I, "a perfect representative of the North, on +the subject of slavery? Does not ultra anti-slavery find or make +everybody, as the Aunt says, either fierce or flat?" + +"You do not believe so," said he. + +"Neither do you believe," said I, "that where Christianity has exerted +the same influence on the hearts of men and women as on yours, and all +the humanizing and elevating influences of society prevail, that letter +is a rare product." + +"I cannot believe," said he, "that one can own a fellow-creature, hold +God's image as property, and be a true Christian. This lady is an +exception which does not destroy the general rule." + +"My dear sir," said I, "you are an abstractionist. You make the best +possible condition under the sun your standard, to which you would make +all men and things conform, instead of allowing for the vast +inequalities, the necessities, the mutual dependence, the long +historical conditions of men, as individuals and races. A race or class +of human beings may be in such a condition, that being 'owned' by a +superior race will be, in their circumstances, a real mercy and a great +blessing." + +"O my dear sir," said he, "I weep over the degradation of your moral +sense. 'Owning a fellow-creature!' I would not hold property in a human +being 'for all the wealth that sinews bought and sold have ever +earned.'" + +"Thousands of men and women," I replied, "as good in the sight of God as +you or I, think otherwise. There is nothing in the relation of ownership +to a human being which in itself is sinful, or wrong." + +"If it is your purpose," said he, "to argue in favor of oppression, +perhaps we had better not pursue the conversation." + +"Uncharitableness, false judgments, self-righteousness," said I, +"condemning a whole people for the sins of a few, are as truly +'oppression' as anything can be. I plead for no wrongs; I justify no +selfishness in the relation of master and servant; I regard the golden +rule of Christ as the law by which slave-holding should be regulated in +every instance." + +"I never expected," said he, "to live long enough to hear of the golden +rule being applied to slavery! It would be like applying light to +darkness, truth to falsehood, holiness to sin." + +"By what rule," I inquired, "do you think the lady is habitually +governed who wrote the letter which has interested you so much?" + +"Why," said he, "there are good people under every iniquitous system. +These exceptional cases are not the rule of judgment with regard to the +nature and effect of a system." + +"Can you not imagine one man owning another," said I, "under +circumstances, and with motives, and in a temper and spirit which will +make the relation most desirable?" + +"I go further back," said he, "and I deny that it is right for one human +being to own another." + +"Has not God a right," said I, "to place one human being over another as +his owner?" + +"Has God a right," said he, "to countenance theft and oppression?" + +I said to him: "I might follow your example, and answer you by asking, +Has God a right to countenance war? But I will relieve all your +disagreeable apprehensions as to our conversation at once, by saying +that I am not to argue in favor of oppression. If holding a slave is +oppression, it is a sin. And if it be inconsistent with the golden rule, +it is a sin." + +"If that be your doctrine," said he, "we shall soon agree. Now apply the +golden rule to slavery. Are there any circumstances in which you would +yourself be willing to be 'owned'?" + +"Certainly," I replied. + +He rose, and put some lumps of coal upon the fire with the tongs, and +said, "I presume you mean what you say, and that you do not wish to +trifle with the subject." + +"Mr. North," said I, "would you be willing that any one should make you +head-cook in a hotel, engineer in a steamboat, or keeper of a floating +light?" + +"No, Sir," said he. + +"You would, Mr. North," said I, "under given circumstances. You would +petition for such places, get recommendations for them, and count +yourself perfectly happy, if you succeeded in obtaining them. + +"Now look at the slaves. They are a foreign race, we are their civil +superiors, and unless we amalgamate, we intend to remain so. While we +are in this relation, it is a privilege to the blacks to have owners, +but they must use their ownership according to the golden rule. When +this is done, the condition of the blacks, in their present relation to +us, is happy." + +"How often," said he, "do you suppose that it is done?" + +"That," said I, "is another and a very interesting question, which we +will consider soon. You took the ground, as I understood you, that the +law of love would prevent any one from holding a fellow-creature as a +slave. I reply that it would be in perfect accordance with it, as the +blacks at the South are now situated, for the whites to be their humane +owners. But pray what do you mean by 'owning' a human being?" + +"I mean," said he, "having the right to abuse them, domineer over them, +work them as cattle, sell them, and--" + +"Did this Southern lady," said I, while he paused for more words, "ever +acquire a right with her ownership to treat Kate so?" + +"Her laws," said he, "give her a right to punish her; and such +irresponsible power is fearful. She could whip her to death and"-- + +"And be punished for it," said I, "as surely as you would be for +whipping a servant to death." + +"She is at liberty to punish more severely than the case warrants," said +he, "and then she can shield herself under the laws." + +"I presume," said I, "a Northern parent never gives a hasty box on the +ear, never strikes one passionate blow in the chastisement, never shakes +a child a single trill beyond the due harmony of parental affection, +never scourges it with the tongue to momentary madness! What a dreadful +thing parental authority is! Would it not be well to abolish the +authority of parents over children! Indeed, would it not be well to go +further, and interdict the public lands of the United States from being +settled; for as surely as men live there, every form of wickedness will, +in its turn, be perpetrated. How much better the calm and holy silence +of the woods and fields, than if the tumultuous passions of men should +roll over them!" + +"But, my dear sir," said he, "I maintain that oppression is inseparable +from the holding of a slave. I insist that this Southern lady, if all +her feelings and conduct toward her servants are like her letter, is an +exception among her people." + +"No, Sir," said I, "she is the general rule among all decent people, and +there is as much sense of decency and propriety there as with us, as +many good people, kind, humane, generous, and it is as rare a thing for +a servant to be ill-used there, as for our apprentices, and servants, +and even our children. How kind and good you would be, Sir, if +Providence should place a human being under you as his owner, for the +mutual good of both of you." + +"Dear me," said he, "I should try to feel and act just as I suppose +those Southerners do who, you say, are fairly represented by this lady's +letter about the slave-babe." + +"Mr. North," said I, "suppose that the State should make you the +absolute owner of some of those boys who set fire to the Westboro' and +Deer Island institutions. In consideration of your personal +responsibility for them, there is ceded to you all right and title to +their services, and absolute control over them, subject, of course, to +the laws against misdemeanors and crimes against the person. My only +point is this: Where would be the sinfulness of that relation? All that +would be sinful about it would be in your neglect or violation of your +duty as a master." + +"How glad all this makes me feel," said he, "that I am not troubled with +slaves. If we do not like our servants or apprentices, we can get rid of +them." + +"Then," said I, "you surely ought to pity those who are bound to their +slaves and have to put up with a thousand things which you say we can +escape by changing our help." + +"But," said he, "can they not sell off their slaves when they please?" + +"Suppose, however," said I, "that they happen to be humane, as Mr. North +is, and as we all are in the Free States! and that they are unwilling to +turn off a poor helpless creature for her faults, to be sold, and to go +they know not where!" + +"Slavery," said Mr. North, "is surely a great curse. I am so glad that I +live under free institutions." + +"Who made us to differ from the South in this respect? How came those +blacks there? Whose ships, whose money, imported them? You remember that +it was by the votes of Free States, that the importation of slaves was +continued for eight years beyond the time when the Southern States had +voted in the Convention that it should cease. And now what would you +have the South do with the slaves, to-day?" + +"Set them all free," said he, "'break every yoke; proclaim liberty to +the captives, the opening of the prison-doors to them that are bound.'" + +"Allow me," said I, "to smile at your simplicity, for you are very +child-like, not to say childish, in your feelings. You would have the +colored people universally go free. Do you really think that Kate is +worse off in being what you call a slave, than that young, free black +woman who keeps a stall and sells verses and knives near our Park?" + +"O dear sir," said he, "liberty is a priceless boon; liberty"-- + +"Liberty to what?" said I. + +"Why," said he, "liberty not to be sold, nor to be beaten, nor to be +subject to the wicked passions of a master." + +"Would you rather," said I, "have your daughter a servant in a Southern +family, brought up as a playmate with the children, a sharer in many of +their gifts, a partner with their parents, as the children grew up, in +the pride and joy of the parents, an honored member of the wedding party +when a daughter is married, one of the principal mourners when the bride +departs, identified with the history of the family, provided for in the +will, a support guaranteed to her by law in sickness and old age, and +that, too, not in a pauper establishment, but in her owner's home, and +when the parents die, if she survives, taken by some branch of the +family or neighbor from regard to her and to them; her moral and +religious character improved under their training, a respectable +standing in society conferred upon her by her connection with them, her +religious privileges sacredly secured to her, any insult redressed as +though it were the family's personal affair; she a partaker of their +food and of all their comforts, and followed to her grave with respect +and love; or, for the sake of 'priceless liberty,' 'heaven's best gift +to man,' would you prefer to see her seated under the iron fence of a +park, an old umbrella tied to the pickets for her shelter, and she, in +rain and sunshine, selling 'Old Dan Tucker,' 'Jim Crow, Illustrated,' +and pea-nuts, and sleeping you know not where? Which lot would you +choose for a child? Which is best for this world and the next? In one +case, she is 'owned,' she is 'a slave;' and in the other, she is a free +woman." + +"You have no right," said he, with some warmth, "to take the best +condition in slavery, and the very worst in freedom, and compel me to +choose." + +"'Best condition in slavery!'" said I; "is there any 'best' in being a +slave, in not being free? Does it admit of degrees? Is not being 'owned' +such a curse, such an unmixed iniquity in its essence, that to compare +its best estate with the worst in freedom, is like comparing the best +devil with the most inferior saint? Is not a devil's nature incapable of +comparison as good, better, best, with anything which is not, in its +nature, devilish? According to your conversation just now, it seemed as +though being 'owned' always implied an unmitigated transgression; and +now when I inquire whether you would prefer degradation to the iniquity +of being 'owned' in comfort and usefulness, respectability and +happiness, you shrink from the question. If freedom in the abstract is +the best thing under the sun, of course you will prefer it to everything +else. No happy condition, no happy prospect for this life, and the life +to come can, in your view, make being 'a slave,' as you call it, capable +of being compared with this abstract privilege of being free. In this +you and your friends labor under a huge mistake, and it poisons all your +views and feelings about slavery. When you denounce slave-holders and +slavery, and depict the condition of the slave in your awful colors, +they at the South know that in hundreds of thousands of instances, as it +regards masters and slaves, all that you say is practically false; you +are carried away by your zeal against a theoretical wrong. + +"Now suppose that instead of starting with the theoretical wrong and +getting only such facts as illustrate it, you should travel through the +South to pick up such letters as you consider this, respecting Kate, to +be;--what a pleasing view might be presented of the slaves' condition in +cases without number!" + +"But," said he, "there are terrible evils underlying these fair features +of slavery." + +"True," said I, "but why, in the name of truth and love do you never +hear such a letter as this read on the platforms of Northern abolition +societies? What mingled groans and hisses and shrieks for freedom, and +then what an emptying of the demoniacal epithets there would be, if such +a letter should be offered. One case of whipping would have more effect +than a thousand such letters, in your assemblies and newspapers. No one +from the continent of Europe would infer from those meetings that such +beings as Kate and her little babe, and this lady and her husband and +father, existed even in fiction, but that slave-holders are Legrees, and +the slaves their victims. What a beautiful effect it would have on us +and on the South, if touching tales of loving-kindness between masters +and slaves, instances of perfect happiness in that relation, should be +cited, and then you should enter your candid, but decided opposition to +the system, to its extension, to its evils where it exists. How soon we +should all be found working together, so far as we might, for the +amelioration of the colored race here, with a view to the extinction of +slavery in every form of it in which it is an evil, or a greater evil +than anything which might properly be substituted." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, "husband, what do you say to that?" + +"I like it," said he. + +"But now," said I, "the language of the place of despair is exhausted in +describing and denouncing the South. If a man among us lifts up his +voice to say good things about Southerners, one universal hiss goes up +from all your conventions and anti-slavery prints. He may be seeking the +same end with you, namely, the peaceful removal of slavery, with due +regard to the highest good of all concerned; but let him utter a word in +arrest of your unqualified condemnation of slavery as it actually is, +and there are no persecutors, nor scourges, nor intolerance on the +earth, more fierce and cruel than you and your denunciations." + +"Take it patiently, husband," said Mrs. North, "you know that you +deserve it." + +"I know from this," said I, "if from nothing else, that your theory is +wrong. The truth does not excite such passions in those who love and +seek to promote it. We see that, in cases without number, the present +condition of the slaves is a blessing for both worlds, and that if all +who possess slaves were, as many are, slavery would cease to be any more +of a curse than any dependent condition in this world. There must always +be those who will do every sort of menial work. The great Father of all, +who himself says that he has 'deprived' the ostrich 'of wisdom, neither +hath he imparted to her understanding,' so arranges the capacities of +some that their happiness consists in leaning upon superior intelligence +and capability. + +"The serving people, in some districts of country, are volunteers from +all races; at the South, they consist of one inferior, dependent race, +who for ages have been slaves in their own country, and would be such +even now, if they were there. We will not shut the door of hope forever +upon any part of the human family, as to their elevation among the +tribes of men, but this race has, for a long period of its history, +evidently been undergoing a tutelage and discipline at the hand of +Providence. There is some marvellous arrangement of Providence, it seems +to me, designing that this black race shall lean upon us. Let the same +number of any other immigrant race have gone from us to Canada as of +this colored race, and the world would have heard a better report from +them ere this. They thrive best in connection with us as their masters, +whether it be right or wrong for us to be in such relation to them." + +"But now," said he,--in a persuasive tone, and evidently wishing to turn +the drift of the remarks,--"just set them free, and hire them; we shall +agree then. The slaves will be as well off, and so will their masters." + +"Mr. North," said I, "being owned is, in itself, irrespective of the +character of the master, a means of protection to the negro. Somebody +then is responsible for him as his guardian and provider, and is +amenable to the State for his sustenance. You can easily see that, let +the colored people come to be a hireling class, and their interests and +those of their masters are disjoined. There would be conflicts and +oppressions among themselves; they would fall into a degraded, serf-like +condition; but now each of them partakes of his master's interests, and +rises with him. I am not here pleading for slavery in the abstract, but, +the blacks being on the soil, it is far better for them to be owned than +to be free. Why are the Southwestern States, one after another, passing +laws, or framing their constitutions, to shut out from their borders +free negroes,--people in the very condition into which you would reduce +by wholesale all the blacks in the South? I pray you look and see that +you are an abstractionist, setting what you deem a theoretical wrong +against a practical good, and under the circumstances, a real mercy." + +"But," said Mr. North, "slavery impoverishes the soil, makes the whites +shun labor, feeling it to be degrading, and it keeps the white children +from industrial pursuits, and"-- + +"Please stop," said I, "my dear Sir, and think of what you are saying, +and be not carried away by that popular flood of cant phrases. Now you +know that God has given our Southern friends a south country, nearer +than ours to the tropics. Out-of-door labor there is injurious to the +white people, as you know. They are not to be blamed for this. God has +not given them strength to endure exposure to the sun. Had they a +northern climate, in which the labor required by the mechanic arts could +be performed with safety and comfort, do you not suppose that they +would have the same aptitude and relish as we for handicraft? Their +children cannot be brought up to manual labor to the extent that ours +are, because the God of heaven has ordained their lot in a land less +favorable than ours to toil. His providence, making use of the sins of +men, has placed the blacks here; you and the rest of the world, who +depend upon their cotton, are willing enough to use it in its countless +forms, while you reproach your Maker, as I think, for having caused it +to be raised as he has seen fit to do." + +"But Oh," said Mr. North, "free labor is more profitable than slave +labor. You well know how it affects the soil, and that the great price +of slaves will in time make the system oppressive to the masters, +especially if they are all as considerate as you say they are about +selling." + +"The good Aunt has replied to you as to the soil, and we need not +distress ourselves about the price of slaves; that will regulate itself. +You well understand," said I, "that I am not arguing in favor of slavery +_per se_, nor for the slave-trade, nor for the extension of slavery; but +I contend that where slavery now exists, no one has yet proposed a +scheme which is better than the continuance of ownership, the blacks +remaining on the same soil with their present masters. Nor do I mean to +say that the present system must inevitably continue forever. We must +leave future developments in other hands. Of course there are difficult +problems on such a subject as this. Intelligent Christian gentlemen at +the South say that the best schemes which have been proposed by +Europeans for the substitution of apprenticed negroes for slaves would +make the condition of the negro as far worse than our slavery as the +condition of a degraded negro here is below that of his master. Who will +care for him when he is old, or sick? Granting this apprentice scheme +to be arranged without oppression or sin of any kind, I hold that the +condition of our slaves owned by masters and mistresses, is better than +such a hireling condition, though it have the appearance of liberty." + +"Why so?" inquired Mr. North. + +"The slaves are not treated as hired horses are liable to be treated," I +replied. "We know how a man is likely to treat his own horse, compared +with the horse which he hires. Men nurse their slaves when they are +sick; they provide for them when they are old. By their care and +responsibility for them, and in relieving them from responsibility, they +pay them wages whose market-value, if it could be reckoned in dollars, +would be higher wages than are paid to the same class of laborers in the +land. There are not four millions of the lower class of the laboring +people in any one district of the earth whose condition is to be +compared with that of the Southern slaves for comfort and happiness." + +"I presume," said Mrs. North, "that you would not regard exemption from +responsibility as in itself a blessing. You know how it educates us, how +it sharpens the faculties, how it makes a man more of a man; therefore +is it, after all, any kindness to the slaves, that they are relieved +from responsibility?" + +"I thank you," said I, "for that question. Does it concern us that our +domestic servants are relieved, for the time, of all responsibility for +house-rent, taxes, political duties? + +"Every condition of poverty and toil has its peculiar hardships and +sorrows. But putting together, respectively, all the advantages and the +disadvantages of our slaves, he who looks upon a population with +enlarged views of liabilities and of the inevitable results in the +working of different schemes of labor, and is not so weak or morbid as +to dwell inordinately on real and imaginary wrongs and miseries, which, +after all, if real, are compensated for by advantages or surpassed by +aggregated smaller evils in other conditions, must admit that, the +colored people being here, their being owned is the very best possible +thing for their protection, and the surest guarantee against all their +liabilities to want in hard times, sickness, and old age. + +"Speaking of hard times leads me to say, that if you could put four +millions of laboring people in the Free States, for a winter or during +commercial distresses and the stagnation of every kind of business, in a +position where, while they were still active and useful, a single +thought or care about their sustenance would not visit them, you would +be deemed a philanthropist and public benefactor. There will not be the +same number of people in the laboring class throughout our land next +winter, in any one section, whose comfort and happiness will exceed that +of our slaves." + +"Oh, well," said Mr. North, "all this may be true, but this does not +reconcile me to slavery. Our horses here at the North will all be +comfortably provided for, notwithstanding any money pressure. But I +would rather be a human being and fail, every winter, than be a horse." + +"Husband," said Mrs. North, "do you consider that a parallel case? Mr. +C. is not arguing, as I understand him, that slavery is better than +freedom. He is not persuading us to be slaves rather than free. He takes +these four millions of blacks as he finds them, in bondage, and he asks, +What shall we do with them? You say, Set them free. He says, They are +better off, as a race, in their present bondage, than they would be if +made free, to remain here. Not that they are better off than four +millions of colored people, who had never been slaves, would be in a +commonwealth by themselves." + +"I thank you, Mrs. North," said I, "for your clear and correct statement +of my position. And now I will take up Mr. North's parable about the +horses, and apply it justly. Let hay and grass be exceedingly scarce, +and I had rather take my chance with an owner and be a horse, in a +stable, and at work, than a horse roaming in search of food, chased away +everywhere. The comparison is between horse and horse, and man and man." + +"You make me think," said Mrs. North, "of an interesting passage in a +late magazine, written by a lady. She was on a voyage to Cuba. She +arrived at Nassau. She says, 'There were many negroes, together with +whites of every grade; and some of our number, leaning over the side, +saw for the first time the raw material out of which Northern +Humanitarians have spun so fine a skein of compassion and sympathy. You +must allow me one heretical whisper,--very small and low. Nassau, and +all we saw of it, suggested to us the unwelcome question whether +compulsory labor be not better than none.'"[3] + + [Footnote 3: _Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1859, p. 604.] + +"There is," said I, "this great question of right, with some, as to +slavery: As the State has a right to interpose and send vagrant children +to school, has the world a right to interpose, in certain cases, and +send certain races to labor for the good of mankind? This was the +question which broke upon the lady's mind. It is very interesting to see +the question thus stated, and to notice the graceful touch of apology, +and of playfulness, in the manner of stating it. There was risk, and +even peril, in making the suggestion, but, withal, some moral courage. +Still a lady may sometimes venture where it might not be safe for a +gentleman to go. + +"But the question between us is not, 'Freedom or slavery,' in the +abstract, nor, Whether it is right, in any case, to reduce a people to +slavery; but, What is best for our slaves? All your proofs that freedom +is better than slavery in the abstract, are nothing to the point." + +"It is the foulest blot on our nation in the eyes of the world," said +Mr. North, "that we have four millions of human beings in bondage." + +"Have you read 'Uncle Tom's Cabin?'" I inquired. + +"Ask me," said he, pleasantly, "if I know how to read. Every lover of +liberty and hater of oppression has read 'Uncle Tom.'" + +"That is very far from being true," said I; "but still, you like Uncle +Tom as a character, do you?" + +"You astonish me," said he, "by making a question about it. He is the +most perfect specimen of Christianity that I ever heard of." + +"Among the martyrs," said I, "have you ever found his superior?" + +"No, Sir!" was his energetic answer. + +"Now," said I, "what made Uncle Tom the paragon of perfection?" + +"What made him?" said he. + +"Yes," said I, "what made him the model Christian? You do not reply, and +I will tell you. SLAVERY MADE UNCLE TOM. Had it not been for slavery, he +would have been a savage in Africa, a brutish slave to his fetishes, +living in a jungle, perhaps; and had you stumbled upon him he would very +likely have roasted you and picked your bones. A system which makes +Uncle Toms out of African savages is not an unmixed evil." + +"But," said he, "it makes Legrees also." + +"I beg your pardon, Sir," said I, "it does not make Legrees. There are +as many Legrees at the North as at the South, especially if we include +all the very particular 'friends of the slave.' Legree would be Legree +in Wall Street, or Fifth Avenue; Uncle Tom would not be Uncle Tom in the +wilds of Africa." + +"And so," said he, "it is right to fit out ships, burn villages in +Africa, steal the flying people, bestow them in slave-ships, and sell +them into hopeless bondage!" + +"So you all love to reason," said I, "or seek to force that conclusion +upon us. No such thing. If God overrules the evil doings of men, this is +no reason for repeating the wrong. I am insisting that slavery as it +exists in the South has been a blessing to the African. This does not +warrant you in perpetrating outrages on those who are still in Africa. + +"But the result has been, through the mercy of God as though we had +taken millions of degraded savages out of Africa, and had made them +contribute greatly to the industrial interests of mankind. + +"We have raised them from heathenish ignorance and barbarism to the +condition of intelligent beings. Look at them in their churches and +Sabbath-schools. Slavery has done this. See the colored population of +Charleston, S.C., voluntarily contributing, as they do, on an average, +three dollars apiece, annually, for the propagation of the Gospel at +home and abroad. See the meeting-house of the African Church at +Richmond, Va., a place selected for public speakers from the North to +deliver their addresses in it to the citizens of Richmond, because it is +more commodious than any other public building in the city. Think of the +membership of slaves in Christian Churches; of the multitudes of them +who have died in the faith and hope of the Gospel. Slavery has done +this. The question is whether slavery has been, or is, such a curse, on +the whole, to the African race, that we must now set free the whole +colored population? Please let us keep to the point. The reopening of +the slave-trade is a question by itself. + +"It seems that God had chosen to redeem and save large numbers of the +African race by having them transported to this Christian land. +Philanthropists would not be at the cost and trouble of all this. God +has, therefore, used the cupidity of men to accomplish his purposes, and +he punishes the wicked agents of his own benevolent schemes. His curse +has for ages rested on the African race, and the laws of nature have, to +a great degree, interposed to prevent Christian efforts in their behalf. +God saw fit to change the prison-house, and prison yards and shops of +this race from one continent to another, and New England merchantmen, in +part, have been allowed to be the conveyers. In the process of +transferring these future subjects of civilization and Christianity, +vast misery is endured, as in opening a way by the sword for the +execution of his decrees, great slaughter is the inevitable attendant. I +look at the whole subject of slavery in the light of God's providence. +And I do not see that his providence yet indicates any way for its +termination consistent with the interests of the colored people. + +"As to the extension of slavery, in this land, if the Most High has any +further purposes of mercy for the African race in connection with us, he +will not consult you nor me. He will open districts of our country for +them; if my political party refuses to be the instrument in doing this, +from benevolent motives, or from any other cause, He will make that +party to be defeated, it may be by a party below us in moral principle, +as we view it. This question of slavery, its extension and continuance, +is therefore among the great problems of God's providence. I shall do +all that I properly can to prevent it, and to encourage, and, if called +upon, to aid my brethren now in immediate charge of the slaves, to +fulfil their solemn trust; but anything like impatience and passion at +the existence of slavery, I hold to be a sin against God. I pity those +good men whose minds are so inflamed by the consideration of individual +cases of suffering as not to perceive the great and steadfast march of +the divine administration. Politicians and others who get their places, +or their bread, by easy appeals to sympathy for individual cases of +suffering, are the causes of much misplaced commiseration and of a low, +uninstructed view of the great interests involved in slavery. Yet these +very men who, for selfish purposes, stir up the passions of our people, +by dwelling on cases of hardship in slavery, are greatly disappointed +when Napoleon III., at Villafranca, prematurely terminates a war of +unparalleled slaughter. They would have preferred, for the cause of +constitutional liberty and for its possible influence against the Pope, +that the fighting had continued a month longer; we hear no pathetic +remonstrances from them on the score of the killed and maimed, the +widows and orphans and the childless, of homes made desolate, by this +additional month of battle. Such is man, so inconsistent, so blinded by +party prejudice, so ready to maintain that which, in a change of persons +and places, he will denounce. He will be wholly blinded by individual +acts of suffering to all that is good in a system; and again, the good +to be effected by a war will blind him to the hundreds of thousands of +dead or mutilated soldiers, with five times that number of bleeding +hearts, rifled by the sword of their precious treasures." + +I saw that I had prolonged my remarks to an undue length. We sat in +silence for a little while, looking into the fire, and listening to the +rain against the windows, when Judith called Mrs. North to the door; +and, after some whispering between them, Mrs. North said to her, + +"Oh, bring them in; our company will excuse it." + +The cranberries, it seems, were not doing well over the fire in Judith's +department, and she had hesitatingly proposed that they should be +promoted to the parlor grate, where, after due apologies, they were +placed. They soon began to simmer; then one would burst, and then +another, we pausing unconsciously to hear them surrendering themselves +to their fate, while one mouth, at least, watered at the thought of the +delicious dish which they were to furnish; the rich, ruby color of their +juice in the best cut-glass tureen, and the added spoonful, as a reward +for not spilling a drop on the table-cloth the last time they were +served, coming to mind, with thoughts of early days. And here I was +discussing slavery. Now, while the cranberries were over the fire, +making one feel domestic and also bringing back young days, it was +impossible to be disputatious, had we been so inclined. The Northern +cranberry-meadow and the Southern sugar-plantation seemed mixed up in my +feelings on this subject, qualifying and rectifying each other. Perhaps +the soothing presence of the cranberry saucepan was timely; for, without +any design, a phase of our subject next presented itself which was not +the most agreeable. I broke the silence, and said,-- + +"Mr. North, what do you think is the mission of the abolitionists as a +party, and of all who sympathize with them?" + +"Why," said he, "to abolish slavery, to be sure. What else can it be?" + +"You are mistaken," said I. "The real mission of the abolitionists, thus +far, is, To perpetuate slavery till Providence has accomplished its +plan. You know what Southern synods, and general assemblies, and many of +the ablest men at the South have said about slavery; how they deplored +it, and called upon Christians to seek its extinction. The South would +probably have tried to abolish slavery ere this, if left to themselves. +But they would have failed; and Providence prevented the useless effort. +The influence of those sentiments which prevailed in the General +Assembly of 1818 would have been to remove all the objectionable +features of slavery, at least, preparatory to its final extinction, if +that could be reached. It looked as though Churches generally would, in +obedience to the General Assembly, have made it, in certain cases, the +subject of discipline. Abolitionism, however, began about that time. It +had the effect to make the South defend themselves and slavery too. +Providence saw that the South was weary of the system, and wished to +throw it off. But the years of the captivity appointed of God had not +come to an end. Purposes of mercy for the African race had not been +accomplished; the South must be made willing to hold these poor people +for the 'time, times, and half a time,' ordained of God. To encourage +them, the God of Nature makes the great Southern staple, cotton, to be +in greater demand for the supply of the world; the cotton-gin is +invented, and immediately the slaves are thereby assisted to retain that +hold upon the South which was about to be broken off. All this seems to +me designed, as it certainly has the effect, to perpetuate slavery until +Providence shall indicate measures for the removal of the colored people +among us. This may be delayed for centuries to come. In the mean time, +we at the North, by keeping up our agitation of the subject, have +impressed the South with the importance of being united against us; but +if any of our schemes of emancipation had divided them, it would not +have been for the good of the slaves. So the abolitionists have been +fulfilling their destiny by fighting against Providence to help +perpetuate slavery till the Most High shall disclose his will concerning +it." + +"And helped the South," said Mr. North, "perpetuate violations of the +marriage relation, and to separate families, and to countenance all the +sins in slavery!" + +"Yes, to some degree," said I; "for should we treat them with common +candor and truthfulness, make them feel that we appreciate the +perplexities of the subject, admit for once, and act upon it, that they +are better and more competent 'friends of the slave' than we, it would +be the surest way to put a stop to every evil in slavery. Now they have +little power over a certain class of men among them, who, when measures +are proposed for the relief of the slaves, raise the cry that they are +abolitionists, and excite an odium which deters them from doing many +things which would otherwise be attempted." + +"They might all certainly join," said Mr. North, "one would think, to +prevent the violation of the marriage contract by the slaves, and the +sundering of the marriage tie by the auctioneer." + +"Now," said I, "there are two allegations, and I will answer them. As to +the violation of the marriage covenant by the slaves, are you aware how +many divorces for the same cause are granted in your own state yearly? +You will find, on inquiry, that 'freedom' has nothing to boast of in +this respect. As to the auctioneer, and the separation of the marriage +tie by him, how often do you think that an honest black man, for no +crime, is taken from his wife and sold, or she from him? How often, do +you suppose, are families divided and scattered at the auction-block? If +you will inquire, you will find that the cases are extremely rare; that +in some large districts it has not occurred for several years; and that +in other cases, where it has occurred, regard has been had to the +neighborhood of the purchasers, so that members of the same families +have been within reach of one another. You seem to think that a great +feature, and the most common effect, of slavery is to separate families. +Such is the general belief at the North. Let me remind you that there is +no form or condition of service in the world which has more effect than +slavery to keep families together." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, dropping her work in her lap, "I never thought +of that before." + +"Why," said I, "where will you find in the Free States husband and wife +and children living together as servants in the same family?" + +Said Mrs. North, "It is rather uncommon with us to find two sisters +living together as help in a family. At least, it is always spoken of +and noted as pleasant and desirable." + +"What would Northerners think," said I, "of gathering the old parents +and all the brothers and sisters of their domestics together, in small +tenements near their own dwellings? He who should do this would be +regarded as a very great saint. So that you may as well say that slavery +is a system by which a serving class is kept together in families, as to +say that its purpose and effect is to break up families." + +"Just think," said Mrs. North, "of the serving class in our families +here at the North,--how they are separated by states, by oceans, from +one another!" + +"Be careful, Mrs. North," said I, "how you even hint at such mitigations +in slavery, for you will be denounced as a 'friend of oppression' if you +discern anything in the system but 'villanies.' You never hear such a +feature of slavery, as that of which we have just spoken, recognized +here at the North by our zealous anti-slavery people." + +"Do you not think," said she, "that if we were candid and less +passionate, and viewed the subject as anti-slavery men at the South do, +we should exert far more influence against slavery?" + +"If we exerted any," I replied, "it would be 'far more' than we do now. +If we would only cease to 'exert influence' in that direction, and begin +to learn that the people of the South are as Christian, benevolent, and +good in every respect as we, this first, great lesson, which we all need +to learn, would do us all great good. Self-righteousness is the great +characteristic of the Northern people with regard to the South. Fifteen +States declare that they are justified before God in continuing the +system of slavery. The other States would be ashamed to condemn those +fifteen States for immorality in the discussion of any other subject; +but here they assume that one half of the American nation is convicted +of crime. I take the ground that, if the Churches and the ministry of +those fifteen States say, With all the evils of slavery, it is right and +best that we should maintain it, I will so far yield my convictions as +not to feel that they are less righteous than I." + +"Oh," said Mr. North, "but they have been born and educated under the +system. Of course they must be blinded by it, and their moral sense +perverted." + +"There," said I, "Mr. North, is the 'Northern Evil' again. Oh, what a +shame it is for intelligent people to decry Southern Christians in this +way, and to erect their own moral sense into such self-complacent +superiority! + +"You will see in your church one excellent brother, whose heart is +filled with anguish at the thought of the 'poor slave.' One sits by him +who knows full as much on this and on all subjects as he, who feels that +the people at the South are perfectly qualified to manage this subject, +and that we have no need to interpose. He thinks that if one wishes to +be excited with compassion at the sorrows and woes of men, a short walk +will bring him to certain abodes such as no Southern slave would be +allowed by any human master to inhabit. If he would benefit men as a +class, our own sailors need all his philanthropy. But the good +anti-slavery brother is possessed with the idea that the Southern slave +is the impersonation of injustice and misery, and that those who stand +in the relation of masters are guilty of crimes, daily, which ought to +shut them out of the Church. + +"I have often thought that the most appropriate prayers in our public +assemblies, with regard to slavery, would be petitions against Northern +ignorance and passion with respect to Southern Christians. It is we who +most need to be prayed for. When I think of those assemblies of +Christians of all denominations in the South, with a clergy at their +head who have no superiors in the world, and then hear a Northern +preacher indicting them before God in his prayers, what shall I say? The +verdict of a coroner's inquest, if it were held over some of his hearers +at such a time, might almost be, Died of disgust." + +"Now I desire to know," said Mr. North, "if we are never to pray in +public about slavery? Is it not the great subject before the country, +and are not all our interests in Church and State deeply involved in +it?" + +"While we believe," said I, "that holding slaves is a sin, I take the +ground that praying for the Southerners is a false impeachment. When we +are rid of this error, we do not feel their need of being prayed for any +more than 'all men,' for whom Paul says, 'I will that men pray +everywhere,'--'lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting.' Our +'hands' must be 'holy' when we lift them up for 'all men,' including +Southerners; there must be no 'wrath' in our prayers,--which I am sorry +to say is too easily discerned in prayers against the South; and there +must be no 'doubting' in the petitioners whether their feelings and +motives are right before God. There is as much in the relation of +officers and crews in our merchant vessels, to say the least, to enlist +the prayers of ministers, as in slavery. But this relates to ourselves, +and has not the enchantment of a distant sin. + +"You must bring yourself to believe, Mr. North, that Southern hearts are +in general as humane and cultivated as ours. This, it is true, is a +great demand upon a Northerner." + +"But oh," said he, (we happening to be alone just then,) "the cruelty of +compelling virtuous people, members of Churches, to commit sin, under +pain of being sold." + +"Mr. North," said I, "how do you dare to open your lips on that +subject,--you, with myself, a member of a denomination in which men, +eminent in our pulpits, have--so many of them of late years--fallen. One +would think that we would never cast a stone at the South on that +subject. + +"Some among us seem to think that the power and the opportunity to +commit sin must necessarily be followed by criminal indulgence. They do +themselves no credit in this supposition. They also leave out of view a +natural antipathy which must be overcome, sense of degradation, +probability of detection, loss of character, conscience, and all the +moral restraints which are common to men everywhere; and they only judge +that all who exercise authority over an abject race must, as a general +thing, be polluted. + +"As to opportunities for evil-doing at the South compared with the +North, no one who walks the streets of a Northern city, by day or night, +with the ordinary discernment of one who sets himself to examine the +moral condition of a place, will fail to see that we need not go to the +South to find humiliating proofs of baseness and shame. There is less +solicitation at the South; here it is a nightly trade, without disguise. +At the South the young must go in search of opportunity; here it +confronts them. The small number of yellow children in the interior of +the Cotton States, on 'lone plantations,' is positive proof against the +ready suspicions and accusations of Northern people. Let all be true +which is said of 'yellow women,' 'slave-breeders,' and every form of +lechery, he is simple who does not believe that the statistics of a +certain wickedness at the North would, if made as public as difference +of color makes the same statistics at the South, leave no room for us to +arraign and condemn the South in this particular. Their clergy, their +husbands, their young men, if they are no better, are no worse than we. +But there is nothing in which the self-righteousness created by +anti-slavery views and feelings is more conspicuous than in the way in +which the South is judged and condemned by us with regard to this one +sin. Had the pulpits of the South afforded such dreadful instances of +frailty, for the last ten or fifteen years, as we have had at the North, +what confirmation would we have found for our invectives against the +corrupting and 'barbarous' influence of slavery! + +"How the morbid fancy of a Northerner loves to gloat over occasional +instances of violence at the South, and is never employed in depicting +scenes of betrayal and cruelty which our policemen in large cities could +recount by scores." + +"I saw," said Mr. North, "in a recent paper, that a slave in Washington +County, N.C., was hanged by the sheriff in the presence of three +thousand spectators, for the murder of a white man, whom he shot with a +pistol because he suspected him of undue familiarity with the wife of +the black man. Poor fellow! no doubt he swung for it because he was a +slave. He must let his marriage rights be invaded by the whites, and +bear it in silence, or die." + +Said I, "What a perfect specimen of Northern anti-slavery feeling and +logic have we in what you now say. If a man, on suspicion of you, takes +the law into his hands and shoots you with a pistol, does he not deserve +to die? He does, if he is a white man; perhaps, if he be a slave, that +excuses him! Even where a man is known to be guilty of the crime +referred to, and the husband shoots him, he is apt to have a narrow +escape from being punished. As to bearing such violations of one's +rights in silence under intimidation, there is no more power in +intimidation to save a villain at the South from disgrace and abhorrence +in his community, than at the North." + +"But he can evade prosecution under the statute," said Mr. North, "more +easily at the South than here." + +"When you have served on the grand jury a few terms," said I, "you will +be more charitable toward Southerners. Human nature is the same +everywhere. It makes, where it does not find, occasion for sin. + +"Now you will not understand, in all that I have said, that I am +pleading for slavery, that I desire to have this abject race among us, +that Southerners are purer and better than we. We are both under sin. We +all have our temptations and trials; each form of society has its own +kind of facilities for evil; but the grace of God and all the influences +which bear on the formation and the preservation of character, are the +same wherever Christianity prevails." + +"Well, after all," said he, "it must be a semi-barbarous state of +society, where such a system is maintained." + +"I shall have to send you," said I, "to the 'Hotel des Incurables.' I +think that your judgments are more than semi-barbarous. If you please to +term even the Southern negroes 'semi-barbarous,' you may do so; but you +are bearing false witness against your neighbor. + +"My dear friend," said I, "sum up all the evils of the laboring classes, +of foreigners and the lower orders of society. Take their miseries, +vices, crimes, with all the blessings of freedom and everything else. +Get the proportion of evil to the good. Remember that these classes will +continue to exist among us. Then take the slaves, the lower order at the +South, as foreigners are with us, and say if, on the whole, the +proportion of evil among the slaves is any greater than among the +corresponding classes elsewhere. Do not be an optimist. Acknowledge that +society, in this fallen world, must have elements of evil, by reason at +least of imbecility, want of thrift, misfortune, and other things. You +will not fail to see that slavery with all its evils is, under the +circumstances, by no means, the worst possible condition for the colored +people." + +"Well," said he, "I will think of all you have said. I do not wish to be +an ultraist, nor to shut my eyes against truth. You will wish to go to +bed; there are some further points on which I would know your views, and +we will, if you please, resume the subject to-morrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +OWNERSHIP IN MAN.--THE OLD TESTAMENT SLAVERY. + + "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do + ye even so to them; FOR THIS IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS." + + HOLY WRIT. + + +The rain still poured down in the morning, making it agreeable to us +that we had the prospect of an uninterrupted forenoon for our +conversation. + +So when we found ourselves together again in the course of the forenoon, +by the fire, we opened the discussion. + +Mr. North inquired what I understood by the term "owning a +fellow-creature." + +"I understand by it," I replied, "a right to use, and to dispose of, the +services of another, wholly at my will. That will must be subject to the +whole law of God, which includes the golden rule. I do not mean by it +that a man owns the body of a man in such a sense that he can maim it at +will, or in any way abuse it. Ownership in men is power to use their +services and to dispose of them, at will." + +"Now," said he, "who gives you a right to go to Africa or to a slave +auction and to say to a human being, 'I propose to own you.' How would +you like to have a black man come to you in a solitary place and say, +'My dear Sir, I propose to own you. Henceforth your services are +subject to my will.'?" + +"As to Africa," said I, "and making slaves of those who are now free, we +cannot differ. As to the other part of your question, I will carry the +illustration a little further, and in doing so, will answer you in part. +How would you like to have some Michael O'Connor come to you and say, +'Mr. North, I propose to hire you and pay you wages as my body-servant, +or my ostler.' Why should you not consent? If you do not, why should you +hire Mike himself to serve you in either of those capacities? What has +become of the golden rule, if you hire a man to do work for you which +you would not be hired to do? + +"You are feasting with a company of friends; and your domestics, below, +hear your cheerful talk, and feel the wide difference between your state +and theirs. Why do you not go down and say, 'Dear fellow-creatures, go +up and take our places at table, and let us be servants'? Does the +golden rule require that? Inequalities in human conditions are a wise +and benevolent provision for human happiness, so long as men are +dependent on one another, as they are and ever must be. Some are so +constituted by an all-wise God that they are happier to be in +subordinate situations. Mind is lord; and they, seeing and feeling the +superiority of others, gladly attach themselves to them as helpers, to +be thought for and protected, and to enjoy their approbation. There is +nothing cruel in this, unless it be cruel not to have made all men +equal. There are important influences growing out of these relationships +of superiors and inferiors,--gentleness, kindness, benevolence, in all +its forms, on the one hand, and on the other, respect, deference, love, +strong attachments and identification of interests. + +"As to the remaining part of your question, let me ask, What nation or +tribes are capable of such bondage as the Africans at home inflict and +bear? We never had a right to go and steal them, nor to encourage their +captors in their pillage and violent seizure of the defenceless +creatures; nor do I think that all the blessings which multitudes of +them have received, for both worlds, in consequence of their +transportation from Africa, lessens the guilt of slave-traders; nor are +these benefits any justification of the trade, nor do they afford ground +for its continuance. Nothing can justify it. Such is the voice of the +human conscience everywhere except where covetousness or controversy +prevail. + +"But finding these colored people here, the question upon which you and +I differ, is, What is our duty with regard to them? + +"You say, Set them all free. I reply, The relation of ownership on our +part toward them is best for all concerned. You say, It is wrong in +itself. To say this, I think, is to be more righteous than God." + +"Then you maintain," said he, "that the Most High, in the Bible, +countenances all the atrocities of American slavery." + +"What a strange way," said I, "of arguing, do we very generally find +among anti-slavery men, when their feelings are enlisted, as they are so +apt to be. They take unwarrantable, extreme inferences from what we say, +and oppose these as logical answers to a statement or argument. 'Auction +block' and 'Bunker Hill,' are sufficient answers with them to most of +our reasoning on this subject. But let us look at this point in a +dispassionate manner. + +"But," said I, "before I begin I wish to be distinctly understood as +holding this doctrine; namely, The Bible does not justify us in reducing +men to bondage at our will. God might appoint that certain tribes should +be slaves to others; but before we proceed to reduce men to slavery, our +warrant for it must be clear. + +"If, however, slavery is found by a certain generation among them, and +it is not right and just nor expedient to abolish it, may we not safely +ask, How did the Most High legislate concerning slavery among the people +to whom he gave a code of laws from his own lips? + +"Learning this, we must then consider whether circumstances in our day +warrant, or require, different rules and regulations. + +"But our inquiry into the divine legislation respecting slavery, will +disclose some things which draw largely upon one's implicit faith in the +divine goodness; and if a man is disposed to be a sceptic and his +anti-slavery feelings are strong, here is a stone on which, if that +anti-slavery man falls, he shall be broken, but if it falls on him, it +shall grind him to powder. + +"You will acknowledge this, if you will allow me to speak further on +this subject. + +"Did you ever notice," said I, "with what words Christ concludes his +enunciation of the golden rule? They are a remarkable answer to our +modern infidels, who impugn the Old Testament as far behind the New in +its moral standard. After declaring that the rule by which we should +treat others is self-love, the Saviour says,--'for this is the Law and +the Prophets.' So there was nothing in the Law and Prophets inconsistent +with the golden rule. The golden rule therefore marks the history of +divine legislation from the beginning; and if God appointed slavery, he +ordained nothing in connection with it which was inconsistent with +equal love to one's self and to a neighbor. + +"This deserves to be considered by those who, finding slavery in the Old +Testament appointed by God, begin, as it were, to exculpate their Maker +by saying that the Hebrews were a rude, semi-barbarous people, and that +divine legislation was wisely accommodated to their moral capacity. Now +it is singular, if this be so, that the Mosaic code should be the basis, +as it is, of all good legislation everywhere. The effort to make the +Hebrew people and their code appear inferior, in order to excuse +slavery, is one illustration of the direful effect which anti-slavery +principles have had in lowering the respect of many for the Bible, and +loosening its hold upon their consciences. Now it is to me a perfect +relief on this subject of slavery in the Old Testament, to know that God +appointed nothing in the relation of his people to men of any class or +condition which his people in a change of circumstances, might not be +willing should be administered to them. If slavery was ordained of God +to the Hebrews, it must, therefore, have been benevolent. If we start +with the doctrine that 'Slavery is the sum of all villanies,' no wonder +that we find it necessary to use extenuating words and a sort of +apologetic, protecting manner of treating the divine oracles. After all +it is evidently hard work, with many anti-slavery men to maintain that +reverence for the Old Testament and that confidence in God which they +feel are required of them. So they lay all the responsibility of +imperfection in the divine conduct, to the 'semi-barbarous Hebrews!'--a +people by the way, whose first leader combined in himself a greater +variety, and a higher order, of talent, than any other man in history. +As military commander, poet, historian, judge, legislator, who is to be +named in comparison with the man Moses? + +"We must come to the conclusion," said I, "that the relation of +ownership is not only not sinful, but that it is in itself benevolent, +that it had a benevolent object; for its origin was certainly +benevolent." + +"What was its origin?" said Mrs. North; "I always had a desire to know +how slavery first came into existence." + +"Blackstone tells us," I replied, "that its origin was in the right of a +captor to commute the death of his captives with bondage. The laws of +war give the conqueror a right to destroy his enemies; if he sees fit to +spare their lives in consideration of their serving him, this is also +his right. Thus, we suppose, slavery gained its existence. + +"True, its very nature partakes of our fallen condition; it is not a +paradisiacal institution; it is not good in itself; it is an +accompaniment of the loss which we have incurred by sin. In that light +it is proper to speak of the Most High as adapting his legislation to +the depraved condition of man; but that is no more true of slavery than +of redemption; everything in the treatment of us by the Almighty is an +exponent of our departure from our first estate." + +"Now," said Mrs. North, "all this is a relief to me; for I have always +been sorely tried by remarks seemingly impugning the divine wisdom and +goodness, whenever slavery in the Bible has been under discussion." + +"Please give us an outline," said Mr. North, "of the Hebrew legislation +on this subject." He handed me a Bible. + +"I will try and not be tedious," said I, "and will repeat to you in few +words the principal points of the Hebrew Code, with regard to +involuntary servitude. + + * * * * * + +"Slavery is the first thing named in the law given at Sinai, after the +moral law and a few simple directions as to altars. This is noticeable. +In the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, and in the twenty-fifth chapter +of Leviticus, we find the Hebrew slave-code. The following is a summary +of it:-- + +"1. Hebrews themselves might be bought and sold by Hebrews; but for six +years only, at farthest. If the jubilee year occurred at any time during +these six years, it cut short the term of service. + +"2. Hebrew paupers were an exception to this rule. They could be +retained till the year of jubilee next ensuing. + +"3. Hebrew servants, married in servitude, if they went out free in the +seventh, or in the jubilee year, must go out alone, leaving their wives +which their masters had given them, and their children by these wives, +(if any,) behind them, as their masters' possession. If, however, they +chose to remain with their wives and children, the ear of the servant +was bored with an awl to the door-post, and his servitude became +perpetual. + +"4. Hebrew servants might also, from love to their masters, in like +manner and by the same ceremony, become servants forever. + +"5. Strangers and sojourners among the Hebrews, 'waxing rich,' were +allowed to buy Hebrews who were 'waxen poor,' and who were at liberty to +sell themselves to these sojourners or to the family of these strangers. +The jubilee year, however, terminated this servitude. The price of sale +was graduated according to the number of years previous to the jubilee +year. The kindred of the servant had the right of redeeming him, the +price being regulated in the same way. + +"6. In all these cases in which Hebrews were bought and sold, there were +special injunctions that they should not be treated 'with rigor,' the +reason assigned by the Most High being substantially the same in all +cases, namely, 'For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they +are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the +Lord your God.' + +"7. Liberal provision was to be made for the Hebrew servant at the +termination of his servitude. During his term of service, he was to be +regarded and treated 'as an hired servant and a sojourner.' + +"8. Bondmen and bondmaids, as property, without limitation of time, and +transmissible as inheritance to children, might be bought of surrounding +nations. The children of sojourners also could be thus acquired. To +these the seventh year's and the fiftieth year's release did not apply. + +"Now, Mr. North," said I, "let me proceed to try your faith somewhat. I +will see whether your confidence in divine revelation is sound, for +nothing at the present day has overthrown the faith of many like the +manifest teachings of the Bible with regard to slavery. You have felt +that the Hebrew code is better than ours, so far as it relates to slaves +who were Hebrews. As to the slaves from the heathen, we infer that they +met 'with rigor,' or at least were liable to it; for God continually +enjoins it upon the Hebrews that they shall not use rigor with their +brethren. + +"Now let me mention some things which will try your faith in revelation, +if you are an abolitionist. + +"The Hebrews were allowed to sell their servants to other people. + +"Thus they traded in flesh and blood. This was prohibited in the case of +a Hebrew maid-servant, whom a man had bought and had made her his +concubine. If she did not please him, it was said that--'to sell her +unto a strange nation he shall have no power.' The inference is that +they sold their Gentile slaves, if they pleased, 'to a strange nation.' +Again. When a father or mother became poor, their creditor could take +their children for servants. Thus you read: 'Now there cried a certain +woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying, Thy +servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear +the Lord; and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be +bondmen.' This was according to the law of Moses, in the twenty-fifth of +Leviticus; 'bondmen,' however, meaning here a servant for a term of +years. See also the New Testament parable of the unforgiving servant. + +"This was hard, it will seem to you and to all of us, that if one became +poor in Israel, his children could be attached. Thus the idea of +involuntary servitude, where no crime was, prevailed in the Theocracy. + +"But we come now to something which draws harder upon our faith. + +"We find the Most High prescribing, Exodus xxi. 20, 21, that a master +who kills his servant under chastisement shall be punished (but not put +to death); and if the servant survives a day or two, the master shall +not even be 'punished' for the death of his slave! + +"The reason which the Most High gives is this: '_For he is his money_'! + +"A human being, 'money'! An immortal soul, 'money'! God's image, +'money'! And this the reasoning, these the very words of my Maker! Is it +not astonishing, if your principles are correct, that there has been no +controversy for ages against this? and that the Bible, with such +passages in it should have retained its hold on the human mind? 'He is +his money'! It would have been no different had it read: 'He is his +cotton.' You see that the Most High recognized 'ownership,' 'property in +man.' Why is it said, 'He is his money'? Poole (Synopsis) says,--'that +is, his possession bought with money; and therefore 1. Had a power to +chastise him according to his merit, which might be very great. 2. Is +sufficiently punished with his own loss. 3. May be presumed not to have +done this purposely or maliciously.' + +"Either and all of which explanations, or any other which can be given, +only bring more clearly to view the idea of 'money' as a reason why the +master is not to be punished, for causing the death of a slave by +whipping, if the slave happens to continue a day or two, no matter under +what mutilations and sufferings. + +"Furthermore. We find the Most High decreeing perpetual bondage in +certain cases, and more than all, as we have seen, _the forcible +separation of husband and wife_ among slaves. Let me turn to Exodus xxi. +and read:-- + + "'1. Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. + + "'2. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in + the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. + + "'3. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he + were married, then his wife shall go out with him. + + "'4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him + sons or daughters, _the wife and her children shall be her + master's_, and he shall go out by himself.' + +"I have not finished my reading," said I; "but what do you say to that, +Mr. North?" + +"Read on," said he. + + "'5. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my + wife, and my children, I will not go out free: + + "'6. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, he shall also + bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, and his master shall + bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.' + +"God decreed, therefore, that the marriage of a slave in bondage, in +those days, was dissoluble, as no other marriage was. Divorces among the +Hebrews, allowed for the hardness of their hearts, were not parallel to +the forcible separation of a slave from his wife under the hard +necessity of choice between perpetual bondage with a wife, or freedom +without her. The merciful God who kindly enacted, 'No man shall take the +nether nor the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to +pledge,' and that a garment pawned should be restored before sundown, +that wages should not be withheld over night, yes, the God who +legislated about bird's-nests ordained the dissolution of the marriage +tie between slaves in certain cases, unless the slave husband was +willing for his wife's sake, to be a slave forever! + +"What do you say to this, Mr. North?" I asked again. + +Said Mrs. North, "I begin to see the origin and cause of infidelity +among the abolitionists." + +"Tell me," said Mr. North, "how you view it." + +"On stating this, once," said I, "in a public meeting, I raised a +clamor. Three or four men sprung to their feet, and one of them, who +first caught the chairman's eye, cried out, his face turning red, his +eyes starting from their sockets, his fist clenched, 'I demand of the +gentleman whether he means to approve of all the abominations of +American slavery! Is he in favor of separating husbands and wives, +parents and children? Let us know it, Sir, if it be so. No wonder that +strong anti-slavery men turn infidels when they hear Christian men +defending American slavery from the Bible. No wonder that they say, "The +times demand, and we must have, an anti-slavery constitution, an +anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slavery God." Mr. Moderator, will the +gentleman answer my question,--Do you mean to approve all the atrocities +of American slavery, on the ground that the Bible countenances them?' + +"I was never more calm in my life. I replied, 'Mr. Chairman, taking for +my warrant an inspired piece of advice as to the best way of answering a +man according to his folly, it would be just, should I reply to the +gentleman's question, Yes, I do. But the gentleman, I perceive, is too +much excited to hear me.' + +"He had flung himself round in his seat, put his elbow on the back of +it, and his hand through his hair; he then flung himself round in the +opposite direction, and put his arm and hand as before, and he blew his +nose with a sound like a trombone. + +"I then said, 'Mr. Chairman, if all that the gentleman meant to ask was, +Do you find any countenance under any circumstances, for the relation of +master and slave in the divine legation of Moses,--and this was all +which, as a fair man, not carried away by a gust of passion, he should +have asked me,--my answer was correct and proper. If he wished to know +my views of what is right and proper as to the marriage relation of our +slaves, he should have put the question in a different shape. But first, +Sir,' said I, 'if he dislikes the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, his +controversy must be with his God, not with me. Sinai was, let me remind +him, more of a place than Bunker Hill. I am not a friend of "oppression" +any more than the gentleman; but I trust that had I lived in Israel, I +should never have thought of being more humane than my Maker.' + +"I then proceeded to say that (as before remarked to you) we are not +warranted by the Bible to make men slaves when we please; nor, if +slavery exists, are we commanded to adopt the rules and regulations of +Hebrew slavery. + +"But we do learn from the Bible that property in man is not in itself +sinful,--not even to say of a man, 'He is my money.' + +"Were it intrinsically wrong, God would not have legislated about it in +such ways; for granting, if you please, the untenable distinction about +his 'not appointing' slavery, but 'finding it in existence' and +legislating for it, what necessity could there have been for making such +a law as that relating to the boring of the ear, rather than giving the +slave his wife and children and suffering them all to go free? + +"No, Mr. North," said I, continuing our conversation, "I cannot oppose +the relation of master and slave as in itself sinful; for then I become +more righteous than God. But I must inquire whether it is right, in each +given case, to reduce men to bondage: shall that be, for example, the +mode in which prisoners of war shall be disposed of? or a subjugated +people? or criminals? or, in certain cases, debtors? In doing so, there +is no intrinsic sin; the act itself, under the circumstances, may be +exceedingly sinful; but the relation of ownership is not necessarily a +sin. This, I hold, is all that can be deduced from the Bible in favor of +slavery: The relation is not in itself sinful." + +"But," said Mr. North, "we sinned in stealing these people from Africa; +all sin should be immediately forsaken; therefore, set the slaves free +at once." + +I replied, "Let us apply that principle. You and I, and a large company +of passengers, are in a British ship, approaching our coast. We find +out, all at once, that the crew and half of the passengers stole the +ship. We gain the ascendency; we can do as we please. Now, as all sin +must be repented of at once, it is the duty of the passengers and crew +to put the ship about, and deliver it to the owners in Glasgow! Perhaps +we should not think it best to put in force the '_ruat coelum_' +doctrine, especially if we had had some '_ruat coelum_' storms, and it +was late in the season. But then we should actually be enjoying the +stolen property--the ship and its comforts--for several days, with the +belief that benevolence and justice to all concerned required us to +reach the end of the voyage before we took measures to perform that +justice, which, before, would have been practical folly. + +"Now, please, do not require this illustration to go on all fours. All +that I mean is this: A right thing may be wrong, if done unseasonably, +or in disregard of circumstances which have supervened. + +"But to go a little further, and beyond mere expediency: Can you see no +difference between buying slaves, and making men slaves? While it would +be wicked for you to reduce people to slavery, is that the same as +becoming owners to those who are already in slavery? In one case, you +could not apply the golden rule; in the other, the golden rule would +absolutely compel you, in many instances, to buy slaves. Go to almost +any place where slaves are sold, and they will come to you, if they like +your looks, and, by all the arts of persuasion, entreat you to become +their master. Having succeeded, step behind the scenes, if you can, and +hear them exulting that they 'fetched more' than this or that man. Is +there no difference between this and reducing free people to slavery?" + +"Say yes, husband," said Mrs. North, "or I must say it for you." + +"So that, let me add," said I, "in opposing slavery, I am necessarily +confined to the evils and abuses committed in the relationship of +master. But, even in doing this, why should I be meddlesome? We have a +most offensive air and manner in our behavior towards Southerners, in +connection with their duties as masters. It is perfectly disgusting. I +may oppose slavery, on the grounds of political economy or for national +reasons. But if I mix up with it wrathful opposition to the sin, so +called, or the unrighteousness of holding property in man, it has no +countenance in the Bible. If I speak of it publicly, as a system fraught +with evil, I must discriminate; or they whom I would influence, knowing +that I am mistaken, will regard me as an infatuated enemy, who will +effect more injury than I can repair. As to Mr. Jefferson's testimony, +there are as good and conscientious men at the South in our day as +Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Calhoun was as worthy a witness in all respects." + +"Now tell us," said Mrs. North, "your sober convictions, apart from this +Northern controversy, about that twenty-first chapter of Exodus, where +God directs that slaves, in certain cases, shall be slaves forever; and, +moreover, in certain cases, that slave husbands may have their wives and +children withheld from them, and the husbands leave them forever. How do +you reconcile this with the justice and goodness of God?" + +I said to her, "To make the case fully appear, before we converse upon +it, hear this passage, Leviticus XXV. 44-46:--'Both thy bondmen, and thy +bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round +about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.' So, in the next +verses, 'The children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of +them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they +begat in your land; and they shall be your possession: And ye shall take +them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for +a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever; but over your +brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another +with rigor.' + +"Here, and in all the divine legislation on this subject, a distinction +is made between Hebrews who became slaves, and slaves who were +foreigners, or of foreign extraction, though resident in Israel. Slaves +of Hebrew extraction might go free after six years, and upon the death +of the owner; and in every jubilee year they must all return to freedom, +and be free from every disability by reason of bondage, except where the +ear was bored. + +"Not so with the slaves of foreign extraction; nor even with the Hebrew +whose ear was bored, provided his wife was given him in slavery, and he +had elected to live with her rather than be free. Not even upon the +death of the owner could such slaves be manumitted, as was the case +ordinarily with regard to Hebrew slaves; but property in these Gentile +slaves, and in Hebrew slaves reduced to the same condition, God ordained +should be an 'inheritance,' passing down forever from father to child. + +"No jubilee trumpet was to cheer their hearts. Think what the jubilee +morning must have been to those slaves in hopeless bondage, if bondage +were necessarily such as many fancy. Our abolitionists represent the +bells and guns of our Fourth of July to be a hideous mockery in the ears +of the slaves; and multitudes of our good people ludicrously fancy them +as most miserable on that day, by the contrast of their enslaved +condition with our boasted Independence. Let us borrow this fancy, and +apply it to the Hebrew slave. + +"The jubilee trumpets, and all the joyous scenes of the fiftieth year in +Israel, caused multitudes of slaves in Israel, we will suppose, to +reflect, This Jehovah, God of Israel, has doomed us to hopeless bondage. +We are guilty of having been born so many degrees south or north, east +or west, of these Hebrews. We, by God's providence, are Gentiles. Our +chiefs sold us, and these Hebrews bought us. We were betrayed; we were +driven out of our homes; unjust wars were made upon us, to make us +captives, that we might be sold. And 'the Lord's people' bought us, by +his special edict (Lev. xxv. 44). Our brother-servants, unfortunate +Hebrews, get released in the jubilee year, except these poor creatures +who were so unfortunate as to be married in slavery, and, not being +willing to be divorced, had their ears fastened, with the ignominious +'awl,' to their master's door-post. God could have ordained that they, +with their wives and children, and we, with ours, should have release in +the fiftieth year. But, no! our bondage is forever, and so is theirs; +and our children and their children are to be servants forever. But we +hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are born free and equal, +and have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness. Slavery is the sum of all villanies. Our master's will is our +law; we are subject to his passions; we are chattels; we 'are his +money.' This is the language of your God,--the God whom you worship; and +not only so, but you circumcise us to worship Him! + +"Some benevolent Levite, jealous for the character of his Maker, +replies, 'But God did not institute slavery; He found it in existence, +and he only legislates about it, and regulates it.' + +"A thousand groans are the prelude to the withering answer which the +slaves make to this apology for oppression. + +"'He broke your bonds, it seems,' they cry, 'in Egypt, and in the Red +Sea. Did He "find slavery" on the opposite shore of the Red Sea? Why did +he not merely "legislate for it, and regulate it?" No, He enacted it. +How dare you apologize for your God with such a miserable pretext? He +made the ordinance separating a husband from wife and children, unless +the husband would submit to the indignity of having his ear bored and to +the doom of perpetual bondage, in case his wife was a Gentile. If he +goes away, he must leave his wife and children. Great indulgence have +you in multiplying wives; that is winked at "for the hardness of your +hearts;" but the poor Hebrew must abandon his wife and family if he +chooses freedom! They are his master's "property," "his money," and God +gave the servant these children, knowing that they would be the +"property" of another, and that he would have no unencumbered right to +them; and down through all ages they and their descendants must be +servants. And now you tell us, "God did not institute" this! He only +"found it!" He "regulated it!" Come, blow up your trumpet, reverend +Levite! Go, worship the God of whom you feel half ashamed. Do not ask us +to worship and love a Being who is bound by the laws of fate so that he +cannot do otherwise, if he would, than make one of us a slave forever, +while the man who grinds with me at the same mill, goes with his wife +and children, forever free!'" + +"Those remarks have the true Boston tone," said Mrs. North. + +"Yes," said I, "there were brave men before Agamemnon, Horace tells us. +There is slavery forever," said I, "or the separation of husband and +wife, father and children, unless the man would be a slave forever. What +'partings' there must have been! What struggles in those who concluded +to take the fatal 'awl' through their ears, before they could make up +their minds to be slaves forever. See the hardship of the case. If the +man 'loves his wife and children,' he may be a slave; that love would +make him spend and be spent for them in freedom, in his humble home, +amid the sweets of liberty; but no; if he loves his wife he must take +the bitter draught of slavery with his love. But if he hates her and his +children, he may be free! What a bounty on conjugal fickleness, on +unnatural treatment of offspring!" + +"Was there no Canada?" said Mrs. North, biting off her thread. "O, I +recollect; Hagar went there. I wonder if the angel who remanded her was +removed from office, on his return to heaven." + +"Come, wife," said Mr. North, "there is such a thing as being converted +too much. Please, Sir, will you answer the question as to the +consistency of all this with the divine wisdom and goodness?" + +"That," said I, "is not the question which you wish to ask." + +"I do not understand you," said he; "please to explain." + +"You wish to ask," said I, "how I reconcile these things with your +notions of wisdom and benevolence." + +"Why," said he, "I have my ideas of divine wisdom and goodness, and I +wish to make these things square with them." + +"And that," said I, "is just the rock on which you all split. Your ideas +of the divine goodness must be based on a complete view of the revealed +character and conduct of God. But you and your friends say, 'this and +that ought to be, or ought not to be,' and you try your Maker by that +measure. Now I say, 'he that reproveth God, let him answer it.' Are not +the things which I have quoted, parts of divine revelation, as much as +the flood and the passover?" + +"I see that they are," said Mr. North. + +"Do you believe that God is a spirit infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in +his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth?" + +"I do," said he. + +"You believe this notwithstanding the apostasy, the destruction of Sodom +and Gomorrah, the flood, and the extirpation of the Canaanites." + +"I do," said he, "so long as I receive the Bible as the Word of God." + +"I think," said Mrs. North, "that the loss of the 'Central America' with +her four hundred passengers, tries my faith in God full as much as a +heathen's having his ear bored to spend his days with his wife and +children among God's covenant people." + +"Then you do not worship the Goddess of Liberty, Mrs. North," said +I.--"'Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it. But if thou +mayest be made free, use it rather.'" + +"That," said she, "seems to express my idea about bondage and freedom. +Of course it is not, theoretically, a blessing to be a slave. It may be, +practically, to some. But what strikes me oftentimes is the utter +inability of an abolitionist to say to a slave, under any circumstances, +'Care not for it.' His doctrine, rather, is, 'Art thou called being a +servant? If thou hast a Sharpe's rifle, or a John Brown's pike, use it +rather.' Or, 'Art thou called being a servant? If thou canst run for +Canada, use it rather.' Paul had not an abolitionist mind, that is very +clear. But," she continued, "do relieve my husband and enlighten me +also, by giving us your views about the Old Testament slavery, which I +presume you can do without seeming to arraign the character of God." + +I replied, "This is a sinful race, and we are treated as such. Slavery +is one of God's chastisements. Instead of destroying every wicked nation +by war, pestilence, or famine, he grants some of them a reprieve, and +commutes their punishment from death to bondage. Those whom he allowed +to be slaves to his people Israel were highly favored; they enjoyed a +blessing which came to them disguised by the sable cloud of servitude; +but in their endless happiness many of them will bless God for the +bondage which joined them to the nation of Israel. + +"I look upon our slaves as being here by a special design of +Providence, for some great purpose, to be disclosed at the right time. +Unless I take this view of it, I am embarrassed and greatly troubled; +'perplexed, but not in despair.' The great design of Providence in no +wise abates the sin of those who brought the slaves here, nor does it +warrant us in getting more of them. While this is true, I cannot resist +the thought that God has a controversy with this black race which is not +yet finished. I believe that God withholds from them a spirit and temper +suited for freedom till he shall have finished his marvellous designs. +His destiny with the Jew, as a nation, to the present day, is another +illustration of his mysterious providence with regard to a people. + +"As to the enactment which made the Hebrew servant a slave for life, +thus dooming even one of the covenant people to perpetual bondage, if he +had married in slavery, I see in it several things most clearly. + +"You will have noticed that in every case in which a Hebrew was made a +servant, poverty was the ground of it. 'If thy brother be waxen poor,' +he could sell himself, either to a Hebrew or to a resident alien. He and +his children could also be taken for debt. This seems to us oppressive. + +"Let a family among us be reduced, from any cause, to a condition in +which they cannot maintain themselves, and what follows? The children +find employment, some of them in families, in various kinds of domestic +service. Indented apprenticeships in this commonwealth are within the +memory of all who are forty or fifty years of age. We remember the very +frequent advertisements: 'One cent reward. Ran away from the subscriber, +an indented apprentice,' etc. The descriptions of such fugitives, all +for the sake of absolving the master from liability for the absconding +boy, and sometimes the hunt that was made, with dogs to scent his +tracks, when his return was desired, are far within the memory of the +oldest inhabitant. + +"In Israel, this descent of a family from a prosperous to a decayed +state, and the consequent servitude, were used by the Most High to +cultivate some of the best feelings of our nature. It touched the finest +sensibilities of the soul. Let me read from the fifteenth of +Deuteronomy:-- + + "'And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto + thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt + let him go free from thee. + + "'And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let + him go away empty. + + "'Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy + floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord thy God + hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember + that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God + redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. + + "'And if it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from + thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well + with thee, + + "'Then thou shalt take an awl and thrust it through his ear unto the + door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And also with thy + maid-servant thou shalt do likewise. + + "'It shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free + from thee: for he hath been worth a doubled hired servant to thee, + in serving thee six years; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in + all that thou doest.' + +"Is not this very beautiful and touching, Mrs. North?" + +She said nothing, but hid her face in her little babe's neck, +pretending to kiss it. But Mr. North wiped his eyes. "There is not much +barbarism in that," said he. + +"The golden rule," said I; "for this is the law and the prophets. + +"The people to whom these touching precepts were given by the Most High, +and who were susceptible to these finest appeals, are, as we have said, +sometimes represented as a semi-barbarous people, so gross that God was +obliged to let them hold slaves! Now, could anything be more civilizing, +refining, elevating, than such relationships as this limited servitude +of poor Hebrews created? What scenes there must have been oftentimes, +when the six years were out, and the servant was about to depart, laden +with gifts! And what a scene when, with strong attachment to the family, +the servant declined to be free, and went to the door-post to have his +ear pierced with the awl, to be a servant, and not only so, but to be an +inheritance forever! + +"Is this 'the sum of all villanies,' Mr. North?" said I. "Yet it is +'slavery.' 'Auction-blocks,' 'whippings,' 'roastings,' 'separations of +families,' are not 'slavery.' They are its abuses; slavery can exist +when they cease. I pray you, is such slavery as the God of the Hebrews +appointed, in such cases as these, 'forever,' an unmitigated curse? + +"Now," said I, "go through our Southern country, and you will find in +every city, town, and village just such relationships between the whites +and the blacks as must have existed where these Hebrew laws had effect. +Think of the little slave-babe, and the Southern lady's letter, which +have given occasion to all our conversation. The Gospel, as it subdues +and softens the human heart, will make the relationship of involuntary +servitude everywhere to be after this pattern. Instead of exciting +hatred and jealousy, and provoking war between the whites and blacks, I +am for bringing all the influences of the Gospel to bear upon the hearts +of the white population, to convert them into such masters as God +enjoined the Hebrews to be, and such as the Apostle to the Gentiles +enjoined upon Gentile slave-holders as their models. And I am filled +with sorrow and astonishment as I see some of the very best and most +beloved men among us at the North withholding missionaries and tracts +from the Southern country, and--as Gustavus's aunt said some of these +do--calling it 'standing up for Jesus!' + +"Now," said I, "if such were the injunctions of the Most High as to the +manner in which the Hebrews should treat their Hebrew slaves, it is easy +to see that such a habit with regard to them would serve greatly to +mitigate the sorrows of bondage on the part of Gentile slaves. And thus +the curse of slavery, like sin, and even death, is made, under the +influences of religion, a means of improvement, a source of blessing. +Let but the sun shine on a pile of cloud, and what folds of beauty and +deep banks of snowy whiteness does it set forth, and, at the close of +day, all the exquisite tints which make the artist despair are flung +profusely upon that mass of vapor which but for the sun were a heap of +sable cloud. + +"The minister," said I, "who, Hattie tells us, classed 'Abraham the +slave-holder' with the 'murderer,' and the 'liar and swearer,' knew not +what he did. People who laugh and titter at the 'patriarchal +institution,' need to peruse the laws of Moses again, with a spirit akin +to their beautiful tone; and those who say that to hold a fellow-man as +property is 'sin,' are not 'wiser than Daniel,' but they make themselves +wiser than God. + +"All who sustain the relationship of owner to a human being," said I, +"do well to read these injunctions of the Most High, as very many of +them do, applying them to themselves. And it is also profitable to read +how that a violation of these very slave-laws was, in after years, one +great cause of the divine wrath upon the Hebrews. You will find, in the +thirty-fourth of Jeremiah, that, not content with having Gentile slaves, +the Hebrews violated the law requiring them to release each his Hebrew +slaves once in seven years. + +"'I made a covenant with your fathers,' God says, 'in the day that I +brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, saying, At the end of seven +years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew which hath been sold +unto thee. But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his +servant to return, and brought them unto subjection. Ye have not +hearkened unto me in proclaiming a liberty every one to his +brother;--behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the +sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.' + +"Thus it is evident that the relation of master and servant was +originally ordained and instituted by God as a benevolent arrangement to +all concerned,--not 'winked at,' or 'suffered,' like polygamy, but +ordained,--that it was full of blessings to all who fulfilled the duties +of the relation in the true spirit of the institution; and, moreover, it +is true that there are few curses which will be more intolerable than +they will suffer who make use of their fellow-men, in the image of God, +for the purposes of selfishness and sin; while those who feel their +accountableness in this relation, and discharge it in the spirit of the +Bible, will find their hearts refined and ennobled, and the relationship +will be, to all concerned, a source of blessings whose influences will +bring peace to their souls when the grave of the slave and that of his +owner are looking up into the same heavens from the common earth." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE TENURE. + + "One part, one little part, we dimly scan + Through the dark medium of life's fevering dream; + Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan + If but that little part incongruous seem; + Nor is that part, perhaps, what mortals deem; + Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise."--BEATTIE, _Minstrel_. + + +Mr. North then said, "Let us change the subject a little. Please to tell +us why, in your view, any slave who is so disposed may not run away. +Would you not do so, if you were a slave, and were oppressed, or thought +that you could mend your condition? Where did my master get his right +and title to me? God did not institute American slavery as he did +slavery among the Hebrews. If I were a slave to certain masters, South +or North, I should probably run away at all hazards. I should not stop +to debate the morality of the act. No human being would, in his heart +blame me. It would be human nature, resisting under the infliction of +pain. We catch hold of a dentist's hand when he is drawing a tooth. +Perhaps there may be found some moral law against doing so!" + +"But we are apt," said I, "to take these exceptional cases, and make a +rule that includes them and all others. I have been present when +intelligent gentlemen, Northerners and Southerners, have discussed this +subject in the most friendly manner, though with great earnestness. Once +I remember we spent an evening discussing the subject. I will, if you +please, tell you about the conversation. + +"I must take you, then, to an old mansion at the South, around which, +and at such a distance from each other as to reveal a fine prospect, +stood a growth of noble elms, a lawn spreading itself out before the +house, and the large hall, or entry, serving for a tea-room, where seven +or eight gentlemen, and as many ladies were assembled. + +"A Southern physician, who had no slaves, took the ground that all the +slaves had a right to walk off whenever they pleased. He did not see why +we should hold them in bondage rather than they us, so far as right and +justice were concerned. Some of the slave-holders were evidently much +troubled in their thoughts, and did not speak strongly. My own feelings +at first went with the physician and with his arguments; but I saw that +he was not very clear, nor deep, and his friends who partly yielded to +him, seemed to do so rather under the influence of conscientious +feelings, than from any very well defined principles. This is the case +with not a few at the South, and it was very common in Thomas +Jefferson's days. But the large majority, who were of the contrary +opinion, got the advantage in the argument, and it seemed to me went far +toward convincing the physician, as they did me, that he was wrong. + +"The company all seemed to look toward a judge who was present, to open +the discussion with a statement of his views. He did so by saying, for +substance, as follows:-- + +"'I will take it for granted,' said he, 'that we are agreed as to the +unlawfulness of the slave-trade, past and present. We find the blacks +here, as we come upon the stage. We are born into this relationship. It +is an existing form of government in the Slave States. + +"'Ownership in man is not contrary to the will of God. I also find it +written that "Canaan shall be a servant." Hear these words of +inspiration: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto +his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan +shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in +the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." As the Japhetic +race is to dwell in the tents of Shem, for example, England occupying +India, so I believe the black race is under the divine sentence of +servitude. Moreover, being perfectly convinced of the wrongfulness and +the infinite mischief to all concerned of the forcible liberation of our +slaves, I am assisted in settling, in my own mind, the question as to me +right of individual slaves to escape from service, and our right to +continue in this relationship, conforming ourselves in it always to the +golden rule. + +"'If it be the right of one, under ordinary circumstances, to depart, it +is the right of all. But the government under which they live, in this +commonwealth, recognizes slavery. The constitution and the general +government protect us in maintaining it. The right of our servants to +leave us at pleasure, which could not of course be done without +violence, on both sides, implies the right of insurrection. It is +impossible to define the cases in which insurrection is justifiable, but +the general rule is that it is wrong. Government is a divine ordinance; +men cannot capriciously overthrow or change it, at every turn of affairs +which proves burdensome or even oppressive. God is jealous to maintain +human government as an important element in his own administration. Men +justly in authority, or established in it by time, or by consent, or by +necessity, or by expediency, may properly feel that they are God's +vicegerents. He is on their side; a parent, a teacher, a commander,--in +short, he who rules, is, as it were, dispensing a law of the divine +government, as truly as though he directed a force in nature. Hence, to +disturb existing government is, in the sight of God, a heinous offence, +unless circumstances plainly justify a revolution; otherwise, one might +as well think to interfere with impunity and change the equinoxes, or +the laws of refraction. It is well to consider what forms of government, +and what forms of oppression under them, existed, when that divine word +was written: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For +there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. +Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; +and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." This was +written in view of the throne of the Caesars. + +"'But it is very clear that when a people are in a condition to +establish and maintain another form of government, there is no sin in +their turning themselves into a new condition. In doing so, government, +God's ordinance, evolves itself under a new form, and provided it is, +really, government, and not anarchy, no sin may have been committed by +the insurrection, or revolution, as an act. The result proved that +government still existed, potentially, and was only changing its shape +and adapting itself to the circumstances of the people. If a man or body +of men assert that things among them are ready for such new evolutions, +and so undertake to bring them about, they do it at their peril, and +failing, they are indictable for treason; they may be true patriots, +they may be conscientious men; the sympathies of many good people may be +with them, but they have sinned against the great law which protects +mankind from anarchy. + +"'To apply this,' said the Judge, 'to our subject,--When the time comes +that the blacks can truly say, "We are now your equals in all that is +necessary to constitute a civil state, and we propose to take the +government of this part of the country into our hands," we should still +make several objections, which would be valid. The Constitutions of the +States and of the United States must be changed before that can be done, +and we will presume that this would involve a revolution. Moreover, this +country belongs to the Anglo-Saxon race, with which foreigners of +kindred stocks have intermingled, and they and we object to the presence +of a black race as possessors of some of the states of the Union, even +if it were constitutional. We do not propose to abandon our right and +title to the soil, without a civil war, which would probably result in +the extermination of one or the other party. If you are able to leave us +at pleasure, the proper way will be to do it peaceably, and on just +principles, to be agreed upon between us. + +"'No such exigency as this,' said the Judge, 'is possible. It would be +prevented or anticipated, and relief would be obtained while the +necessity was on the increase and before it reached a solemn crisis. + +"'One of three ways will, in my opinion,' said he, 'bring a solution to +this problem of slavery. + +"'One is, the insurrection of the slaves, the massacre of the whites, +and the forcible seizure and possession of power by the blacks +throughout the South. This would be a scene such as the earth has never +witnessed. I have no fear that it can ever happen. But,' said he, +addressing me, 'I presume that I know, Sir, how your people in the Free +States, to a very considerable extent, think on this point. I will +speak, by-and-by, of the other two ways in which slavery may find its +great result. One, I say, is, by insurrection and then the extermination +of the black race; for that would surely follow their temporary success +if I can trust my apprehensions of the subject.' + +"'Please, sir,' said I, 'let me hear what you think is 'very +considerably' the sentiment at the North on this subject of +insurrection.' + +"'I presume sir,' said he, 'if the slaves should, some night, take +possession of us, and demand a universal manumission, and we should +refuse, and fire and sword and pillage and all manner of violence should +ensue, and our persons and property should be at their will, vast +multitudes of your people, including clergymen, would exclaim that the +day of God's righteous vengeance had come, and they would say, Amen.' + +"'So we interpret Thomas Jefferson's idea,' said I. + +"'I think, Sir,' said he, 'that very many reasonable people of the North +are of opinion that all the attributes of God are against any such +procedure. + +"'In the large sense in which nations speak to each other when they are +asserting their rights, there is no objection to the first clause in the +Declaration of Independence; but when you come to the people of a state, +and one portion of that people rise and assert their right to break up +the constitution of things under which they live, there is no more +pertinency in that clause in the Declaration than there would be in +giving us the reason for a revolution that all men are not far from five +or six feet high. What they say may be true in the abstract, but it +does not prove that men, having come into a state of society, +involuntarily, if you please, have all the freedom and equality which +they would have, if they were each an independent savage in the +wilderness. Society is God's ordinance, not a compact. We have, all of +us, lost some of our freedom and equality in the social state; now how +far is it right that the blacks, being here, no matter how or why, +should lose some of theirs? and how far is it right that we should take +and keep some of it from them, whether for the good of all concerned, or +for the good of ourselves, their civil superiors?--whose welfare, it may +be observed, will continually affect theirs.' + +"The Judge said that he believed that God had, in his mysterious +providence, and of his sovereign pleasure, making use of the cupidity of +white men, placed these blacks here in connection with us for their good +as a race, and for the welfare of the world. He said that his mind could +feel no peace on the subject of slavery, unless he viewed it in this +light. In connection with the great industrial and commercial interests +of our globe, and as an indispensable element in the supply of human +wants, this abject race had been transported from their savage life in +Africa, and had been made immensely useful to the whole civilized world. +'We agree, as I have said,' he continued, 'as to the immorality of those +who brought them here; but he is not fit to reason on this subject, +being destitute of all proper notions with regard to divine providence, +who does not see in the results of slavery, both as to the civilized +world and to negroes themselves, a wise, benevolent, and an Almighty +Hand. Here my mind gets relief in contemplating this subject, not in +abstract reasoning, not in logical premises and deductions, but by +resting in Providence. There are mysteries in it,--as truly so as in the +human apostasy, origin of evil, permission of sin, which confound my +reasonings as to the benevolence of God; in which, however, I, +nevertheless, maintain my firm belief. Here was the great defect in Mr. +Jefferson's views of slavery. In the highest Christian sense, he was not +qualified to understand this subject; he reasoned like one who did not +take into view the providence and the purposes of God, even while he was +saying what he did of there being "no attribute in the Almighty that +would take part with us" in favor of slavery. Standing as I do by this +providential view of the great subject, the assailants of slavery at the +North seem to me, some of them, almost insane, and others, even +ministers of the Gospel, shall I say it? more than unchristian;--there +is a sort of blind, wild, French Jacobinical atheism in their feeling +and behavior; while as to the rest, good people, they are misled by what +Mr. Webster, in one of his speeches in the Senate, called "the constant +rub-a-dub of the press,"--"no drum-head," he says, "in the longest day's +march, having been more incessantly beaten than the feeling of the +public in certain parts of the North." I cannot reason with these men,' +continued the Judge, 'for I confess, at once, that I cannot demonstrate, +either by logic or by mathematics, a modern quitclaim or warranty in +holding slaves. In combating their illogical and unscriptural positions, +I seem to them to be an advocate of the divine right of +oppression,--which I am not. That it is best, however, and that it is +right, for this relation to continue until God shall manifest some +purpose to terminate it consistently with the good of all concerned, I +am perfectly convinced and satisfied. I believe that it has reference +to the great plan of mercy toward our world, and that when the object is +accomplished, the providence of God will, in some way, make it known. It +may be the case, no candid man and believer in revelation and divine +providence will deny it to be possible, that this dispensation with +regard to this colored race will continue for long ages to come, in the +form of bondage. That they are now under a curse, and have been so for +centuries, is apparent. When the curse is to be repealed, God only +knows. I like to cherish the idea that some development is to be made of +immense sources of wealth in Africa, that we have an embryo nation in +the midst of us, whom God has been educating for a great enterprise on +that continent, and when, like California and Australia, the voice of +the Lord shall shake the wilderness of Africa, and open its doors, it +may appear that American slavery has been the school in which God has +been preparing a people to take it into their possession. + +"'EMIGRATION, then,' said he, 'is the second of the three ways in which +this problem of slavery may have its solution. + +"'In preparation for this, I say, God may keep these Africans here much +longer. He may need more territory on which to educate still larger +numbers; and we may see Him extending slavery still further in our land +and on our continent. So that there may be one other way in which the +purposes of God will manifest themselves with regard to the colored race +here, and that is by EXTENSION. + +"'It may be that still greater portions of this land and continent are +to be used, for ages to come, in the multiplication of the black race. I +feel entirely calm with regard to the subject, believing that God has a +plan in all this, and that it is wise and benevolent toward all who fear +Him. While our relation to this people remains, the law of love, the +golden rule, must preside over it. That does not require us to place the +blacks on a level with us in our parlors, nor in our halls of +legislation; and there may be disabilities properly attaching to them +which, though they seem hard, are the inevitable consequence of a +dependent, inferior condition. All this, however, has a benign effect +upon us, if we will but act in a Christian manner, to make us gentle, +kind, generous; and when this is the case, no state of society is +happier than ours. Let Jacobinical principles, such as some of our +Northern brethren inculcate, prevail here, and they at once destroy this +benevolent relation. This relation will improve under the influence of +the Gospel; it has wonderfully improved since Jefferson's day; and +though the time may be long deferred, we shall no doubt see this colored +race fulfilling some great purpose in the earth. I trust that our +Northern friends will not precipitate things and destroy both whites and +blacks; for a servile war would be one of extermination. Many of the +Northern people I fear would acquiesce in it, provided especially, that +we should be the exterminated party. This is clear, if words and actions +are to be fairly interpreted.' + +"'The colored people here, as a race,' said a planter, 'are under +obligations to us as partakers in our civilization. No matter, for the +present, how their ancestors came here;--that does not at all affect +their present obligations to us for benefits received. Now it is not a +matter of course that, having been thus benefited by us, they are at +liberty to go away when they please. This we assert respecting them as a +whole. Are not the blacks, as a race, so indebted to us that we ought +to be consulted as to the time and manner of their departure? We say +that they are. They do not morally possess the right, we think, to sever +the relation when they please.' + +"Said an elderly, venerable man, 'A white woman in the cars, in +Pennsylvania, begged me to hold her infant child for her, while she +fetched something for it. She ran off, leaving the child to me. My wife +and I took the child home, and have been at pains and expense with it. I +question the child's right to say, whenever it pleases, Sir, I propose +to leave you. I have invested a good deal in him, have increased his +value by his being with me, and he has no right to run off with it.' + +"'But,' said the physician, 'how long should you feel that you have a +right to his services?' + +"'I will answer that,' said the gentleman, 'if you will say whether my +general principle be correct. Have I, or have I not acquired just what +all intelligent slave-holders call "property" in that youth, that is, a +right to his services,--not dominion over his soul, nor a right to abuse +him, nor in any way to injure him, but to use his services. Have I not +acquired that right?' + +"'I think you have,' said the physician, 'but with certain limitations.' + +"'The limitations,' said Mr. W., 'certainly are not the wishes, nor +caprices, nor the inclinations, of the boy;--do you think so?' + +"'I agree with you,' said he. + +"'That is all I contend for,' said Mr. W. + +"'But,' said the physician, 'where is your title-deed from your Maker to +own these fellow-creatures? Trace their history back, and they are here +by fraud and violence.' + +"'Thank you, Sir,' said Mr. W., 'that is just the case with my Penn. I +came into possession of him through fraud and violence! I did not sin +when he was thrown upon my hands; though I confess I said, he was--what +we call slavery--an incubus. My right and title to the boy I have never +been able to discover in any handwriting; the mother, surely, had no +right to impose the child upon me; Providence, however, placed it in my +hand. I might have given it immediate emancipation through the window, +or at the next stopping place; or, I might have left the child on its +mother's vacant seat, declining the trust; but I felt disposed to do as +I have done.' + +"'Now,' said the physician, 'will you please tell me, Sir, how long you +feel at liberty to possess this boy as a satisfaction to you for your +pains and expense?' + +"'In the first place,' said Mr. W., 'I have a right to transfer my +guardianship over him to another, if circumstances make it necessary. In +doing so, I must be governed not by selfish motives, but by a benevolent +regard to his welfare, allowing that he is not unreasonable and wicked. +If when he comes of lawful age, he is judged to be still in need of +guardianship, or it is expedient for the good of all concerned that he +should be my ward indefinitely, the law makes me, if I choose, his +guardian, with certain rights and obligations. Even if he could legally +claim his freedom at his majority, circumstances might be such that all +would say he was under moral obligations to remain with me. If I abuse +him, he must consider before God how far it is his duty to bear +affliction, and submit to oppression. There are cases in which none +would condemn him, should he escape. But the rule is to "abide." He has +not, under all the circumstances of our relation to each other, a right +to walk off at pleasure.' + +"The company agreed in this, though the physician made no remark. We +conversed further on the antipathy of the Free States to a large +increase among them of the colored population, ungrateful and perfidious +Kansas, even, withholding civil and political equality from them; their +condition in Canada; their relation to the whites in every state where +they have gone to reside; and we concluded that the South was the best +home for the black man,--that home to become better and better in +proportion as the law of Christian benevolence prevailed. We agreed that +if the South could be relieved of Northern interference, the condition +of the colored people would be greatly improved, in many respects; +especially, we regretted that now we did not have an enlightened public +sentiment at the North to help the best part of the Southern people in +effecting reformations and improving the laws and regulations. Now, the +Northern influence is wholly nugatory, or positively adverse. The +opinions and feelings of calm and candid neighbors and friends have +great influence. This the South does not enjoy. The North is her +passionate reprover; she is held to be, by many, her avowed enemy. In +resistance, and in retaliation, compromises are broken, and every +political advantage is grasped at in self-defence, by the South. +Recrimination ensues, and civil war is threatened. The only remedy is +the entire abandonment by the North of interference with this subject; +but this cannot take place so long as the Northern people labor under +their doctrinal error that it is a sin to hold property in man. Here is +the root of the difficulty. We agreed that if reflecting people at the +North would adopt Scriptural views on that point, peace would soon +ensue; for all the discussions of the supposed or real evils in +slavery, which would then be the sole objects of animadversion, would +elicit truth, and tend to good. If the South felt that the North were +truly her friend, they would both be found cooperating for the +improvement and elevation of the colored race. Every form of oppression +and selfishness would feel the withering rebuke of a just and +enlightened universal public sentiment. But now that the quarrel runs +high as to the sinfulness and wrongfulness of the relation itself, there +is nothing for the South to do but to stand by their arms. + +"One gentleman made some remarks which interested and instructed me more +than anything that was said. He confessed that the whole subject of the +relation of master and servant,--in a word, slavery, was, for a long +time, a sore trouble to him, because he constantly found himself +searching for his right, his warrant to hold his slaves. At last he +resolved to study the Bible on the subject. He naturally turned to the +last instructions of the Word of God with regard to it, and in Paul's +injunctions to masters and servants, he found relief. There he perceived +that God recognized the relationships of slavery, that the golden rule +was enjoined, not to dissolve the relation, but to make it benevolent to +all concerned. He found the Almighty establishing the relation of master +and servant among his own chosen people, and decreeing that certain +persons might be servants forever, being, as he himself terms them 'an +inheritance forever.' + +"Hereupon, he said, his troubles ceased. He gave up his speculations and +casuistry, and concluded to take things as he found them and to make +them better. He became more than ever the friend and patron of his +servants, rendered to them, to the best of his ability that which was +just and equal, felt in buying servants and in having them born in his +household, somewhat as pastors of churches, he supposed, feel in +receiving new members to be trained up for usefulness, here, and for +heaven. He said that he had a hundred and seventy-five servants, and +that he doubted whether there was a happier, or more virtuous, or more +religious community anywhere. + +"'But,' said the young Northern lady, who had recently come to be a +teacher in the family where we visited, 'what will become of them when +you die?' + +"'Why, Miss,' said he, 'what will become of any household when the +parents die? The truth is,' said he, 'I believe in a covenant-keeping +God. I make a practice of praying for my servants, by name. I keep a +list of them, and I read it, sometimes, when I read my Bible, and on the +Sabbath, and on days set apart for religious services. I have asked God +to be the God of my servants forever. I shall meet them at the bar of +God, and I trust with a good conscience. Many of them have become +Christians.' + +"'Do you ever sell them?' said she. + +"'I have parted with some of my servants to families,' he replied, +'where I knew that they would fare as well as with me. This was always +with their consent, except in two or three cases of inveterate +wickedness, when, instead of sending the fellows to the state-prison for +life, as you would do at the North, I sold them to go to Red River, and +was as willing to see them marched off, handcuffed, as you ever were to +see villains in the custody of the officers. But had any of your good +people from the North met them, an article would have appeared, perhaps, +in all your papers, telling of the heart-rending spectacle,--three human +beings, in a slave-coffle! going, they knew not where, into hopeless +bondage! And had they escaped and fled to Boston, the tide of +philanthropy there, in many benevolent bosoms, would have received new +strength in the grateful accession of these worshipful fugitives from +Southern cruelty. Whereas, all which love and kindness, and every form +of indulgence, instruction, and discipline, tempered with mercy, could +do, had been used with them in vain. One was a thief, the pest of the +county, and had earned long years in a penitentiary; but slavery, you +see, kept him at liberty! Another was brutally cruel to animals; another +was the impersonation of laziness. Two of them would have helped John +Brown, no doubt, had he come here, and they might have gained a Bunker +Hill name, at the North, in an insurrection here, as champions of +liberty.' + +"This led to some remarks about the great economy which there is in the +Southern mode of administering discipline and correction on the spot, +and at once, instead of filling jails and houses of correction with +felons. But to dwell on this would lead me too far into a new branch of +our subject. + +"This planter asked the young lady, the school-teacher, if tare and tret +were in her arithmetic? Upon her saying 'yes, in the older books,' he +told her that there was, seemingly, a good deal of tare and tret in +God's providence, when accomplishing his great purposes; and that to fix +the mind inordinately on evils and miseries incident to a great system +and forgetting the main design, was like a man of business being so +absorbed by the deductions and waste in a great staple as to forego the +trade. He said that he thought the Northern mind ciphered too much in +that part of moral arithmetic as to slavery. + +"A very excellent gentleman from the District of Columbia who had held +an important office under government, gave us some valuable information. +He said that the extinction of slavery in New England was not because +the institution was deemed to be immoral or sinful, but from other +considerations and circumstances. It was abolished in Massachusetts, +without doubt, by a clause, in the bill of rights, copied from the +Declaration of Independence. In Berkshire, one township, he believed, +sued another for the support and maintenance of a pauper slave, and the +Supreme Court decided that the bill of rights abolished slavery. The +question was as incidental, he said, as was the question in the Dred +Scott case which the United States Supreme Court decided. This +Massachusetts case was previous to any reports of decisions, and he had +some doubt as to the form in which the suit was brought, but was sure as +to the decision. The question as to abolishing slavery was not submitted +to the people, nor to a Convention, nor to the Legislature. + +"I was specially interested in his account of the way in which the +slave-trade was prohibited by our excellent sister, Connecticut. It was +done by a section prohibiting the importation of slaves by sea or land, +preceded by the following preamble:--'And whereas the increase of slaves +in this state is injurious to the poor, and inconvenient, Be it +therefore enacted.' Another section of the same statute, he said, was +preceded by the following words:--'And whereas sound policy requires +that the abolition of slavery should be effected, as soon as may be +consistent with the rights of individuals, and the public safety and +welfare, Be it enacted,' etc. Then follows the provision that all black +and mulatto children, born in slavery, in that state, after the first of +March, 1784, shall be free at twenty-five years of age. Selling slaves, +to be carried out of the state, was not prohibited before May, 1792; +thus allowing more than eight years to the owners of slaves in +Connecticut to sell their slaves to Southern purchasers! 'There seems to +me,' he said, 'no evidence of superior humanity in this; nor was it +repentance for slavery as a sin.' He thought that if we feel compelled, +by our superior conscientiousness, to require any duty of the South, all +that decency will allow us to demand is, that she tread in our steps. + +"'I think,' said a planter, 'that if pity is due from one to the other, +the South owes the larger debt to the North. There needs to be a great +reformation, namely, The Gradual Emancipation of the Northern Mind from +"Anti-slavery" Error.' + +"'Our English friends, in their zeal against American slavery,' said a +young lawyer, 'seem to forget that the English government, at the Peace +of Utrecht, agreed to furnish Spain with four thousand negroes annually +for thirty years.' + +"'Poor human nature!' said the Judge. 'What should we all do, if we had +not the sins of others to repent of and bewail?' + +"There was a strong friend of temperance in the company from a +north-western state. Travelling in the South for pleasure, some time +ago, he was immediately struck with the comparative absence of +intemperance among the slaves. On learning that the laws forbid the sale +of intoxicating drink to them, and thinking of four millions of people +in this land as delivered, in a great degree, from the curse of +drunkenness, he says that he exclaimed: 'Pretty well for the "sum of all +villanies." The class of people in the United States best defended +against drunkenness are the slaves!' Some admonished him that the +slaves did get liquor, and that white men ventured to tempt them. 'I +don't care for that,' said he; 'of course, there are exceptions; the +"sum of all villanies" is a Temperance Society!' + +"A Northern gentleman, travelling through the South, said, 'As to the +feelings of the North respecting a possible insurrection, I am +satisfied, since visiting in different parts of the South, that a very +common apprehension with us, respecting your liability to trouble from +this source, is exaggerated by fancy. + +"'We have a theoretical idea that you must be dwelling, as we commonly +hear it said, with a volcano under your feet. Very many regard your +slaves as a race of noble spirits, conscious of wrong, and burning with +suppressed indignation, which is ready to break out at every chance. +They think of you at the North as having guns and pistols and spears all +about you, ready for use at any moment. But when I spend a night at your +plantations, the owner and I the only white males, the wife and seven or +eight young children having us for their only defenders against the +seventy or hundred blacks, who are all about us in the quarters, the +idea of danger has really never occurred to me; because my knowledge of +the people has previously disarmed me of fear.' + +"'Emissaries, white and black,' said a planter, 'can, make us trouble; +but my belief is that we could live here to the end of time with these +colored people, and be subject to fewer cases of insubordination by far +than your corporations at the North suffer from in strikes. Your people, +generally, have no proper idea of the black man's nature. God seems to +have given him docility and gentleness, that he may be a slave till the +time comes for him to be something else. So He has given the Jews their +peculiarities, fitting them for His purposes with regard to them; and to +the Irish laborer He has given his willingness and strength to dig, +making him the builder of your railways. If we fulfil our trust, with +regard to the blacks, according to the spirit and rules of the New +Testament, I believe God will be our defender, and that all his +attributes will be employed to maintain our authority over this people +for his own great purposes. We have nothing to fear except from white +fanatics, North and South.' + +"'I have no idea,' said the Judge, 'of dooming every individual of this +colored race to unalterable servitude. I am in favor of putting them in +the way of developing any talent which any of them, from time to time, +may exhibit. More of this, I am sure, would be done by us, if we were +freed from the necessity of defending ourselves against Northern +assaults upon our social system, involving, as these assaults do, peril +to life, and to things dearer than life. But I see tenfold greater evils +in all the plans of emancipation which have ever been proposed than in +the present state of things.' + +"The pastor of the place, who was present, had not taken much part in +the discussion, though he had not purposely kept aloof from it. He was +Southern born, inherited slaves, had given them their liberty one by +one, and had recently returned from the North, where he had been to see +two of them--the last of his household--embark as hired servants with +families who were to travel in Europe. + +"Some of us asked him about his visit to the North. Said he, 'I went to +church one day, and was enjoying the devotional services, when all at +once the minister broke out in prayer for the abolition of slavery. He +presented the South before God as "oppressors," and prayed that they +might at once repent, and "break every yoke," and "let the oppressed go +free." I took him to be an immediate emancipationist, perhaps peculiar +in his views. But in the afternoon I went into another church, and in +prayer the minister began to pray "for all classes and conditions of men +among us." I was glad to see, as I thought, charity beginning at home. +But the next sentence took in our whole land; and the next was a +downright swoop upon slavery; so that I regarded his previous petitions +merely as spiral movements toward the South. If the good man's petitions +had been heard, woe to him and to the North, and to the slaves, to say +nothing of ourselves. + +"'I stopped after service, and, without at first introducing myself, I +asked him if he was in the habit of praying, as he had done to-day, for +slave-holders. He said yes. I asked him if it was a general practice at +the North. He thought it was. I inquired if he would have every slave +liberated to-morrow, if he could effect it. "By all means," said +he.--"Would they be better off?" said I.--"Undoubtedly they would," said +he. "But that is not the question. Do right, if the heavens +fall."--"What would become of them?" said I.--"Hire them," said he; "pay +them wages; let husbands and wives live together; abolish +auction-blocks, and"--"But," said I, "some of the very best of men in +the world, at the South, are decidedly of the opinion that such +emancipation would be the most barbarous thing that could be devised for +the slaves."--"Are you a slave-holder?" said he.--"I was," said I; "but +I have liberated my slaves, and I am in your city to see the last two of +my servants sail with your fellow-citizens ---- and ----" (naming +them).--"You don't say so!" said he. "What did you liberate them +for?"--"I could not take proper care of them," said I, "situated as I +am."--"But," said he, "did you do right in letting them go to sea as you +did? One of them will get no good with that man for a master. I would +rather be your dog than his child."--"Then," said I, "you have +'oppressors' at the North, it seems."--"Well," said he, "some of our +people are not as good as they ought to be."--"It is so with us at the +South," said I.--"Preach for me next Sabbath, Sir," said he.--"Are you +going to stay over?"--"Why," said I, "my dear Sir, would you and your +people like to hear a man preach for you whom you, if you made the +prayer, would first pray for as an 'oppressor?'"--"But you are not an +oppressor," said he.--"But I am in favor of what you call 'oppression,'" +said I.--"One thing I could pray for with you," said I.--"What is that?" +said he.--"Break every yoke," said I. "This I pray for always. But how +many 'yokes,'" said I, "do you suppose there are at the South?"--"I +forget the exact number of the slaves," said he, in the most artless +manner.' + +"Hereupon the company broke out into great merriment. After they had +enjoyed their laughter awhile, my Northern lady-friend said, 'Did you +preach for him?' + +"'Yes,' said the pastor; 'and prayed for him too. + +"'Walking through the streets of that place in the evening, I saw +evidence that no minister nor citizen there was justified in casting the +first stone at the South for immorality. I lifted up my heart in thanks +to God that my sons were not exposed to the temptations of a Northern +city. Being in the United States District Court there, several times, I +had some revelations also with regard to the treatment and the condition +of seamen in some Northern ships, which led me to the conclusion which +I have often drawn,--that poor human nature is about the same, North and +South. + +"'So, when I conducted the services of public worship, I prayed for that +city and for the young people, and alluded to the temptations which I +had witnessed; and I referred also to mariners, and prayed for masters +and officers of vessels who had such authority over the welfare and the +lives of seamen; and I prayed that Christians in both sections of our +land might pray for each other, considering each themselves, lest they +also be tempted, and that they might not be self-righteous and +accusatory; and that our eye might not be so filled with the evils of +other sections of the land as not to see those which were at home. + +"'After service the good brother said, "I suppose you referred in your +prayer to my praying against the South, as you call it. Well," said he, +confidentially, "the truth is, some of our people make this thing their +religion, and they will not abide a man who does not pray against +slavery." Some gentlemen, with their ladies, stopped to speak with me. +One shook me by the hand most cordially. "We are glad to see our good +Southern brethren," said he; "thankful to hear you preach so, and pray +so, too," said he, with an additional shake and a significant look, +while the rest were equally cordial with their assent. One of the +gentlemen took me home with him. "This is most of it politics," said he, +"and newspaper trade, this anti-slavery feeling. The people generally +are not fanatics; they are kind and humane, and their sensibilities are +touched by tales of distress."--"Especially Southern," said I. "Last eve +I read in your papers four outrages which happened within fifteen miles +of this city, and two in your city, which equalled, to say the least, +in barbarity anything that ever comes to my knowledge among our people." + +"'The next Sabbath, as I have since learned, my good brother was very +comprehensive, discriminating, and impartial in his supplications. He +really distinguished between those at the South who "oppress" their +fellow-men, and those who "remember them that are in bonds as bound with +them." But,' said the pastor, 'the most of those who use that latter +expression at the North really think the Apostle had slaves, as a class, +in mind. I have no such belief. I suppose that he referred to persecuted +Christians, suffering imprisonment for their religion, and to all +afflicted persons. + +"'My landlord said to me,' he continued, '"They tell us you are afraid +of free discussion at the South, that you are afraid to have your slaves +hear some things, lest it should excite them to insurrection. How is +this?" + +"'I told him that the slaves, being the lower order of society with us, +were not capable of so discriminating in that which promiscuous +strangers should see fit to say to them as to make it safe to have them +listen to every harangue or to every one who should set himself up to +teach. "Of course," said I, "there are liabilities and dangers in our +state of society. We must use prudence and caution. We have some loose +powder in our magazine. No one denies this. What if one who was rebuked +for carrying an open lamp into the magazine of a ship, should reproach +the captain with being 'an enemy to the light,' and as 'loving darkness +rather than light'?" + +"'While at the North,' said he, 'I read Mr. Buckle on civilization, and +I reflected upon the subject. Being in a great assembly, once or twice, +listening to abolitionist orators, lay and clerical, and hearing their +vile assaults on personal character, their vulgar and reckless ridicule +of fifteen States of our Union, their affected, oracular way of saying +the most trite things as though they were aphorisms, but reminding me of +the piles of short stuff which you see round a saw-mill, and hearing the +great throng applaud and shout, I asked myself whether we have really +made any decided advances in civilization since the Hebrew Commonwealth. +I really doubted whether those orators could have collected an audience +of Hebrews even in the wilderness. Under the "Judges," the people were, +at times, low enough to enjoy such drivelling. The willingness at the +North to hear these men, and to applaud them, gave me a low idea of the +state of society.' + +"'But,' said I, 'confess now that you found specimens of cultivated life +there such as you never saw surpassed.' + +"'I did,' said he, 'many times. And I must tell you,' he added, 'of my +enjoyment in looking on your pastures in autumn,--the sun shining aslant +upon them of an afternoon,--and in noticing what shades of scarlet and +crimson were given to the picture by the whortleberry leaves, which, I +found, contributed most to the coloring of the landscape. I also saw a +peculiarity of the whortleberry's flower, which, when stung by an insect +sometimes swells to twenty-five times its natural size, and becomes a +fungus.' + +"'Now,' said I, 'why not apply this,--perhaps you were intending to do +so,--and say that society at the North is generally like our +whortleberry pastures in autumn, which pleased you so much, with here +and there a fungus, made by the sting of radicalism.' + +"A planter's Northern wife said, 'I should like to move the adoption of +that simile.' + +"'We will have it so,' said the Judge to me, 'if the lady and you tell +us that we must.' + +"'A fungus,' said I, 'gets more attention from one half of the people +who go into the woods, than all the pure and beautiful garniture of the +pastures.' + +"The ladies of our company having been rallied for not having done their +part in the conversation, and also, of course, having been complimented +for keeping silence so long, the wife of one of the planters, a Northern +lady, made this remark that considering how God, in his providence, had +made such provision for the welfare of the human family through slavery +in our land, and, in doing it, had shown mercy and salvation to so many +hundreds of thousands of Africans, she thought it both ungrateful and +narrow-minded in people anywhere to confine all their thoughts to the +incidental evils of the slaves. She said that in the North she was not +an abolitionist, but on coming to the South and finding things so +different from that which her fancy had pictured, she had concluded to +be very charitable toward the most of her Northern friends who she said +were no more in the dark than she herself had been all her days, from +reading newspapers and tales which had concealed one whole side of +slavery from the view of Northern people. She added that she preferred +life at the North without the blacks, but had found more disinterested +benevolence toward them in one year at the South than she had charity to +believe existed in the hearts of all the good people at the North toward +them, counting in even the professional benevolence of the 'friends of +the slave.' + +"After refreshments, the pastor was called upon to read the Scriptures, +and to offer prayer. He read the fifteenth chapter of Revelation. Never +can I forget the impression which one of the verses in that chapter made +upon me, in connection with some of the thoughts awakened by our +conversation about the sovereignty of God as displayed in his dark and +awful dispensations towards races, nations, and men: 'And the seven +angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure +and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.' +'Those who are in any way associated with the administration of God's +great judgments towards their fellow-men,' said he, 'have need of +special purity; and their honor should be like the untarnished gold.' + +"This pastor told me, during the repast, that one day, returning +suddenly from his study in the church just after breakfast, to the house +of one of the gentlemen present, with whom he lived, and who was one of +the wealthiest men in the South, and passing through the parlor to get a +book, he found the room darkened, and the lady of the house kneeling in +prayer with her servants. He of course withdrew at once, but he learned +afterward from one of the 'slaves,' that it was the lady's daily custom. +He often thought of that incident when reading Northern religious +newspapers and noticing their lamentations over 'slave-holding +professors.'" + + * * * * * + +So much for my Southern visit. + +Mrs. North said that in our next conversation she would suggest that we +consider the relation of Christianity to Slavery. I told her that I had +some night thoughts on that subject, which I would with pleasure +submit, at another time. + +As the rain continued, Mr. North and I resorted to the wood-pile in the +shed for exercise, till dinner-time, Mrs. North following us to the +door, and charging us not to converse upon this subject till she should +be present. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS. + + "My equal will he be again + Down in that cold, oblivious gloom, + Where all the prostrate ranks of men + Crowd without fellowship,--the tomb." + + JAMES MONTGOMERY. + + +"I will now relate to you," said I, as we resumed our conversation, "the +thoughts which came to me one night as I lay awake meditating on this +subject. I wrote them down the next day. + +"The subject in our conversation which suggested them was, The relation +of Christianity to slavery. + + * * * * * + +"About the year A.D. 64, two men, travellers from Rome, entered the city +of Colosse, in Phrygia. Asia Minor, both of them the bearers of letters +from the Apostle Paul, then a prisoner at Rome. + +"A Christian Church had been gathered at Colosse. Its pastor was +probably Archippus. Some think that Epaphras was his colleague. This +church, according to Dr. Lardner and others, was most probably gathered +by the Apostle Paul himself. Mount Cadmus rose behind the city, with its +almost perpendicular side, and a huge chasm in the mountain was the +outlet of a torrent which flowed into the river Lycus, on which the city +was built, standing not far from the junction of this river with the +Moeander. + +"One of the two men who bore these letters was a slave. His name was +Onesimus. He robbed his master, Philemon, of Colosse, fled to Rome, +heard Paul preach, was converted, and now by the Apostle is sent back to +his master with a letter, in charge of Tychicus, who, with this +Onesimus, was the bearer of a letter to the Colossian Church. + +"Let us attend the church-meeting. The pastor, Archippus, presides. +Epaphras is at Rome. + +"What an interesting company do we behold as we sit near the pastor's +table, in full view of the audience! The inhabitants of this place were +noted for the worship of Bacchus, and Cybele, mother of the gods; hence +her name, _Phrygia Mater_. Every kind of licentious language and actions +was practised in the worship of these deities, accompanied with a +frantic rage called orgies, from the Greek word for _rage_. This was a +part of their religious worship. From among such people, converts had +been made to Christianity, together with some who had been turned from +Judaism. + +"The letter from the Apostle Paul is brought in and is laid on the +pastor's table, and some account is given of the manner in which it was +received. The letter is read. It refers the Colossians, at the close, to +the bearers, for further information and instructions. 'All my state +shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful +minister and fellow-servant in the Lord. Whom I have sent unto you for +the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your +hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of +you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.' + +"Tychicus relates his story, and, when he has finished, Philemon, a +member of the Church, addresses the meeting. He was evidently a man of +distinction in that community, as we infer from the large number of +persons in his household, (ver. 2,) his liberality to poor Christians, +(ver. 5, 7,) and from the marked respect and deference paid to him by +the Apostle. He also had received a letter from the Apostle, and he asks +leave to read it. + +"He then tells them that Onesimus is present; that he has been sent back +by the Apostle Paul, and with the full, cordial consent of Onesimus +himself. He would ask permission for Onesimus to say a few words. + +"'Come hither,' says the pastor, 'and tell us what the Lord hath done +for thee, and how he hath had mercy on thee.' + +"'Let me wash the saints' feet,' says Onesimus, 'but I am not worthy to +teach in the church.' + +"He proceeds to tell them, in full, of his escape from his master, after +robbing him; of his meeting the Apostle at Rome; of his conversion; of +his voluntary return to spend his days, if such be the will of God, as +the servant of Philemon. + +"The account of these proceedings reaches Laodicea, not far distant, to +which place Paul had also sent a letter, and the Colossians, agreeably +to the Apostle's charge, exchange letters, and no doubt the letter to +Philemon is also read to the Church which is at Laodicea. + +"Whereupon, we will suppose, a controversy at once springs up. There had +already appeared in this region of Phrygia, as we infer from the Epistle +to the Colossians, serious errors, among them a kind of angel worship +and asceticism, or abstinence from things lawful, and a state of things +called Gnosis, (Eng. knowledge,) or Gnosticism, a pervading spirit of +worldly wisdom, science, philosophy, which treated the simplicity which +was in Christ as too rudimental and plain for the human mind, and +therefore sought to furnish it with speculations and mysticism, to +gratify its desires for a more extensive spiritual knowledge than it +seemed to many of them was provided for by Christianity. + +"Among the speculations and theories of those days, we will suppose that +the idea began to prevail that Christianity was inconsistent with +holding a fellow-being in bondage. A motion is made in the Laodicean +Church that a committee be appointed to confer with the Colossian Church +on the return of Onesimus into slavery. Such a motion would have found +ready advocates in the Church at Laodicea, if, as at a later day, they +were 'neither cold nor hot' in religion; in which case any collateral +subjects wholly or partly secular, would have a charm for them. These +supplied that lack of warmth which they were conscious of as to +religion; their church-meeting, no doubt, seemed to them dull, unless a +subject was introduced which gave opportunity for discussion, and for +things which gendered debate, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, +evil surmisings. + +"The result of the conference on the part of the Laodicean Committee +with the Colossian Church was, that a general meeting was appointed to +discuss the subject of the return of Onesimus into slavery. It was a +private session of members of the two churches. They claimed the +privilege as Christians of discussing any question relating to the +government and the laws, taking care that no spies were present; still, +with all their precautions, false brethren made trouble for them by +giving private information to the civil authorities against some of +their number, whom they disliked; and this led to some oppression and +persecution. + +"But the meeting was fully attended. Two members of the church who were +faithful servants to slave-holding brethren were set to guard the doors. +The slaves were allowed to be present and listen to the discussion. This +was carried after much debate, some contending that it would expose the +Christians to just reprehension from the civil authorities; and others +maintaining that it would do the slaves good to hear such doctrines +advanced and enforced as would be quoted from the Apostle relating to +masters and servants. + +"The discussion was opened by a brother from Laodicea, an office-bearer +in the church, a private citizen, devoted to study, and an author of +some repute. He was formerly odist at the festivals of Cybele. His +pieces were collected and published under the title of 'Phrygian +Canticles.' His name was Olamus. + +"He took the ground that Christianity abrogated slavery. He quoted the +well known words of Paul, so familiar to all who had heard him preach: +'In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, +bond nor free; but all are one in Christ.' 'The Spirit of the Lord is +upon me because he hath sent me to preach deliverance to the captives, +the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound.' 'Whatsoever ye +would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them.' + +"He maintained that to own a fellow-creature was inconsistent with this +law of equal love; that it was giving sanction to a feature of +barbarism; that, practically, slavery was the sum of all villanies; an +enormous wrong; a stupendous injustice. + +"If any one should reply that the Mosaic institutions recognized +slavery, he had one brief answer:--'which things are done away in +Christ.' Moses permitted this and some other things for the hardness of +their hearts. Polygamy was allowed by Moses, not by Christianity; its +spirit is against it; the bishop of a church must be 'the husband of one +wife;' slavery is certainly none the less contrary to the spirit of the +gospel. + +"But inasmuch as it is inexpedient to dissolve at once, and in all +cases, the relation of master and slave, he contended that while the +relation continued, it should be regulated by the laws which God himself +once prescribed. Every seventh year should be a year of release; every +fiftieth, year should be a jubilee. And as to fugitives, he would refer +his brethren to that Divine injunction: 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his +master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall +dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in +one of thy gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.' + +"That a slave having escaped from his master could not rightfully be +sent back into bondage, was evident from these considerations: + +"All men are born free and equal, and have an inalienable right to life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If a slave sees fit to walk off, +or run off, or ride off on his master's beast, or sail off in his +master's boat, he has a perfect right to do so. Slavery is violence; +every man may resist violence offered to his person, except under +process of law; the person cannot be taken except for crime, or debt, or +in war; every man owns his body and soul; the person cannot become +merchandise, except for the three causes above named, which he +acknowledged were justifiable causes of involuntary servitude at +present. But to forcibly seize a weaker man, or race, and hold them in +bondage he declared to be in violation of the laws of nature, and +contrary to the Christian religion. + +"If it should be replied that Paul the Apostle countenanced slavery by +sending back Onesimus, he would answer, that Paul was a Jew, and was not +yet freed wholly from Jewish practices and associations of ideas. +Gnosticism has supervened upon the rudimental childhood of spiritual +truth. He believed in progress. It was contrary to the instinct of human +nature to send back a poor fugitive into bondage, and he was glad for +one that he lived in an age when the innate moral sentiments, under the +lucid teachings of our more transcendental scholars were becoming more +and more the all-sufficient guide in the affairs of life. He would, +therefore, publicly disclaim his allegiance to the teachings of the +Apostle Paul, if, upon reflection, Paul should insist that he was right +in remanding Onesimus to be Philemon's property 'forever;' it was well +enough that he should be sent back to restore what he had taken by +theft, provided Philemon would immediately release him; otherwise, to +steal from Philemon was doing no more than Philemon had done to him, in +taking away that liberty which is the birthright of every human being; +and Onesimus probably stole merely to assist his escape. He was +justifiable in doing so. + +"If one should insist that there can be no intrinsic wrong in holding a +fellow-being as property because God allowed Hebrews to sell themselves, +and in certain cases to be servants forever, and directed the Israelites +to buy servants of the heathen round about them, who should be an +inheritance to the children of the Israelites, he would simply say +either that the whole pentateuch which contained such a libel on the +divine character, is thereby proved to be a forgery, or, that if the +pentateuch is to be received, it only proves that in condescension to a +race of freebooters who were employed, as the Israelites were, in bloody +wars of extermination, slavery was allowed them, to prevent, perhaps, +worse evils, and in consistency with their dark-minded, semi-barbarous +condition. In this enlightened age when Greece and Rome had shed +superior light on human relationships and obligations, and especially +since Christ had promulgated the golden rule, the idea that man could +own a fellow-creature was so preposterous that he would be an infidel, +nay, he would go farther, he would be an atheist, rather than believe +it. Our moral instincts are our guide. They are the highest source of +evidence that there is a God, and they are a perfect indication as to +what God and his requirements should be. He was for passing a vote of +disapprobation at the act of Paul the Apostle in sending back Onesimus +into bondage. Tell me not, said he, that the Apostle calls him 'a +brother beloved,' and 'one of you;' these honeyed phrases are but +coatings to a deadly poison. Slavery is evil, and only evil and that +continually. Disguise it as you will, Philemon holds property in +Onesimus. By the laws of Phrygia, he could put Onesimus to death for +running away. He deplored the act as a heavy blow at Christianity. It +would countervail the teachings of the Apostle. He sincerely hoped that +the Epistle to Philemon would not be preserved; for should it be +collected hereafter, as possibly it may, among Paul's letters, unborn +ages might make it an apology for slavery, it would abate the hatred of +the world against the sum of all villanies. He would even be in favor +of a vote requesting Philemon to give Onesimus his liberty at once, even +without his consent, sending him back, with this most unwise and unblest +epistle to Philemon, to Paul, who says that he 'would have retained +him,' but would not without Philemon's consent. He did hope that the +brethren would speak their minds, be open-mouthed, and not be like dumb +dogs. For his part he wanted an anti-slavery religion. He acknowledged +that the truths of the Gospel needed the stimulant of freedom to give +them life and power. + +"His remarks evidently produced a great sensation, for a variety of +reasons, as we may well suppose. + +"A man took the floor in opposition to this Laodicean brother. He was a +Jewish convert, a member of the Colossian Church. His name was +Theodotus. Born a Jew, he had renounced his religion and became a Greek +Sophist, practised law at Scio, and heard Paul at Mars Hill, where, with +Dionysius the Areopagite, with whom he was visiting, he was converted. +He had established himself at Colosse, in the practice of law. He was +unusually tall for a man of his descent, had beautifully regular Jewish +features, and was a captivating speaker. + +"He said that they had 'heard strange things to-day. If they are true, +we have no foundation underneath our feet. Every man's moral sentiments, +it seems, are to be his guide. Where, then, is our common appeal? For +his part he believed that if God be our heavenly Father, he has given +his children an authentic book, a writing, for their guide, unless he +prefers to speak personally with them, or with their representatives. +When he ceased to speak by the prophets, he spoke to us by his Son; and +now that his Son is ascended, I believe,' said he, 'that inspired men +are appointed to guide us, and seeing that they cannot reach all by +their living voice, I believe that the evangelists and apostles are to +furnish us with writings which shall be inspired disclosures of God's +will and our duty. The Old Testament is as truly God's word as ever; +Christ declared that not one jot or tittle should pass from it, till all +be fulfilled. Some of it is fulfilled, in him, the end of the types; +parts of it refer to local and temporary things; all which is not local +and temporary is still binding upon us. At least, the spirit of its laws +is benevolent and wise. Damascus and its scenes are too fresh in the +memories of the brethren to need that I should argue the inspiration of +the Apostle to the Gentiles. His miracles are known to us. Nay, what +miracles are we ourselves, reclaimed from the service of the devil, once +the worshippers of Bacchus and of our Phrygian mother; now, clothed, and +in our right minds. The Apostle claims to speak and act by divine +authority. We must question everything, if we set aside this claim. + +"'I maintain,' said he, 'that the Apostle Paul regards the holding a +fellow-creature as property to be consistent with Christianity. To +prevent all misunderstanding, however, let me declare that he insists on +the golden rule as the law of slave-holding, as of everything else; that +he discountenances oppression, that he warns and threatens us with +regard to it; and that he considers slave-holding as consistent with the +Christian character and happiness of master and slave. + +"'In the very Epistle just received by our Church, and by the hands of +Tychicus and Onesinius himself, from the Apostle, we find these words: +"Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not +with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing +God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not +unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the +inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall +receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of +persons. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; +knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." + +"'Where, in this, is there a word that countenances the wrongfulness of +being a slave, or of holding men as slaves? He directs all his +exhortations to the duties which are to be performed in the relation, +and he leaves the relation as he finds it. He does not enjoin slavery; +he treats it as something which belongs to society, to government, and +he leaves Christianity to regulate it as circumstances shall make it +proper. If any one says that the Apostle was afraid to meddle with it, I +reply, that there was never anything yet that Paul was afraid to meddle +with, if it was right to do so. He "meddled" with Diana of the Ephesians +and her craftsmen; he "meddled" with the "beasts" there; he "meddled" +with idolatry on Mars Hill at Athens, I being witness; he has been +beaten, stoned, imprisoned, and is now the second time before Nero for +his life. Afraid to "meddle" with slavery! I am ashamed of the man who +makes the suggestion. He who thinks it, has never yet understood him. + +"'Now, where in all his teachings has he ever intimated that it is wrong +to hold property in man? Nowhere; I repeat it, nowhere. But is he +ignorant of the nature of slavery? We all know what has lately happened +at Rome, in connection with slavery. The very year that Paul arrives at +Rome, the prefect of the city, Pedanius Secundus, was murdered by his +slave; and agreeably to the laws of slavery all the slaves belonging to +the prefect, a great number, women and children among them, were put to +death indiscriminately, though innocent of the crime.[A] Such is slavery +under the Apostle's eye; and yet'-- + + [Footnote A: Tacitus, _Annals_, xiv. 42.--A thrilling tale. See + Bohn's Classical Library, 53.] + +"'And, therefore,' interrupted the Laodicean brother, 'the Apostle +approves of murdering innocent slaves for the sin of one. That is the +conclusion to which your reasoning will bring us.' + +"'Excusing the brother for interrupting me, I ask, Is that agreeable to +the plain facts in the case?' said the speaker. 'Are the abuses of +parentage chargeable upon the relationship of parent and child? +Moreover, does not the Apostle expressly teach us, in this Epistle, that +such things are wrong? but still, does he condemn the relation of master +and slave? + +"'The tale of that horrid butchery was present to the mind of the +Apostle when he sends Onesimus back into slavery. Moreover, he knew that +by our laws Philemon could put Onesimus to death; yet he sends him back. + +"'It is said by my brother that Paul enunciated principles which in time +would kill slavery, and therefore he did not care to denounce it, but +prudently let it alone. What else, I inquire, did Paul fail to denounce? +and why is this "enormous wrong," this "stupendous injustice," alone, +left to die, without being attacked? No, Paul treated slavery as he did +all other forms of government; he did not denounce government, not even +its despotic forms; for he knew that a despotism may be the best form of +government in some circumstances. But he spoke against the abuse of +power by rulers, and in the same way he speaks against the abuse of +power by the master. + +"'My brother tells us that slavery is "the sum of all villanies." A +comprehensive term, truly. Let us admit the correctness of the phrase. +"All villanies" includes all "the works of the flesh," and the Apostle +enumerates the principal of them, where he says, "Now the works of the +flesh are these;"--concluding his account with the expression, "and such +like." With unsparing denunciation, he portrays each and every +"villany," and shows how the wrath of God is revealed from heaven +against it. + +"'But while he is thus bold and faithful with regard to "all villanies" +in particular, we cannot but think it strange that a thing which is said +to be the "sum" of them all, is nowhere spoken against by the Apostle! +On the contrary, he recognizes the duties which grow out of +slave-holding. + +"'Let us suppose him to do the same with regard to each villany which he +does to that which my brother calls the "sum" of them all. Then we +should hear him say! Murderers, do so and so; thieves, do so and so; and +ye that are mutilated, do so and so; and ye that are pillaged, do so and +so. I am curious to know how my brother will answer this. What are the +religious "duties" of murderers and thieves, but to repent, to forsake +their evil ways at once, and to make lawful reparation? And what are the +"duties" of those whom murderers and thieves assault, but to resist, and +to seek the conviction of the evil-doer? Oh how strange it seems for the +Apostle to counsel masters and slaves to imitate their "Master which is +in heaven," in their relation to each other, if holding men in bondage +be "the sum of all villanies," and how strange for him to send Onesimus +back to the system to behave in it as Christ would act in his place! + +"'Onesimus escapes, we will say, from a gang of murderers, or from a +company of thieves, and the Apostle's preaching is the means of his +becoming a good man. Paul writes a letter to the chief murderer of the +gang, or to the captain of the robbers, sends Onesimus back, and +"beseeches" the brigand for "his son Onesimus," telling him that now he +receives him "forever," and then calls the desperado "our dearly beloved +fellow-laborer"! Why not, with equal propriety, if slavery be, +necessarily, as our brother describes it? There is some mistake in our +brother's theory. + +"'I venture to state the distinction which I think he overlooks, and +which, if observed, will relieve his difficulty. Paul never denounces +government; "the powers that be are ordained of God." He appeals to +"Caesar"; he goes before "Nero"; he never counsels insurrection, nor +denounces government, in whatever hands or under whatever forms it may +be; but he enjoins principles and duties which, if observed, would make +"Caesars," even though they be "Neros," blessings, and their despotisms +even would cease to be a curse. So with slave-holding. It is +incorporated into the state of society; it is, moreover, a relation +which can exist and no sin be committed under the relation; hence, it is +not sin in itself, any more than the throne of Nero is sin in itself; +and the Apostle speaks to the slave-holding Philemon as he would to a +father receiving back a wayward son. + +"'The claim of Philemon to Onesimus rests only on his having purchased +him. Who had a right to sell him? Trace the thing back, and you come to +fraud or violence, or some form of injustice to Onesimus in making him +a slave. Paul knew that this is the case with regard to every slave; yet +he does not "break every yoke," even when, as in this case, he had one +so completely in his hands, and could have broken it in pieces. + +"'But we will suppose, with my brother, that the laws which God ordained +for slavery should prevail under Christianity, if slavery is to exist. +Let every Phrygian, then, a fellow-countryman who has lost his liberty, +go free at the end of six years; and at every fiftieth year, whether six +years be completed or not, since the last seventh year of release, let +all such go free. This, for argument's sake, we approve. But we must +take the whole code. Every foreigner who becomes a slave, and the child +of every such slave, was to be an "inheritance forever." Husbands, who +are Phrygians, must choose, in certain cases, whether to go out free by +themselves, or remain in perpetual bondage with their wives and their +offspring. Paul knew the Jewish laws with regard to slavery; he knew how +favorably they compared with our code; but he says not a word on that +score, and simply sends Onesimus back to his bondage. + +"'Yet see how beautifully the spirit of Christ works itself into the +relation of master and slave, and into Paul's views and feelings with +regard to it. In his letter to our Church, he expressly names Onesimus +as one of the bearers of the epistle. He speaks of him as "one of you," +a resident with us; and he calls this slave "a faithful and beloved +brother." He speaks to Philemon about him as "my son Onesimus whom I +have begotten in my bonds;" "thou therefore receive him, that is, mine +own bowels." "Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother +beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the +flesh and in the Lord." "If thou count me, therefore, a partner, receive +him as myself." + +"'What a comment is this on the words: "In Christ Jesus there is neither +bond nor free." Not that there shall be "no bond," according to the +brother's interpretation; for then it would be equally right to +interpret the other part of the passage literally,--there is no Jew, no +Greek, and none free! How perfectly does the relation become absorbed by +that state of heart which makes it proper for Paul to say: "Art thou +called being a servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made +free, use it rather." Notwithstanding this advice, he sends back this +man-servant. + +"'Paul might have manumitted Onesimus by his authority as an apostle; +this, however, would have been rebellion against government, for our +laws recognize slavery. + +"'My brother says that the Hebrew law forbade the surrender of a +fugitive slave. Yes, if the slave fled into Israel from a heathen +master, he must not be sent back to heathenism; but'-- + +"'But,' said the brother from Laodicea, 'there is no limitation of that +kind. I insist that it was of universal application to slaves of all +kinds.' + +"'Find the passage, if you please (in Deut. xxiii.),' said the Colossian +speaker. + +"The passage was found by the pastor, and was read, as already quoted: +'Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant that is escaped from +his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee even among you, in that +place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him +best; thou shalt not oppress him.' Deut. xxiii. 10, 15. + +"'Now,' said Theodotus, 'it is absurd to say that God proclaimed to all +the servants throughout Israel, If any of you are dissatisfied, for any +cause, and wish to run away, you may do so; and wherever you wish to +live, the people-of that place shall provide a residence for you. After +being there for ever so short a time, if you do not like it, you may +flee again; and so keep moving all your lifetime, the people everywhere +being obliged to allow you a place of abode. Did the Most High mean to +encourage such vagabondism? + +"'No; He merely provided that a fugitive from a heathen master should +not be sent away from the worship of Jehovah into heathenism.' + +"'That is undoubtedly the true meaning,' said the pastor, 'if Theodotus +will allow me to put in a word. "Thee," in that passage, means Israel as +a nation, not each man.' + +"'I thank you, Sir,' said Theodotus; 'and now I maintain that the +injunction not to give up a fugitive to his heathen master, but to keep +him in Israel, is a powerful argument in favor of retaining slaves where +they will be most benefited in their spiritual concerns. God thus makes +the soul of man and its eternal welfare paramount to all external +relations, including slavery.' + +"'May I inquire, then,' said the Laodicean: 'Suppose that Philemon had +been a cruel heathen master, and Onesimus had fled for his life, would +Paul have sent him back?' + +"'If the case were clear and beyond doubt, I am not sure that he would,' +said Theodotus. 'While he would not counsel Onesimus to run away, yet I +can only say, that, fleeing from certain cruelty and death, I doubt if +he would have been remanded. But Paul told servants to be "subject to +their masters," "not only to the good and gentle, but also to the +froward." He speaks to them of "suffering wrongfully;" of "doing well, +and suffering for it;" and he refers the suffering slave to Christ, +"who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, +threatened not." Moreover, he says: "For even hereunto were ye called; +because Christ also _suffered for us_, leaving us an example that ye +should _follow his steps_." That is certainly death.' + +"'If Paul did not send Onesimus back to Philemon, however, it would not +be because it was wrong, in his view, for Philemon to hold him in +bondage; please observe this distinction; but, judging the case by +itself, he would decide whether the slave ought not, under the +circumstances, to have the right of asylum,--Paul himself having once +been "let down by a basket," to escape from the Damascenes. Paul and any +other man would, in certain cases, protect even a fugitive son or +daughter from a father; and this consistently with his recognition of +the parental and filial relation. + +"'Let me remind my brother, and you, my pastor, and my brethren, of one +fact which occurs to me at the moment. Manslayers, in cities of refuge, +were to go free at the death of the High Priest then in office; no such +release, however, was granted to the Gentile slaves, showing that +slavery was not a crime in the estimation of the Most High. Otherwise, +He would have legislated for the departure of slaves from their Hebrew +masters, as He did for manslayers fleeing from the avenger of blood. +Excuse the digression. The thought struck me at the moment.' + +"'I put it to the brother,' said the Laodicean, 'whether he himself would +not flee to Rome, were he a single man, if he should be made a slave to +that monster in human shape, Osander of Hieropolis?' + +"'I cannot say,' replied the Colossian, 'what my temptations might be, +nor how well I should resist them; but slavery being incorporated into +the government, and I being, in the providence of God, sold into bondage +to Osander,--I being either the child of a slave, or one of those who +are called "lawful captives,"--my race, or my capture in war, or my +indebtedness, or my crimes, subjecting me to bondage according to the +constitution of government, I ought to consider my slavery as the mode +which God had chosen for me to glorify him,--by my spirit and temper, by +my words and conduct, by my Christian example in everything, for the +good of Osander's soul, and the honor of religion. I believe that I +should please God more by staying to suffer, and even to die, than to +run away. I doubt even the expediency of running away, as a general +rule. It implies a want of faith. He is the Christian hero who stays +where God has manifestly placed him. + +"'I know,' continued he, 'how easy it is to make this appear ridiculous; +and also how often cases occur in which flight, and even the taking of +life, are proper, under extreme hardships. It is frequently the case +that a servant sees and feels his mental superiority to the man who owns +him. Now one may be so disgusted, and be so constantly vexed and chafed +at this, as to make out a strong case for escaping; another, in the same +circumstances, will feel that God has placed him in charge of his +master's soul, to please him well in all things though he be "froward." +Whether is better, to run off or to "abide"? There can be no doubt how +the Apostle would answer the question. Exceptional cases of extreme +distress do not make a rule; the rule is for each one to "abide" in the +calling in which he is called of God. See what perfect insubordination +would everywhere follow if every one who is oppressed, or believes +himself to be oppressed, should flee: children would desert their +parents; husbands and wives would flee from each other, at any supposed +or real grievance. This is not the Christian rule. Patience and all +long-suffering, obedience, endurance, committing one's self to him that +judgeth righteously, is the temper and spirit of the Gospel. This is the +tone-note of the Sermon on the Mount. At the same time, who blames or +judges harshly a man in peril of his life if, in self-defence, he flees? +I say that Paul would probably judge every fugitive slave case by +itself. One thing is clear: It is not his rule to help a fugitive from +slavery in his flight, as a matter of course. His rule is evidently the +reverse of this. I cannot argue with regard to the exceptions. They +generally provide each for itself. The New Testament rule is for slaves +not to run away; and for us, and for all men, not to encourage them to +do so; but to encourage them to return, and to deal with the masters on +such principles, and in such a fraternal, affectionate way, that the +appeals to their Christian sensibilities may permanently affect their +consciences and hearts. + +"'I stand by the record. Let me forsake it, and I am like Paul's ship +when it was driving up and down in Adria, and neither sun nor stars +appeared. My impulses were not given me as my guide. They are to be +compared with the divine will. Many questions may be asked which I +cannot answer, and many difficulties encompass this subject of +slave-holding which I cannot solve. I abide by the example and teachings +of inspired men, and am safe in following them, even if I cannot +explain everything connected with their principles and conduct to the +satisfaction of others. I only know that if our masters and servants +would take the Apostle Paul's Epistle to Philemon as the rule of their +spirit and life, there would be no such thing as oppression, nor +fugitive servants. Now, as to revolutionizing society to eradicate +slavery, I would no more attempt it than I would try to dig down Cadmus +to dislodge yonder snow and ice upon his top. The sun will in due time +melt them and pour them into the Lycus and the Moeander. So the Gospel, +when it has free course, will dissolve every chain, break every yoke, +and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' + + * * * * * + +"Philemon was now the first to rise. + +"'I am the master to whom Paul the Apostle sends back my fugitive +servant. This man, Onesimus, is my brother in Christ; in heaven, it may +be, I shall see him far above me as a faithful servant of our common +Lord. He has given a proof of obedience to the Gospel, of submission, of +patience and long suffering, of implicit compliance with the rules of +Christ, which excite my Christian emulation. My endeavor shall be to +imitate Onesimus as he has imitated Christ, and to surpass him in +likeness to that Lord who is meek and lowly in heart. The bonds which +hold Onesimus to me are no stronger than those which bind me to him. +(Great sensation and much emotion.) Can I ever treat this servant in an +unfeeling manner? Can I recklessly sell him? Can I deprive him of +comforts? Can I fail to provide for his highest happiness? God do so to +me and more also, if I prove deficient in these particulars. + +"'Let me ask, What would be the state of things among us if the benign +influences of Christian love pervaded every case of slave-holding as, by +the grace of God, I hope it will in my case? We must have a serving +class; our customs and laws ordain the relationship of involuntary +servitude, property in the services of others, by purchase of their +persons. While this is so, suppose that every servant is an Onesimus and +every master such as I ought to be, under the influence of the Apostle +Paul's directions! It is plain that in no way can we better promote the +spiritual and eternal good of certain men, as the times are, than by +standing in the relation of Christian masters to them. This is the great +thing with Paul. We can mitigate the sorrows of their bondage; we can +compensate for the appointments of providence reducing them to slavery, +by making them the freemen of Christ. While this state of things +continues, it may be a blessing to both parties. God will open a way for +any change which he decrees in our social relation, in his own time and +manner. + +"'Now, let us suppose what would happen if, departing from the rule and +example of Paul, we follow the counsels of our good brother from +Laodicea. The community would be in constant excitement by the departure +of servants asserting each his natural liberty; laws would become rigid; +hardships would be multiplied; cruelties would be perpetuated; +insurrections would become frequent; sacrifices of servants, the +innocent with the guilty, would be made to deter from insubordination. +Instead of the spirit of the Gospel in our dwellings, alienations, +suspicion, jealousy, wrangling, strife, and every form of evil would +prevail. He is no real friend of servant or master who would enforce the +principles of our Laodicean brother. I adhere to the Apostle. If +questioned as to my right to hold Onesimus in bondage, the answer +immediately suggested is that an inspired Apostle sanctions it in my +case. If right in my case, it is right in principle; for if +slave-holding be a violation of rights, I am guilty of that violation, +however humane a master I may be. The Apostle does not reprove me, nor +require me to manumit Onesimus, but tells me that I now receive him +"forever," and he teaches me how to treat him. I could occupy your time +by arguing the abstract question relating to property in the services of +men,--but I rest my case for the present on the letter of Paul the +Apostle, brought to me by the hand of my fugitive servant, returning to +what the laws call his bonds. + +"'Let me add a few words, however, on the general subject, to the +argument of Theodotus. + +"'Our good brother from Laodicea tells us that slavery and polygamy are +"twin barbarisms." He argues that slavery was winked at, like polygamy; +was "suffered," by the Most High. But I propose to refute this, and I +will throw myself on your candor to judge if I succeed. + +"'God, in Eden, appointed the marriage of one man and one woman to be +the law of matrimony. "And wherefore one?" says the prophet. "He had the +residue of the spirit," and could have ordained otherwise. "Wherefore +one?" The answer is, "that he might seek a godly seed." The arrangement +was for the highest elevation of the race. + +"'Polygamy is in direct conflict with the ordinance of God. Of course +God never ordained it. On the contrary, the appointment in Eden was +equivalent to a prohibitory act, which Jesus Christ revived, forbidding +polygamy, and the Apostles have enjoined upon us that we observe the law +of marriage as given in paradise. + +"'So much for polygamy. God never recognized it. The edict requiring +the marriage of a childless widow to the brother of her husband, takes +it for granted that a man would leave but one widow. + +"'But how is it with slavery? God never forbade it; he recognized it; +when He framed the Jewish code it was perfectly easy to exclude slavery; +but hardly are the Ten Commandments out of his lips when He ordains +slave-holding, gives particular directions about it, decrees that +certain persons shall be an inheritance forever. Jesus Christ never +uttered one word against slavery, though he did against polygamy; the +Apostles have never written nor preached to us against slavery, but on +the contrary here is the Apostle to the Gentiles sending back a servant +escaped from his master; and in that letter on the pastor's table he +enjoins duties on masters and slaves. I have confidence that my brother +will not again class slavery with polygamy, for it would be a reflection +upon divine wisdom and justice. + +"'One thing more. My brother says slavery is the sum of all villanies. + +"'But did not the Most High God place his people in slavery for seventy +years, in Babylon? This does not prove that slavery is a good thing, in +itself; for by the same proof heathenism might be shown to be a +blessing. Slavery was a curse, a punishment; but still, God would not +have made use of slavery to punish his people, if, theoretically and +practically, it is by necessity all which my brother alleges. It surely +did not, in that case, prove a "villany" to Babylon. They were the best +seventy years of their probationary state, when that people held the +Jews in captivity. Now I beg not to be misunderstood nor to have my +meaning perverted. I am not pleading for slavery. I simply say that God +would not have put his people, whom He had not cast off forever, into +slavery, if slavery, _per se_, were the sum of all villanies, or, if the +practical effect of it on them would be, necessarily, destruction, or +inconsistent with his purposes of benevolence. I will add, that every +people and every man, who hold others in bondage, should be admonished +that when God puts his captives, his bondmen, into their hands, He is +most jealous of the manner in which the trust is discharged. I do think, +I say it here with all possible emphasis, it is the most delicate, the +most solemn, the most awful responsibility, to stand in the relation of +master to a bondman. + + * * * * * + +"No further discussion was had at that time, the hour being late, and so +the meeting was closed with prayer and singing. Masters and servants +joined to chant a hymn, of which the following, written many years after +by Gregory of Nazianzum, might almost seem to be the expansion:-- + + "'Christ, my Lord, I come to bless Thee, + Now when day is veiled in night, + Thou who knowest no beginning, + Light of the eternal light. + + "'Thou hast set the radiant heavens, + With thy many lamps of brightness, + Filling all the vaults above; + Day and night in turn subjecting + To a brotherhood of service, + And a mutual law of love. + + "'Own me, then, at last, thy servant, + When thou com'st in majesty; + Be to me a pitying Father, + Let me find thy grace and mercy; + And to Thee all praise and glory + Through the endless ages be.' + +"Leaning on the arm of Onesimus, Philemon returned to bless his +household. + + * * * * * + +"Thus far," said I, "you have my Night Thoughts." I asked Mr. North if +he accepted the present New Testament Canon as correct? He said that he +did. I then inquired if he regarded the Scriptures as the only and +sufficient rule of faith and practice. + +To this he also agreed. I then asked him if he did not think that, in +making up the canon, that is, in directing what books and epistles +should go into it, God had reference to the wants of all coming times? +He signified his assent. I then asked his attention to a few thoughts +connected with that point. + +"Here is the Epistle to Philemon, placed by the hand of the Holy Spirit +himself in the Sacred Canon. It is on a small piece of parchment, easily +lost; the wind might have blown it from Philemon's table out of the +window, beyond recovery; it was not addressed to a Church, to be kept in +its archives; it is a private letter, subject to every change in the +condition of a private citizen. Yet, while the epistle to Laodicea, sent +about the same time, is irrecoverably lost, this little writing, +addressed to a private man, goes into the Bible, by direction of God! + +"Do you not suppose," said I, "that God had a meaning in this beyond +merely informing us how a master received a servant back to bondage?" + +"What further purpose do you think there was in it?" said he. + +"I only know," said I, "that slave-holding was to be a subject, as has +proved to be the case, which would involve the interests of at least +two of the continents of the earth, one of them being then unknown. Here +the Church of God was to have large increase. Here, too, slavery was to +exist, and to thrill the hearts of millions of citizens from generation +to generation. It is very remarkable that one book of the Bible, which +was to be made known to all nations by the commandment of the +everlasting God, for the obedience of faith, should be exclusively on +the subject of slavery, and that the whole burden of the Epistle should +be, The Rendition of a Fugitive Slave!" + +"This never occurred to me before," said Mr. North. + +"Suppose," said I, "that instead of sending back Onesimus, the epistle +had been a private letter from Archippus at Colosse to Paul at Rome, +clandestinely aiding Onesimus to escape from Philemon, and that Paul had +received Onesimus and had harbored him, and had sent him forth as a +missionary, and that not one word of comment had appeared in the Bible +discountenancing the act. What would have happened then?" + +"Then," said Mrs. North, "one thing is certain; the business of running +off slaves to Canada would now have been more brisk even than it is at +present." + +"Why?" said I. + +"Simply because," said she, "the New Testament would have sanctioned the +practice of running off slaves." + +"Why, then," said I, "does it not now equally countenance the 'running' +of slaves back to their masters?" + +"Please answer that for me, husband," said Mrs. North. + +He smiled, and rose to put some coal on the fire. We waited for his +words. + +"Well," said he, "I do not know but it is all right, provided the master +be in each case a Philemon." + +"That is a good word," said I. "You show that the Bible has an +ascendency in your mind. You will be safe in following the Bible +wherever it leads you, even into slave-holding, if it goes so far. But I +must now question you a little. You may answer me or not, as you please. + +"One day a black man appears at your door, and says, 'I have just +escaped from the South. I was owned by Rev. Professor A.B. of New +Orleans. I preferred liberty to slavery, and here I am.' Would you +shelter him, and encourage his remaining here, and, if necessary, send +him to Canada?" + +"What would you have me do?" said he. + +"Take him in," said I, "if you please, and give him some breakfast. You +would not object to this. After breakfast you have family prayers. 'Can +you read, Nesimus?' you inquire. 'O yes, master; missis and the young +missises taught us all to read.' Your little boy hands him, with the +rest, a Testament, and names the place of reading. Strange to say, +yesterday you finished 'Titus,' and the portion to be read in course is +'Philemon!'" + +"Almost a providence," said Mrs. North. + +"How would you feel, Mr. North?" said I. + +"Why, feel? How should I feel?" said he. "You will answer for me, +perhaps, and say, 'Read Philemon; pray; and then say, Come, Nesimus, I +am going to send you back to Professor A.B. I will write a letter to +him, and pay your passage.'" + +"What objection would you make to this?" said I. + +He thought a moment, and in the meanwhile his shrewd wife said,-- + +"Why, husband, do you hesitate? Say this: 'What! I? and Bunker Hill +within a day's march of my house, and grandfather's old sword over my +library door?'" + +"I am sick of hearing about Bunker Hill in this connection," said he. +"Any one would think that it is one of the 'sacred mountains' in Holy +Writ." + +"But," said his wife, "If some of Paul's ancestors had had Bunker Hill +privileges and influences, do you think Paul would have written the +Epistle to Philemon? Unfortunate Apostle! Say," said his wife again, +before he spoke, "that you believe in progress, that that epistle might +have been right enough in its day, but that now 'we need an anti-slavery +Bible and an anti-slavery God.'" + +She made up a very expressive smile as she said it and stretched her +work across her knee. + +"Yes," said I, "the Bible is antiquated! God never gave a written +revelation to be a perpetual guide to the end of time! I can supersede +the Epistle to Philemon: Mrs. North, Hebrews; you, James; and another +the whole of the Old Testament." + +"Now," said Mr. North, "I will tell you what I have been thinking of all +this time. + +"I will put you into bondage in Algiers or Tunis. Somebody has bought +you or captured you. But by some means you escape to me at Gibraltar. +Now I will read 'Philemon' to you, and send you back to your Algerine +master. What objection can you make to this, as a believer in +inspiration?" + +I answered, "If I were a slave in my own country, and slavery existed in +Algiers, you would need to consider the relation which existed between +this country and Algiers. If the governments had treaties with each +other, the surrender of persons held to service in either of the +countries would probably be provided for, and then you would have to +consider whether you would obey what is called the 'higher law,' or +yield me to the requisition of the proper authorities. This brings up +the question of the rendition of fugitive slaves, which we have just +considered. + +"But being free in my own country, and having been, therefore, +unlawfully sold into Algerine Slavery, or having been captured, or +stolen, you would, I trust, make proper resistance in my behalf." + +"But," said Mr. North, "The ancestors of my fugitive friend Nesimus, +were taken from freedom in their own land and were reduced to slavery. +Must he and his descendants be slaves forever for the sin of the +original captors, or for the misfortune of his ancestors?" + +"Birth in slavery long established makes all the difference in the +world, Mr. North," said I. "If I am born in slavery, under a government +ordaining slavery, that is a different case from that of one taken out +of a passenger ship and sold as a slave." + +"Then if you and your wife," said he, "were taken out of a passenger +ship, and you should happen to have a child born in slavery, that child +must remain a slave, even if you go free?" + +"No, Sir," said I; "the child born under such circumstances is as +rightfully free as its parents. But take this case: I, being captured +and held as a slave, my master gives me a wife, lawfully a slave. Then, +the child born of her is lawfully a slave. You see the distinction. God +recognized it. The condition of both is a limitation and qualification +of natural rights. So the lapse of time qualifies the right to collect +debts, bring suits for libel, or slander, and for the right of way, or +for the possession of land. Will we live under law? or shall each man +or any set of men set up laws for their own conscience?" + +"Then," said he, "If a slave-trader lands a cargo of slaves from Africa, +at Florida, I have no right to buy them; they are not lawfully slaves. +Is that your belief?" + +"Assuredly," said I; "and if the fugitive whom I have supposed you to be +sending back to the gentleman at New Orleans, were a fugitive from the +cargo just imported from Africa, you would be sustained by the law of +the land in delivering him from bondage; he was piratically taken; the +laws would make him free, and punish his captors, if the laws were +faithfully executed." + +"But a poor fellow born in slavery must remain a slave!" he replied. + +"He is not lawfully a slave," I said, "if his parents were both of that +cargo. But if his father had received a wife from his master, then the +child is lawfully a slave." + +"How do you establish that distinction?" said he. + +"The child is born of one known to be, herself, lawfully a slave. It is +born under a constitution of government which recognizes slavery; while +that government provides for slavery, the child must submit or violate +an ordinance of God, unless freedom can be had by law, or by justifiable +revolution." + +"I feel constrained," said Mr. North "to hold that liberty is the +inalienable right of every human being, except in cases of crime." + +"You mean," said I, "that every human being is entitled to all the civil +rights and immunities which others enjoy." + +"Yes," said he, "in proportion to his age, and his capacity. Minors, and +the imbecile, are entitled to protection, but may not be oppressed." + +"Ah," said I, "how soon you find your general rules intercepted and +qualified by circumstances. Minors, and the imbecile, then, may not be +admitted to equal privileges with us. But are not all men born free and +equal?" + +"Now let me add to 'minors' and 'the imbecile' one more class. There are +two races existing together in a certain country. One has always been, +there, a servile race. The other are the lords of the soil; the +institutions of the country are by their creation; they have acquired a +perfect right and title to the government. + +"You know, from all history, that two races never could, and never did +live together on the same soil, unless they intermarried, or one was +subject to the other. You admit this historical fact. + +"It is proposed, now, by some, to give the subject race a right to vote +and to hold office, so that their equality in all things shall be +acknowledged." + +"Pray," said Mr. North, "will you object to this? Has not God 'made of +one blood all nations of men'?" + +"Yes," I replied, "but read on, in that same verse:--'and hath +determined the bounds of their habitation.' There is a law of races; +races must have antipathies, unless they intermarry; he who seeks to +confound them may as well labor for the conjugation of all the tribes of +animals. He and his results would prove to be monsters. + +"The Anglo Saxon race on this continent properly say to the Negro, 'If +by conquest you get possession of the land, we must, of course, succumb +to you. We are now in possession, and mean so to continue. Hard, +therefore, as it seems not to let you vote in parts of the country where +your numbers are such as to endanger our majority, or afford temptation +to demagogues to inflame your prejudices and passions by historical +appeals to them, and severe as it may seem not to let you form military +companies, (which would also be mischievous in the same way) we +nevertheless propose to exclude you from this right of suffrage, and +from separate organizations, for our own defence, and that we may +preserve our institutions for our proper descendants. We are very sorry +that our English ancestors began to impose you upon us, and that Newport +and Salem vessels brought so many of you here into slavery; but we +cannot think of requiting you for this by jeoparding our own peace; nor +would it be kind to you, as things are, to be made prominent in any way +as a class. When the Northern people are, generally, your true friends, +and cease to use you in an offensive manner, to excite civil war, we +shall join to elevate you in every way consistent with your true +interests.' + +"There will be cases of extreme hardship," said I, "if a slave, fleeing +from the South, however unjustifiably, nevertheless becomes surrounded +here with a family, and the owner comes and claims him. There are +principles of natural humanity which come into force at such a time to +modify or set aside a claim. I know, indeed, that to build a valuable +house on land not mine, does not vacate the land-owner's title; and, +moreover, I know what may be alleged on the principle illustrated by +Paley, who speaks of a man finding a stick and bestowing labor on it +which is more in value than the stick itself. These cases of slaves who +have gained a settlement here, call for the utmost kindness and +forbearance between the sectional parties in controversy; clamor will +never settle them, nor the sword; but the reign of good feeling will +cause justice to flow down our streets like a river, and righteousness +like an overflowing stream." + +"As we have conversed a good deal upon this subject," said Mr. North, +"perhaps we may bring our conversation to a close as profitably as in +any other way by your telling us, summarily, what you think of this +whole perplexing subject; what would you have me believe; how ought a +Christian man, who desires to know and do the will of God, to feel and +to act with regard to it? Good men, I see, are divided about it; I +respect your motives, I approve many of your principles, I cannot object +to your conclusions, in the main. Let us know what you consider to be, +probably, the ultimate issue of the whole subject." + +"I will do so with pleasure," said I. + +"But," said Mrs. North, "let us wait till after dinner." + +"As the storm is over," I said to her, "I must go home, but we will have +one more council fire, if you please, and end the subject." + +So in the afternoon, my kind friends gave me their attention while I +made my summing up in the next and concluding chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE FUTURE. + + "It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind rest in providence, move in + charity, and turn upon the poles of truth." + + LORD BACON. + + +"Slavery, as human nature now is, cannot be otherwise than one of the +Almighty's curses upon any race which is subject to bondage. + +"True, it may nevertheless, be an amelioration of their original state; +they may fall into the hands of a Christian people, and hundreds of +thousands of them be civilized, and be converted to Christianity; +redeemed from a barbarous condition they may contribute immensely to the +general good of the race both as producers and consumers. Wherever +commerce needs them, unquestionably they will do more good to the world +by being compelled to work than by wearing out their miserable and +useless existence in Africa. + +"All this may be true; still, is it not a curse to be hewers of wood and +drawers of water? Does not God say to Israel that if they sin, they +'shall be the tail and not the head?' National degradation, exposing a +people to be the prey and the captives of a superior race, is, of +course, a curse, though, like death itself, and even sin, it may, by the +grace of God, turn to good. Still, it is a curse. + +"But in governing a fallen world like ours, God now and then ordains +the subjection of one race to another; and he makes bondage one of his +ordinances as truly as war. The extermination of the Canaanites by the +sword, was an ordinance of Heaven. War is a part of God's method in +governing the world; as well as sickness and death. + +"I never had any sympathy for that amiable but weak concern for the +character of God which represents him as finding slavery in existence +and merely legislating about it, and doing the best he can with an +inevitable evil. This view belongs to a system which makes God, as it +seems to me, the most unhappy Being, continually striving to destroy +that which sprung up contrary to his plan. To dwell on this, however, +would lead us too far into theological questions. + +"I tremble to think of our responsibility as a nation in being put in +charge of a people with whom God has some terrible controversy for their +own sins and those of their ancestors. + +"Through our abuse of power, God may say to us, 'I was a little angry, +and ye helped on the affliction.' God's purposes in having the chastised +nation afflicted, will be accomplished, but He will punish every one who +inflicts the chastisement with a selfish, unchristian spirit. + +"Our people generally take it for granted that slavery is like one of +the self-limiting diseases of childhood, to be outgrown, and to cease +forever, in process of time, and before many years have passed away. + +"The ground of this conclusion is a doctrinal error, namely, that +slave-holding, the relation of master and servant, ownership, property +in man, or by whatever name slavery may be designated, is in itself +wrong, and that as soon as practicable it will be abjured and no man +will stand to another in the relation of master, or owner. But whether +for good or for ill, slavery will be in existence at the last day. We +read that 'every bondman and every freeman' will see the sign of the Son +of Man. + +"But should slavery be at any time, or in any country, or part of a +country, utterly extinguished, it will ever remain true that ownership, +or property in man is not in itself wrong, and that it may be benevolent +to all concerned. It is interesting to recollect that in proportion as +human relations are cardinal, or vital, they approach most nearly to +ownership, as in the case of parent and child. The highest relation of +all, that between man and God, finds its most perfect expression in +terms conveying the idea of ownership on the part of God. 'For ye are +not your own;--therefore glorify God in your body and spirit which are +God's.' If God should send one of us to a distant part of the universe, +under the charge of an angel, where superior intelligence and wisdom +were needful for our safety in temptation and amid the bewildering +excitements of new scenes, ownership for the time being, absolute +dominion over us, on the part of the angel, would be in the highest +measure benevolent. In those days when universal love reigns, it is just +as likely as not that there will be more 'ownership' in man than ever +before. By ownership I mean such relationships as we see in the +households of those who are represented in the letter of the Southern +lady to her father. There we see the weak, the unfortunate, the +dependent nature clinging to the stronger, and receiving support and +comfort, and even honor, from those who in rendering kindness and in +receiving service have their whole being refined and cultivated to the +highest degree. There are no rigors in those relationships; everything +which contributes to the welfare and happiness of a serving class is +enjoyed, and all its liabilities to care and sorrow are removed, to as +great a degree as ever happens in this world. + +"Allowing that there are always to be inequalities of mind and +condition, and that what we call menial services will need to be +performed; that there must be those who will have a disposition and +taste to work over a fire all day and prepare food; and that men of +business or study will not all be able to groom their own horses and +wash their vehicles; and that possibly the Coleridges and Southeys, and +their friends the Joseph Cottles, may, from being absorbed in their +ideal pursuits, still be ignorant of the way to get off a collar from a +horse's neck, and must call upon a servant-girl to help them, we shall +need those who will be glad to be servants forever, and who will require +for their own security that their employers shall 'own' them, and thus +be made responsible for their support and protection. This may always be +necessary for the highest welfare of all concerned. But the history of +this relationship in connection with our human nature has been such, to +a great extent, that we associate with it only the idea of pillage, +oppression, cruelty. Already there are cases without number in which no +such idea would ever be suggested to a spectator, and they will increase +in proportion as Christianity prevails. There is more real 'freedom' in +thousands of these cases of nominal slavery than in thousands who are +nominally free. How did it happen that the Hebrew servant, who chose to +stay with his master rather than leave his wife and children, was not +made nominally free, and apprenticed or hired? Why was his ear bored, +and perpetual relations secured between him and his master?" + +"For the master's security, I presume," said Mr. North. + +"I should say," said I, "for the mutual benefit of both. The master then +became responsible for him; his support was a lien on his estate, the +children must always be responsible for his maintenance. The awl made its +record in the master's door-post, as well as in the servant's ear. + +"Now, suppose," said I, "that God chooses to supply this nation with +menial servants to the end of time. Suppose that he has designed that +one race, the African, shall be the source from which he will draw this +supply, and that down through long generations he proposes to make this +black race our servants, seeking at the same time, by means of this, +their elevation, by connecting them with us, and keeping up the +relation; and that for the permanence of the relation, and for the +security of all concerned, there should be 'ownership,' such as he +himself ordained when he prescribed the boring of the ear? For my part, +I cannot see in this 'the sum of all villanies,' 'an enormous wrong,' 'a +stupendous injustice.' Yet this would be slavery. I am not arguing for +such a constitution of things. As was before observed, the whole black +race may, in a few years, be swept off from the country; but who will +undertake to say that, as the people of other nations have been employed +by Providence to make our railroads and canals, the black race may not +be employed for a much longer term to be our servants, both North and +South, both East and West? And who will say that the tenure of +'ownership' may not be the wisest and most benevolent arrangement for +all concerned? I repeat it, I am not arguing for this; I am only trying +to show you that the present abuses in slavery are no valid argument +against the relation itself; that this may remain when the abuses cease, +and therefore that at the present time we ought to discriminate in our +arguments against slavery, and direct our assaults, if we continue to be +assailers, against its abuses." + +"On one disagreeable subject," I said to him aside, "I will make this +general remark: The Southern slaves are, as a whole, a religious people; +their religion, indeed, is of a type corresponding to their condition. +But still, if the South were one festering pool of iniquity, as many at +the North fancy, would the colored people show such evidences as they do +of moral and spiritual improvement? Look at Hayti. A very large majority +of the children are not born in wedlock. Slavery is a moral restraint +upon the Southern colored people. Evil as slavery is, it is, in many +things, taking the slaves as they are, a comparative blessing." + +"But," said Mr. North, "our people generally insist that abuses, +oppression, cruelty, are so inherent in slavery that they cannot be +removed without destroying the relation itself." + +"Here," said I, "is the mistake under which Southerners perceive that we +labor, and which prevents us from having the least influence with them. + +"This, however, is unquestionably true: as human nature is, we would not +choose to give men unlimited power over their fellow-men who are slaves. +If, in the course of events, it is found by good men that the abuses +flowing from such power are inevitable, that legislative enactments and +public opinion cannot control the relation, their consciences will not +be quiet till it is abolished. I am willing to confide this to men as +good as we, acting as they will on their responsibility to God. It may +be, that the system, stripped of everything which can be taken away, +will be perpetuated, for the best good of the slave and his master. + +"But," said I, "while this perpetual relation of the black race to us is +possible, and may be the design of a benevolent God for our happiness +and that of the Africans, and while I love to use it in replying to +those who, with short-sighted and somewhat passionate reasoning, as I +think, contend that slavery must utterly be rooted out of the land, I +confess that my own thoughts turn to the Continent of Africa as the +great object for which an all-wise God has permitted slavery to exist on +our shores. + +"I love to look at American slavery in connection with the future +history of that great African continent, containing one hundred and +fifty millions of people. History and discovered relics make the +Ethiopian race to be older even than Egypt. The once powerful nations of +Northern Africa, Numidia, Mauratania, as well as the Egyptian builders +of pyramids, have disappeared, or they exist only in a few Coptic +tribes; and even they are of doubtful origin. But the Ethiopian people, +notwithstanding the slave-trade which has extended its degrading +influence far and wide among them, and though civilization long since +departed from their tribes, have continued to increase till now they are +the most numerous of the human families except the Chinese. The +slave-holding nations which have pillaged them forages, have not been +able to destroy them. Ethiopia may well say, stretching out her hands to +God, 'Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all +thy waves.' It is sublime to think what triumphs of redemption there are +yet to be on that African continent. But how little, apparently, from +all that they ever say, do some of our abolitionist friends seem to +think about Africa as a future jewel in Immanuel's diadem! Utterly +foreign from all their thoughts appears to be the great plan of +Providence which by means even of slavery in this land, has done so much +to extend the work of human salvation among the African race. And there +are some ministers of the Gospel and professed Christians, I regret to +observe, who reply to all that you say about the vast proportion, to +white converts, of converts among the colored people, in a manner which +would awaken great fears in the most charitable breast with regard to +their own personal interest in the salvation by Christ, did we not all +know how far we may be blinded by passion. If you visit in the South, +you will find that African missions take the deepest hold on the hearts +of Southern Christians. The time will come, God hasten it! when they and +we will be united in plans and efforts for the good of the African race. + +"But I am not in favor of stealing Africans from their native land to +bring them here, even though it were certain that the majority of them +would be converted to God. We are not to do evil that good may come. If +Providence makes it plain that tribes of them shall be removed to new +districts of our country, suitable measures can and will be devised for +that purpose. That they are better off here, even in slavery, than in +their own land, under present circumstances, I do not see how any one +can question; but that does not justify man-stealing. I remember to have +seen a letter from a Missionary in Africa, in which he says, speaking of +the slaves and of the South, 'Would that all Africa were there; would +that tribes of this unhappy people could be transferred to the +privileges which the slaves at the South enjoy. I would rather take my +chance of a good or bad master, and be a slave at the South, than be as +one of these heathen people. In saying this, I refer both to this world +and the next'. I need not say, he is an enemy to the slave-trade. + +"A missionary who had spent much time among the Zulu people, was +appealed to by a zealous anti-slavery person to commiserate our slaves +as being so much worse off than the Zulus. 'Madam,' said he, 'if our +Zulus were in the condition of your slaves, eternity would not be long +enough to give thanks.' + +"Mrs. North," said I, "you will not impute it to mere gallantry when I +appeal to you if we may not generally measure the refinement and +elevation of society by the position of woman, and by the sentiments and +manners of the other sex with regard to yours. The deference, the +delicate attentions, the gentleness, the refinement of behavior, in word +and act, which you inspire, are both the means and the evidence of the +highest cultivation. In public and in private life, in assemblies, +public conveyances, at table, around the evening lamp, in all the +intercourse of the family, the susceptibility of impression, the +restraints and the chastised utterances, in word and action, of +husbands, fathers, brothers and friends, which are due to the presence +of woman, are a correct gauge of civilization and refinement." + +"All right," said Mr. North, bowing very politely to his wife. + +"Nowhere," said I, "do we see this more conspicuously than in Southern +society. Chivalry there seems to blend with the genial influences of +Christianity, and together they give a tone and manner to Southern life +which is peculiar. + +"I am often struck with a Southern gentleman's reverence, here at the +North, for the female sex. He is displeased at seeing daughters serving +at table in boarding-houses kept by their worthy parents or widowed +mothers. We, indeed, respect a young woman who serves us in this manner, +(if we reflect at all,) and we resent rudeness or an unfeeling mode of +addressing those who are in such situations. But the Southern gentleman +goes further. He has, perhaps, not been accustomed to see the daughter +of a white family serve. When a respectable young woman, therefore, at a +boarding-house, brings him his tea, he feels impelled to rise and ask +her to be seated, and to wait upon her. I have been an eye-witness to +scenes of this kind, and have been much pleased and not a little amused +at some exhibitions of the feeling. If our sentiments toward the sex, +and their position in social life, mark the degree of civilization and +cultivation in a community, I am compelled to accord a high degree of it +to Southern society, in its best estate. + +"This is one effect of slavery. It takes mothers, wives, daughters, away +from occupations which, though honorable, do not always elevate them in +the eyes of the other sex. Perhaps there is no value (and some will say +it) in all this; that every labor and service is right and good for +woman; and that we are to prefer a state of society where woman does +these things with her own hands, instead of having them done for her, +and that this is our only safeguard against luxury and degeneracy. I +will not debate it. I am only showing that, tried by an ordinary +test,--the position of woman,--Southerners are really not barbarians." + +"I verily believe," said Mrs. North, "that if you take the Southern +constitution and give it a Northern training, the result is as perfect a +specimen of man or woman as is to be found on earth." + +"People at the North," said I, "may, in their zeal against slavery, make +light of the abounding sustenance which the slaves enjoy, and call it a +low and gross thing in comparison with 'freedom;' but, in the view of +all political economists and publicists, how to feed the lower classes +is a great problem. It is solved in slavery. + +"There is another topic," I added, "which is interesting and important. + +"Here," said I, taking a newspaper-slip from my wallet, "is something +which fairly made me weep. It is a picture of one of our poor, virtuous, +honest New England homes, in which I would rather dwell and suffer, than +be an 'oppressor' with my hundreds of slaves, and wealth counted by +hundreds of thousands. A slave-holder, blessed be God, is not a synonyme +of 'oppressor;' nor are the slaves as a matter of course 'oppressed.' +Our people to a great extent think otherwise, and it is useful to see +how we appear to others when this error leads us into folly. This little +picture in the newspaper-slip gives us a transient look into an abode +whose honest poverty and want are made more painful by evil-doing under +the influence of fanaticism." + +I then read to my friends the following from a Southern paper;--I here +omit the names which are given in full:-- + +"The touching letter which was found on the body of ---- ----, one of +the insurgents, from his sister in ----, ----, has been published. The +following paragraph in that letter is a suggestive one: + +"'Would you come home if you had the money to come with? Tell me what +it would cost. Oh! I would be unspeakably happy if it were in my power +to send you money, but we have been very poor this winter. I have not +earned a half-dollar this winter. Mattie has had a very good place, +where she has had seventy-five cents a week; she has not spent any of it +in the family, only a very little for mother. Father has had very small +pay, but I think he has more now; he is a watchman on the ---- ----, +that runs from here to ----.' + +"Here, says the Southern editor, is a family, one of thousands of +families in New England in similar circumstances, where one daughter +thinks it a 'very good place' where she can get seventy-five cents a +week; another has not earned a half-dollar during the winter, and all +are 'very poor;' yet the son and brother goes off and deserts a mother +and sisters thus situated,--a mother and sisters who, though poor, have +evidently the most affectionate feelings and tender sensibilities,--for +the purpose of liberating a class of people, not one of whom knows +anything of the want or privation from which his own family is +suffering, or who would not look without contempt upon such remuneration +as seemed the height of good fortune to the destitute sisters and mother +of this abolitionist. When we bear in mind the intelligence and +sensibilities which characterize the wives and daughters of the poorest +classes equally with the richest in New England, it is most amazing that +men should overlook such misery at their own doors--nay, should forsake +their own kith and kin who are suffering under it--the mother who bore +them, the sisters who love them with all a sister's tender and +solicitous love, and run off to emancipate the fattest, sleekest, most +contented and unambitious race under heaven." + +"This shows," said I, "how God has set one thing over against another, +in this world. You and Mrs. Worth and myself would rather be the poor +honest 'watchman,' or earn our 'seventy-five cents a week,' with +'Mattie,' or even, with the loving sister who writes this letter, 'not' +have 'earned a half-dollar this winter,' than be the 'sleekest' of +well-fed slaves. + +"Yet, when we are summing up the evils of slavery in the form of +indictments, we must honestly confess that it is no small thing to feed +a whole laboring class in one half of a great country with bread enough +and to spare." + +Mrs. North asked if I had ever seen a slave-mart, or if I knew much by +observation of the domestic slave-trade. + +"Yes," said I, "and it is in connection with this feature of slavery +that we at the North are most easily and most painfully affected. Some +of the most agonizing scenes are enacted at these auctions. They are a +part of slavery; so is the domestic slave-trade, which is the necessary +removal of the slaves from places where they cannot have employment, to +regions where their labor is in demand. In no other way can they be +disposed of, unless they are at once freed; and with many the evils of +the domestic slave-trade are the most powerful argument in favor of +emancipation. That there are grievous trials and sorrows, as well as +wrongs and violence, in the disposal of slaves, is known to all. As to +those who are to remain within the State, we are told to go, if we will, +and inquire into the history of slaves who are to be publicly sold, and +take the number of cases in which a wanton disregard of a slave's +feelings can be detected. An owner is compelled to part with his +property in his slave; or, the slave is taken for debt; estates are to +be divided; an owner dies intestate; titles are to be settled, +mortgages foreclosed, the number of the household is to be reduced; and +for these and numerous other reasons new owners are to be sought for the +slaves. Here is a man and his wife and children to be sold. There is a +general interest felt in arranging the sale so that the family may be in +the same neighborhood. This is for the interest of the owners; it +promotes contentment and cheerfulness in the servants. Cases of hardship +are the exceptions to the general rule in disposing of servants. +Admitting all that can properly be said of such cases, and of the +various other evils connected with it, the question recurs, What is to +be done but increasingly to mitigate the sorrows of the bondmen, to +cultivate a kind and generous disposition toward them, and to prepare +them, as far and as fast as the good of all concerned will warrant, for +any other condition which Providence may in time point out? My belief +is, that if you take four millions of laboring people anywhere under the +sun, and put down in separate columns the good and the evil in their +conditions, the balance of welfare and happiness, from the supply of +their wants, will be found to be greater among our Southern slaves than +elsewhere. But, still, this leaves them slaves. My reply to myself, when +I say this, is, They were so in their own land; or, they were in a +condition of fearful degradation and misery. Their God is their judge; +we have not increased their degradation; woe to us if we add needless +sorrows to their lot. But as for thrusting them up to an ideal state of +elevation, before their time and ours has come, I am not disposed to aid +in it. Moreover, Southern Christians are doing all that we would do if +in their place; I will not affect to be more humane or just than they; +this is our great error. + +"Here," said I, "is another view of the subject": + + "In the sale of slaves (in America) nothing but labor is + transferred. It passes from master to master, as it passes, in + countries of hired labor, from employer to employer. The mode in + which the transfer is made differs in the two systems of labor. The + slave-laborer is never compelled to hunt for work and starve till he + finds it. Is this an evil to the laborer? Would it be thought an + evil, by the hired man in Europe, that his employer should be + obliged, by-law, to find him another employer before dismissing him + from service? + + "But, it is said, the slave is too much exposed to the master's + abuse of power; he is liable to wrongs without a remedy; and, so + far, his condition is below that of the hired laborer. + + "If this be true at all, it is true as regards the able-bodied hired + man only. But take into the account children and women, those, for + example, that work naked in coal-mines, or wives whose sufferings + from the brutal treatment of husbands daily fill the reports of + police courts; take these into the reckoning, and the difference in + the consequences of abused power will be very small. The negro-slave + is as thoroughly protected as any laborer in Europe. He is protected + from every other man's wrong-doing by the ready interference of his + master; he is guarded from the master's abuse by the laws of the + land, and a vigilant, earnest public opinion. Let all cruelty be + punished; let all abuse of power be restrained; but to abolish the + relation of master and slave, because there are bad masters and + ill-treated slaves, would not be a whit wiser than to abolish + marriage, because there are brutal husbands and murdered wives. + + "Yet, surely, it will be said, it must be admitted, after all, that + slavery is an evil. Yes, certainly, it is an evil; but in the same + sense only in which servitude or hired labor is an evil. To gain + one's bread by the sweat of one's brow, is a curse. But it is a + curse attended with a blessing. It is an evil that shuts out a + greater evil. Labor for wages, labor for subsistence, and + subjection to the authority of employer or master, are the + conditions on which alone the laboring masses, white or black, can + live with advantage to themselves and to society."--_De Bow's + Review_, _Jan_. 1860, pp. 56, 57. + +Mr. North asked if I did not think that the colored people should be +assisted in their efforts to get an education. + +"There are collegiate institutions," I told him, "for colored people, in +Oxford, Pa., and in Xenia, O. With great sorrow have I observed, that +applications to aid these institutions and to endow others for similar +purposes have been received with coldness and distrust by many who could +have made liberal contributions, for no other reason than the suspicion +that they were designed by Abolitionists to thrust forward the colored +man in an offensive manner. I have known the name of a leading +Abolitionist to be the death of a subscription-paper for such an +institution. This was a bitter prejudice. When philanthropy with regard +to the colored race among us falls into its natural channel, we shall +see the South and the North opening wide the doors of usefulness in +every department for which the colored people shall, any of them, +manifest an aptitude. The idea that this race is to be debarred from any +and every development of which it is capable, is not entertained by any +respectable people at the South. The negro at the South is not doomed, +by the Christian people, to an inexorable fate. They will help him rise +as fast and as far as God, in his providence, shows it to be his will to +employ any or all of that race in other ways than those of servitude. + +"'If American slavery,' says one, 'be the horrid system of cruelty, +ignorance, and wickedness represented by some writers of fiction and +paid defamers of our institutions, how happens it that those who have +been reared in the midst of it, when freed and planted in Africa at +once exhibit such capacity for self-government and self-education, and +set such examples of good morals? + +"'Have the negroes under British care at Sierra Leone made similar +progress in improvement? Do the free colored subjects of Britain in the +West Indies show the capacity, industry, and intelligence manifested by +the Liberians, whose training was in the school of American servitude? +Nor have the best specimens of this tutelage been sent out. Thousands +and tens of thousands of colored servants in the Southern States are +church-members, instructed in their duties by faithful Christian +teachers, and the children are trained in the fear and love of God.'--I +then observed, + +"I have come to this conclusion: if Southern Christians say to us, as +they do, Auction-blocks, separation of families, and similar features of +slavery, in the limited and decreasing extent to which they prevail, are +as odious to us as to you;--we tolerate these things as parts of a +system which we all feel to be an evil, and which we are constantly +striving to ameliorate;--I will leave the whole subject in their hands; +I will trust them in this as I would in anything and everything; I feel +absolved from all responsibility to God or to them with regard to the +matter." + +"Pray tell me," said Mrs. North, "what is all this discussion about 'the +territories,' and keeping slavery out of them?" + +"I told her that slavery, which fifteen States of the Union maintain as +a part of their domestic life, is, by many of the people in the Free +States, regarded as they regard the plague and death; they prescribe +certain degrees of latitude as barriers to it, as though they enacted +thus: 'North of 36 deg. 30' whooping-cough is prohibited, measles are +forbidden, cholera-morbus is forever interdicted.' They regard +slave-holders as living in a moral pestilence, and seeking to carry it +with them into new districts. + +"But, practically," I said, "the thing will now regulate itself, and +both sides are contending very much for an abstract right. It is a war +of feeling, and no one knows where it will end. If the North would say, +'Free labor, which cannot thrive where slavery exists, requires an +amicable division and allotment of the territorial regions; let us agree +where our respective systems shall prevail,'--there would be no +difficulty. But the effort has been to shut out slavery, as men use +sanitary legislation and quarantine to keep out a pestilence. This is +treating fifteen States of the Union as polluted and polluting. Hence +they say, We cannot live together as one people, and we will not." + + * * * * * + +"What do you honestly think," said Mr. North, "is the true cause of our +present national calamities?" + +"They are owing," said I, "originally, to the peculiar state of feeling +on the part of the North toward the South. This was not in consequence +of injury experienced; for slavery had not inflicted injury upon the +North; but, right or wrong, Northern disapprobation of slavery, and the +ways of manifesting it, are the fountain-head of our present national +trouble. Let great numbers in one section of such a nation as this +conscientiously disapprove of their brethren in another section, and not +only so, but hold them guilty of an immoral and an inhuman system, and +deal with them in such ways as Conscience, that most merciless of +inquisitors and persecutors, alone employs, and if the indicted section +be not exasperated, it will be because the accusation is true,--that +their system has destroyed their manhood." + +"But my hope and belief," said he, "are, that all these changes are to +result in the overthrow of slavery." + +"I can only say," said I, in answer to such a remark, "that he who +expects relief from our trouble through the eradication of slavery, and +urges on secession and division as the means to effect it, is in danger +of having his enthusiasm counted as fanaticism, if not madness." + +"How I wish," said he, "that we could join and buy up these slaves and +set them free." + +"Kind and well meant as this proposal is," said I, "nothing is really +more offensive to the South. It implies that her conscience is debauched +by self-interest, and that by offering to remunerate her if she will +part with what we call her ill-gotten booty we shall assist her to +become virtuous. Such a proposal makes her feel that fanaticism has +assumed the calmness which is its most hopeless symptom." + +"Then," said he, "is the North to change all its opinions?" + +I said, "If this implies the abandonment of moral or religious principle +in the least degree, Never. Our only hope lies in our possibly being in +the wrong, and in magnanimously changing our views and feelings, and our +behavior. This, upon conviction, it will be most noble to do for its own +sake, leaving the effect of it to Him by whom actions are weighed, and +to those who, we shall have concluded, are naturally as magnanimous and +just as we, and who, if guilty of oppression, were liable to the very +same accusation when we first confederated with them, and when Northern +slave-importers put their hands with Southern slave-holders to the +Declaration of Independence, both averring that all men are created free +and equal. + +"We seem now to have concluded that we have put ourselves entirely +right, and that our Southern brethren are entirely wrong." + +"I cannot feel," said Mr. North, "that we are to blame for having our +opinions, and for expressing them honestly and fearlessly. What more +have we done?" + +I replied, "They say that we have held them up to universal execration; +that we have quoted, with readiness, the testimony of foreign nations +against them,--of nations who know nothing of domestic slavery like +ours, mixed up with the qualifying influences of our own civilization; +that our imaginative literature has made them odious, associating +cruelty and vulgarity with the relation of slave-holding; that we have +labored to cripple their Institution, hoping to destroy it; that we have +striven to save the District of Columbia from their system as from +corruption; that a thousand millions of dollars of their property we +have treated as contraband, and have made it perilous for them to +recover it; that we have lain in wait and molested them in their transit +through our borders, with their servants, to embark for sea. We dispute +their right to go with their servants into territories jointly acquired, +and belonging by constitutional right equally to them as to ourselves. +This, they say, has not been a just and sincere demand for an equitable +division of territory in view of the naturally conflicting interests of +slave labor and free, but rather a vindictive determination to hem in +the slave-holder, to force the scorpion into fires where he shall die of +his own sting, or,--to borrow the metaphor, with the language, of a +present Senator from Massachusetts,--where the 'poisoned rat shall die +in his own hole.' + +"Two confederacies or one, our prospect is fearful if we continue to +feel and act toward each other after this temper, and to cherish our +respective grievances." + +"There is another side to all this," said Mr. North. "I ascribe the +excitement at the South to the loss on their part of political power, or +to a grasping spirit which breaks compromises, and which requires that +the national legislation be always shaped in its favor." + +"But," said I, "if we can trust the convictions of just men, in private +life, at the South,--men removed from all suspicion as to the purity of +their motives,--it is certain that our Northern feelings toward +slave-holders, and the expressions of those feelings in ways which have +been applauded among us for many years, are the real causes of the +irritation and exasperation which have brought us to the present brink. + +"Now, as these two sections must continue to exist, side by side, they +will go on to repel each other until either slavery ceases, or a change +of feeling takes place in the non-slaveholding section. Secession and +permanent division will not cure the trouble, but will increase it. +Moreover, the contrariety of feeling between people in the +non-slaveholding States, made intense by the departure of the Southern +section, may inaugurate hostilities among ourselves more fearful than +those which drive away the Southern people. + +"Perhaps we are to be two nations. I cannot but regard this as the +greatest calamity which will have happened to the cause of human +improvement. Nor do I see how it will help Northern philanthropy, nor +the negro; but it may be greatly for his injury. The truth is, we must +live together for self-defence against each other, if from no other +consideration. Israel began its downfall in secession, which was +compelled by Rehoboam. + +"But," said I, "let us contemplate a different issue. Let us think what +a result it will be if such a government as ours, whose speedy ruin has +been so often predicted and is still confidently looked for, shall pass +through these trials and dangers without bloodshed, and we become again +a united people. Self-government will then have vindicated itself; +constitutional liberty will have triumphed; arms and coercion will lose +their old authority and power; for there will be an example of a +republican people recovering from convulsions which would have +demolished any throne or power which trusted in the sword. The +serf-boats in ports of the Bay of Bengal, which ride the swift, enormous +surges, are not nailed, but their parts are lashed one to another, and +thus the boats yield easily to the force of the water. Our government +has been likened to them; and now, by yielding, one part to another, +where a theoretically stronger government would have used coercion, we +shall, if it please God, pass safely through these fearful hazards, +furnishing a demonstration, which God may have been preparing by us for +the instruction of mankind, that fraternal blood is not the best +nourishment of the tree of liberty, and that 'wisdom,' resulting in the +victories of peace, 'is better than weapons of war.' + +"I look, therefore, toward some change in Northern feelings with regard +to the South. A change in this respect will end our troubles. Opinions +may not be wholly reversed; people born and bred under totally different +institutions may not, for they cannot wholly, yield their convictions on +controverted sectional topics, even when they cherish mutual respect and +deference; but, the belief that the North will change its feelings +toward the South and its institutions, under a modification of views +entirely consistent with independence of judgment and self-respect, and +that the South will not be wanting in a corresponding temper, rests on +the same conviction as that God does not intend to destroy us by each +other's hands, nor to make the life of the two sections weary with +perpetual hatred and strife." + + * * * * * + +"Our form of government, Mr. North," said I, "is the very best on earth +if it goes well, and the worst if it goes ill. We have no standing army +to fight for an administration as for a throne or dynasty; so that if a +State secedes, the question is how to coerce that people, if it be best +to attempt it. Citizens do not like to march against their brethren. +Think of our taking up arms against our correspondents; against people +that have gone from our churches and settled in that State; against +cousins, and brothers-in-law, and people who lived or did business under +the same roofs with us." + +"It is awkward, indeed," said Mr. North, "especially if they simply +withdraw and hold the fortifications of the general government, in their +own territory, to keep the government from destroying their lives." + +"Why, yes," said Mrs. North, "it would be simple in them, after +seceding, to suffer themselves to be bombarded. But have they any right +to secede?" + +"As to that," said Mr. North, "my mind has been much exercised of late +with this thought: I have always advocated the right of the negroes to +make insurrection, or to flee from oppression. But now their masters +complain of being oppressed by the North. Why have not the masters the +same right to secede from their government as the negro from his?" + +"Well, husband," said his wife, "I think that you are getting on fast." + +"Why," said I, "Mr. North, is not slavery 'the sum of all villanies?' +Did the negro ever consent to his form of government?" + +"Well," said he, "I never consented to be born; I find myself in +existence; I have no more consented to the government of the United +States than I suppose the negroes, generally, have submitted to their +civil condition. My question is, Who shall decide when the Southern +masters say, We are intolerably oppressed; we are under a yoke; 'break +every yoke!' 'let the oppressed go free!' If I interpose and say, 'You +are not oppressed; you are better off as you now are,' is not this the +reply of the masters when we seek to free their slaves? Do we not say +that the oppressed must be the judges of their necessity? And why may I +coerce the master, if it be wrong for him to coerce the negro?" + +"I must let you, work out that question at your leisure, and on your own +principles," said I.--"We were speaking of seizing and holding the forts +and arsenals. The French proverb says, 'It is the first step that +costs.' Seceding involves the necessity of seizing the forts. If they +who do this embarrass other persons in their lawful rights, they must +risk the consequences; but if they secede from the government, the +question is, Do circumstances justify a revolution? for secession is +revolution. Is revolution justifiable in the present case? + +"But not to discuss that question," said I, "all that I wished to say +was this, that our government seems admirably suited for a people who +will behave well under it. We can take care of isolated cases of +rebellion. But if any important part of the country rises up and +departs, it is exceedingly difficult to know what to do. Prevention is +excellent; but cure is next to impossible. So long as there is a general +acquiescence in the exercise of executive power against +insurrectionists, one or more, we have a general government; but when +States depart, we are a house divided against itself. We find that we +have been living, as it were, not so much under paternal authority, as +under fraternal rule. If broken irretrievably, the alternative is to be +divided, or for one part of the country to coerce its neighbors and +brethren. This we find to be extremely inconvenient and really +impracticable without civil war; and after the war,--whose horrors, in +our case, can never be pictured,--we would either find ourselves in the +same divided state as before, or if politically united, it will have +been effected at a cost which it is fearful to contemplate. + +"So that we are illustrating the question, whether such a government as +ours is really practicable,--whether a people can govern themselves. +Already we hear it said, 'We have no government.' The explanation is, We +are not disposed to destroy each other's lives to preserve the +confederation. We can have a monarchy, with its 'divine right,' and with +its standing army, if we choose; or, if we remain as a republic, we must +be liable to just our present exigency. Our only defence, then, +consists in mutual conciliation and agreement. + +"What a land this is," said I, "with its diversified interests and its +unparalleled variety of products,--its agriculture, mechanic arts, +science, and literature. Separation will embarrass every form of +intercourse, and make us hostile." + +"Jews and Samaritans," said Mrs. North. "And all for an idea!" + +"Yes," said I, "and for an idea which to one whole section, and to a +very large part of the people in the other section, is false.--Four +millions of negroes are destroying us. As a foreign writer said, 'In +trying to give liberty to the negro, we are losing our own.'" + +Said Mrs. North, "Can nothing be done to save us?" + +"Bishop Butler tells us, Mrs. North," said I, "that a nation may be +insane as well as an individual. But reason seems to be returning in +some quarters. Secession and its consequences are having a wonderful +effect to open the eyes of people. John Brown's foray and its end were a +providential demonstration of certain errors, which we may conclude will +not soon be revived. Secession is now leading the world to look more +narrowly into the subject of negro slavery. Let me read to you these +extracts from a recent number of 'Le Pays,' Paris. The writer is arguing +that Europe must recognize the Southern confederacy: + + 'But in awaiting these results which would flow from the cordial + welcome given by Europe to the new confederation, let true + philanthropists be assured that they are wonderfully mistaken in + regard to the real condition of the blacks of the South. We + willingly admit that their error is pardonable, for they have + learned the relations of master and slave only from "Uncle Tom's + Cabin." Shall we look for that condition in the lucubrations of that + romance, raised to the importance of a philosophic dissertation, but + leading public opinion astray, provoking revolution, and + necessitating incendiarism and revolution? A romance is a work of + fancy, which one cannot refute, and which cannot serve as a basis to + any argument. In our discussion, we must seek elsewhere for + authorities and material. Facts are eloquent, and statistics teach + us that, under the superintendence of those masters,--so cruel and + so terrible, if we are to believe "Uncle Tom,"--the black population + of the South increases regularly in a greater proportion than the + white; while in the Antilles, in Africa, and especially in the so + very philanthropic States of the North, the black race decreases in + a deplorable proportion. + + 'The condition of those blacks is assuredly better than that of the + agricultural laborers in many parts of Europe. Their morality is far + superior to that of the free negroes of the North; the planters + encourage marriage, and thus endeavor to develop among them a sense + of the family relation, with a view of attaching them to the + domestic hearth, consequently to the family of the master. It will + be then observed that in such a state of things the interests of the + planter, in default of any other motive, promotes the advancement + and well-being of the slave. Certainly, we believe it possible still + to ameliorate their condition. It is with that view, even, that the + South has labored for so long a time to prepare them for a higher + civilization. + + 'In no part, perhaps, of the continent, regard being had to the + population, do there exist men more eminent and gifted, with nobler + or more generous sentiments, than in the Southern States. No country + possesses lovelier, kinder hearted, and more distinguished women. To + commence with the immortal Washington, the list of statesmen who + have taken part in the government of the United States shows that + all those who have shed a lustre on the country, and won the + admiration of Europe, owed their being to that much abused South. + + 'Is it true that so much distinction, talent, and grandeur of soul + could have sprung from all the vices, from the cruelty and + corruption which one would fain attribute now to the Southern + people? The laws of inflexible logic refute these false imputations. + And--strange coincidence--while Southern men presided over the + destinies of the Union, its gigantic prosperity was the astonishment + of the world. In the hands of Northern men, that edifice, raised + with so much care and labor by their predecessors, comes crashing + down, threatening to carry with it in its fall the industrial future + of every other nation. For long years the constant efforts of the + North, and a certain foreign country, to spread among the blacks + incendiary pamphlets and tracts have powerfully contributed to + suspend every Southern movement towards emancipation. Its people + have been compelled to close their ears to ideas which threatened + their very existence.'" + +"But," said Mr. North, "here we have been, for thirty years or more, +living on an anti-slavery excitement. Grant that it is all wrong; will +you ask or expect that we shall change all at once? in a week? or in a +month? or in a year? We will not kneel to anybody; if we change, it must +be upon conviction." + +"I strike hands with you there," said I, "most heartily. Our Southern +friends must understand this; they must now approach us once more with +reason and persuasion. The people at large are in a frame to be reasoned +with and persuaded; for if we can do anything within the bounds of +reason to retain the South in the Union, it will be done. We will say of +concession as the antithesis of secession, as was said of two other +things: 'Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute.' I think that +both sections need forgiveness of God, and of each other." + +"Well," said Mr. North, "after all we shall get along and get through, +even if there should be a separation." + +"Mr. Worth," said I, "when you were studying Cicero, could you +understand--for I could not--how he and other patriots could feel so +strongly about the fortunes of their country as to declare--which they +frequently do--that they would rather die than survive their country's +honor? It has come to me vividly of late. I see it and feel it. The +sunshine will seem to have gone out of our life when we become two +unfriendly nations. + +"It is easy," said I, "for it gratifies some of the lower passions, to +ridicule a whole section of the country for their act of secession or a +disposition towards it; to boast that the South cannot do without us; to +prophesy that they will get sick of it, and wish to return; to express +wonder that they should feel so much hurt; to remind them that, if they +will do as we have always counselled them, there would be no trouble; +and there is a temptation to say, as friends in a quarrel will hastily +say, Let them go. But when they are irrecoverably gone, justifiably or +not, I tell you, Mr. North, there will be mourning in our streets. I +know, indeed, that there are some among us to whom it will be a +carnival; but--" + +"They will have a long Lent after it," said Mrs. North; "pray excuse +me." + +"Ties of kindred," said I, "patriotism, Christian friendships, will not +go down to hopeless graves without leaving behind them sorrows ending +only with life. + +"It appears to me," said I, "that our ship is where nothing but an +immediate calm and then a change of the wind, can save us. If we become +two nations, it may be for judgment and destruction; and it may be for +some great, ultimate good. But it will be hard parting. To think of +having no South! and of their having no North! We shall each become +provincial. We are wonderfully fitted to qualify and improve each the +other. How strange it would be to have these two sections love each +other! No one among us under twenty-five years of age, has probably ever +thought of us but as in controversy." + +"Speaking of Southern life," said Mrs. North, "I have not seen our +friend Grant since he came back from the South." + +"I have seen him," said I, "and have heard his story. He made his home +with an old friend, a clergyman. It was known that he was a stranger, +and at once he was made to feel at home by many of the citizens. The +morning after he arrived, Jack, a servant of a neighboring family, came +into the breakfast-room, with a waiter filled with dishes, which he +deposited on the side-board. 'Master and Missis send their compliments, +and want to know how the family is, and how Mr. Grant is this morning.' +Now they had never seen Mr. Grant; but they knew that he had arrived the +night before. 'Well, Jack,' says Mrs. ----, 'I see you have got some +good things for us.' 'O, not much, Missis; but they thought you and Mr. +Grant would excuse 'em for sending it.' So there were deposited on the +breakfast-table, 'big hominy' in one or two shapes, rare fish, +puff-muffins, and several dishes which called for Jack's +interpretations. 'And Master says, shall he send the carriage round for +you this forenoon? and he will call himself.' The evening talk was +interrupted by a black woman, all smiles, bearing a waiter of ice-cream +and other refreshments, from another house; and so the visit was a +succession of surprises from families who, at the South, count each +other's guests their own. Mr. Grant was a strong anti-secessionist, and +he spent much breath in arguing with the people in private. On his +return to his room, one day, he found a glass dish on the table, filled +with japonicas, camellias, roses, and other early flowers, with the card +of a married lady,--with whom he had had a debate,--inscribed, 'From the +hottest of the Secessionists.' He seems modified in his views a little +about 'the sum of all villanies,' since his return." + +"Yes," said Mrs. North, "and the people here explain it by saying, 'O, +he was feted, and flattered.' + +"Yes," she continued, "some of our people will sacrifice their +confidence in man or angel, rather than believe anything good about +slavery." + +I said to her, "Add the Bible to those witnesses, Mrs. North." + +"Husband," said she, "please reach me that long, thin, brown-covered +book on the what-not." She then read an extract from the sixty-third +page; it was a book by one now deceased, called, "Experience as a +Minister": + +"I had not been long a minister, before I found this worship of the +Bible as a fetish hindering me at every step. If I declared the +Constancy of Nature's Laws, and sought therein great argument for the +Constancy of God, all the miracles came and held their mythologic finger +up. Even Slavery was 'of God,' for the divine statutes in the Old +Testament admitted the principle that man might own a man, as well as a +garden or an ox, and provided for the measure. Moses and the Prophets +were on its side; and neither Paul of Tarsus, nor Jesus of Nazareth, +uttered a direct word against it." + + * * * * * + +"But here is the sun!" said I. + +"We are all more cheerful," said Mrs. North, "than we were when he left +us; for we have been able to converse on a trying and perplexing +subject with good feelings." + +"Now," said I, "here is the Southern lady's letter, which has given +occasion to all our conversation." + +"It has also introduced us," said Mr. North, "to that goose, Gustavus, +and to his good aunt." + +"What shall I say to the Southern lady," said I, "if I write to her +father?" + +"Tell her," said Mrs. North, "that if she comes to the North she must +come directly to our house and make it her home. If you will allow me, I +will put a note into your envelope to that effect. I shall beg her to +bring Kate with her. Wouldn't I love to see Kate!" + +"My dear," said Mr. North, "do you know what a time there would be if +the lady should bring Kate with her?" + +"The good time coming! I think it would be," said his wife, "to see the +Southern lady and her Kate under our roof." + +"Why," Paid he, "we should all have to go to court?" + +"Well, that would be interesting," said she; "but for what?" + +"Why," said he, "you know that this is free soil: Kate is a slave; she +can have her freedom for nothing if she comes here. Some of our +Massachusetts gentlemen are as chivalrous and attentive to Southern +colored people, as our good friend tells us Southern gentlemen are to a +white woman: a committee would wait on Kate, with an officer of the +peace, and invite her to visit the court-house with them, to be +presented with 'freedom'; and Kate's mistress must go with her, to show +that she is not restraining Kate of her liberty." + +"Why," said Mrs. North, "if I could not be allowed, in visiting Sharon +Springs, to take Judith with me to give me my baths, because she is +free, I should call it barbarism. Who was that gentleman that broke his +collar-bone and seat to you, husband, to get him a nurse?" + +Mr. North said it was a student in a medical school, from the South. + +"Did you find him a nurse?" said she. + +"Yes," he replied; "but he groaned and said, 'Mother wanted to send on +my mammy that nursed me, but your laws will not allow her to come. Now,' +said he, 'mammy will not tamper with your servants here, and entice them +away, as free colored men might do to our slaves if they landed at the +South from your vessels. O, mammy,' said he, 'if I had your 'arbs and +your nursing, what a pleasure it would be to be sick.'" + +"Poor fellow!" said Mrs. North. "What did you say to him?" + +"O," said he, "I told him that we lived under different institutions; +and that when we are among the Romans we must do as the Romans do." + +"Well," said Mrs. North, "if all such prohibitions are not downright +impertinence, then I will give up." + +"It's the law of the land, here," said her husband. + +"Is there no 'Higher Law' in such a case?" said she. "'Higher Law,' I +believe, is sometimes the rule in Massachusetts." + +"Some of our most estimable colored fellow-citizens would attend her," +said I, "and tempt her by their own prosperity and happiness in freedom, +at the North, to cast in her lot with them and abandon her Southern +home, her mistress, and her little charge, Susan; and her own little +Cygnet's grave. They would send her, if she wished, free of charge, to +Canada, and leave her there. She could be perfectly free." + +"Now, what is all this for?" said Mrs. North. "Do the people here really +believe that Kate is 'oppressed?' that her mistress is a tyrant? that +Kate is a victim to the 'sum of all villanies?' that she buffers an +'enormous wrong?' that her mistress does her a 'stupendous injustice?' +If they wish for objects of charity, and will go with me, I will engage +to supply them with 'the oppressed' in any quantity, with some of 'the +down-trodden' also." + +"But, my dear Mrs. North," said I, "''tis distance lends enchantment to +the view.' Besides, to get a slave away from a Southerner is worth +unspeakably more to the cause of human happiness than to help scores of +Northern people." + +"But to be serious," said Mr. North, "we are afraid that slave-holding +may get a foothold in Massachusetts; so we have to challenge every one +who comes here with a slave, to show proof that he or she is not holding +the servant to involuntary servitude among us." + +"But," said Mrs. North, "are the people so conscientiously fearful lest +bondage should get established here in Massachusetts? Is that the true +reason for hurrying every colored servant, who travels here with his or +her invalid master or mistress, before a court to know if he or she +would not prefer to quit the family and the South? It seems to me we are +sadly wanting in good manners." + +"Now, please do not smile at your good wife for her simplicity, Mr. +North," said I, "for I suppose that you are thinking, What have 'good +manners' to do with the 'cause of freedom'? She is right in her +impressions; a lady's sense of propriety against all the world." + +"Do publish the Southern lady's letter by all means," said Mrs. North. + +"How surprised she would be," said I, "to see it in print, or to know +that it had wandered here, and was taking part in the discussions about +slavery." + +"The letter," said Mrs. North, "would, just now, seem like Noah's poor +little dove, wandering over wrecks and desolations." + +"True," said I, "and to finish the illusion, it might come back to her +after many days, and lo! in its mouth an olive-leaf plucked off!" + +"Give my love to her," said Mrs. North; "her letter has made me a better +and happier woman. Now I love my whole country. I do justice in my +feelings to hundreds of thousands whom I have hitherto regarded as +perverse. I now see God's wonder-working providence in connection with +the slave. It seems plain to me in what way the Union can be saved, and +that is, by the general prevalence at the North of such views about +slavery as the very best people at the South declare to be just and +right." + +"You would be deemed simple for saying that, Mrs. North," said I. "But +you are right." + +"Three things," she continued, after a moment's pause, "are more +strongly impressed on my mind; please see if I am right:--That the +relation of master and slave is not in itself sinful; That good people +at the South feel toward injustice and cruelty precisely like us; and, +That Southern Christians can correct all the evils in slavery, or +abolish it, if necessary, better without our aid than with it." + +"Mrs. North," said I, "unless we accept those propositions, the North +and South never can live together in peace; and if we separate, the +Northern conscience will be in a worse condition than ever, and we shall +have long wars." + +"It is a marvellous thing to me," said she, "as I now view it, that our +good Christian people here are not willing to confide in that which good +Southern Christian people say about slavery. We should trust their +judgments, their moral sentiments, their consciences, on any other +subject. How is it that when men and women, who are the excellent of the +earth, tell us the results of their observation, experience, and +reflections, with regard to slavery, we treat them as we do? When +ill-mannered people, who must be vituperative and saucy to every body +and in every thing, behave thus, it is not surprising; but I cannot +explain why truly good men should not either adopt the deliberate +sentiments of good people at the South, or at least consent to leave the +subject, if beyond their faith or discernment, to the responsibility of +Southern Christians. I condemn myself in saying this. But having myself +been converted, I have hope for everybody." + +During this talk, Mr. North was affected somewhat as he said his wife +was when he first read the Southern lady's letter to her. He was a +little incoherent by reason of his emotions; but he made out to say +something about the sweetness and the strength of reconciled affections, +and of the happiness which there would be when it should be proclaimed +that the North and the South are once more friends. + +"What is your whole name, Mrs. North?" said I; "for I shall wish to +speak of you to the Southern lady, if I write to her father." + +"My Christian name," said she, "is Patience." + +"PATIENCE NORTH!" I said to myself, once or twice, as I stood at the +parlor door. I was musing upon the name perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, +and when I looked up, they were each both smiling at me and crying. + +We shook hands, and I went my way. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sable Cloud, by Nehemiah Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SABLE CLOUD *** + +***** This file should be named 14615.txt or 14615.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/6/1/14615/ + +Produced by Robert Shimmin, Amy Cunningham and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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