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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/202-0.txt b/202-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbbd68b --- /dev/null +++ b/202-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12704 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: My Bondage and My Freedom + +Author: Frederick Douglass + +Release Date: January, 1995 [eBook #202] +[Most recently updated: June 12, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Mike Lough and David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM *** + + + + +MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + +By Frederick Douglass + + +By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally +differenced from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, +necessarily excludes the idea of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING. —COLERIDGE + +Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick Douglass in +the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Northern District of +New York + +TO +HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH, +AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF +ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER, +ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE, +AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND +GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP, +AND AS +A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of +HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES +OF AN +AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE, +BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER, +AND BY +DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE, +This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated, +BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND, + +FREDERICK DOUGLAS. +ROCHESTER, N.Y. + + + + +CONTENTS + + MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + EDITOR’S PREFACE + INTRODUCTION + + CHAPTER I. _Childhood_ + CHAPTER II. _Removed from My First Home_ + CHAPTER III. _Parentage_ + CHAPTER IV. _A General Survey of the Slave Plantation_ + CHAPTER V. _Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery_ + CHAPTER VI. _Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation_ + CHAPTER VII. _Life in the Great House_ + CHAPTER VIII. _A Chapter of Horrors_ + CHAPTER IX. _Personal Treatment_ + CHAPTER X. _Life in Baltimore_ + CHAPTER XI. _“A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream”_ + CHAPTER XII. _Religious Nature Awakened_ + CHAPTER XIII. _The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_ + CHAPTER XIV. _Experience in St. Michael’s_ + CHAPTER XV. _Covey, the Negro Breaker_ + CHAPTER XVI. _Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice_ + CHAPTER XVII. _The Last Flogging_ + CHAPTER XVIII. _New Relations and Duties_ + CHAPTER XIX. _The Run-Away Plot_ + CHAPTER XX. _Apprenticeship Life_ + CHAPTER XXI. _My Escape from Slavery_ + + LIFE as a FREEMAN + CHAPTER XXII. _Liberty Attained_ + CHAPTER XXIII. _Introduced to the Abolitionists_ + CHAPTER XXIV. _Twenty-One Months in Great Britain_ + CHAPTER XXV. _Various Incidents_ + + RECEPTION SPEECH [10]. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, + Dr. Campbell’s Reply + LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. [11]. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld + THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at + THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July + THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S. + THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various + + FOOTNOTES + + + + +MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + + + + +EDITOR’S PREFACE + + +If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of ART, the +history of its misfortune might be written in two very simple words—TOO +LATE. The nature and character of slavery have been subjects of an +almost endless variety of artistic representation; and after the +brilliant achievements in that field, and while those achievements are +yet fresh in the memory of the million, he who would add another to the +legion, must possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize +for something worse than rashness. The reader is, therefore, assured, +with all due promptitude, that his attention is not invited to a work +of ART, but to a work of FACTS—Facts, terrible and almost incredible, +it may be yet FACTS, nevertheless. + +I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor place in +the whole volume; but that names and places are literally given, and +that every transaction therein described actually transpired. + +Perhaps the best Preface to this volume is furnished in the following +letter of Mr. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent solicitation for +such a work: + +ROCHESTER, N. Y. _July_ 2, 1855. + + +DEAR FRIEND: I have long entertained, as you very well know, a somewhat +positive repugnance to writing or speaking anything for the public, +which could, with any degree of plausibilty, make me liable to the +imputation of seeking personal notoriety, for its own sake. +Entertaining that feeling very sincerely, and permitting its control, +perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have often refused to narrate my +personal experience in public anti-slavery meetings, and in +sympathizing circles, when urged to do so by friends, with whose views +and wishes, ordinarily, it were a pleasure to comply. In my letters and +speeches, I have generally aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in +the light of fundamental principles, and upon facts, notorious and open +to all; making, I trust, no more of the fact of my own former +enslavement, than circumstances seemed absolutely to require. I have +never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own +enslavement, but rather upon the indestructible and unchangeable laws +of human nature, every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly +violated by the slave system. I have also felt that it was best for +those having histories worth the writing—or supposed to be so—to commit +such work to hands other than their own. To write of one’s self, in +such a manner as not to incur the imputation of weakness, vanity, and +egotism, is a work within the ability of but few; and I have little +reason to believe that I belong to that fortunate few. + +These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly urged +me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave, and +my life as a freeman. + +Nevertheless, I see, with you, many reasons for regarding my +autobiography as exceptional in its character, and as being, in some +sense, naturally beyond the reach of those reproaches which honorable +and sensitive minds dislike to incur. It is not to illustrate any +heroic achievements of a man, but to vindicate a just and beneficent +principle, in its application to the whole human family, by letting in +the light of truth upon a system, esteemed by some as a blessing, and +by others as a curse and a crime. I agree with you, that this system is +now at the bar of public opinion—not only of this country, but of the +whole civilized world—for judgment. Its friends have made for it the +usual plea—“not guilty;” the case must, therefore, proceed. Any facts, +either from slaves, slaveholders, or by-standers, calculated to +enlighten the public mind, by revealing the true nature, character, and +tendency of the slave system, are in order, and can scarcely be +innocently withheld. + +I see, too, that there are special reasons why I should write my own +biography, in preference to employing another to do it. Not only is +slavery on trial, but unfortunately, the enslaved people are also on +trial. It is alleged, that they are, naturally, inferior; that they are +_so low_ in the scale of humanity, and so utterly stupid, that they are +unconscious of their wrongs, and do not apprehend their rights. +Looking, then, at your request, from this stand-point, and wishing +everything of which you think me capable to go to the benefit of my +afflicted people, I part with my doubts and hesitation, and proceed to +furnish you the desired manuscript; hoping that you may be able to make +such arrangements for its publication as shall be best adapted to +accomplish that good which you so enthusiastically anticipate. + +FREDERICK DOUGLASS + +There was little necessity for doubt and hesitation on the part of Mr. +Douglass, as to the propriety of his giving to the world a full account +of himself. A man who was born and brought up in slavery, a living +witness of its horrors; who often himself experienced its cruelties; +and who, despite the depressing influences surrounding his birth, youth +and manhood, has risen, from a dark and almost absolute obscurity, to +the distinguished position which he now occupies, might very well +assume the existence of a commendable curiosity, on the part of the +public, to know the facts of his remarkable history. + +EDITOR + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +When a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society to the +highest, mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration; when he +accomplishes this elevation by native energy, guided by prudence and +wisdom, their admiration is increased; but when his course, onward and +upward, excellent in itself, furthermore proves a possible, what had +hitherto been regarded as an impossible, reform, then he becomes a +burning and a shining light, on which the aged may look with gladness, +the young with hope, and the down-trodden, as a representative of what +they may themselves become. To such a man, dear reader, it is my +privilege to introduce you. + +The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow, is +not merely an example of self-elevation under the most adverse +circumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of the highest aims +of the American anti-slavery movement. The real object of that movement +is not only to disenthrall, it is, also, to bestow upon the Negro the +exercise of all those rights, from the possession of which he has been +so long debarred. + +But this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and the +entire admission of the same to the full privileges, political, +religious and social, of manhood, requires powerful effort on the part +of the enthralled, as well as on the part of those who would +disenthrall them. The people at large must feel the conviction, as well +as admit the abstract logic, of human equality; the Negro, for the +first time in the world’s history, brought in full contact with high +civilization, must prove his title first to all that is demanded for +him; in the teeth of unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to +the mass of those who oppress him—therefore, absolutely superior to his +apparent fate, and to their relative ability. And it is most cheering +to the friends of freedom, today, that evidence of this equality is +rapidly accumulating, not from the ranks of the half-freed colored +people of the free states, but from the very depths of slavery itself; +the indestructible equality of man to man is demonstrated by the ease +with which black men, scarce one remove from barbarism—if slavery can +be honored with such a distinction—vault into the high places of the +most advanced and painfully acquired civilization. Ward and Garnett, +Wells Brown and Pennington, Loguen and Douglass, are banners on the +outer wall, under which abolition is fighting its most successful +battles, because they are living exemplars of the practicability of the +most radical abolitionism; for, they were all of them born to the doom +of slavery, some of them remained slaves until adult age, yet they all +have not only won equality to their white fellow citizens, in civil, +religious, political and social rank, but they have also illustrated +and adorned our common country by their genius, learning and eloquence. + +The characteristics whereby Mr. Douglass has won first rank among these +remarkable men, and is still rising toward highest rank among living +Americans, are abundantly laid bare in the book before us. Like the +autobiography of Hugh Miller, it carries us so far back into early +childhood, as to throw light upon the question, “when positive and +persistent memory begins in the human being.” And, like Hugh Miller, he +must have been a shy old-fashioned child, occasionally oppressed by +what he could not well account for, peering and poking about among the +layers of right and wrong, of tyrant and thrall, and the wonderfulness +of that hopeless tide of things which brought power to one race, and +unrequited toil to another, until, finally, he stumbled upon his +“first-found Ammonite,” hidden away down in the depths of his own +nature, and which revealed to him the fact that liberty and right, for +all men, were anterior to slavery and wrong. When his knowledge of the +world was bounded by the visible horizon on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, +and while every thing around him bore a fixed, iron stamp, as if it had +always been so, this was, for one so young, a notable discovery. + +To his uncommon memory, then, we must add a keen and accurate insight +into men and things; an original breadth of common sense which enabled +him to see, and weigh, and compare whatever passed before him, and +which kindled a desire to search out and define their relations to +other things not so patent, but which never succumbed to the marvelous +nor the supernatural; a sacred thirst for liberty and for learning, +first as a means of attaining liberty, then as an end in itself most +desirable; a will; an unfaltering energy and determination to obtain +what his soul pronounced desirable; a majestic self-hood; determined +courage; a deep and agonizing sympathy with his embruted, crushed and +bleeding fellow slaves, and an extraordinary depth of passion, together +with that rare alliance between passion and intellect, which enables +the former, when deeply roused, to excite, develop and sustain the +latter. + +With these original gifts in view, let us look at his schooling; the +fearful discipline through which it pleased God to prepare him for the +high calling on which he has since entered—the advocacy of emancipation +by the people who are not slaves. And for this special mission, his +plantation education was better than any he could have acquired in any +lettered school. What he needed, was facts and experiences, welded to +acutely wrought up sympathies, and these he could not elsewhere have +obtained, in a manner so peculiarly adapted to his nature. His physical +being was well trained, also, running wild until advanced into boyhood; +hard work and light diet, thereafter, and a skill in handicraft in +youth. + +For his special mission, then, this was, considered in connection with +his natural gifts, a good schooling; and, for his special mission, he +doubtless “left school” just at the proper moment. Had he remained +longer in slavery—had he fretted under bonds until the ripening of +manhood and its passions, until the drear agony of slave-wife and +slave-children had been piled upon his already bitter experiences—then, +not only would his own history have had another termination, but the +drama of American slavery would have been essentially varied; for I +cannot resist the belief, that the boy who learned to read and write as +he did, who taught his fellow slaves these precious acquirements as he +did, who plotted for their mutual escape as he did, would, when a man +at bay, strike a blow which would make slavery reel and stagger. +Furthermore, blows and insults he bore, at the moment, without +resentment; deep but suppressed emotion rendered him insensible to +their sting; but it was afterward, when the memory of them went +seething through his brain, breeding a fiery indignation at his injured +self-hood, that the resolve came to resist, and the time fixed when to +resist, and the plot laid, how to resist; and he always kept his +self-pledged word. In what he undertook, in this line, he looked fate +in the face, and had a cool, keen look at the relation of means to +ends. Henry Bibb, to avoid chastisement, strewed his master’s bed with +charmed leaves and _was whipped_. Frederick Douglass quietly pocketed a +like _fetiche_, compared his muscles with those of Covey—and _whipped +him_. + +In the history of his life in bondage, we find, well developed, that +inherent and continuous energy of character which will ever render him +distinguished. What his hand found to do, he did with his might; even +while conscious that he was wronged out of his daily earnings, he +worked, and worked hard. At his daily labor he went with a will; with +keen, well set eye, brawny chest, lithe figure, and fair sweep of arm, +he would have been king among calkers, had that been his mission. + +It must not be overlooked, in this glance at his education, that Mr. +Douglass lacked one aid to which so many men of mark have been deeply +indebted—he had neither a mother’s care, nor a mother’s culture, save +that which slavery grudgingly meted out to him. Bitter nurse! may not +even her features relax with human feeling, when she gazes at such +offspring! How susceptible he was to the kindly influences of +mother-culture, may be gathered from his own words, on page 57: “It has +been a life-long standing grief to me, that I know so little of my +mother, and that I was so early separated from her. The counsels of her +love must have been beneficial to me. The side view of her face is +imaged on my memory, and I take few steps in life, without feeling her +presence; but the image is mute, and I have no striking words of hers +treasured up.” + +From the depths of chattel slavery in Maryland, our author escaped into +the caste-slavery of the north, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Here he +found oppression assuming another, and hardly less bitter, form; of +that very handicraft which the greed of slavery had taught him, his +half-freedom denied him the exercise for an honest living; he found +himself one of a class—free colored men—whose position he has described +in the following words: + +“Aliens are we in our native land. The fundamental principles of the +republic, to which the humblest white man, whether born here or +elsewhere, may appeal with confidence, in the hope of awakening a +favorable response, are held to be inapplicable to us. The glorious +doctrines of your revolutionary fathers, and the more glorious +teachings of the Son of God, are construed and applied against us. We +are literally scourged beyond the beneficent range of both authorities, +human and divine. * * * * American humanity hates us, scorns us, +disowns and denies, in a thousand ways, our very personality. The +outspread wing of American christianity, apparently broad enough to +give shelter to a perishing world, refuses to cover us. To us, its +bones are brass, and its features iron. In running thither for shelter +and succor, we have only fled from the hungry blood-hound to the +devouring wolf—from a corrupt and selfish world, to a hollow and +hypocritical church.”—_Speech before American and Foreign Anti-Slavery +Society, May_, 1854. + +Four years or more, from 1837 to 1841, he struggled on, in New Bedford, +sawing wood, rolling casks, or doing what labor he might, to support +himself and young family; four years he brooded over the scars which +slavery and semi-slavery had inflicted upon his body and soul; and +then, with his wounds yet unhealed, he fell among the Garrisonians—a +glorious waif to those most ardent reformers. It happened one day, at +Nantucket, that he, diffidently and reluctantly, was led to address an +anti-slavery meeting. He was about the age when the younger Pitt +entered the House of Commons; like Pitt, too, he stood up a born +orator. + +William Lloyd Garrison, who was happily present, writes thus of Mr. +Douglass’ maiden effort; “I shall never forget his first speech at the +convention—the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind—the +powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely +taken by surprise. * * * I think I never hated slavery so intensely as +at that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which +is inflicted by it on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered +far more clear than ever. There stood one in physical proportions and +stature commanding and exact—in intellect richly endowed—in natural +eloquence a prodigy.” 1 + +It is of interest to compare Mr. Douglass’s account of this meeting +with Mr. Garrison’s. Of the two, I think the latter the most correct. +It must have been a grand burst of eloquence! The pent up agony, +indignation and pathos of an abused and harrowed boyhood and youth, +bursting out in all their freshness and overwhelming earnestness! + +This unique introduction to its great leader, led immediately to the +employment of Mr. Douglass as an agent by the American Anti-Slavery +Society. So far as his self-relying and independent character would +permit, he became, after the strictest sect, a Garrisonian. It is not +too much to say, that he formed a complement which they needed, and +they were a complement equally necessary to his “make-up.” With his +deep and keen sensitiveness to wrong, and his wonderful memory, he came +from the land of bondage full of its woes and its evils, and painting +them in characters of living light; and, on his part, he found, told +out in sound Saxon phrase, all those principles of justice and right +and liberty, which had dimly brooded over the dreams of his youth, +seeking definite forms and verbal expression. It must have been an +electric flashing of thought, and a knitting of soul, granted to but +few in this life, and will be a life-long memory to those who +participated in it. In the society, moreover, of Wendell Phillips, +Edmund Quincy, William Lloyd Garrison, and other men of earnest faith +and refined culture, Mr. Douglass enjoyed the high advantage of their +assistance and counsel in the labor of self-culture, to which he now +addressed himself with wonted energy. Yet, these gentlemen, although +proud of Frederick Douglass, failed to fathom, and bring out to the +light of day, the highest qualities of his mind; the force of their own +education stood in their own way: they did not delve into the mind of a +colored man for capacities which the pride of race led them to believe +to be restricted to their own Saxon blood. Bitter and vindictive +sarcasm, irresistible mimicry, and a pathetic narrative of his own +experiences of slavery, were the intellectual manifestations which they +encouraged him to exhibit on the platform or in the lecture desk. + +A visit to England, in 1845, threw Mr. Douglass among men and women of +earnest souls and high culture, and who, moreover, had never drank of +the bitter waters of American caste. For the first time in his life, he +breathed an atmosphere congenial to the longings of his spirit, and +felt his manhood free and unrestricted. The cordial and manly greetings +of the British and Irish audiences in public, and the refinement and +elegance of the social circles in which he mingled, not only as an +equal, but as a recognized man of genius, were, doubtless, genial and +pleasant resting places in his hitherto thorny and troubled journey +through life. There are joys on the earth, and, to the wayfaring +fugitive from American slavery or American caste, this is one of them. + +But his sojourn in England was more than a joy to Mr. Douglass. Like +the platform at Nantucket, it awakened him to the consciousness of new +powers that lay in him. From the pupilage of Garrisonism he rose to the +dignity of a teacher and a thinker; his opinions on the broader aspects +of the great American question were earnestly and incessantly sought, +from various points of view, and he must, perforce, bestir himself to +give suitable answer. With that prompt and truthful perception which +has led their sisters in all ages of the world to gather at the feet +and support the hands of reformers, the gentlewomen of England 2 were +foremost to encourage and strengthen him to carve out for himself a +path fitted to his powers and energies, in the life-battle against +slavery and caste to which he was pledged. And one stirring thought, +inseparable from the British idea of the evangel of freedom, must have +smote his ear from every side— + +Hereditary bondmen! know ye not +Who would be free, themselves mast strike the blow? + + +The result of this visit was, that on his return to the United States, +he established a newspaper. This proceeding was sorely against the +wishes and the advice of the leaders of the American Anti-Slavery +Society, but our author had fully grown up to the conviction of a truth +which they had once promulged, but now forgotten, to wit: that in their +own elevation—self-elevation—colored men have a blow to strike “on +their own hook,” against slavery and caste. Differing from his Boston +friends in this matter, diffident in his own abilities, reluctant at +their dissuadings, how beautiful is the loyalty with which he still +clung to their principles in all things else, and even in this. + +Now came the trial hour. Without cordial support from any large body of +men or party on this side the Atlantic, and too far distant in space +and immediate interest to expect much more, after the much already +done, on the other side, he stood up, almost alone, to the arduous +labor and heavy expenditure of editor and lecturer. The Garrison party, +to which he still adhered, did not want a _colored_ newspaper—there was +an odor of _caste_ about it; the Liberty party could hardly be expected +to give warm support to a man who smote their principles as with a +hammer; and the wide gulf which separated the free colored people from +the Garrisonians, also separated them from their brother, Frederick +Douglass. + +The arduous nature of his labors, from the date of the establishment of +his paper, may be estimated by the fact, that anti-slavery papers in +the United States, even while organs of, and when supported by, +anti-slavery parties, have, with a single exception, failed to pay +expenses. Mr. Douglass has maintained, and does maintain, his paper +without the support of any party, and even in the teeth of the +opposition of those from whom he had reason to expect counsel and +encouragement. He has been compelled, at one and the same time, and +almost constantly, during the past seven years, to contribute matter to +its columns as editor, and to raise funds for its support as lecturer. +It is within bounds to say, that he has expended twelve thousand +dollars of his own hard earned money, in publishing this paper, a +larger sum than has been contributed by any one individual for the +general advancement of the colored people. There had been many other +papers published and edited by colored men, beginning as far back as +1827, when the Rev. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russworm (a graduate +of Bowdoin college, and afterward Governor of Cape Palmas) published +the _Freedom’s Journal_, in New York City; probably not less than one +hundred newspaper enterprises have been started in the United States, +by free colored men, born free, and some of them of liberal education +and fair talents for this work; but, one after another, they have +fallen through, although, in several instances, anti-slavery friends +contributed to their support. 3 It had almost been given up, as an +impracticable thing, to maintain a colored newspaper, when Mr. +Douglass, with fewest early advantages of all his competitors, essayed, +and has proved the thing perfectly practicable, and, moreover, of great +public benefit. This paper, in addition to its power in holding up the +hands of those to whom it is especially devoted, also affords +irrefutable evidence of the justice, safety and practicability of +Immediate Emancipation; it further proves the immense loss which +slavery inflicts on the land while it dooms such energies as his to the +hereditary degradation of slavery. + +It has been said in this Introduction, that Mr. Douglass had raised +himself by his own efforts to the highest position in society. As a +successful editor, in our land, he occupies this position. Our editors +rule the land, and he is one of them. As an orator and thinker, his +position is equally high, in the opinion of his countrymen. If a +stranger in the United States would seek its most distinguished men—the +movers of public opinion—he will find their names mentioned, and their +movements chronicled, under the head of “BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH,” in the +daily papers. The keen caterers for the public attention, set down, in +this column, such men only as have won high mark in the public esteem. +During the past winter—1854-5—very frequent mention of Frederick +Douglass was made under this head in the daily papers; his name glided +as often—this week from Chicago, next week from Boston—over the +lightning wires, as the name of any other man, of whatever note. To no +man did the people more widely nor more earnestly say, _“Tell me thy +thought!”_ And, somehow or other, revolution seemed to follow in his +wake. His were not the mere words of eloquence which Kossuth speaks of, +that delight the ear and then pass away. No! They were _work_-able, +_do_-able words, that brought forth fruits in the revolution in +Illinois, and in the passage of the franchise resolutions by the +Assembly of New York. + +And the secret of his power, what is it? He is a Representative +American man—a type of his countrymen. Naturalists tell us that a full +grown man is a resultant or representative of all animated nature on +this globe; beginning with the early embryo state, then representing +the lowest forms of organic life, 4 and passing through every +subordinate grade or type, until he reaches the last and +highest—manhood. In like manner, and to the fullest extent, has +Frederick Douglass passed through every gradation of rank comprised in +our national make-up, and bears upon his person and upon his soul every +thing that is American. And he has not only full sympathy with every +thing American; his proclivity or bent, to active toil and visible +progress, are in the strictly national direction, delighting to +outstrip “all creation.” + +Nor have the natural gifts, already named as his, lost anything by his +severe training. When unexcited, his mental processes are probably +slow, but singularly clear in perception, and wide in vision, the +unfailing memory bringing up all the facts in their every aspect; +incongruities he lays hold of incontinently, and holds up on the edge +of his keen and telling wit. But this wit never descends to frivolity; +it is rigidly in the keeping of his truthful common sense, and always +used in illustration or proof of some point which could not so readily +be reached any other way. “Beware of a Yankee when he is feeding,” is a +shaft that strikes home in a matter never so laid bare by satire +before. “The Garrisonian views of disunion, if carried to a successful +issue, would only place the people of the north in the same relation to +American slavery which they now bear to the slavery of Cuba or the +Brazils,” is a statement, in a few words, which contains the result and +the evidence of an argument which might cover pages, but could not +carry stronger conviction, nor be stated in less pregnable form. In +proof of this, I may say, that having been submitted to the attention +of the Garrisonians in print, in March, it was repeated before them at +their business meeting in May—the platform, _par excellence_, on which +they invite free fight, _a l’outrance_, to all comers. It was given out +in the clear, ringing tones, wherewith the hall of shields was wont to +resound of old, yet neither Garrison, nor Phillips, nor May, nor +Remond, nor Foster, nor Burleigh, with his subtle steel of “the ice +brook’s temper,” ventured to break a lance upon it! The doctrine of the +dissolution of the Union, as a means for the abolition of American +slavery, was silenced upon the lips that gave it birth, and in the +presence of an array of defenders who compose the keenest intellects in +the land. + +_“The man who is right is a majority”_ is an aphorism struck out by Mr. +Douglass in that great gathering of the friends of freedom, at +Pittsburgh, in 1852, where he towered among the highest, because, with +abilities inferior to none, and moved more deeply than any, there was +neither policy nor party to trammel the outpourings of his soul. Thus +we find, opposed to all disadvantages which a black man in the United +States labors and struggles under, is this one vantage ground—when the +chance comes, and the audience where he may have a say, he stands forth +the freest, most deeply moved and most earnest of all men. + +It has been said of Mr. Douglass, that his descriptive and declamatory +powers, admitted to be of the very highest order, take precedence of +his logical force. Whilst the schools might have trained him to the +exhibition of the formulas of deductive logic, nature and circumstances +forced him into the exercise of the higher faculties required by +induction. The first ninety pages of this “Life in Bondage,” afford +specimens of observing, comparing, and careful classifying, of such +superior character, that it is difficult to believe them the results of +a child’s thinking; he questions the earth, and the children and the +slaves around him again and again, and finally looks to _“God in the +sky”_ for the why and the wherefore of the unnatural thing, slavery. +_“Yes, if indeed thou art, wherefore dost thou suffer us to be slain?”_ +is the only prayer and worship of the God-forsaken Dodos in the heart +of Africa. Almost the same was his prayer. One of his earliest +observations was that white children should know their ages, while the +colored children were ignorant of theirs; and the songs of the slaves +grated on his inmost soul, because a something told him that harmony in +sound, and music of the spirit, could not consociate with miserable +degradation. + +To such a mind, the ordinary processes of logical deduction are like +proving that two and two make four. Mastering the intermediate steps by +an intuitive glance, or recurring to them as Ferguson resorted to +geometry, it goes down to the deeper relation of things, and brings out +what may seem, to some, mere statements, but which are new and +brilliant generalizations, each resting on a broad and stable basis. +Thus, Chief Justice Marshall gave his decisions, and then told Brother +Story to look up the authorities—and they never differed from him. +Thus, also, in his “Lecture on the Anti-Slavery Movement,” delivered +before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. Douglass +presents a mass of thought, which, without any showy display of logic +on his part, requires an exercise of the reasoning faculties of the +reader to keep pace with him. And his “Claims of the Negro +Ethnologically Considered,” is full of new and fresh thoughts on the +dawning science of race-history. + +If, as has been stated, his intellection is slow, when unexcited, it is +most prompt and rapid when he is thoroughly aroused. Memory, logic, +wit, sarcasm, invective pathos and bold imagery of rare structural +beauty, well up as from a copious fountain, yet each in its proper +place, and contributing to form a whole, grand in itself, yet complete +in the minutest proportions. It is most difficult to hedge him in a +corner, for his positions are taken so deliberately, that it is rare to +find a point in them undefended aforethought. Professor Reason tells me +the following: “On a recent visit of a public nature, to Philadelphia, +and in a meeting composed mostly of his colored brethren, Mr. Douglass +proposed a comparison of views in the matters of the relations and +duties of ‘our people;’ he holding that prejudice was the result of +condition, and could be conquered by the efforts of the degraded +themselves. A gentleman present, distinguished for logical acumen and +subtlety, and who had devoted no small portion of the last twenty-five +years to the study and elucidation of this very question, held the +opposite view, that prejudice is innate and unconquerable. He +terminated a series of well dove-tailed, Socratic questions to Mr. +Douglass, with the following: ‘If the legislature at Harrisburgh should +awaken, to-morrow morning, and find each man’s skin turned black and +his hair woolly, what could they do to remove prejudice?’ ‘Immediately +pass laws entitling black men to all civil, political and social +privileges,’ was the instant reply—and the questioning ceased.” + +The most remarkable mental phenomenon in Mr. Douglass, is his style in +writing and speaking. In March, 1855, he delivered an address in the +assembly chamber before the members of the legislature of the state of +New York. An eye witness 5 describes the crowded and most intelligent +audience, and their rapt attention to the speaker, as the grandest +scene he ever witnessed in the capitol. Among those whose eyes were +riveted on the speaker full two hours and a half, were Thurlow Weed and +Lieutenant Governor Raymond; the latter, at the conclusion of the +address, exclaimed to a friend, “I would give twenty thousand dollars, +if I could deliver that address in that manner.” Mr. Raymond is a first +class graduate of Dartmouth, a rising politician, ranking foremost in +the legislature; of course, his ideal of oratory must be of the most +polished and finished description. + +The style of Mr. Douglass in writing, is to me an intellectual puzzle. +The strength, affluence and terseness may easily be accounted for, +because the style of a man is the man; but how are we to account for +that rare polish in his style of writing, which, most critically +examined, seems the result of careful early culture among the best +classics of our language; it equals if it does not surpass the style of +Hugh Miller, which was the wonder of the British literary public, until +he unraveled the mystery in the most interesting of autobiographies. +But Frederick Douglass was still calking the seams of Baltimore +clippers, and had only written a “pass,” at the age when Miller’s style +was already formed. + +I asked William Whipper, of Pennsylvania, the gentleman alluded to +above, whether he thought Mr. Douglass’s power inherited from the +Negroid, or from what is called the Caucasian side of his make up? +After some reflection, he frankly answered, “I must admit, although +sorry to do so, that the Caucasian predominates.” At that time, I +almost agreed with him; but, facts narrated in the first part of this +work, throw a different light on this interesting question. + +We are left in the dark as to who was the paternal ancestor of our +author; a fact which generally holds good of the Romuluses and Remuses +who are to inaugurate the new birth of our republic. In the absence of +testimony from the Caucasian side, we must see what evidence is given +on the other side of the house. + +“My grandmother, though advanced in years, * * * was yet a woman of +power and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, elastic and +muscular.” (p. 46.) + +After describing her skill in constructing nets, her perseverance in +using them, and her wide-spread fame in the agricultural way he adds, +“It happened to her—as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person +residing in an ignorant and improvident neighborhood—to enjoy the +reputation of being born to good luck.” And his grandmother was a black +woman. + +“My mother was tall, and finely proportioned; of deep black, glossy +complexion; had regular features; and among other slaves was remarkably +sedate in her manners.” “Being a field hand, she was obliged to walk +twelve miles and return, between nightfall and daybreak, to see her +children” (p. 54.) “I shall never forget the indescribable expression +of her countenance when I told her that I had had no food since +morning. * * * There was pity in her glance at me, and a fiery +indignation at Aunt Katy at the same time; * * * * she read Aunt Katy a +lecture which she never forgot.” (p. 56.) “I learned after my mother’s +death, that she could read, and that she was the _only_ one of all the +slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage. How +she acquired this knowledge, I know not, for Tuckahoe is the last place +in the world where she would be apt to find facilities for learning.” +(p. 57.) “There is, in _Prichard’s Natural History of Man_, the head of +a figure—on page 157—the features of which so resemble those of my +mother, that I often recur to it with something of the feeling which I +suppose others experience when looking upon the pictures of dear +departed ones.” (p. 52.) + +The head alluded to is copied from the statue of Ramses the Great, an +Egyptian king of the nineteenth dynasty. The authors of the _Types of +Mankind_ give a side view of the same on page 148, remarking that the +profile, “like Napoleon’s, is superbly European!” The nearness of its +resemblance to Mr. Douglass’ mother rests upon the evidence of his +memory, and judging from his almost marvelous feats of recollection of +forms and outlines recorded in this book, this testimony may be +admitted. + +These facts show that for his energy, perseverance, eloquence, +invective, sagacity, and wide sympathy, he is indebted to his Negro +blood. The very marvel of his style would seem to be a development of +that other marvel—how his mother learned to read. The versatility of +talent which he wields, in common with Dumas, Ira Aldridge, and Miss +Greenfield, would seem to be the result of the grafting of the +Anglo-Saxon on good, original, Negro stock. If the friends of +“Caucasus” choose to claim, for that region, what remains after this +analysis—to wit: combination—they are welcome to it. They will forgive +me for reminding them that the term “Caucasian” is dropped by recent +writers on Ethnology; for the people about Mount Caucasus, are, and +have ever been, Mongols. The great “white race” now seek paternity, +according to Dr. Pickering, in Arabia—“Arida Nutrix” of the best breed +of horses &c. Keep on, gentlemen; you will find yourselves in Africa, +by-and-by. The Egyptians, like the Americans, were a _mixed race_, with +some Negro blood circling around the throne, as well as in the mud +hovels. + +This is the proper place to remark of our author, that the same strong +self-hood, which led him to measure strength with Mr. Covey, and to +wrench himself from the embrace of the Garrisonians, and which has +borne him through many resistances to the personal indignities offered +him as a colored man, sometimes becomes a hyper-sensitiveness to such +assaults as men of his mark will meet with, on paper. Keen and +unscrupulous opponents have sought, and not unsuccessfully, to pierce +him in this direction; for well they know, that if assailed, he will +smite back. + +It is not without a feeling of pride, dear reader, that I present you +with this book. The son of a self-emancipated bond-woman, I feel joy in +introducing to you my brother, who has rent his own bonds, and who, in +his every relation—as a public man, as a husband and as a father—is +such as does honor to the land which gave him birth. I shall place this +book in the hands of the only child spared me, bidding him to strive +and emulate its noble example. You may do likewise. It is an American +book, for Americans, in the fullest sense of the idea. It shows that +the worst of our institutions, in its worst aspect, cannot keep down +energy, truthfulness, and earnest struggle for the right. It proves the +justice and practicability of Immediate Emancipation. It shows that any +man in our land, “no matter in what battle his liberty may have been +cloven down, * * * * no matter what complexion an Indian or an African +sun may have burned upon him,” not only may “stand forth redeemed and +disenthralled,” but may also stand up a candidate for the highest +suffrage of a great people—the tribute of their honest, hearty +admiration. Reader, _Vale! New York_ + +JAMES M’CUNE SMITH + + + + +CHAPTER I. _Childhood_ + + +PLACE OF BIRTH—CHARACTER OF THE DISTRICT—TUCKAHOE—ORIGIN OF THE +NAME—CHOPTANK RIVER—TIME OF BIRTH—GENEALOGICAL TREES—MODE OF COUNTING +TIME—NAMES OF GRANDPARENTS—THEIR POSITION—GRANDMOTHER ESPECIALLY +ESTEEMED—“BORN TO GOOD LUCK”—SWEET POTATOES—SUPERSTITION—THE LOG +CABIN—ITS CHARMS—SEPARATING CHILDREN—MY AUNTS—THEIR NAMES—FIRST +KNOWLEDGE OF BEING A SLAVE—OLD MASTER—GRIEFS AND JOYS OF +CHILDHOOD—COMPARATIVE HAPPINESS OF THE SLAVE-BOY AND THE SON OF A +SLAVEHOLDER. + + +In Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the county town +of that county, there is a small district of country, thinly populated, +and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, +sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of +its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its +inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever. + +The name of this singularly unpromising and truly famine stricken +district is Tuckahoe, a name well known to all Marylanders, black and +white. It was given to this section of country probably, at the first, +merely in derision; or it may possibly have been applied to it, as I +have heard, because some one of its earlier inhabitants had been guilty +of the petty meanness of stealing a hoe—or taking a hoe that did not +belong to him. Eastern Shore men usually pronounce the word _took_, as +_tuck; Took-a-hoe_, therefore, is, in Maryland parlance, _Tuckahoe_. +But, whatever may have been its origin—and about this I will not be +positive—that name has stuck to the district in question; and it is +seldom mentioned but with contempt and derision, on account of the +barrenness of its soil, and the ignorance, indolence, and poverty of +its people. Decay and ruin are everywhere visible, and the thin +population of the place would have quitted it long ago, but for the +Choptank river, which runs through it, from which they take abundance +of shad and herring, and plenty of ague and fever. + +It was in this dull, flat, and unthrifty district, or neighborhood, +surrounded by a white population of the lowest order, indolent and +drunken to a proverb, and among slaves, who seemed to ask, _“Oh! what’s +the use?”_ every time they lifted a hoe, that I—without any fault of +mine was born, and spent the first years of my childhood. + +The reader will pardon so much about the place of my birth, on the +score that it is always a fact of some importance to know where a man +is born, if, indeed, it be important to know anything about him. In +regard to the _time_ of my birth, I cannot be as definite as I have +been respecting the _place_. Nor, indeed, can I impart much knowledge +concerning my parents. Genealogical trees do not flourish among slaves. +A person of some consequence here in the north, sometimes designated +_father_, is literally abolished in slave law and slave practice. It is +only once in a while that an exception is found to this statement. I +never met with a slave who could tell me how old he was. Few +slave-mothers know anything of the months of the year, nor of the days +of the month. They keep no family records, with marriages, births, and +deaths. They measure the ages of their children by spring time, winter +time, harvest time, planting time, and the like; but these soon become +undistinguishable and forgotten. Like other slaves, I cannot tell how +old I am. This destitution was among my earliest troubles. I learned +when I grew up, that my master—and this is the case with masters +generally—allowed no questions to be put to him, by which a slave might +learn his age. Such questions deemed evidence of impatience, and even +of impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, the dates of which +I have since learned, I suppose myself to have been born about the year +1817. + +The first experience of life with me that I now remember—and I remember +it but hazily—began in the family of my grandmother and grandfather. +Betsey and Isaac Baily. They were quite advanced in life, and had long +lived on the spot where they then resided. They were considered old +settlers in the neighborhood, and, from certain circumstances, I infer +that my grandmother, especially, was held in high esteem, far higher +than is the lot of most colored persons in the slave states. She was a +good nurse, and a capital hand at making nets for catching shad and +herring; and these nets were in great demand, not only in Tuckahoe, but +at Denton and Hillsboro, neighboring villages. She was not only good at +making the nets, but was also somewhat famous for her good fortune in +taking the fishes referred to. I have known her to be in the water half +the day. Grandmother was likewise more provident than most of her +neighbors in the preservation of seedling sweet potatoes, and it +happened to her—as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person +residing in an ignorant and improvident community—to enjoy the +reputation of having been born to “good luck.” Her “good luck” was +owing to the exceeding care which she took in preventing the succulent +root from getting bruised in the digging, and in placing it beyond the +reach of frost, by actually burying it under the hearth of her cabin +during the winter months. In the time of planting sweet potatoes, +“Grandmother Betty,” as she was familiarly called, was sent for in all +directions, simply to place the seedling potatoes in the hills; for +superstition had it, that if “Grandmamma Betty but touches them at +planting, they will be sure to grow and flourish.” This high reputation +was full of advantage to her, and to the children around her. Though +Tuckahoe had but few of the good things of life, yet of such as it did +possess grandmother got a full share, in the way of presents. If good +potato crops came after her planting, she was not forgotten by those +for whom she planted; and as she was remembered by others, so she +remembered the hungry little ones around her. + +The dwelling of my grandmother and grandfather had few pretensions. It +was a log hut, or cabin, built of clay, wood, and straw. At a distance +it resembled—though it was smaller, less commodious and less +substantial—the cabins erected in the western states by the first +settlers. To my child’s eye, however, it was a noble structure, +admirably adapted to promote the comforts and conveniences of its +inmates. A few rough, Virginia fence-rails, flung loosely over the +rafters above, answered the triple purpose of floors, ceilings, and +bedsteads. To be sure, this upper apartment was reached only by a +ladder—but what in the world for climbing could be better than a +ladder? To me, this ladder was really a high invention, and possessed a +sort of charm as I played with delight upon the rounds of it. In this +little hut there was a large family of children: I dare not say how +many. My grandmother—whether because too old for field service, or +because she had so faithfully discharged the duties of her station in +early life, I know not—enjoyed the high privilege of living in a cabin, +separate from the quarter, with no other burden than her own support, +and the necessary care of the little children, imposed. She evidently +esteemed it a great fortune to live so. The children were not her own, +but her grandchildren—the children of her daughters. She took delight +in having them around her, and in attending to their few wants. The +practice of separating children from their mother, and hiring the +latter out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, except at +long intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the +slave system. But it is in harmony with the grand aim of slavery, +which, always and everywhere, is to reduce man to a level with the +brute. It is a successful method of obliterating from the mind and +heart of the slave, all just ideas of the sacredness of _the family_, +as an institution. + +Most of the children, however, in this instance, being the children of +my grandmother’s daughters, the notions of family, and the reciprocal +duties and benefits of the relation, had a better chance of being +understood than where children are placed—as they often are in the +hands of strangers, who have no care for them, apart from the wishes of +their masters. The daughters of my grandmother were five in number. +Their names were JENNY, ESTHER, MILLY, PRISCILLA, and HARRIET. The +daughter last named was my mother, of whom the reader shall learn more +by-and-by. + +Living here, with my dear old grandmother and grandfather, it was a +long time before I knew myself to be _a slave_. I knew many other +things before I knew that. Grandmother and grandfather were the +greatest people in the world to me; and being with them so snugly in +their own little cabin—I supposed it be their own—knowing no higher +authority over me or the other children than the authority of +grandmamma, for a time there was nothing to disturb me; but, as I grew +larger and older, I learned by degrees the sad fact, that the “little +hut,” and the lot on which it stood, belonged not to my dear old +grandparents, but to some person who lived a great distance off, and +who was called, by grandmother, “OLD MASTER.” I further learned the +sadder fact, that not only the house and lot, but that grandmother +herself, (grandfather was free,) and all the little children around +her, belonged to this mysterious personage, called by grandmother, with +every mark of reverence, “Old Master.” Thus early did clouds and +shadows begin to fall upon my path. Once on the track—troubles never +come singly—I was not long in finding out another fact, still more +grievous to my childish heart. I was told that this “old master,” whose +name seemed ever to be mentioned with fear and shuddering, only allowed +the children to live with grandmother for a limited time, and that in +fact as soon as they were big enough, they were promptly taken away, to +live with the said “old master.” These were distressing revelations +indeed; and though I was quite too young to comprehend the full import +of the intelligence, and mostly spent my childhood days in gleesome +sports with the other children, a shade of disquiet rested upon me. + +The absolute power of this distant “old master” had touched my young +spirit with but the point of its cold, cruel iron, and left me +something to brood over after the play and in moments of repose. +Grandmammy was, indeed, at that time, all the world to me; and the +thought of being separated from her, in any considerable time, was more +than an unwelcome intruder. It was intolerable. + +Children have their sorrows as well as men and women; and it would be +well to remember this in our dealings with them. SLAVE-children _are_ +children, and prove no exceptions to the general rule. The liability to +be separated from my grandmother, seldom or never to see her again, +haunted me. I dreaded the thought of going to live with that mysterious +“old master,” whose name I never heard mentioned with affection, but +always with fear. I look back to this as among the heaviest of my +childhood’s sorrows. My grandmother! my grandmother! and the little +hut, and the joyous circle under her care, but especially _she_, who +made us sorry when she left us but for an hour, and glad on her +return,—how could I leave her and the good old home? + +But the sorrows of childhood, like the pleasures of after life, are +transient. It is not even within the power of slavery to write +_indelible_ sorrow, at a single dash, over the heart of a child. + +The tear down childhood’s cheek that flows, +Is like the dew-drop on the rose— +When next the summer breeze comes by, +And waves the bush—the flower is dry. + + +There is, after all, but little difference in the measure of +contentment felt by the slave-child neglected and the slaveholder’s +child cared for and petted. The spirit of the All Just mercifully holds +the balance for the young. + +The slaveholder, having nothing to fear from impotent childhood, easily +affords to refrain from cruel inflictions; and if cold and hunger do +not pierce the tender frame, the first seven or eight years of the +slave-boy’s life are about as full of sweet content as those of the +most favored and petted _white_ children of the slaveholder. The +slave-boy escapes many troubles which befall and vex his white brother. +He seldom has to listen to lectures on propriety of behavior, or on +anything else. He is never chided for handling his little knife and +fork improperly or awkwardly, for he uses none. He is never reprimanded +for soiling the table-cloth, for he takes his meals on the clay floor. +He never has the misfortune, in his games or sports, of soiling or +tearing his clothes, for he has almost none to soil or tear. He is +never expected to act like a nice little gentleman, for he is only a +rude little slave. Thus, freed from all restraint, the slave-boy can +be, in his life and conduct, a genuine boy, doing whatever his boyish +nature suggests; enacting, by turns, all the strange antics and freaks +of horses, dogs, pigs, and barn-door fowls, without in any manner +compromising his dignity, or incurring reproach of any sort. He +literally runs wild; has no pretty little verses to learn in the +nursery; no nice little speeches to make for aunts, uncles, or cousins, +to show how smart he is; and, if he can only manage to keep out of the +way of the heavy feet and fists of the older slave boys, he may trot +on, in his joyous and roguish tricks, as happy as any little heathen +under the palm trees of Africa. To be sure, he is occasionally +reminded, when he stumbles in the path of his master—and this he early +learns to avoid—that he is eating his _“white bread,”_ and that he will +be made to _“see sights”_ by-and-by. The threat is soon forgotten; the +shadow soon passes, and our sable boy continues to roll in the dust, or +play in the mud, as bests suits him, and in the veriest freedom. If he +feels uncomfortable, from mud or from dust, the coast is clear; he can +plunge into the river or the pond, without the ceremony of undressing, +or the fear of wetting his clothes; his little tow-linen shirt—for that +is all he has on—is easily dried; and it needed ablution as much as did +his skin. His food is of the coarsest kind, consisting for the most +part of cornmeal mush, which often finds it way from the wooden tray to +his mouth in an oyster shell. His days, when the weather is warm, are +spent in the pure, open air, and in the bright sunshine. He always +sleeps in airy apartments; he seldom has to take powders, or to be paid +to swallow pretty little sugar-coated pills, to cleanse his blood, or +to quicken his appetite. He eats no candies; gets no lumps of loaf +sugar; always relishes his food; cries but little, for nobody cares for +his crying; learns to esteem his bruises but slight, because others so +esteem them. In a word, he is, for the most part of the first eight +years of his life, a spirited, joyous, uproarious, and happy boy, upon +whom troubles fall only like water on a duck’s back. And such a boy, so +far as I can now remember, was the boy whose life in slavery I am now +narrating. + + + + +CHAPTER II. _Removed from My First Home_ + + +THE NAME “OLD MASTER” A TERROR—COLONEL LLOYD’S PLANTATION—WYE +RIVER—WHENCE ITS NAME—POSITION OF THE LLOYDS—HOME ATTRACTION—MEET +OFFERING—JOURNEY FROM TUCKAHOE TO WYE RIVER—SCENE ON REACHING OLD +MASTER’S—DEPARTURE OF GRANDMOTHER—STRANGE MEETING OF SISTERS AND +BROTHERS—REFUSAL TO BE COMFORTED—SWEET SLEEP. + + +That mysterious individual referred to in the first chapter as an +object of terror among the inhabitants of our little cabin, under the +ominous title of “old master,” was really a man of some consequence. He +owned several farms in Tuckahoe; was the chief clerk and butler on the +home plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd; had overseers on his own farms; +and gave directions to overseers on the farms belonging to Col. Lloyd. +This plantation is situated on Wye river—the river receiving its name, +doubtless, from Wales, where the Lloyds originated. They (the Lloyds) +are an old and honored family in Maryland, exceedingly wealthy. The +home plantation, where they have resided, perhaps for a century or +more, is one of the largest, most fertile, and best appointed, in the +state. + +About this plantation, and about that queer old master—who must be +something more than a man, and something worse than an angel—the reader +will easily imagine that I was not only curious, but eager, to know all +that could be known. Unhappily for me, however, all the information I +could get concerning him increased my great dread of being carried +thither—of being separated from and deprived of the protection of my +grandmother and grandfather. It was, evidently, a great thing to go to +Col. Lloyd’s; and I was not without a little curiosity to see the +place; but no amount of coaxing could induce in me the wish to remain +there. The fact is, such was my dread of leaving the little cabin, that +I wished to remain little forever, for I knew the taller I grew the +shorter my stay. The old cabin, with its rail floor and rail bedsteads +upstairs, and its clay floor downstairs, and its dirt chimney, and +windowless sides, and that most curious piece of workmanship dug in +front of the fireplace, beneath which grandmammy placed the sweet +potatoes to keep them from the frost, was MY HOME—the only home I ever +had; and I loved it, and all connected with it. The old fences around +it, and the stumps in the edge of the woods near it, and the squirrels +that ran, skipped, and played upon them, were objects of interest and +affection. There, too, right at the side of the hut, stood the old +well, with its stately and skyward-pointing beam, so aptly placed +between the limbs of what had once been a tree, and so nicely balanced +that I could move it up and down with only one hand, and could get a +drink myself without calling for help. Where else in the world could +such a well be found, and where could such another home be met with? +Nor were these all the attractions of the place. Down in a little +valley, not far from grandmammy’s cabin, stood Mr. Lee’s mill, where +the people came often in large numbers to get their corn ground. It was +a watermill; and I never shall be able to tell the many things thought +and felt, while I sat on the bank and watched that mill, and the +turning of that ponderous wheel. The mill-pond, too, had its charms; +and with my pinhook, and thread line, I could get _nibbles_, if I could +catch no fish. But, in all my sports and plays, and in spite of them, +there would, occasionally, come the painful foreboding that I was not +long to remain there, and that I must soon be called away to the home +of old master. + +I was A SLAVE—born a slave and though the fact was incomprehensible to +me, it conveyed to my mind a sense of my entire dependence on the will +of _somebody_ I had never seen; and, from some cause or other, I had +been made to fear this somebody above all else on earth. Born for +another’s benefit, as the _firstling_ of the cabin flock I was soon to +be selected as a meet offering to the fearful and inexorable _demigod_, +whose huge image on so many occasions haunted my childhood’s +imagination. When the time of my departure was decided upon, my +grandmother, knowing my fears, and in pity for them, kindly kept me +ignorant of the dreaded event about to transpire. Up to the morning (a +beautiful summer morning) when we were to start, and, indeed, during +the whole journey—a journey which, child as I was, I remember as well +as if it were yesterday—she kept the sad fact hidden from me. This +reserve was necessary; for, could I have known all, I should have given +grandmother some trouble in getting me started. As it was, I was +helpless, and she—dear woman!—led me along by the hand, resisting, with +the reserve and solemnity of a priestess, all my inquiring looks to the +last. + +The distance from Tuckahoe to Wye river—where my old master lived—was +full twelve miles, and the walk was quite a severe test of the +endurance of my young legs. The journey would have proved too severe +for me, but that my dear old grandmother—blessings on her +memory!—afforded occasional relief by “toting” me (as Marylanders have +it) on her shoulder. My grandmother, though advanced in years—as was +evident from more than one gray hair, which peeped from between the +ample and graceful folds of her newly-ironed bandana turban—was yet a +woman of power and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, +elastic, and muscular. I seemed hardly to be a burden to her. She would +have “toted” me farther, but that I felt myself too much of a man to +allow it, and insisted on walking. Releasing dear grandmamma from +carrying me, did not make me altogether independent of her, when we +happened to pass through portions of the somber woods which lay between +Tuckahoe and Wye river. She often found me increasing the energy of my +grip, and holding her clothing, lest something should come out of the +woods and eat me up. Several old logs and stumps imposed upon me, and +got themselves taken for wild beasts. I could see their legs, eyes, and +ears, or I could see something like eyes, legs, and ears, till I got +close enough to them to see that the eyes were knots, washed white with +rain, and the legs were broken limbs, and the ears, only ears owing to +the point from which they were seen. Thus early I learned that the +point from which a thing is viewed is of some importance. + +As the day advanced the heat increased; and it was not until the +afternoon that we reached the much dreaded end of the journey. I found +myself in the midst of a group of children of many colors; black, +brown, copper colored, and nearly white. I had not seen so many +children before. Great houses loomed up in different directions, and a +great many men and women were at work in the fields. All this hurry, +noise, and singing was very different from the stillness of Tuckahoe. +As a new comer, I was an object of special interest; and, after +laughing and yelling around me, and playing all sorts of wild tricks, +they (the children) asked me to go out and play with them. This I +refused to do, preferring to stay with grandmamma. I could not help +feeling that our being there boded no good to me. Grandmamma looked +sad. She was soon to lose another object of affection, as she had lost +many before. I knew she was unhappy, and the shadow fell from her brow +on me, though I knew not the cause. + +All suspense, however, must have an end; and the end of mine, in this +instance, was at hand. Affectionately patting me on the head, and +exhorting me to be a good boy, grandmamma told me to go and play with +the little children. “They are kin to you,” said she; “go and play with +them.” Among a number of cousins were Phil, Tom, Steve, and Jerry, +Nance and Betty. + +Grandmother pointed out my brother PERRY, my sister SARAH, and my +sister ELIZA, who stood in the group. I had never seen my brother nor +my sisters before; and, though I had sometimes heard of them, and felt +a curious interest in them, I really did not understand what they were +to me, or I to them. We were brothers and sisters, but what of that? +Why should they be attached to me, or I to them? Brothers and sisters +we were by blood; but _slavery_ had made us strangers. I heard the +words brother and sisters, and knew they must mean something; but +slavery had robbed these terms of their true meaning. The experience +through which I was passing, they had passed through before. They had +already been initiated into the mysteries of old master’s domicile, and +they seemed to look upon me with a certain degree of compassion; but my +heart clave to my grandmother. Think it not strange, dear reader, that +so little sympathy of feeling existed between us. The conditions of +brotherly and sisterly feeling were wanting—we had never nestled and +played together. My poor mother, like many other slave-women, had many +_children_, but NO FAMILY! The domestic hearth, with its holy lessons +and precious endearments, is abolished in the case of a slave-mother +and her children. “Little children, love one another,” are words seldom +heard in a slave cabin. + +I really wanted to play with my brother and sisters, but they were +strangers to me, and I was full of fear that grandmother might leave +without taking me with her. Entreated to do so, however, and that, too, +by my dear grandmother, I went to the back part of the house, to play +with them and the other children. _Play_, however, I did not, but stood +with my back against the wall, witnessing the playing of the others. At +last, while standing there, one of the children, who had been in the +kitchen, ran up to me, in a sort of roguish glee, exclaiming, “Fed, +Fed! grandmammy gone! grandmammy gone!” I could not believe it; yet, +fearing the worst, I ran into the kitchen, to see for myself, and found +it even so. Grandmammy had indeed gone, and was now far away, “clean” +out of sight. I need not tell all that happened now. Almost +heart-broken at the discovery, I fell upon the ground, and wept a boy’s +bitter tears, refusing to be comforted. My brother and sisters came +around me, and said, “Don’t cry,” and gave me peaches and pears, but I +flung them away, and refused all their kindly advances. I had never +been deceived before; and I felt not only grieved at parting—as I +supposed forever—with my grandmother, but indignant that a trick had +been played upon me in a matter so serious. + +It was now late in the afternoon. The day had been an exciting and +wearisome one, and I knew not how or where, but I suppose I sobbed +myself to sleep. There is a healing in the angel wing of sleep, even +for the slave-boy; and its balm was never more welcome to any wounded +soul than it was to mine, the first night I spent at the domicile of +old master. The reader may be surprised that I narrate so minutely an +incident apparently so trivial, and which must have occurred when I was +not more than seven years old; but as I wish to give a faithful history +of my experience in slavery, I cannot withhold a circumstance which, at +the time, affected me so deeply. Besides, this was, in fact, my first +introduction to the realities of slavery. + + + + +CHAPTER III. _Parentage_ + + +MY FATHER SHROUDED IN MYSTERY—MY MOTHER—HER PERSONAL +APPEARANCE—INTERFERENCE OF SLAVERY WITH THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS OF +MOTHER AND CHILDREN—SITUATION OF MY MOTHER—HER NIGHTLY VISITS TO HER +BOY—STRIKING INCIDENT—HER DEATH—HER PLACE OF BURIAL. + + +If the reader will now be kind enough to allow me time to grow bigger, +and afford me an opportunity for my experience to become greater, I +will tell him something, by-and-by, of slave life, as I saw, felt, and +heard it, on Col. Edward Lloyd’s plantation, and at the house of old +master, where I had now, despite of myself, most suddenly, but not +unexpectedly, been dropped. Meanwhile, I will redeem my promise to say +something more of my dear mother. + +I say nothing of _father_, for he is shrouded in a mystery I have never +been able to penetrate. Slavery does away with fathers, as it does away +with families. Slavery has no use for either fathers or families, and +its laws do not recognize their existence in the social arrangements of +the plantation. When they _do_ exist, they are not the outgrowths of +slavery, but are antagonistic to that system. The order of civilization +is reversed here. The name of the child is not expected to be that of +its father, and his condition does not necessarily affect that of the +child. He may be the slave of Mr. Tilgman; and his child, when born, +may be the slave of Mr. Gross. He may be a _freeman;_ and yet his child +may be a _chattel_. He may be white, glorying in the purity of his +Anglo-Saxon blood; and his child may be ranked with the blackest +slaves. Indeed, he _may_ be, and often _is_, master and father to the +same child. He can be father without being a husband, and may sell his +child without incurring reproach, if the child be by a woman in whose +veins courses one thirty-second part of African blood. My father was a +white man, or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master +was my father. + +But to return, or rather, to begin. My knowledge of my mother is very +scanty, but very distinct. Her personal appearance and bearing are +ineffaceably stamped upon my memory. She was tall, and finely +proportioned; of deep black, glossy complexion; had regular features, +and, among the other slaves, was remarkably sedate in her manners. +There is in _Prichard’s Natural History of Man_, the head of a +figure—on page 157—the features of which so resemble those of my +mother, that I often recur to it with something of the feeling which I +suppose others experience when looking upon the pictures of dear +departed ones. + +Yet I cannot say that I was very deeply attached to my mother; +certainly not so deeply as I should have been had our relations in +childhood been different. We were separated, according to the common +custom, when I was but an infant, and, of course, before I knew my +mother from any one else. + +The germs of affection with which the Almighty, in his wisdom and +mercy, arms the hopeless infant against the ills and vicissitudes of +his lot, had been directed in their growth toward that loving old +grandmother, whose gentle hand and kind deportment it was in the first +effort of my infantile understanding to comprehend and appreciate. +Accordingly, the tenderest affection which a beneficent Father allows, +as a partial compensation to the mother for the pains and lacerations +of her heart, incident to the maternal relation, was, in my case, +diverted from its true and natural object, by the envious, greedy, and +treacherous hand of slavery. The slave-mother can be spared long enough +from the field to endure all the bitterness of a mother’s anguish, when +it adds another name to a master’s ledger, but _not_ long enough to +receive the joyous reward afforded by the intelligent smiles of her +child. I never think of this terrible interference of slavery with my +infantile affections, and its diverting them from their natural course, +without feelings to which I can give no adequate expression. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother at my grandmother’s at any +time. I remember her only in her visits to me at Col. Lloyd’s +plantation, and in the kitchen of my old master. Her visits to me there +were few in number, brief in duration, and mostly made in the night. +The pains she took, and the toil she endured, to see me, tells me that +a true mother’s heart was hers, and that slavery had difficulty in +paralyzing it with unmotherly indifference. + +My mother was hired out to a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles +from old master’s, and, being a field hand, she seldom had leisure, by +day, for the performance of the journey. The nights and the distance +were both obstacles to her visits. She was obliged to walk, unless +chance flung into her way an opportunity to ride; and the latter was +sometimes her good luck. But she always had to walk one way or the +other. It was a greater luxury than slavery could afford, to allow a +black slave-mother a horse or a mule, upon which to travel twenty-four +miles, when she could walk the distance. Besides, it is deemed a +foolish whim for a slave-mother to manifest concern to see her +children, and, in one point of view, the case is made out—she can do +nothing for them. She has no control over them; the master is even more +than the mother, in all matters touching the fate of her child. Why, +then, should she give herself any concern? She has no responsibility. +Such is the reasoning, and such the practice. The iron rule of the +plantation, always passionately and violently enforced in that +neighborhood, makes flogging the penalty of failing to be in the field +before sunrise in the morning, unless special permission be given to +the absenting slave. “I went to see my child,” is no excuse to the ear +or heart of the overseer. + +One of the visits of my mother to me, while at Col. Lloyd’s, I remember +very vividly, as affording a bright gleam of a mother’s love, and the +earnestness of a mother’s care. + +“I had on that day offended “Aunt Katy,” (called “Aunt” by way of +respect,) the cook of old master’s establishment. I do not now remember +the nature of my offense in this instance, for my offenses were +numerous in that quarter, greatly depending, however, upon the mood of +Aunt Katy, as to their heinousness; but she had adopted, that day, her +favorite mode of punishing me, namely, making me go without food all +day—that is, from after breakfast. The first hour or two after dinner, +I succeeded pretty well in keeping up my spirits; but though I made an +excellent stand against the foe, and fought bravely during the +afternoon, I knew I must be conquered at last, unless I got the +accustomed reenforcement of a slice of corn bread, at sundown. Sundown +came, but _no bread_, and, in its stead, their came the threat, with a +scowl well suited to its terrible import, that she “meant to _starve +the life out of me!”_ Brandishing her knife, she chopped off the heavy +slices for the other children, and put the loaf away, muttering, all +the while, her savage designs upon myself. Against this disappointment, +for I was expecting that her heart would relent at last, I made an +extra effort to maintain my dignity; but when I saw all the other +children around me with merry and satisfied faces, I could stand it no +longer. I went out behind the house, and cried like a fine fellow! When +tired of this, I returned to the kitchen, sat by the fire, and brooded +over my hard lot. I was too hungry to sleep. While I sat in the corner, +I caught sight of an ear of Indian corn on an upper shelf of the +kitchen. I watched my chance, and got it, and, shelling off a few +grains, I put it back again. The grains in my hand, I quickly put in +some ashes, and covered them with embers, to roast them. All this I did +at the risk of getting a brutual thumping, for Aunt Katy could beat, as +well as starve me. My corn was not long in roasting, and, with my keen +appetite, it did not matter even if the grains were not exactly done. I +eagerly pulled them out, and placed them on my stool, in a clever +little pile. Just as I began to help myself to my very dry meal, in +came my dear mother. And now, dear reader, a scene occurred which was +altogether worth beholding, and to me it was instructive as well as +interesting. The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need—and +when he did not dare to look for succor—found himself in the strong, +protecting arms of a mother; a mother who was, at the moment (being +endowed with high powers of manner as well as matter) more than a match +for all his enemies. I shall never forget the indescribable expression +of her countenance, when I told her that I had had no food since +morning; and that Aunt Katy said she “meant to starve the life out of +me.” There was pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation at +Aunt Katy at the same time; and, while she took the corn from me, and +gave me a large ginger cake, in its stead, she read Aunt Katy a lecture +which she never forgot. My mother threatened her with complaining to +old master in my behalf; for the latter, though harsh and cruel +himself, at times, did not sanction the meanness, injustice, partiality +and oppressions enacted by Aunt Katy in the kitchen. That night I +learned the fact, that I was, not only a child, but _somebody’s_ child. +The “sweet cake” my mother gave me was in the shape of a heart, with a +rich, dark ring glazed upon the edge of it. I was victorious, and well +off for the moment; prouder, on my mother’s knee, than a king upon his +throne. But my triumph was short. I dropped off to sleep, and waked in +the morning only to find my mother gone, and myself left at the mercy +of the sable virago, dominant in my old master’s kitchen, whose fiery +wrath was my constant dread. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother after this occurrence. Death +soon ended the little communication that had existed between us; and +with it, I believe, a life judging from her weary, sad, down-cast +countenance and mute demeanor—full of heartfelt sorrow. I was not +allowed to visit her during any part of her long illness; nor did I see +her for a long time before she was taken ill and died. The heartless +and ghastly form of _slavery_ rises between mother and child, even at +the bed of death. The mother, at the verge of the grave, may not gather +her children, to impart to them her holy admonitions, and invoke for +them her dying benediction. The bond-woman lives as a slave, and is +left to die as a beast; often with fewer attentions than are paid to a +favorite horse. Scenes of sacred tenderness, around the death-bed, +never forgotten, and which often arrest the vicious and confirm the +virtuous during life, must be looked for among the free, though they +sometimes occur among the slaves. It has been a life-long, standing +grief to me, that I knew so little of my mother; and that I was so +early separated from her. The counsels of her love must have been +beneficial to me. The side view of her face is imaged on my memory, and +I take few steps in life, without feeling her presence; but the image +is mute, and I have no striking words of her’s treasured up. + +I learned, after my mother’s death, that she could read, and that she +was the _only_ one of all the slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who +enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired this knowledge, I know not, +for Tuckahoe is the last place in the world where she would be apt to +find facilities for learning. I can, therefore, fondly and proudly +ascribe to her an earnest love of knowledge. That a “field hand” should +learn to read, in any slave state, is remarkable; but the achievement +of my mother, considering the place, was very extraordinary; and, in +view of that fact, I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any +love of letters I possess, and for which I have got—despite of +prejudices only too much credit, _not_ to my admitted Anglo-Saxon +paternity, but to the native genius of my sable, unprotected, and +uncultivated _mother_—a woman, who belonged to a race whose mental +endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in disparagement and +contempt. + +Summoned away to her account, with the impassable gulf of slavery +between us during her entire illness, my mother died without leaving me +a single intimation of _who_ my father was. There was a whisper, that +my master was my father; yet it was only a whisper, and I cannot say +that I ever gave it credence. Indeed, I now have reason to think he was +not; nevertheless, the fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, +that, by the laws of slavery, children, in all cases, are reduced to +the condition of their mothers. This arrangement admits of the greatest +license to brutal slaveholders, and their profligate sons, brothers, +relations and friends, and gives to the pleasure of sin, the additional +attraction of profit. A whole volume might be written on this single +feature of slavery, as I have observed it. + +One might imagine, that the children of such connections, would fare +better, in the hands of their masters, than other slaves. The rule is +quite the other way; and a very little reflection will satisfy the +reader that such is the case. A man who will enslave his own blood, may +not be safely relied on for magnanimity. Men do not love those who +remind them of their sins unless they have a mind to repent—and the +mulatto child’s face is a standing accusation against him who is master +and father to the child. What is still worse, perhaps, such a child is +a constant offense to the wife. She hates its very presence, and when a +slaveholding woman hates, she wants not means to give that hate telling +effect. Women—white women, I mean—are IDOLS at the south, not WIVES, +for the slave women are preferred in many instances; and if these +_idols_ but nod, or lift a finger, woe to the poor victim: kicks, cuffs +and stripes are sure to follow. Masters are frequently compelled to +sell this class of their slaves, out of deference to the feelings of +their white wives; and shocking and scandalous as it may seem for a man +to sell his own blood to the traffickers in human flesh, it is often an +act of humanity toward the slave-child to be thus removed from his +merciless tormentors. + +It is not within the scope of the design of my simple story, to comment +upon every phase of slavery not within my experience as a slave. + +But, I may remark, that, if the lineal descendants of Ham are only to +be enslaved, according to the scriptures, slavery in this country will +soon become an unscriptural institution; for thousands are ushered into +the world, annually, who—like myself—owe their existence to white +fathers, and, most frequently, to their masters, and master’s sons. The +slave-woman is at the mercy of the fathers, sons or brothers of her +master. The thoughtful know the rest. + +After what I have now said of the circumstances of my mother, and my +relations to her, the reader will not be surprised, nor be disposed to +censure me, when I tell but the simple truth, viz: that I received the +tidings of her death with no strong emotions of sorrow for her, and +with very little regret for myself on account of her loss. I had to +learn the value of my mother long after her death, and by witnessing +the devotion of other mothers to their children. + +There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so +destructive as slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters strangers +to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded +my father in mystery, and left me without an intelligible beginning in +the world. + +My mother died when I could not have been more than eight or nine years +old, on one of old master’s farms in Tuckahoe, in the neighborhood of +Hillsborough. Her grave is, as the grave of the dead at sea, unmarked, +and without stone or stake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. _A General Survey of the Slave Plantation_ + + +ISOLATION OF LLOYD S PLANTATION—PUBLIC OPINION THERE NO PROTECTION TO +THE SLAVE—ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE OVERSEER—NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CHARMS +OF THE PLACE—ITS BUSINESS-LIKE APPEARANCE—SUPERSTITION ABOUT THE BURIAL +GROUND—GREAT IDEAS OF COL. LLOYD—ETIQUETTE AMONG SLAVES—THE COMIC SLAVE +DOCTOR—PRAYING AND FLOGGING—OLD MASTER LOSING ITS TERRORS—HIS +BUSINESS—CHARACTER OF AUNT KATY—SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER—OLD MASTER’S +HOME—JARGON OF THE PLANTATION—GUINEA SLAVES—MASTER DANIEL—FAMILY OF +COL. LLOYD—FAMILY OF CAPT. ANTHONY—HIS SOCIAL POSITION—NOTIONS OF RANK +AND STATION. + + +It is generally supposed that slavery, in the state of Maryland, exists +in its mildest form, and that it is totally divested of those harsh and +terrible peculiarities, which mark and characterize the slave system, +in the southern and south-western states of the American union. The +argument in favor of this opinion, is the contiguity of the free +states, and the exposed condition of slavery in Maryland to the moral, +religious and humane sentiment of the free states. + +I am not about to refute this argument, so far as it relates to slavery +in that state, generally; on the contrary, I am willing to admit that, +to this general point, the arguments is well grounded. Public opinion +is, indeed, an unfailing restraint upon the cruelty and barbarity of +masters, overseers, and slave-drivers, whenever and wherever it can +reach them; but there are certain secluded and out-of-the-way places, +even in the state of Maryland, seldom visited by a single ray of +healthy public sentiment—where slavery, wrapt in its own congenial, +midnight darkness, _can_, and _does_, develop all its malign and +shocking characteristics; where it can be indecent without shame, cruel +without shuddering, and murderous without apprehension or fear of +exposure. + +Just such a secluded, dark, and out-of-the-way place, is the “home +plantation” of Col. Edward Lloyd, on the Eastern Shore, Maryland. It is +far away from all the great thoroughfares, and is proximate to no town +or village. There is neither school-house, nor town-house in its +neighborhood. The school-house is unnecessary, for there are no +children to go to school. The children and grand-children of Col. Lloyd +were taught in the house, by a private tutor—a Mr. Page a tall, gaunt +sapling of a man, who did not speak a dozen words to a slave in a whole +year. The overseers’ children go off somewhere to school; and they, +therefore, bring no foreign or dangerous influence from abroad, to +embarrass the natural operation of the slave system of the place. Not +even the mechanics—through whom there is an occasional out-burst of +honest and telling indignation, at cruelty and wrong on other +plantations—are white men, on this plantation. Its whole public is made +up of, and divided into, three classes—SLAVEHOLDERS, SLAVES and +OVERSEERS. Its blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shoemakers, weavers, and +coopers, are slaves. Not even commerce, selfish and iron-hearted at it +is, and ready, as it ever is, to side with the strong against the +weak—the rich against the poor—is trusted or permitted within its +secluded precincts. Whether with a view of guarding against the escape +of its secrets, I know not, but it is a fact, the every leaf and grain +of the produce of this plantation, and those of the neighboring farms +belonging to Col. Lloyd, are transported to Baltimore in Col. Lloyd’s +own vessels; every man and boy on board of which—except the captain—are +owned by him. In return, everything brought to the plantation, comes +through the same channel. Thus, even the glimmering and unsteady light +of trade, which sometimes exerts a civilizing influence, is excluded +from this “tabooed” spot. + +Nearly all the plantations or farms in the vicinity of the “home +plantation” of Col. Lloyd, belong to him; and those which do not, are +owned by personal friends of his, as deeply interested in maintaining +the slave system, in all its rigor, as Col. Lloyd himself. Some of his +neighbors are said to be even more stringent than he. The Skinners, the +Peakers, the Tilgmans, the Lockermans, and the Gipsons, are in the same +boat; being slaveholding neighbors, they may have strengthened each +other in their iron rule. They are on intimate terms, and their +interests and tastes are identical. + +Public opinion in such a quarter, the reader will see, is not likely to +very efficient in protecting the slave from cruelty. On the contrary, +it must increase and intensify his wrongs. Public opinion seldom +differs very widely from public practice. To be a restraint upon +cruelty and vice, public opinion must emanate from a humane and +virtuous community. To no such humane and virtuous community, is Col. +Lloyd’s plantation exposed. That plantation is a little nation of its +own, having its own language, its own rules, regulations and customs. +The laws and institutions of the state, apparently touch it nowhere. +The troubles arising here, are not settled by the civil power of the +state. The overseer is generally accuser, judge, jury, advocate and +executioner. The criminal is always dumb. The overseer attends to all +sides of a case. + +There are no conflicting rights of property, for all the people are +owned by one man; and they can themselves own no property. Religion and +politics are alike excluded. One class of the population is too high to +be reached by the preacher; and the other class is too low to be cared +for by the preacher. The poor have the gospel preached to them, in this +neighborhood, only when they are able to pay for it. The slaves, having +no money, get no gospel. The politician keeps away, because the people +have no votes, and the preacher keeps away, because the people have no +money. The rich planter can afford to learn politics in the parlor, and +to dispense with religion altogether. + +In its isolation, seclusion, and self-reliant independence, Col. +Lloyd’s plantation resembles what the baronial domains were during the +middle ages in Europe. Grim, cold, and unapproachable by all genial +influences from communities without, _there it stands;_ full three +hundred years behind the age, in all that relates to humanity and +morals. + +This, however, is not the only view that the place presents. +Civilization is shut out, but nature cannot be. Though separated from +the rest of the world; though public opinion, as I have said, seldom +gets a chance to penetrate its dark domain; though the whole place is +stamped with its own peculiar, ironlike individuality; and though +crimes, high-handed and atrocious, may there be committed, with almost +as much impunity as upon the deck of a pirate ship—it is, nevertheless, +altogether, to outward seeming, a most strikingly interesting place, +full of life, activity, and spirit; and presents a very favorable +contrast to the indolent monotony and languor of Tuckahoe. Keen as was +my regret and great as was my sorrow at leaving the latter, I was not +long in adapting myself to this, my new home. A man’s troubles are +always half disposed of, when he finds endurance his only remedy. I +found myself here; there was no getting away; and what remained for me, +but to make the best of it? Here were plenty of children to play with, +and plenty of places of pleasant resort for boys of my age, and boys +older. The little tendrils of affection, so rudely and treacherously +broken from around the darling objects of my grandmother’s hut, +gradually began to extend, and to entwine about the new objects by +which I now found myself surrounded. + +There was a windmill (always a commanding object to a child’s eye) on +Long Point—a tract of land dividing Miles river from the Wye a mile or +more from my old master’s house. There was a creek to swim in, at the +bottom of an open flat space, of twenty acres or more, called “the Long +Green”—a very beautiful play-ground for the children. + +In the river, a short distance from the shore, lying quietly at anchor, +with her small boat dancing at her stern, was a large sloop—the Sally +Lloyd; called by that name in honor of a favorite daughter of the +colonel. The sloop and the mill were wondrous things, full of thoughts +and ideas. A child cannot well look at such objects without _thinking_. + +Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the +mysteries of life at every stage of it. There was the little red house, +up the road, occupied by Mr. Sevier, the overseer. A little nearer to +my old master’s, stood a very long, rough, low building, literally +alive with slaves, of all ages, conditions and sizes. This was called +“the Longe Quarter.” Perched upon a hill, across the Long Green, was a +very tall, dilapidated, old brick building—the architectural dimensions +of which proclaimed its erection for a different purpose—now occupied +by slaves, in a similar manner to the Long Quarter. Besides these, +there were numerous other slave houses and huts, scattered around in +the neighborhood, every nook and corner of which was completely +occupied. Old master’s house, a long, brick building, plain, but +substantial, stood in the center of the plantation life, and +constituted one independent establishment on the premises of Col. +Lloyd. + +Besides these dwellings, there were barns, stables, store-houses, and +tobacco-houses; blacksmiths’ shops, wheelwrights’ shops, coopers’ +shops—all objects of interest; but, above all, there stood the grandest +building my eyes had then ever beheld, called, by every one on the +plantation, the “Great House.” This was occupied by Col. Lloyd and his +family. They occupied it; _I_ enjoyed it. The great house was +surrounded by numerous and variously shaped out-buildings. There were +kitchens, wash-houses, dairies, summer-house, green-houses, hen-houses, +turkey-houses, pigeon-houses, and arbors, of many sizes and devices, +all neatly painted, and altogether interspersed with grand old trees, +ornamental and primitive, which afforded delightful shade in summer, +and imparted to the scene a high degree of stately beauty. The great +house itself was a large, white, wooden building, with wings on three +sides of it. In front, a large portico, extending the entire length of +the building, and supported by a long range of columns, gave to the +whole establishment an air of solemn grandeur. It was a treat to my +young and gradually opening mind, to behold this elaborate exhibition +of wealth, power, and vanity. The carriage entrance to the house was a +large gate, more than a quarter of a mile distant from it; the +intermediate space was a beautiful lawn, very neatly trimmed, and +watched with the greatest care. It was dotted thickly over with +delightful trees, shrubbery, and flowers. The road, or lane, from the +gate to the great house, was richly paved with white pebbles from the +beach, and, in its course, formed a complete circle around the +beautiful lawn. Carriages going in and retiring from the great house, +made the circuit of the lawn, and their passengers were permitted to +behold a scene of almost Eden-like beauty. Outside this select +inclosure, were parks, where as about the residences of the English +nobility—rabbits, deer, and other wild game, might be seen, peering and +playing about, with none to molest them or make them afraid. The tops +of the stately poplars were often covered with the red-winged +black-birds, making all nature vocal with the joyous life and beauty of +their wild, warbling notes. These all belonged to me, as well as to +Col. Edward Lloyd, and for a time I greatly enjoyed them. + +A short distance from the great house, were the stately mansions of the +dead, a place of somber aspect. Vast tombs, embowered beneath the +weeping willow and the fir tree, told of the antiquities of the Lloyd +family, as well as of their wealth. Superstition was rife among the +slaves about this family burying ground. Strange sights had been seen +there by some of the older slaves. Shrouded ghosts, riding on great +black horses, had been seen to enter; balls of fire had been seen to +fly there at midnight, and horrid sounds had been repeatedly heard. +Slaves know enough of the rudiments of theology to believe that those +go to hell who die slaveholders; and they often fancy such persons +wishing themselves back again, to wield the lash. Tales of sights and +sounds, strange and terrible, connected with the huge black tombs, were +a very great security to the grounds about them, for few of the slaves +felt like approaching them even in the day time. It was a dark, gloomy +and forbidding place, and it was difficult to feel that the spirits of +the sleeping dust there deposited, reigned with the blest in the realms +of eternal peace. + +The business of twenty or thirty farms was transacted at this, called, +by way of eminence, “great house farm.” These farms all belonged to +Col. Lloyd, as did, also, the slaves upon them. Each farm was under the +management of an overseer. As I have said of the overseer of the home +plantation, so I may say of the overseers on the smaller ones; they +stand between the slave and all civil constitutions—their word is law, +and is implicitly obeyed. + +The colonel, at this time, was reputed to be, and he apparently was, +very rich. His slaves, alone, were an immense fortune. These, small and +great, could not have been fewer than one thousand in number, and +though scarcely a month passed without the sale of one or more lots to +the Georgia traders, there was no apparent diminution in the number of +his human stock: the home plantation merely groaned at a removal of the +young increase, or human crop, then proceeded as lively as ever. +Horse-shoeing, cart-mending, plow-repairing, coopering, grinding, and +weaving, for all the neighboring farms, were performed here, and slaves +were employed in all these branches. “Uncle Tony” was the blacksmith; +“Uncle Harry” was the cartwright; “Uncle Abel” was the shoemaker; and +all these had hands to assist them in their several departments. + +These mechanics were called “uncles” by all the younger slaves, not +because they really sustained that relationship to any, but according +to plantation _etiquette_, as a mark of respect, due from the younger +to the older slaves. Strange, and even ridiculous as it may seem, among +a people so uncultivated, and with so many stern trials to look in the +face, there is not to be found, among any people, a more rigid +enforcement of the law of respect to elders, than they maintain. I set +this down as partly constitutional with my race, and partly +conventional. There is no better material in the world for making a +gentleman, than is furnished in the African. He shows to others, and +exacts for himself, all the tokens of respect which he is compelled to +manifest toward his master. A young slave must approach the company of +the older with hat in hand, and woe betide him, if he fails to +acknowledge a favor, of any sort, with the accustomed _“tank’ee,”_ &c. +So uniformly are good manners enforced among slaves, I can easily +detect a “bogus” fugitive by his manners. + +Among other slave notabilities of the plantation, was one called by +everybody Uncle Isaac Copper. It is seldom that a slave gets a surname +from anybody in Maryland; and so completely has the south shaped the +manners of the north, in this respect, that even abolitionists make +very little of the surname of a Negro. The only improvement on the +“Bills,” “Jacks,” “Jims,” and “Neds” of the south, observable here is, +that “William,” “John,” “James,” “Edward,” are substituted. It goes +against the grain to treat and address a Negro precisely as they would +treat and address a white man. But, once in a while, in slavery as in +the free states, by some extraordinary circumstance, the Negro has a +surname fastened to him, and holds it against all conventionalities. +This was the case with Uncle Isaac Copper. When the “uncle” was +dropped, he generally had the prefix “doctor,” in its stead. He was our +doctor of medicine, and doctor of divinity as well. Where he took his +degree I am unable to say, for he was not very communicative to +inferiors, and I was emphatically such, being but a boy seven or eight +years old. He was too well established in his profession to permit +questions as to his native skill, or his attainments. One qualification +he undoubtedly had—he was a confirmed _cripple;_ and he could neither +work, nor would he bring anything if offered for sale in the market. +The old man, though lame, was no sluggard. He was a man that made his +crutches do him good service. He was always on the alert, looking up +the sick, and all such as were supposed to need his counsel. His +remedial prescriptions embraced four articles. For diseases of the +body, _Epsom salts and castor oil;_ for those of the soul, _the Lord’s +Prayer_, and _hickory switches_! + +I was not long at Col. Lloyd’s before I was placed under the care of +Doctor Issac Copper. I was sent to him with twenty or thirty other +children, to learn the “Lord’s Prayer.” I found the old gentleman +seated on a huge three-legged oaken stool, armed with several large +hickory switches; and, from his position, he could reach—lame as he +was—any boy in the room. After standing awhile to learn what was +expected of us, the old gentleman, in any other than a devotional tone, +commanded us to kneel down. This done, he commenced telling us to say +everything he said. “Our Father”—this was repeated after him with +promptness and uniformity; “Who art in heaven”—was less promptly and +uniformly repeated; and the old gentleman paused in the prayer, to give +us a short lecture upon the consequences of inattention, both immediate +and future, and especially those more immediate. About these he was +absolutely certain, for he held in his right hand the means of bringing +all his predictions and warnings to pass. On he proceeded with the +prayer; and we with our thick tongues and unskilled ears, followed him +to the best of our ability. This, however, was not sufficient to please +the old gentleman. Everybody, in the south, wants the privilege of +whipping somebody else. Uncle Isaac shared the common passion of his +country, and, therefore, seldom found any means of keeping his +disciples in order short of flogging. “Say everything I say;” and bang +would come the switch on some poor boy’s undevotional head. _“What you +looking at there”—“Stop that pushing”_—and down again would come the +lash. + +The whip is all in all. It is supposed to secure obedience to the +slaveholder, and is held as a sovereign remedy among the slaves +themselves, for every form of disobedience, temporal or spiritual. +Slaves, as well as slaveholders, use it with an unsparing hand. Our +devotions at Uncle Isaac’s combined too much of the tragic and comic, +to make them very salutary in a spiritual point of view; and it is due +to truth to say, I was often a truant when the time for attending the +praying and flogging of Doctor Isaac Copper came on. + +The windmill under the care of Mr. Kinney, a kind hearted old +Englishman, was to me a source of infinite interest and pleasure. The +old man always seemed pleased when he saw a troop of darkey little +urchins, with their tow-linen shirts fluttering in the breeze, +approaching to view and admire the whirling wings of his wondrous +machine. From the mill we could see other objects of deep interest. +These were, the vessels from St. Michael’s, on their way to Baltimore. +It was a source of much amusement to view the flowing sails and +complicated rigging, as the little crafts dashed by, and to speculate +upon Baltimore, as to the kind and quality of the place. With so many +sources of interest around me, the reader may be prepared to learn that +I began to think very highly of Col. L.‘s plantation. It was just a +place to my boyish taste. There were fish to be caught in the creek, if +one only had a hook and line; and crabs, clams and oysters were to be +caught by wading, digging and raking for them. Here was a field for +industry and enterprise, strongly inviting; and the reader may be +assured that I entered upon it with spirit. + +Even the much dreaded old master, whose merciless fiat had brought me +from Tuckahoe, gradually, to my mind, parted with his terrors. Strange +enough, his reverence seemed to take no particular notice of me, nor of +my coming. Instead of leaping out and devouring me, he scarcely seemed +conscious of my presence. The fact is, he was occupied with matters +more weighty and important than either looking after or vexing me. He +probably thought as little of my advent, as he would have thought of +the addition of a single pig to his stock! + +As the chief butler on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, his duties were +numerous and perplexing. In almost all important matters he answered in +Col. Lloyd’s stead. The overseers of all the farms were in some sort +under him, and received the law from his mouth. The colonel himself +seldom addressed an overseer, or allowed an overseer to address him. +Old master carried the keys of all store houses; measured out the +allowance for each slave at the end of every month; superintended the +storing of all goods brought to the plantation; dealt out the raw +material to all the handicraftsmen; shipped the grain, tobacco, and all +saleable produce of the plantation to market, and had the general +oversight of the coopers’ shop, wheelwrights’ shop, blacksmiths’ shop, +and shoemakers’ shop. Besides the care of these, he often had business +for the plantation which required him to be absent two and three days. + +Thus largely employed, he had little time, and perhaps as little +disposition, to interfere with the children individually. What he was +to Col. Lloyd, he made Aunt Katy to him. When he had anything to say or +do about us, it was said or done in a wholesale manner; disposing of us +in classes or sizes, leaving all minor details to Aunt Katy, a person +of whom the reader has already received no very favorable impression. +Aunt Katy was a woman who never allowed herself to act greatly within +the margin of power granted to her, no matter how broad that authority +might be. Ambitious, ill-tempered and cruel, she found in her present +position an ample field for the exercise of her ill-omened qualities. +She had a strong hold on old master she was considered a first rate +cook, and she really was very industrious. She was, therefore, greatly +favored by old master, and as one mark of his favor, she was the only +mother who was permitted to retain her children around her. Even to +these children she was often fiendish in her brutality. She pursued her +son Phil, one day, in my presence, with a huge butcher knife, and dealt +a blow with its edge which left a shocking gash on his arm, near the +wrist. For this, old master did sharply rebuke her, and threatened that +if she ever should do the like again, he would take the skin off her +back. Cruel, however, as Aunt Katy was to her own children, at times +she was not destitute of maternal feeling, as I often had occasion to +know, in the bitter pinches of hunger I had to endure. Differing from +the practice of Col. Lloyd, old master, instead of allowing so much for +each slave, committed the allowance for all to the care of Aunt Katy, +to be divided after cooking it, amongst us. The allowance, consisting +of coarse corn-meal, was not very abundant—indeed, it was very slender; +and in passing through Aunt Katy’s hands, it was made more slender +still, for some of us. William, Phil and Jerry were her children, and +it is not to accuse her too severely, to allege that she was often +guilty of starving myself and the other children, while she was +literally cramming her own. Want of food was my chief trouble the first +summer at my old master’s. Oysters and clams would do very well, with +an occasional supply of bread, but they soon failed in the absence of +bread. I speak but the simple truth, when I say, I have often been so +pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog—“Old Nep”—for the +smallest crumbs that fell from the kitchen table, and have been glad +when I won a single crumb in the combat. Many times have I followed, +with eager step, the waiting-girl when she went out to shake the table +cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats. The +water, in which meat had been boiled, was as eagerly sought for by me. +It was a great thing to get the privilege of dipping a piece of bread +in such water; and the skin taken from rusty bacon, was a positive +luxury. Nevertheless, I sometimes got full meals and kind words from +sympathizing old slaves, who knew my sufferings, and received the +comforting assurance that I should be a man some day. “Never mind, +honey—better day comin’,” was even then a solace, a cheering +consolation to me in my troubles. Nor were all the kind words I +received from slaves. I had a friend in the parlor, as well, and one to +whom I shall be glad to do justice, before I have finished this part of +my story. + +I was not long at old master’s, before I learned that his surname was +Anthony, and that he was generally called “Captain Anthony”—a title +which he probably acquired by sailing a craft in the Chesapeake Bay. +Col. Lloyd’s slaves never called Capt. Anthony “old master,” but always +Capt. Anthony; and _me_ they called “Captain Anthony Fred.” There is +not, probably, in the whole south, a plantation where the English +language is more imperfectly spoken than on Col. Lloyd’s. It is a +mixture of Guinea and everything else you please. At the time of which +I am now writing, there were slaves there who had been brought from the +coast of Africa. They never used the “s” in indication of the +possessive case. “Cap’n Ant’ney Tom,” “Lloyd Bill,” “Aunt Rose Harry,” +means “Captain Anthony’s Tom,” “Lloyd’s Bill,” &c. _“Oo you dem long +to?”_ means, “Whom do you belong to?” _“Oo dem got any peachy?”_ means, +“Have you got any peaches?” I could scarcely understand them when I +first went among them, so broken was their speech; and I am persuaded +that I could not have been dropped anywhere on the globe, where I could +reap less, in the way of knowledge, from my immediate associates, than +on this plantation. Even “MAS’ DANIEL,” by his association with his +father’s slaves, had measurably adopted their dialect and their ideas, +so far as they had ideas to be adopted. The equality of nature is +strongly asserted in childhood, and childhood requires children for +associates. _Color_ makes no difference with a child. Are you a child +with wants, tastes and pursuits common to children, not put on, but +natural? then, were you black as ebony you would be welcome to the +child of alabaster whiteness. The law of compensation holds here, as +well as elsewhere. Mas’ Daniel could not associate with ignorance +without sharing its shade; and he could not give his black playmates +his company, without giving them his intelligence, as well. Without +knowing this, or caring about it, at the time, I, for some cause or +other, spent much of my time with Mas’ Daniel, in preference to +spending it with most of the other boys. + +Mas’ Daniel was the youngest son of Col. Lloyd; his older brothers were +Edward and Murray—both grown up, and fine looking men. Edward was +especially esteemed by the children, and by me among the rest; not that +he ever said anything to us or for us, which could be called especially +kind; it was enough for us, that he never looked nor acted scornfully +toward us. There were also three sisters, all married; one to Edward +Winder; a second to Edward Nicholson; a third to Mr. Lownes. + +The family of old master consisted of two sons, Andrew and Richard; his +daughter, Lucretia, and her newly married husband, Capt. Auld. This was +the house family. The kitchen family consisted of Aunt Katy, Aunt +Esther, and ten or a dozen children, most of them older than myself. +Capt. Anthony was not considered a rich slaveholder, but was pretty +well off in the world. He owned about thirty _“head”_ of slaves, and +three farms in Tuckahoe. The most valuable part of his property was his +slaves, of whom he could afford to sell one every year. This crop, +therefore, brought him seven or eight hundred dollars a year, besides +his yearly salary, and other revenue from his farms. + +The idea of rank and station was rigidly maintained on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. Our family never visited the great house, and the Lloyds +never came to our home. Equal non-intercourse was observed between +Capt. Anthony’s family and that of Mr. Sevier, the overseer. + +Such, kind reader, was the community, and such the place, in which my +earliest and most lasting impressions of slavery, and of slave-life, +were received; of which impressions you will learn more in the coming +chapters of this book. + + + + +CHAPTER V. _Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery_ + + +GROWING ACQUAINTANCE WITH OLD MASTER—HIS CHARACTER—EVILS OF +UNRESTRAINED PASSION—APPARENT TENDERNESS—OLD MASTER A MAN OF +TROUBLE—CUSTOM OF MUTTERING TO HIMSELF—NECESSITY OF BEING AWARE OF HIS +WORDS—THE SUPPOSED OBTUSENESS OF SLAVE-CHILDREN—BRUTAL OUTRAGE—DRUNKEN +OVERSEER—SLAVEHOLDER’S IMPATIENCE—WISDOM OF APPEALING TO SUPERIORS—THE +SLAVEHOLDER S WRATH BAD AS THAT OF THE OVERSEER—A BASE AND SELFISH +ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP A COURTSHIP—A HARROWING SCENE. + + +Although my old master—Capt. Anthony—gave me at first, (as the reader +will have already seen) very little attention, and although that little +was of a remarkably mild and gentle description, a few months only were +sufficient to convince me that mildness and gentleness were not the +prevailing or governing traits of his character. These excellent +qualities were displayed only occasionally. He could, when it suited +him, appear to be literally insensible to the claims of humanity, when +appealed to by the helpless against an aggressor, and he could himself +commit outrages, deep, dark and nameless. Yet he was not by nature +worse than other men. Had he been brought up in a free state, +surrounded by the just restraints of free society—restraints which are +necessary to the freedom of all its members, alike and equally—Capt. +Anthony might have been as humane a man, and every way as respectable, +as many who now oppose the slave system; certainly as humane and +respectable as are members of society generally. The slaveholder, as +well as the slave, is the victim of the slave system. A man’s character +greatly takes its hue and shape from the form and color of things about +him. Under the whole heavens there is no relation more unfavorable to +the development of honorable character, than that sustained by the +slaveholder to the slave. Reason is imprisoned here, and passions run +wild. Like the fires of the prairie, once lighted, they are at the +mercy of every wind, and must burn, till they have consumed all that is +combustible within their remorseless grasp. Capt. Anthony could be +kind, and, at times, he even showed an affectionate disposition. Could +the reader have seen him gently leading me by the hand—as he sometimes +did—patting me on the head, speaking to me in soft, caressing tones and +calling me his “little Indian boy,” he would have deemed him a kind old +man, and really, almost fatherly. But the pleasant moods of a +slaveholder are remarkably brittle; they are easily snapped; they +neither come often, nor remain long. His temper is subjected to +perpetual trials; but, since these trials are never borne patiently, +they add nothing to his natural stock of patience. + +Old master very early impressed me with the idea that he was an unhappy +man. Even to my child’s eye, he wore a troubled, and at times, a +haggard aspect. His strange movements excited my curiosity, and +awakened my compassion. He seldom walked alone without muttering to +himself; and he occasionally stormed about, as if defying an army of +invisible foes. “He would do this, that, and the other; he’d be d—d if +he did not,”—was the usual form of his threats. Most of his leisure was +spent in walking, cursing and gesticulating, like one possessed by a +demon. Most evidently, he was a wretched man, at war with his own soul, +and with all the world around him. To be overheard by the children, +disturbed him very little. He made no more of our presence, than of +that of the ducks and geese which he met on the green. He little +thought that the little black urchins around him, could see, through +those vocal crevices, the very secrets of his heart. Slaveholders ever +underrate the intelligence with which they have to grapple. I really +understood the old man’s mutterings, attitudes and gestures, about as +well as he did himself. But slaveholders never encourage that kind of +communication, with the slaves, by which they might learn to measure +the depths of his knowledge. Ignorance is a high virtue in a human +chattel; and as the master studies to keep the slave ignorant, the +slave is cunning enough to make the master think he succeeds. The slave +fully appreciates the saying, “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to +be wise.” When old master’s gestures were violent, ending with a +threatening shake of the head, and a sharp snap of his middle finger +and thumb, I deemed it wise to keep at a respectable distance from him; +for, at such times, trifling faults stood, in his eyes, as momentous +offenses; and, having both the power and the disposition, the victim +had only to be near him to catch the punishment, deserved or +undeserved. + +One of the first circumstances that opened my eyes to the cruelty and +wickedness of slavery, and the heartlessness of my old master, was the +refusal of the latter to interpose his authority, to protect and shield +a young woman, who had been most cruelly abused and beaten by his +overseer in Tuckahoe. This overseer—a Mr. Plummer—was a man like most +of his class, little better than a human brute; and, in addition to his +general profligacy and repulsive coarseness, the creature was a +miserable drunkard. He was, probably, employed by my old master, less +on account of the excellence of his services, than for the cheap rate +at which they could be obtained. He was not fit to have the management +of a drove of mules. In a fit of drunken madness, he committed the +outrage which brought the young woman in question down to my old +master’s for protection. This young woman was the daughter of Milly, an +own aunt of mine. The poor girl, on arriving at our house, presented a +pitiable appearance. She had left in haste, and without preparation; +and, probably, without the knowledge of Mr. Plummer. She had traveled +twelve miles, bare-footed, bare-necked and bare-headed. Her neck and +shoulders were covered with scars, newly made; and not content with +marring her neck and shoulders, with the cowhide, the cowardly brute +had dealt her a blow on the head with a hickory club, which cut a +horrible gash, and left her face literally covered with blood. In this +condition, the poor young woman came down, to implore protection at the +hands of my old master. I expected to see him boil over with rage at +the revolting deed, and to hear him fill the air with curses upon the +brutual Plummer; but I was disappointed. He sternly told her, in an +angry tone, he “believed she deserved every bit of it,” and, if she did +not go home instantly, he would himself take the remaining skin from +her neck and back. Thus was the poor girl compelled to return, without +redress, and perhaps to receive an additional flogging for daring to +appeal to old master against the overseer. + +Old master seemed furious at the thought of being troubled by such +complaints. I did not, at that time, understand the philosophy of his +treatment of my cousin. It was stern, unnatural, violent. Had the man +no bowels of compassion? Was he dead to all sense of humanity? No. I +think I now understand it. This treatment is a part of the system, +rather than a part of the man. Were slaveholders to listen to +complaints of this sort against the overseers, the luxury of owning +large numbers of slaves, would be impossible. It would do away with the +office of overseer, entirely; or, in other words, it would convert the +master himself into an overseer. It would occasion great loss of time +and labor, leaving the overseer in fetters, and without the necessary +power to secure obedience to his orders. A privilege so dangerous as +that of appeal, is, therefore, strictly prohibited; and any one +exercising it, runs a fearful hazard. Nevertheless, when a slave has +nerve enough to exercise it, and boldly approaches his master, with a +well-founded complaint against an overseer, though he may be repulsed, +and may even have that of which he complains repeated at the time, and, +though he may be beaten by his master, as well as by the overseer, for +his temerity, in the end the policy of complaining is, generally, +vindicated by the relaxed rigor of the overseer’s treatment. The latter +becomes more careful, and less disposed to use the lash upon such +slaves thereafter. It is with this final result in view, rather than +with any expectation of immediate good, that the outraged slave is +induced to meet his master with a complaint. The overseer very +naturally dislikes to have the ear of the master disturbed by +complaints; and, either upon this consideration, or upon advice and +warning privately given him by his employers, he generally modifies the +rigor of his rule, after an outbreak of the kind to which I have been +referring. + +Howsoever the slaveholder may allow himself to act toward his slave, +and, whatever cruelty he may deem it wise, for example’s sake, or for +the gratification of his humor, to inflict, he cannot, in the absence +of all provocation, look with pleasure upon the bleeding wounds of a +defenseless slave-woman. When he drives her from his presence without +redress, or the hope of redress, he acts, generally, from motives of +policy, rather than from a hardened nature, or from innate brutality. +Yet, let but his own temper be stirred, his own passions get loose, and +the slave-owner will go _far beyond_ the overseer in cruelty. He will +convince the slave that his wrath is far more terrible and boundless, +and vastly more to be dreaded, than that of the underling overseer. +What may have been mechanically and heartlessly done by the overseer, +is now done with a will. The man who now wields the lash is +irresponsible. He may, if he pleases, cripple or kill, without fear of +consequences; except in so far as it may concern profit or loss. To a +man of violent temper—as my old master was—this was but a very slender +and inefficient restraint. I have seen him in a tempest of passion, +such as I have just described—a passion into which entered all the +bitter ingredients of pride, hatred, envy, jealousy, and the +thrist(sic) for revenge. + +The circumstances which I am about to narrate, and which gave rise to +this fearful tempest of passion, are not singular nor isolated in slave +life, but are common in every slaveholding community in which I have +lived. They are incidental to the relation of master and slave, and +exist in all sections of slave-holding countries. + +The reader will have noticed that, in enumerating the names of the +slaves who lived with my old master, _Esther_ is mentioned. This was a +young woman who possessed that which is ever a curse to the slave-girl; +namely—personal beauty. She was tall, well formed, and made a fine +appearance. The daughters of Col. Lloyd could scarcely surpass her in +personal charms. Esther was courted by Ned Roberts, and he was as fine +looking a young man, as she was a woman. He was the son of a favorite +slave of Col. Lloyd. Some slaveholders would have been glad to promote +the marriage of two such persons; but, for some reason or other, my old +master took it upon him to break up the growing intimacy between Esther +and Edward. He strictly ordered her to quit the company of said +Roberts, telling her that he would punish her severely if he ever found +her again in Edward’s company. This unnatural and heartless order was, +of course, broken. A woman’s love is not to be annihilated by the +peremptory command of any one, whose breath is in his nostrils. It was +impossible to keep Edward and Esther apart. Meet they would, and meet +they did. Had old master been a man of honor and purity, his motives, +in this matter, might have been viewed more favorably. As it was, his +motives were as abhorrent, as his methods were foolish and +contemptible. It was too evident that he was not concerned for the +girl’s welfare. It is one of the damning characteristics of the slave +system, that it robs its victims of every earthly incentive to a holy +life. The fear of God, and the hope of heaven, are found sufficient to +sustain many slave-women, amidst the snares and dangers of their +strange lot; but, this side of God and heaven, a slave-woman is at the +mercy of the power, caprice and passion of her owner. Slavery provides +no means for the honorable continuance of the race. Marriage as +imposing obligations on the parties to it—has no existence here, except +in such hearts as are purer and higher than the standard morality +around them. It is one of the consolations of my life, that I know of +many honorable instances of persons who maintained their honor, where +all around was corrupt. + +Esther was evidently much attached to Edward, and abhorred—as she had +reason to do—the tyrannical and base behavior of old master. Edward was +young, and fine looking, and he loved and courted her. He might have +been her husband, in the high sense just alluded to; but WHO and _what_ +was this old master? His attentions were plainly brutal and selfish, +and it was as natural that Esther should loathe him, as that she should +love Edward. Abhorred and circumvented as he was, old master, having +the power, very easily took revenge. I happened to see this exhibition +of his rage and cruelty toward Esther. The time selected was singular. +It was early in the morning, when all besides was still, and before any +of the family, in the house or kitchen, had left their beds. I saw but +few of the shocking preliminaries, for the cruel work had begun before +I awoke. I was probably awakened by the shrieks and piteous cries of +poor Esther. My sleeping place was on the floor of a little, rough +closet, which opened into the kitchen; and through the cracks of its +unplaned boards, I could distinctly see and hear what was going on, +without being seen by old master. Esther’s wrists were firmly tied, and +the twisted rope was fastened to a strong staple in a heavy wooden +joist above, near the fireplace. Here she stood, on a bench, her arms +tightly drawn over her breast. Her back and shoulders were bare to the +waist. Behind her stood old master, with cowskin in hand, preparing his +barbarous work with all manner of harsh, coarse, and tantalizing +epithets. The screams of his victim were most piercing. He was cruelly +deliberate, and protracted the torture, as one who was delighted with +the scene. Again and again he drew the hateful whip through his hand, +adjusting it with a view of dealing the most pain-giving blow. Poor +Esther had never yet been severely whipped, and her shoulders were +plump and tender. Each blow, vigorously laid on, brought screams as +well as blood. _“Have mercy; Oh! have mercy”_ she cried; “_I won’t do +so no more;”_ but her piercing cries seemed only to increase his fury. +His answers to them are too coarse and blasphemous to be produced here. +The whole scene, with all its attendants, was revolting and shocking, +to the last degree; and when the motives of this brutal castigation are +considered,—language has no power to convey a just sense of its awful +criminality. After laying on some thirty or forty stripes, old master +untied his suffering victim, and let her get down. She could scarcely +stand, when untied. From my heart I pitied her, and—child though I +was—the outrage kindled in me a feeling far from peaceful; but I was +hushed, terrified, stunned, and could do nothing, and the fate of +Esther might be mine next. The scene here described was often repeated +in the case of poor Esther, and her life, as I knew it, was one of +wretchedness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. _Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation_ + + +EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY—PRESENTIMENT OF ONE DAY BEING A +FREEMAN—COMBAT BETWEEN AN OVERSEER AND A SLAVEWOMAN—THE ADVANTAGES OF +RESISTANCE—ALLOWANCE DAY ON THE HOME PLANTATION—THE SINGING OF +SLAVES—AN EXPLANATION—THE SLAVES FOOD AND CLOTHING—NAKED CHILDREN—LIFE +IN THE QUARTER—DEPRIVATION OF SLEEP—NURSING CHILDREN CARRIED TO THE +FIELD—DESCRIPTION OF THE COWSKIN—THE ASH-CAKE—MANNER OF MAKING IT—THE +DINNER HOUR—THE CONTRAST. + + +The heart-rending incidents, related in the foregoing chapter, led me, +thus early, to inquire into the nature and history of slavery. _Why am +I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters? Was there +ever a time this was not so? How did the relation commence?_ These were +the perplexing questions which began now to claim my thoughts, and to +exercise the weak powers of my mind, for I was still but a child, and +knew less than children of the same age in the free states. As my +questions concerning these things were only put to children a little +older, and little better informed than myself, I was not rapid in +reaching a solid footing. By some means I learned from these inquiries +that _“God, up in the sky,”_ made every body; and that he made _white_ +people to be masters and mistresses, and _black_ people to be slaves. +This did not satisfy me, nor lessen my interest in the subject. I was +told, too, that God was good, and that He knew what was best for me, +and best for everybody. This was less satisfactory than the first +statement; because it came, point blank, against all my notions of +goodness. It was not good to let old master cut the flesh off Esther, +and make her cry so. Besides, how did people know that God made black +people to be slaves? Did they go up in the sky and learn it? or, did He +come down and tell them so? All was dark here. It was some relief to my +hard notions of the goodness of God, that, although he made white men +to be slaveholders, he did not make them to be _bad_ slaveholders, and +that, in due time, he would punish the bad slaveholders; that he would, +when they died, send them to the bad place, where they would be “burnt +up.” Nevertheless, I could not reconcile the relation of slavery with +my crude notions of goodness. + +Then, too, I found that there were puzzling exceptions to this theory +of slavery on both sides, and in the middle. I knew of blacks who were +_not_ slaves; I knew of whites who were _not_ slaveholders; and I knew +of persons who were _nearly_ white, who were slaves. _Color_, +therefore, was a very unsatisfactory basis for slavery. + +Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in finding +out the true solution of the matter. It was not _color_, but _crime_, +not _God_, but _man_, that afforded the true explanation of the +existence of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important +truth, viz: what man can make, man can unmake. The appalling darkness +faded away, and I was master of the subject. There were slaves here, +direct from Guinea; and there were many who could say that their +fathers and mothers were stolen from Africa—forced from their homes, +and compelled to serve as slaves. This, to me, was knowledge; but it +was a kind of knowledge which filled me with a burning hatred of +slavery, increased my suffering, and left me without the means of +breaking away from my bondage. Yet it was knowledge quite worth +possessing. I could not have been more than seven or eight years old, +when I began to make this subject my study. It was with me in the woods +and fields; along the shore of the river, and wherever my boyish +wanderings led me; and though I was, at that time, quite ignorant of +the existence of the free states, I distinctly remember being, _even +then_, most strongly impressed with the idea of being a freeman some +day. This cheering assurance was an inborn dream of my human nature a +constant menace to slavery—and one which all the powers of slavery were +unable to silence or extinguish. + +Up to the time of the brutal flogging of my Aunt Esther—for she was my +own aunt—and the horrid plight in which I had seen my cousin from +Tuckahoe, who had been so badly beaten by the cruel Mr. Plummer, my +attention had not been called, especially, to the gross features of +slavery. I had, of course, heard of whippings and of savage +_rencontres_ between overseers and slaves, but I had always been out of +the way at the times and places of their occurrence. My plays and +sports, most of the time, took me from the corn and tobacco fields, +where the great body of the hands were at work, and where scenes of +cruelty were enacted and witnessed. But, after the whipping of Aunt +Esther, I saw many cases of the same shocking nature, not only in my +master’s house, but on Col. Lloyd’s plantation. One of the first which +I saw, and which greatly agitated me, was the whipping of a woman +belonging to Col. Lloyd, named Nelly. The offense alleged against +Nelly, was one of the commonest and most indefinite in the whole +catalogue of offenses usually laid to the charge of slaves, viz: +“impudence.” This may mean almost anything, or nothing at all, just +according to the caprice of the master or overseer, at the moment. But, +whatever it is, or is not, if it gets the name of “impudence,” the +party charged with it is sure of a flogging. This offense may be +committed in various ways; in the tone of an answer; in answering at +all; in not answering; in the expression of countenance; in the motion +of the head; in the gait, manner and bearing of the slave. In the case +under consideration, I can easily believe that, according to all +slaveholding standards, here was a genuine instance of impudence. In +Nelly there were all the necessary conditions for committing the +offense. She was a bright mulatto, the recognized wife of a favorite +“hand” on board Col. Lloyd’s sloop, and the mother of five sprightly +children. She was a vigorous and spirited woman, and one of the most +likely, on the plantation, to be guilty of impudence. My attention was +called to the scene, by the noise, curses and screams that proceeded +from it; and, on going a little in that direction, I came upon the +parties engaged in the skirmish. Mr. Siever, the overseer, had hold of +Nelly, when I caught sight of them; he was endeavoring to drag her +toward a tree, which endeavor Nelly was sternly resisting; but to no +purpose, except to retard the progress of the overseer’s plans. +Nelly—as I have said—was the mother of five children; three of them +were present, and though quite small (from seven to ten years old, I +should think) they gallantly came to their mother’s defense, and gave +the overseer an excellent pelting with stones. One of the little +fellows ran up, seized the overseer by the leg and bit him; but the +monster was too busily engaged with Nelly, to pay any attention to the +assaults of the children. There were numerous bloody marks on Mr. +Sevier’s face, when I first saw him, and they increased as the struggle +went on. The imprints of Nelly’s fingers were visible, and I was glad +to see them. Amidst the wild screams of the children—“_Let my mammy +go”—“let my mammy go_”—there escaped, from between the teeth of the +bullet-headed overseer, a few bitter curses, mingled with threats, that +“he would teach the d—d b—h how to give a white man impudence.” There +is no doubt that Nelly felt herself superior, in some respects, to the +slaves around her. She was a wife and a mother; her husband was a +valued and favorite slave. Besides, he was one of the first hands on +board of the sloop, and the sloop hands—since they had to represent the +plantation abroad—were generally treated tenderly. The overseer never +was allowed to whip Harry; why then should he be allowed to whip +Harry’s wife? Thoughts of this kind, no doubt, influenced her; but, for +whatever reason, she nobly resisted, and, unlike most of the slaves, +seemed determined to make her whipping cost Mr. Sevier as much as +possible. The blood on his (and her) face, attested her skill, as well +as her courage and dexterity in using her nails. Maddened by her +resistance, I expected to see Mr. Sevier level her to the ground by a +stunning blow; but no; like a savage bull-dog—which he resembled both +in temper and appearance—he maintained his grip, and steadily dragged +his victim toward the tree, disregarding alike her blows, and the cries +of the children for their mother’s release. He would, doubtless, have +knocked her down with his hickory stick, but that such act might have +cost him his place. It is often deemed advisable to knock a _man_ slave +down, in order to tie him, but it is considered cowardly and +inexcusable, in an overseer, thus to deal with a _woman_. He is +expected to tie her up, and to give her what is called, in southern +parlance, a “genteel flogging,” without any very great outlay of +strength or skill. I watched, with palpitating interest, the course of +the preliminary struggle, and was saddened by every new advantage +gained over her by the ruffian. There were times when she seemed likely +to get the better of the brute, but he finally overpowered her, and +succeeded in getting his rope around her arms, and in firmly tying her +to the tree, at which he had been aiming. This done, and Nelly was at +the mercy of his merciless lash; and now, what followed, I have no +heart to describe. The cowardly creature made good his every threat; +and wielded the lash with all the hot zest of furious revenge. The +cries of the woman, while undergoing the terrible infliction, were +mingled with those of the children, sounds which I hope the reader may +never be called upon to hear. When Nelly was untied, her back was +covered with blood. The red stripes were all over her shoulders. She +was whipped—severely whipped; but she was not subdued, for she +continued to denounce the overseer, and to call him every vile name. He +had bruised her flesh, but had left her invincible spirit undaunted. +Such floggings are seldom repeated by the same overseer. They prefer to +whip those who are most easily whipped. The old doctrine that +submission is the very best cure for outrage and wrong, does not hold +good on the slave plantation. He is whipped oftenest, who is whipped +easiest; and that slave who has the courage to stand up for himself +against the overseer, although he may have many hard stripes at the +first, becomes, in the end, a freeman, even though he sustain the +formal relation of a slave. “You can shoot me but you can’t whip me,” +said a slave to Rigby Hopkins; and the result was that he was neither +whipped nor shot. If the latter had been his fate, it would have been +less deplorable than the living and lingering death to which cowardly +and slavish souls are subjected. I do not know that Mr. Sevier ever +undertook to whip Nelly again. He probably never did, for it was not +long after his attempt to subdue her, that he was taken sick, and died. +The wretched man died as he had lived, unrepentant; and it was +said—with how much truth I know not—that in the very last hours of his +life, his ruling passion showed itself, and that when wrestling with +death, he was uttering horrid oaths, and flourishing the cowskin, as +though he was tearing the flesh off some helpless slave. One thing is +certain, that when he was in health, it was enough to chill the blood, +and to stiffen the hair of an ordinary man, to hear Mr. Sevier talk. +Nature, or his cruel habits, had given to his face an expression of +unusual savageness, even for a slave-driver. Tobacco and rage had worn +his teeth short, and nearly every sentence that escaped their +compressed grating, was commenced or concluded with some outburst of +profanity. His presence made the field alike the field of blood, and of +blasphemy. Hated for his cruelty, despised for his cowardice, his death +was deplored by no one outside his own house—if indeed it was deplored +there; it was regarded by the slaves as a merciful interposition of +Providence. Never went there a man to the grave loaded with heavier +curses. Mr. Sevier’s place was promptly taken by a Mr. Hopkins, and the +change was quite a relief, he being a very different man. He was, in +all respects, a better man than his predecessor; as good as any man can +be, and yet be an overseer. His course was characterized by no +extraordinary cruelty; and when he whipped a slave, as he sometimes +did, he seemed to take no especial pleasure in it, but, on the +contrary, acted as though he felt it to be a mean business. Mr. Hopkins +stayed but a short time; his place much to the regret of the slaves +generally—was taken by a Mr. Gore, of whom more will be said hereafter. +It is enough, for the present, to say, that he was no improvement on +Mr. Sevier, except that he was less noisy and less profane. + +I have already referred to the business-like aspect of Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. This business-like appearance was much increased on the two +days at the end of each month, when the slaves from the different farms +came to get their monthly allowance of meal and meat. These were gala +days for the slaves, and there was much rivalry among them as to _who_ +should be elected to go up to the great house farm for the allowance, +and, indeed, to attend to any business at this (for them) the capital. +The beauty and grandeur of the place, its numerous slave population, +and the fact that Harry, Peter and Jake the sailors of the sloop—almost +always kept, privately, little trinkets which they bought at Baltimore, +to sell, made it a privilege to come to the great house farm. Being +selected, too, for this office, was deemed a high honor. It was taken +as a proof of confidence and favor; but, probably, the chief motive of +the competitors for the place, was, a desire to break the dull monotony +of the field, and to get beyond the overseer’s eye and lash. Once on +the road with an ox team, and seated on the tongue of his cart, with no +overseer to look after him, the slave was comparatively free; and, if +thoughtful, he had time to think. Slaves are generally expected to sing +as well as to work. A silent slave is not liked by masters or +overseers. _“Make a noise,” “make a noise,”_ and _“bear a hand,”_ are +the words usually addressed to the slaves when there is silence amongst +them. This may account for the almost constant singing heard in the +southern states. There was, generally, more or less singing among the +teamsters, as it was one means of letting the overseer know where they +were, and that they were moving on with the work. But, on allowance +day, those who visited the great house farm were peculiarly excited and +noisy. While on their way, they would make the dense old woods, for +miles around, reverberate with their wild notes. These were not always +merry because they were wild. On the contrary, they were mostly of a +plaintive cast, and told a tale of grief and sorrow. In the most +boisterous outbursts of rapturous sentiment, there was ever a tinge of +deep melancholy. I have never heard any songs like those anywhere since +I left slavery, except when in Ireland. There I heard the same _wailing +notes_, and was much affected by them. It was during the famine of +1845-6. In all the songs of the slaves, there was ever some expression +in praise of the great house farm; something which would flatter the +pride of the owner, and, possibly, draw a favorable glance from him. + +I am going away to the great house farm, +O yea! O yea! O yea! +My old master is a good old master, +O yea! O yea! O yea! + + +This they would sing, with other words of their own improvising—jargon +to others, but full of meaning to themselves. I have sometimes thought, +that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress truly +spiritual-minded men and women with the soul-crushing and death-dealing +character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of its mere +physical cruelties. They speak to the heart and to the soul of the +thoughtful. I cannot better express my sense of them now, than ten +years ago, when, in sketching my life, I thus spoke of this feature of +my plantation experience: + +I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meanings of those rude, +and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle, so +that I neither saw or heard as those without might see and hear. They +told a tale which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; +they were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and +complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone +was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance +from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my +spirits, and filled my heart with ineffable sadness. The mere +recurrence, even now, afflicts my spirit, and while I am writing these +lines, my tears are falling. To those songs I trace my first glimmering +conceptions of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get +rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my +hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. +If any one wishes to be impressed with a sense of the soul-killing +power of slavery, let him go to Col. Lloyd’s plantation, and, on +allowance day, place himself in the deep, pine woods, and there let +him, in silence, thoughtfully analyze the sounds that shall pass +through the chambers of his soul, and if he is not thus impressed, it +will only be because “there is no flesh in his obdurate heart.” + +The remark is not unfrequently made, that slaves are the most contended +and happy laborers in the world. They dance and sing, and make all +manner of joyful noises—so they do; but it is a great mistake to +suppose them happy because they sing. The songs of the slave represent +the sorrows, rather than the joys, of his heart; and he is relieved by +them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. Such is the +constitution of the human mind, that, when pressed to extremes, it +often avails itself of the most opposite methods. Extremes meet in mind +as in matter. When the slaves on board of the “Pearl” were overtaken, +arrested, and carried to prison—their hopes for freedom blasted—as they +marched in chains they sang, and found (as Emily Edmunson tells us) a +melancholy relief in singing. The singing of a man cast away on a +desolate island, might be as appropriately considered an evidence of +his contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave. Sorrow and +desolation have their songs, as well as joy and peace. Slaves sing more +to _make_ themselves happy, than to express their happiness. + +It is the boast of slaveholders, that their slaves enjoy more of the +physical comforts of life than the peasantry of any country in the +world. My experience contradicts this. The men and the women slaves on +Col. Lloyd’s farm, received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight +pounds of pickled pork, or their equivalent in fish. The pork was often +tainted, and the fish was of the poorest quality—herrings, which would +bring very little if offered for sale in any northern market. With +their pork or fish, they had one bushel of Indian meal—unbolted—of +which quite fifteen per cent was fit only to feed pigs. With this, one +pint of salt was given; and this was the entire monthly allowance of a +full grown slave, working constantly in the open field, from morning +until night, every day in the month except Sunday, and living on a +fraction more than a quarter of a pound of meat per day, and less than +a peck of corn-meal per week. There is no kind of work that a man can +do which requires a better supply of food to prevent physical +exhaustion, than the field-work of a slave. So much for the slave’s +allowance of food; now for his raiment. The yearly allowance of +clothing for the slaves on this plantation, consisted of two tow-linen +shirts—such linen as the coarsest crash towels are made of; one pair of +trowsers of the same material, for summer, and a pair of trowsers and a +jacket of woolen, most slazily put together, for winter; one pair of +yarn stockings, and one pair of shoes of the coarsest description. The +slave’s entire apparel could not have cost more than eight dollars per +year. The allowance of food and clothing for the little children, was +committed to their mothers, or to the older slavewomen having the care +of them. Children who were unable to work in the field, had neither +shoes, stockings, jackets nor trowsers given them. Their clothing +consisted of two coarse tow-linen shirts—already described—per year; +and when these failed them, as they often did, they went naked until +the next allowance day. Flocks of little children from five to ten +years old, might be seen on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, as destitute of +clothing as any little heathen on the west coast of Africa; and this, +not merely during the summer months, but during the frosty weather of +March. The little girls were no better off than the boys; all were +nearly in a state of nudity. + +As to beds to sleep on, they were known to none of the field hands; +nothing but a coarse blanket—not so good as those used in the north to +cover horses—was given them, and this only to the men and women. The +children stuck themselves in holes and corners, about the quarters; +often in the corner of the huge chimneys, with their feet in the ashes +to keep them warm. The want of beds, however, was not considered a very +great privation. Time to sleep was of far greater importance, for, when +the day’s work is done, most of the slaves have their washing, mending +and cooking to do; and, having few or none of the ordinary facilities +for doing such things, very many of their sleeping hours are consumed +in necessary preparations for the duties of the coming day. + +The sleeping apartments—if they may be called such—have little regard +to comfort or decency. Old and young, male and female, married and +single, drop down upon the common clay floor, each covering up with his +or her blanket,—the only protection they have from cold or exposure. +The night, however, is shortened at both ends. The slaves work often as +long as they can see, and are late in cooking and mending for the +coming day; and, at the first gray streak of morning, they are summoned +to the field by the driver’s horn. + +More slaves are whipped for oversleeping than for any other fault. +Neither age nor sex finds any favor. The overseer stands at the quarter +door, armed with stick and cowskin, ready to whip any who may be a few +minutes behind time. When the horn is blown, there is a rush for the +door, and the hindermost one is sure to get a blow from the overseer. +Young mothers who worked in the field, were allowed an hour, about ten +o’clock in the morning, to go home to nurse their children. Sometimes +they were compelled to take their children with them, and to leave them +in the corner of the fences, to prevent loss of time in nursing them. +The overseer generally rides about the field on horseback. A cowskin +and a hickory stick are his constant companions. The cowskin is a kind +of whip seldom seen in the northern states. It is made entirely of +untanned, but dried, ox hide, and is about as hard as a piece of +well-seasoned live oak. It is made of various sizes, but the usual +length is about three feet. The part held in the hand is nearly an inch +in thickness; and, from the extreme end of the butt or handle, the +cowskin tapers its whole length to a point. This makes it quite elastic +and springy. A blow with it, on the hardest back, will gash the flesh, +and make the blood start. Cowskins are painted red, blue and green, and +are the favorite slave whip. I think this whip worse than the +“cat-o’nine-tails.” It condenses the whole strength of the arm to a +single point, and comes with a spring that makes the air whistle. It is +a terrible instrument, and is so handy, that the overseer can always +have it on his person, and ready for use. The temptation to use it is +ever strong; and an overseer can, if disposed, always have cause for +using it. With him, it is literally a word and a blow, and, in most +cases, the blow comes first. + +As a general rule, slaves do not come to the quarters for either +breakfast or dinner, but take their “ash cake” with them, and eat it in +the field. This was so on the home plantation; probably, because the +distance from the quarter to the field, was sometimes two, and even +three miles. + +The dinner of the slaves consisted of a huge piece of ash cake, and a +small piece of pork, or two salt herrings. Not having ovens, nor any +suitable cooking utensils, the slaves mixed their meal with a little +water, to such thickness that a spoon would stand erect in it; and, +after the wood had burned away to coals and ashes, they would place the +dough between oak leaves and lay it carefully in the ashes, completely +covering it; hence, the bread is called ash cake. The surface of this +peculiar bread is covered with ashes, to the depth of a sixteenth part +of an inch, and the ashes, certainly, do not make it very grateful to +the teeth, nor render it very palatable. The bran, or coarse part of +the meal, is baked with the fine, and bright scales run through the +bread. This bread, with its ashes and bran, would disgust and choke a +northern man, but it is quite liked by the slaves. They eat it with +avidity, and are more concerned about the quantity than about the +quality. They are far too scantily provided for, and are worked too +steadily, to be much concerned for the quality of their food. The few +minutes allowed them at dinner time, after partaking of their coarse +repast, are variously spent. Some lie down on the “turning row,” and go +to sleep; others draw together, and talk; and others are at work with +needle and thread, mending their tattered garments. Sometimes you may +hear a wild, hoarse laugh arise from a circle, and often a song. Soon, +however, the overseer comes dashing through the field. _“Tumble up! +Tumble up_, and to _work, work,”_ is the cry; and, now, from twelve +o’clock (mid-day) till dark, the human cattle are in motion, wielding +their clumsy hoes; hurried on by no hope of reward, no sense of +gratitude, no love of children, no prospect of bettering their +condition; nothing, save the dread and terror of the slave-driver’s +lash. So goes one day, and so comes and goes another. + +But, let us now leave the rough usage of the field, where vulgar +coarseness and brutal cruelty spread themselves and flourish, rank as +weeds in the tropics; where a vile wretch, in the shape of a man, +rides, walks, or struts about, dealing blows, and leaving gashes on +broken-spirited men and helpless women, for thirty dollars per month—a +business so horrible, hardening and disgraceful, that, rather, than +engage in it, a decent man would blow his own brains out—and let the +reader view with me the equally wicked, but less repulsive aspects of +slave life; where pride and pomp roll luxuriously at ease; where the +toil of a thousand men supports a single family in easy idleness and +sin. This is the great house; it is the home of the LLOYDS! Some idea +of its splendor has already been given—and, it is here that we shall +find that height of luxury which is the opposite of that depth of +poverty and physical wretchedness that we have just now been +contemplating. But, there is this difference in the two extremes; viz: +that in the case of the slave, the miseries and hardships of his lot +are imposed by others, and, in the master’s case, they are imposed by +himself. The slave is a subject, subjected by others; the slaveholder +is a subject, but he is the author of his own subjection. There is more +truth in the saying, that slavery is a greater evil to the master than +to the slave, than many, who utter it, suppose. The self-executing laws +of eternal justice follow close on the heels of the evil-doer here, as +well as elsewhere; making escape from all its penalties impossible. +But, let others philosophize; it is my province here to relate and +describe; only allowing myself a word or two, occasionally, to assist +the reader in the proper understanding of the facts narrated. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. _Life in the Great House_ + + +COMFORTS AND LUXURIES—ELABORATE EXPENDITURE—HOUSE SERVANTS—MEN SERVANTS +AND MAID SERVANTS—APPEARANCES—SLAVE ARISTOCRACY—STABLE AND CARRIAGE +HOUSE—BOUNDLESS HOSPITALITY—FRAGRANCE OF RICH DISHES—THE DECEPTIVE +CHARACTER OF SLAVERY—SLAVES SEEM HAPPY—SLAVES AND SLAVEHOLDERS ALIKE +WRETCHED—FRETFUL DISCONTENT OF SLAVEHOLDERS—FAULT-FINDING—OLD +BARNEY—HIS PROFESSION—WHIPPING—HUMILIATING SPECTACLE—CASE +EXCEPTIONAL—WILLIAM WILKS—SUPPOSED SON OF COL. LLOYD—CURIOUS +INCIDENT—SLAVES PREFER RICH MASTERS TO POOR ONES. + + +The close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse corn-meal +and tainted meat; that clothed him in crashy tow-linen, and hurried him +to toil through the field, in all weathers, with wind and rain beating +through his tattered garments; that scarcely gave even the young +slave-mother time to nurse her hungry infant in the fence corner; +wholly vanishes on approaching the sacred precincts of the great house, +the home of the Lloyds. There the scriptural phrase finds an exact +illustration; the highly favored inmates of this mansion are literally +arrayed “in purple and fine linen,” and fare sumptuously every day! The +table groans under the heavy and blood-bought luxuries gathered with +painstaking care, at home and abroad. Fields, forests, rivers and seas, +are made tributary here. Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, +fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the +taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great _desideratum_. Fish, +flesh and fowl, are here in profusion. Chickens, of all breeds; ducks, +of all kinds, wild and tame, the common, and the huge Muscovite; Guinea +fowls, turkeys, geese, and pea fowls, are in their several pens, fat +and fatting for the destined vortex. The graceful swan, the mongrels, +the black-necked wild goose; partridges, quails, pheasants and pigeons; +choice water fowl, with all their strange varieties, are caught in this +huge family net. Beef, veal, mutton and venison, of the most select +kinds and quality, roll bounteously to this grand consumer. The teeming +riches of the Chesapeake bay, its rock, perch, drums, crocus, trout, +oysters, crabs, and terrapin, are drawn hither to adorn the glittering +table of the great house. The dairy, too, probably the finest on the +Eastern Shore of Maryland—supplied by cattle of the best English stock, +imported for the purpose, pours its rich donations of fragant cheese, +golden butter, and delicious cream, to heighten the attraction of the +gorgeous, unending round of feasting. Nor are the fruits of the earth +forgotten or neglected. The fertile garden, many acres in size, +constituting a separate establishment, distinct from the common +farm—with its scientific gardener, imported from Scotland (a Mr. +McDermott) with four men under his direction, was not behind, either in +the abundance or in the delicacy of its contributions to the same full +board. The tender asparagus, the succulent celery, and the delicate +cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French +beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes, melons of all kinds; the +fruits and flowers of all climes and of all descriptions, from the +hardy apple of the north, to the lemon and orange of the south, +culminated at this point. Baltimore gathered figs, raisins, almonds and +juicy grapes from Spain. Wines and brandies from France; teas of +various flavor, from China; and rich, aromatic coffee from Java, all +conspired to swell the tide of high life, where pride and indolence +rolled and lounged in magnificence and satiety. + +Behind the tall-backed and elaborately wrought chairs, stand the +servants, men and maidens—fifteen in number—discriminately selected, +not only with a view to their industry and faithfulness, but with +special regard to their personal appearance, their graceful agility and +captivating address. Some of these are armed with fans, and are fanning +reviving breezes toward the over-heated brows of the alabaster ladies; +others watch with eager eye, and with fawn-like step anticipate and +supply wants before they are sufficiently formed to be announced by +word or sign. + +These servants constituted a sort of black aristocracy on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. They resembled the field hands in nothing, except in color, +and in this they held the advantage of a velvet-like glossiness, rich +and beautiful. The hair, too, showed the same advantage. The delicate +colored maid rustled in the scarcely worn silk of her young mistress, +while the servant men were equally well attired from the over-flowing +wardrobe of their young masters; so that, in dress, as well as in form +and feature, in manner and speech, in tastes and habits, the distance +between these favored few, and the sorrow and hunger-smitten multitudes +of the quarter and the field, was immense; and this is seldom passed +over. + +Let us now glance at the stables and the carriage house, and we shall +find the same evidences of pride and luxurious extravagance. Here are +three splendid coaches, soft within and lustrous without. Here, too, +are gigs, phaetons, barouches, sulkeys and sleighs. Here are saddles +and harnesses—beautifully wrought and silver mounted—kept with every +care. In the stable you will find, kept only for pleasure, full +thirty-five horses, of the most approved blood for speed and beauty. +There are two men here constantly employed in taking care of these +horses. One of these men must be always in the stable, to answer every +call from the great house. Over the way from the stable, is a house +built expressly for the hounds—a pack of twenty-five or thirty—whose +fare would have made glad the heart of a dozen slaves. Horses and +hounds are not the only consumers of the slave’s toil. There was +practiced, at the Lloyd’s, a hospitality which would have astonished +and charmed any health-seeking northern divine or merchant, who might +have chanced to share it. Viewed from his own table, and _not_ from the +field, the colonel was a model of generous hospitality. His house was, +literally, a hotel, for weeks during the summer months. At these times, +especially, the air was freighted with the rich fumes of baking, +boiling, roasting and broiling. The odors I shared with the winds; but +the meats were under a more stringent monopoly except that, +occasionally, I got a cake from Mas’ Daniel. In Mas’ Daniel I had a +friend at court, from whom I learned many things which my eager +curiosity was excited to know. I always knew when company was expected, +and who they were, although I was an outsider, being the property, not +of Col. Lloyd, but of a servant of the wealthy colonel. On these +occasions, all that pride, taste and money could do, to dazzle and +charm, was done. + +Who could say that the servants of Col. Lloyd were not well clad and +cared for, after witnessing one of his magnificent entertainments? Who +could say that they did not seem to glory in being the slaves of such a +master? Who, but a fanatic, could get up any sympathy for persons whose +every movement was agile, easy and graceful, and who evinced a +consciousness of high superiority? And who would ever venture to +suspect that Col. Lloyd was subject to the troubles of ordinary +mortals? Master and slave seem alike in their glory here? Can it all be +seeming? Alas! it may only be a sham at last! This immense wealth; this +gilded splendor; this profusion of luxury; this exemption from toil; +this life of ease; this sea of plenty; aye, what of it all? Are the +pearly gates of happiness and sweet content flung open to such suitors? +_far from it!_ The poor slave, on his hard, pine plank, but scantily +covered with his thin blanket, sleeps more soundly than the feverish +voluptuary who reclines upon his feather bed and downy pillow. Food, to +the indolent lounger, is poison, not sustenance. Lurking beneath all +their dishes, are invisible spirits of evil, ready to feed the +self-deluded gormandizers which aches, pains, fierce temper, +uncontrolled passions, dyspepsia, rheumatism, lumbago and gout; and of +these the Lloyds got their full share. To the pampered love of ease, +there is no resting place. What is pleasant today, is repulsive +tomorrow; what is soft now, is hard at another time; what is sweet in +the morning, is bitter in the evening. Neither to the wicked, nor to +the idler, is there any solid peace: _“Troubled, like the restless +sea.”_ + +I had excellent opportunities of witnessing the restless discontent and +the capricious irritation of the Lloyds. My fondness for horses—not +peculiar to me more than to other boys attracted me, much of the time, +to the stables. This establishment was especially under the care of +“old” and “young” Barney—father and son. Old Barney was a fine looking +old man, of a brownish complexion, who was quite portly, and wore a +dignified aspect for a slave. He was, evidently, much devoted to his +profession, and held his office an honorable one. He was a farrier as +well as an ostler; he could bleed, remove lampers from the mouths of +the horses, and was well instructed in horse medicines. No one on the +farm knew, so well as Old Barney, what to do with a sick horse. But his +gifts and acquirements were of little advantage to him. His office was +by no means an enviable one. He often got presents, but he got stripes +as well; for in nothing was Col. Lloyd more unreasonable and exacting, +than in respect to the management of his pleasure horses. Any supposed +inattention to these animals were sure to be visited with degrading +punishment. His horses and dogs fared better than his men. Their beds +must be softer and cleaner than those of his human cattle. No excuse +could shield Old Barney, if the colonel only suspected something wrong +about his horses; and, consequently, he was often punished when +faultless. It was absolutely painful to listen to the many unreasonable +and fretful scoldings, poured out at the stable, by Col. Lloyd, his +sons and sons-in-law. Of the latter, he had three—Messrs. Nicholson, +Winder and Lownes. These all lived at the great house a portion of the +year, and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the servants when they +pleased, which was by no means unfrequently. A horse was seldom brought +out of the stable to which no objection could be raised. “There was +dust in his hair;” “there was a twist in his reins;” “his mane did not +lie straight;” “he had not been properly grained;” “his head did not +look well;” “his fore-top was not combed out;” “his fetlocks had not +been properly trimmed;” something was always wrong. Listening to +complaints, however groundless, Barney must stand, hat in hand, lips +sealed, never answering a word. He must make no reply, no explanation; +the judgment of the master must be deemed infallible, for his power is +absolute and irresponsible. In a free state, a master, thus complaining +without cause, of his ostler, might be told—“Sir, I am sorry I cannot +please you, but, since I have done the best I can, your remedy is to +dismiss me.” Here, however, the ostler must stand, listen and tremble. +One of the most heart-saddening and humiliating scenes I ever +witnessed, was the whipping of Old Barney, by Col. Lloyd himself. Here +were two men, both advanced in years; there were the silvery locks of +Col. L., and there was the bald and toil-worn brow of Old Barney; +master and slave; superior and inferior here, but _equals_ at the bar +of God; and, in the common course of events, they must both soon meet +in another world, in a world where all distinctions, except those based +on obedience and disobedience, are blotted out forever. “Uncover your +head!” said the imperious master; he was obeyed. “Take off your jacket, +you old rascal!” and off came Barney’s jacket. “Down on your knees!” +down knelt the old man, his shoulders bare, his bald head glistening in +the sun, and his aged knees on the cold, damp ground. In his humble and +debasing attitude, the master—that master to whom he had given the best +years and the best strength of his life—came forward, and laid on +thirty lashes, with his horse whip. The old man bore it patiently, to +the last, answering each blow with a slight shrug of the shoulders, and +a groan. I cannot think that Col. Lloyd succeeded in marring the flesh +of Old Barney very seriously, for the whip was a light, riding whip; +but the spectacle of an aged man—a husband and a father—humbly kneeling +before a worm of the dust, surprised and shocked me at the time; and +since I have grown old enough to think on the wickedness of slavery, +few facts have been of more value to me than this, to which I was a +witness. It reveals slavery in its true color, and in its maturity of +repulsive hatefulness. I owe it to truth, however, to say, that this +was the first and the last time I ever saw Old Barney, or any other +slave, compelled to kneel to receive a whipping. + +I saw, at the stable, another incident, which I will relate, as it is +illustrative of a phase of slavery to which I have already referred in +another connection. Besides two other coachmen, Col. Lloyd owned one +named William, who, strangely enough, was often called by his surname, +Wilks, by white and colored people on the home plantation. Wilks was a +very fine looking man. He was about as white as anybody on the +plantation; and in manliness of form, and comeliness of features, he +bore a very striking resemblance to Mr. Murray Lloyd. It was whispered, +and pretty generally admitted as a fact, that William Wilks was a son +of Col. Lloyd, by a highly favored slave-woman, who was still on the +plantation. There were many reasons for believing this whisper, not +only in William’s appearance, but in the undeniable freedom which he +enjoyed over all others, and his apparent consciousness of being +something more than a slave to his master. It was notorious, too, that +William had a deadly enemy in Murray Lloyd, whom he so much resembled, +and that the latter greatly worried his father with importunities to +sell William. Indeed, he gave his father no rest until he did sell him, +to Austin Woldfolk, the great slave-trader at that time. Before selling +him, however, Mr. L. tried what giving William a whipping would do, +toward making things smooth; but this was a failure. It was a +compromise, and defeated itself; for, immediately after the infliction, +the heart-sickened colonel atoned to William for the abuse, by giving +him a gold watch and chain. Another fact, somewhat curious, is, that +though sold to the remorseless _Woldfolk_, taken in irons to Baltimore +and cast into prison, with a view to being driven to the south, +William, by _some_ means—always a mystery to me—outbid all his +purchasers, paid for himself, _and now resides in Baltimore, a_ +FREEMAN. Is there not room to suspect, that, as the gold watch was +presented to atone for the whipping, a purse of gold was given him by +the same hand, with which to effect his purchase, as an atonement for +the indignity involved in selling his own flesh and blood. All the +circumstances of William, on the great house farm, show him to have +occupied a different position from the other slaves, and, certainly, +there is nothing in the supposed hostility of slaveholders to +amalgamation, to forbid the supposition that William Wilks was the son +of Edward Lloyd. _Practical_ amalgamation is common in every +neighborhood where I have been in slavery. + +Col. Lloyd was not in the way of knowing much of the real opinions and +feelings of his slaves respecting him. The distance between him and +them was far too great to admit of such knowledge. His slaves were so +numerous, that he did not know them when he saw them. Nor, indeed, did +all his slaves know him. In this respect, he was inconveniently rich. +It is reported of him, that, while riding along the road one day, he +met a colored man, and addressed him in the usual way of speaking to +colored people on the public highways of the south: “Well, boy, who do +you belong to?” “To Col. Lloyd,” replied the slave. “Well, does the +colonel treat you well?” “No, sir,” was the ready reply. “What? does he +work you too hard?” “Yes, sir.” “Well, don’t he give enough to eat?” +“Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it is.” The colonel, after +ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the slave also went on +about his business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his +master. He thought, said and heard nothing more of the matter, until +two or three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then informed by his +overseer, that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to +be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; +and thus, without a moment’s warning he was snatched away, and forever +sundered from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than +that of death. _This_ is the penalty of telling the simple truth, in +answer to a series of plain questions. It is partly in consequence of +such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the +character of their masters, almost invariably say they are contented, +and that their masters are kind. Slaveholders have been known to send +spies among their slaves, to ascertain, if possible, their views and +feelings in regard to their condition. The frequency of this had the +effect to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue +makes a wise head. They suppress the truth rather than take the +consequence of telling it, and, in so doing, they prove themselves a +part of the human family. If they have anything to say of their master, +it is, generally, something in his favor, especially when speaking to +strangers. I was frequently asked, while a slave, if I had a kind +master, and I do not remember ever to have given a negative reply. Nor +did I, when pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was +utterly false; for I always measured the kindness of my master by the +standard of kindness set up by slaveholders around us. However, slaves +are like other people, and imbibe similar prejudices. They are apt to +think _their condition_ better than that of others. Many, under the +influence of this prejudice, think their own masters are better than +the masters of other slaves; and this, too, in some cases, when the +very reverse is true. Indeed, it is not uncommon for slaves even to +fall out and quarrel among themselves about the relative kindness of +their masters, contending for the superior goodness of his own over +that of others. At the very same time, they mutually execrate their +masters, when viewed separately. It was so on our plantation. When Col. +Lloyd’s slaves met those of Jacob Jepson, they seldom parted without a +quarrel about their masters; Col. Lloyd’s slaves contending that he was +the richest, and Mr. Jepson’s slaves that he was the smartest, man of +the two. Col. Lloyd’s slaves would boost his ability to buy and sell +Jacob Jepson; Mr. Jepson’s slaves would boast his ability to whip Col. +Lloyd. These quarrels would almost always end in a fight between the +parties; those that beat were supposed to have gained the point at +issue. They seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was +transferable to themselves. To be a SLAVE, was thought to be bad +enough; but to be a _poor man’s_ slave, was deemed a disgrace, indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. _A Chapter of Horrors_ + + +AUSTIN GORE—A SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER—OVERSEERS AS A CLASS—THEIR +PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS—THE MARKED INDIVIDUALITY OF AUSTIN GORE—HIS +SENSE OF DUTY—HOW HE WHIPPED—MURDER OF POOR DENBY—HOW IT +OCCURRED—SENSATION—HOW GORE MADE PEACE WITH COL. LLOYD—THE MURDER +UNPUNISHED—ANOTHER DREADFUL MURDER NARRATED—NO LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION +OF SLAVES CAN BE ENFORCED IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. + + +As I have already intimated elsewhere, the slaves on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation, whose hard lot, under Mr. Sevier, the reader has already +noticed and deplored, were not permitted to enjoy the comparatively +moderate rule of Mr. Hopkins. The latter was succeeded by a very +different man. The name of the new overseer was Austin Gore. Upon this +individual I would fix particular attention; for under his rule there +was more suffering from violence and bloodshed than had—according to +the older slaves ever been experienced before on this plantation. I +confess, I hardly know how to bring this man fitly before the reader. +He was, it is true, an overseer, and possessed, to a large extent, the +peculiar characteristics of his class; yet, to call him merely an +overseer, would not give the reader a fair notion of the man. I speak +of overseers as a class. They are such. They are as distinct from the +slaveholding gentry of the south, as are the fishwomen of Paris, and +the coal-heavers of London, distinct from other members of society. +They constitute a separate fraternity at the south, not less marked +than is the fraternity of Park Lane bullies in New York. They have been +arranged and classified by that great law of attraction, which +determines the spheres and affinities of men; which ordains, that men, +whose malign and brutal propensities predominate over their moral and +intellectual endowments, shall, naturally, fall into those employments +which promise the largest gratification to those predominating +instincts or propensities. The office of overseer takes this raw +material of vulgarity and brutality, and stamps it as a distinct class +of southern society. But, in this class, as in all other classes, there +are characters of marked individuality, even while they bear a general +resemblance to the mass. Mr. Gore was one of those, to whom a general +characterization would do no manner of justice. He was an overseer; but +he was something more. With the malign and tyrannical qualities of an +overseer, he combined something of the lawful master. He had the +artfulness and the mean ambition of his class; but he was wholly free +from the disgusting swagger and noisy bravado of his fraternity. There +was an easy air of independence about him; a calm self-possession, and +a sternness of glance, which might well daunt hearts less timid than +those of poor slaves, accustomed from childhood and through life to +cower before a driver’s lash. The home plantation of Col. Lloyd +afforded an ample field for the exercise of the qualifications for +overseership, which he possessed in such an eminent degree. + +Mr. Gore was one of those overseers, who could torture the slightest +word or look into impudence; he had the nerve, not only to resent, but +to punish, promptly and severely. He never allowed himself to be +answered back, by a slave. In this, he was as lordly and as imperious +as Col. Edward Lloyd, himself; acting always up to the maxim, +practically maintained by slaveholders, that it is better that a dozen +slaves suffer under the lash, without fault, than that the master or +the overseer should _seem_ to have been wrong in the presence of the +slave. _Everything must be absolute here_. Guilty or not guilty, it is +enough to be accused, to be sure of a flogging. The very presence of +this man Gore was painful, and I shunned him as I would have shunned a +rattlesnake. His piercing, black eyes, and sharp, shrill voice, ever +awakened sensations of terror among the slaves. For so young a man (I +describe him as he was, twenty-five or thirty years ago) Mr. Gore was +singularly reserved and grave in the presence of slaves. He indulged in +no jokes, said no funny things, and kept his own counsels. Other +overseers, how brutal soever they might be, were, at times, inclined to +gain favor with the slaves, by indulging a little pleasantry; but Gore +was never known to be guilty of any such weakness. He was always the +cold, distant, unapproachable _overseer_ of Col. Edward Lloyd’s +plantation, and needed no higher pleasure than was involved in a +faithful discharge of the duties of his office. When he whipped, he +seemed to do so from a sense of duty, and feared no consequences. What +Hopkins did reluctantly, Gore did with alacrity. There was a stern +will, an iron-like reality, about this Gore, which would have easily +made him the chief of a band of pirates, had his environments been +favorable to such a course of life. All the coolness, savage barbarity +and freedom from moral restraint, which are necessary in the character +of a pirate-chief, centered, I think, in this man Gore. Among many +other deeds of shocking cruelty which he perpetrated, while I was at +Mr. Lloyd’s, was the murder of a young colored man, named Denby. He was +sometimes called Bill Denby, or Demby; (I write from sound, and the +sounds on Lloyd’s plantation are not very certain.) I knew him well. He +was a powerful young man, full of animal spirits, and, so far as I +know, he was among the most valuable of Col. Lloyd’s slaves. In +something—I know not what—he offended this Mr. Austin Gore, and, in +accordance with the custom of the latter, he under took to flog him. He +gave Denby but few stripes; the latter broke away from him and plunged +into the creek, and, standing there to the depth of his neck in water, +he refused to come out at the order of the overseer; whereupon, for +this refusal, _Gore shot him dead!_ It is said that Gore gave Denby +three calls, telling him that if he did not obey the last call, he +would shoot him. When the third call was given, Denby stood his ground +firmly; and this raised the question, in the minds of the by-standing +slaves—“Will he dare to shoot?” Mr. Gore, without further parley, and +without making any further effort to induce Denby to come out of the +water, raised his gun deliberately to his face, took deadly aim at his +standing victim, and, in an instant, poor Denby was numbered with the +dead. His mangled body sank out of sight, and only his warm, red blood +marked the place where he had stood. + +This devilish outrage, this fiendish murder, produced, as it was well +calculated to do, a tremendous sensation. A thrill of horror flashed +through every soul on the plantation, if I may except the guilty wretch +who had committed the hell-black deed. While the slaves generally were +panic-struck, and howling with alarm, the murderer himself was calm and +collected, and appeared as though nothing unusual had happened. The +atrocity roused my old master, and he spoke out, in reprobation of it; +but the whole thing proved to be less than a nine days’ wonder. Both +Col. Lloyd and my old master arraigned Gore for his cruelty in the +matter, but this amounted to nothing. His reply, or explanation—as I +remember to have heard it at the time was, that the extraordinary +expedient was demanded by necessity; that Denby had become +unmanageable; that he had set a dangerous example to the other slaves; +and that, without some such prompt measure as that to which he had +resorted, were adopted, there would be an end to all rule and order on +the plantation. That very convenient covert for all manner of cruelty +and outrage that cowardly alarm-cry, that the slaves would _“take the +place,”_ was pleaded, in extenuation of this revolting crime, just as +it had been cited in defense of a thousand similar ones. He argued, +that if one slave refused to be corrected, and was allowed to escape +with his life, when he had been told that he should lose it if he +persisted in his course, the other slaves would soon copy his example; +the result of which would be, the freedom of the slaves, and the +enslavement of the whites. I have every reason to believe that Mr. +Gore’s defense, or explanation, was deemed satisfactory—at least to +Col. Lloyd. He was continued in his office on the plantation. His fame +as an overseer went abroad, and his horrid crime was not even submitted +to judicial investigation. The murder was committed in the presence of +slaves, and they, of course, could neither institute a suit, nor +testify against the murderer. His bare word would go further in a court +of law, than the united testimony of ten thousand black witnesses. + +All that Mr. Gore had to do, was to make his peace with Col. Lloyd. +This done, and the guilty perpetrator of one of the most foul murders +goes unwhipped of justice, and uncensured by the community in which he +lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. Michael’s, Talbot county, when I left +Maryland; if he is still alive he probably yet resides there; and I +have no reason to doubt that he is now as highly esteemed, and as +greatly respected, as though his guilty soul had never been stained +with innocent blood. I am well aware that what I have now written will +by some be branded as false and malicious. It will be denied, not only +that such a thing ever did transpire, as I have now narrated, but that +such a thing could happen in _Maryland_. I can only say—believe it or +not—that I have said nothing but the literal truth, gainsay it who may. + +I speak advisedly when I say this,—that killing a slave, or any colored +person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either +by the courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, ship carpenter, of +St. Michael’s, killed two slaves, one of whom he butchered with a +hatchet, by knocking his brains out. He used to boast of the commission +of the awful and bloody deed. I have heard him do so, laughingly, +saying, among other things, that he was the only benefactor of his +country in the company, and that when “others would do as much as he +had done, we should be relieved of the d—d niggers.” + +As an evidence of the reckless disregard of human life where the life +is that of a slave I may state the notorious fact, that the wife of Mr. +Giles Hicks, who lived but a short distance from Col. Lloyd’s, with her +own hands murdered my wife’s cousin, a young girl between fifteen and +sixteen years of age—mutilating her person in a most shocking manner. +The atrocious woman, in the paroxysm of her wrath, not content with +murdering her victim, literally mangled her face, and broke her breast +bone. Wild, however, and infuriated as she was, she took the precaution +to cause the slave-girl to be buried; but the facts of the case coming +abroad, very speedily led to the disinterment of the remains of the +murdered slave-girl. A coroner’s jury was assembled, who decided that +the girl had come to her death by severe beating. It was ascertained +that the offense for which this girl was thus hurried out of the world, +was this: she had been set that night, and several preceding nights, to +mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and having fallen into a sound sleep, the baby +cried, waking Mrs. Hicks, but not the slave-girl. Mrs. Hicks, becoming +infuriated at the girl’s tardiness, after calling several times, jumped +from her bed and seized a piece of fire-wood from the fireplace; and +then, as she lay fast asleep, she deliberately pounded in her skull and +breast-bone, and thus ended her life. I will not say that this most +horrid murder produced no sensation in the community. It _did_ produce +a sensation; but, incredible to tell, the moral sense of the community +was blunted too entirely by the ordinary nature of slavery horrors, to +bring the murderess to punishment. A warrant was issued for her arrest, +but, for some reason or other, that warrant was never served. Thus did +Mrs. Hicks not only escape condign punishment, but even the pain and +mortification of being arraigned before a court of justice. + +Whilst I am detailing the bloody deeds that took place during my stay +on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, I will briefly narrate another dark +transaction, which occurred about the same time as the murder of Denby +by Mr. Gore. + +On the side of the river Wye, opposite from Col. Lloyd’s, there lived a +Mr. Beal Bondley, a wealthy slaveholder. In the direction of his land, +and near the shore, there was an excellent oyster fishing ground, and +to this, some of the slaves of Col. Lloyd occasionally resorted in +their little canoes, at night, with a view to make up the deficiency of +their scanty allowance of food, by the oysters that they could easily +get there. This, Mr. Bondley took it into his head to regard as a +trespass, and while an old man belonging to Col. Lloyd was engaged in +catching a few of the many millions of oysters that lined the bottom of +that creek, to satisfy his hunger, the villainous Mr. Bondley, lying in +ambush, without the slightest ceremony, discharged the contents of his +musket into the back and shoulders of the poor old man. As good fortune +would have it, the shot did not prove mortal, and Mr. Bondley came +over, the next day, to see Col. Lloyd—whether to pay him for his +property, or to justify himself for what he had done, I know not; but +this I _can_ say, the cruel and dastardly transaction was speedily +hushed up; there was very little said about it at all, and nothing was +publicly done which looked like the application of the principle of +justice to the man whom _chance_, only, saved from being an actual +murderer. One of the commonest sayings to which my ears early became +accustomed, on Col. Lloyd’s plantation and elsewhere in Maryland, was, +that it was _“worth but half a cent to kill a nigger, and a half a cent +to bury him;”_ and the facts of my experience go far to justify the +practical truth of this strange proverb. Laws for the protection of the +lives of the slaves, are, as they must needs be, utterly incapable of +being enforced, where the very parties who are nominally protected, are +not permitted to give evidence, in courts of law, against the only +class of persons from whom abuse, outrage and murder might be +reasonably apprehended. While I heard of numerous murders committed by +slaveholders on the Eastern Shores of Maryland, I never knew a solitary +instance in which a slaveholder was either hung or imprisoned for +having murdered a slave. The usual pretext for killing a slave is, that +the slave has offered resistance. Should a slave, when assaulted, but +raise his hand in self defense, the white assaulting party is fully +justified by southern, or Maryland, public opinion, in shooting the +slave down. Sometimes this is done, simply because it is alleged that +the slave has been saucy. But here I leave this phase of the society of +my early childhood, and will relieve the kind reader of these +heart-sickening details. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. _Personal Treatment_ + + +MISS LUCRETIA—HER KINDNESS—HOW IT WAS MANIFESTED—“IKE”—A BATTLE WITH +HIM—THE CONSEQUENCES THEREOF—MISS LUCRETIA’S BALSAM—BREAD—HOW I +OBTAINED IT—BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT AMIDST THE GENERAL DARKNESS—SUFFERING +FROM COLD—HOW WE TOOK OUR MEALS—ORDERS TO PREPARE FOR +BALTIMORE—OVERJOYED AT THE THOUGHT OF QUITTING THE +PLANTATION—EXTRAORDINARY CLEANSING—COUSIN TOM’S VERSION OF +BALTIMORE—ARRIVAL THERE—KIND RECEPTION GIVEN ME BY MRS. SOPHIA +AULD—LITTLE TOMMY—MY NEW POSITION—MY NEW DUTIES—A TURNING POINT IN MY +HISTORY. + + +I have nothing cruel or shocking to relate of my own personal +experience, while I remained on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, at the home of +my old master. An occasional cuff from Aunt Katy, and a regular +whipping from old master, such as any heedless and mischievous boy +might get from his father, is all that I can mention of this sort. I +was not old enough to work in the field, and, there being little else +than field work to perform, I had much leisure. The most I had to do, +was, to drive up the cows in the evening, to keep the front yard clean, +and to perform small errands for my young mistress, Lucretia Auld. I +have reasons for thinking this lady was very kindly disposed toward me, +and, although I was not often the object of her attention, I constantly +regarded her as my friend, and was always glad when it was my privilege +to do her a service. In a family where there was so much that was +harsh, cold and indifferent, the slightest word or look of kindness +passed, with me, for its full value. Miss Lucretia—as we all continued +to call her long after her marriage—had bestowed upon me such words and +looks as taught me that she pitied me, if she did not love me. In +addition to words and looks, she sometimes gave me a piece of bread and +butter; a thing not set down in the bill of fare, and which must have +been an extra ration, planned aside from either Aunt Katy or old +master, solely out of the tender regard and friendship she had for me. +Then, too, I one day got into the wars with Uncle Able’s son, “Ike,” +and had got sadly worsted; in fact, the little rascal had struck me +directly in the forehead with a sharp piece of cinder, fused with iron, +from the old blacksmith’s forge, which made a cross in my forehead very +plainly to be seen now. The gash bled very freely, and I roared very +loudly and betook myself home. The coldhearted Aunt Katy paid no +attention either to my wound or my roaring, except to tell me it served +me right; I had no business with Ike; it was good for me; I would now +keep away _“from dem Lloyd niggers.”_ Miss Lucretia, in this state of +the case, came forward; and, in quite a different spirit from that +manifested by Aunt Katy, she called me into the parlor (an extra +privilege of itself) and, without using toward me any of the +hard-hearted and reproachful epithets of my kitchen tormentor, she +quietly acted the good Samaritan. With her own soft hand she washed the +blood from my head and face, fetched her own balsam bottle, and with +the balsam wetted a nice piece of white linen, and bound up my head. +The balsam was not more healing to the wound in my head, than her +kindness was healing to the wounds in my spirit, made by the unfeeling +words of Aunt Katy. After this, Miss Lucretia was my friend. I felt her +to be such; and I have no doubt that the simple act of binding up my +head, did much to awaken in her mind an interest in my welfare. It is +quite true, that this interest was never very marked, and it seldom +showed itself in anything more than in giving me a piece of bread when +I was hungry; but this was a great favor on a slave plantation, and I +was the only one of the children to whom such attention was paid. When +very hungry, I would go into the back yard and play under Miss +Lucretia’s window. When pretty severely pinched by hunger, I had a +habit of singing, which the good lady very soon came to understand as a +petition for a piece of bread. When I sung under Miss Lucretia’s +window, I was very apt to get well paid for my music. The reader will +see that I now had two friends, both at important points—Mas’ Daniel at +the great house, and Miss Lucretia at home. From Mas’ Daniel I got +protection from the bigger boys; and from Miss Lucretia I got bread, by +singing when I was hungry, and sympathy when I was abused by that +termagant, who had the reins of government in the kitchen. For such +friendship I felt deeply grateful, and bitter as are my recollections +of slavery, I love to recall any instances of kindness, any sunbeams of +humane treatment, which found way to my soul through the iron grating +of my house of bondage. Such beams seem all the brighter from the +general darkness into which they penetrate, and the impression they +make is vividly distinct and beautiful. + +As I have before intimated, I was seldom whipped—and never severely—by +my old master. I suffered little from the treatment I received, except +from hunger and cold. These were my two great physical troubles. I +could neither get a sufficiency of food nor of clothing; but I suffered +less from hunger than from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, +I was kept almost in a state of nudity; no shoes, no stockings, no +jacket, no trowsers; nothing but coarse sackcloth or tow-linen, made +into a sort of shirt, reaching down to my knees. This I wore night and +day, changing it once a week. In the day time I could protect myself +pretty well, by keeping on the sunny side of the house; and in bad +weather, in the corner of the kitchen chimney. The great difficulty +was, to keep warm during the night. I had no bed. The pigs in the pen +had leaves, and the horses in the stable had straw, but the children +had no beds. They lodged anywhere in the ample kitchen. I slept, +generally, in a little closet, without even a blanket to cover me. In +very cold weather. I sometimes got down the bag in which corn-meal was +usually carried to the mill, and crawled into that. Sleeping there, +with my head in and feet out, I was partly protected, though not +comfortable. My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen +with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes. The manner of +taking our meals at old master’s, indicated but little refinement. Our +corn-meal mush, when sufficiently cooled, was placed in a large wooden +tray, or trough, like those used in making maple sugar here in the +north. This tray was set down, either on the floor of the kitchen, or +out of doors on the ground; and the children were called, like so many +pigs; and like so many pigs they would come, and literally devour the +mush—some with oyster shells, some with pieces of shingles, and none +with spoons. He that eat fastest got most, and he that was strongest +got the best place; and few left the trough really satisfied. I was the +most unlucky of any, for Aunt Katy had no good feeling for me; and if I +pushed any of the other children, or if they told her anything +unfavorable of me, she always believed the worst, and was sure to whip +me. + +As I grew older and more thoughtful, I was more and more filled with a +sense of my wretchedness. The cruelty of Aunt Katy, the hunger and cold +I suffered, and the terrible reports of wrong and outrage which came to +my ear, together with what I almost daily witnessed, led me, when yet +but eight or nine years old, to wish I had never been born. I used to +contrast my condition with the black-birds, in whose wild and sweet +songs I fancied them so happy! Their apparent joy only deepened the +shades of my sorrow. There are thoughtful days in the lives of +children—at least there were in mine when they grapple with all the +great, primary subjects of knowledge, and reach, in a moment, +conclusions which no subsequent experience can shake. I was just as +well aware of the unjust, unnatural and murderous character of slavery, +when nine years old, as I am now. Without any appeal to books, to laws, +or to authorities of any kind, it was enough to accept God as a father, +to regard slavery as a crime. + +I was not ten years old when I left Col. Lloyd’s plantation for +Balitmore(sic). I left that plantation with inexpressible joy. I never +shall forget the ecstacy with which I received the intelligence from my +friend, Miss Lucretia, that my old master had determined to let me go +to Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh Auld, a brother to Mr. Thomas Auld, +my old master’s son-in-law. I received this information about three +days before my departure. They were three of the happiest days of my +childhood. I spent the largest part of these three days in the creek, +washing off the plantation scurf, and preparing for my new home. Mrs. +Lucretia took a lively interest in getting me ready. She told me I must +get all the dead skin off my feet and knees, before I could go to +Baltimore, for the people there were very cleanly, and would laugh at +me if I looked dirty; and, besides, she was intending to give me a pair +of trowsers, which I should not put on unless I got all the dirt off. +This was a warning to which I was bound to take heed; for the thought +of owning a pair of trowsers, was great, indeed. It was almost a +sufficient motive, not only to induce me to scrub off the _mange_ (as +pig drovers would call it) but the skin as well. So I went at it in +good earnest, working for the first time in the hope of reward. I was +greatly excited, and could hardly consent to sleep, lest I should be +left. The ties that, ordinarily, bind children to their homes, were all +severed, or they never had any existence in my case, at least so far as +the home plantation of Col. L. was concerned. I therefore found no +severe trail at the moment of my departure, such as I had experienced +when separated from my home in Tuckahoe. My home at my old master’s was +charmless to me; it was not home, but a prison to me; on parting from +it, I could not feel that I was leaving anything which I could have +enjoyed by staying. My mother was now long dead; my grandmother was far +away, so that I seldom saw her; Aunt Katy was my unrelenting tormentor; +and my two sisters and brothers, owing to our early separation in life, +and the family-destroying power of slavery, were, comparatively, +strangers to me. The fact of our relationship was almost blotted out. I +looked for _home_ elsewhere, and was confident of finding none which I +should relish less than the one I was leaving. If, however, I found in +my new home to which I was going with such blissful +anticipations—hardship, whipping and nakedness, I had the questionable +consolation that I should not have escaped any one of these evils by +remaining under the management of Aunt Katy. Then, too, I thought, +since I had endured much in this line on Lloyd’s plantation, I could +endure as much elsewhere, and especially at Baltimore; for I had +something of the feeling about that city which is expressed in the +saying, that being “hanged in England, is better than dying a natural +death in Ireland.” I had the strongest desire to see Baltimore. My +cousin Tom—a boy two or three years older than I—had been there, and +though not fluent (he stuttered immoderately) in speech, he had +inspired me with that desire, by his eloquent description of the place. +Tom was, sometimes, Capt. Auld’s cabin boy; and when he came from +Baltimore, he was always a sort of hero amongst us, at least till his +Baltimore trip was forgotten. I could never tell him of anything, or +point out anything that struck me as beautiful or powerful, but that he +had seen something in Baltimore far surpassing it. Even the great house +itself, with all its pictures within, and pillars without, he had the +hardihood to say “was nothing to Baltimore.” He bought a trumpet (worth +six pence) and brought it home; told what he had seen in the windows of +stores; that he had heard shooting crackers, and seen soldiers; that he +had seen a steamboat; that there were ships in Baltimore that could +carry four such sloops as the “Sally Lloyd.” He said a great deal about +the market-house; he spoke of the bells ringing; and of many other +things which roused my curiosity very much; and, indeed, which +heightened my hopes of happiness in my new home. + +We sailed out of Miles river for Baltimore early on a Saturday morning. +I remember only the day of the week; for, at that time, I had no +knowledge of the days of the month, nor, indeed, of the months of the +year. On setting sail, I walked aft, and gave to Col. Lloyd’s +plantation what I hoped would be the last look I should ever give to +it, or to any place like it. My strong aversion to the great farm, was +not owing to my own personal suffering, but the daily suffering of +others, and to the certainty that I must, sooner or later, be placed +under the barbarous rule of an overseer, such as the accomplished Gore, +or the brutal and drunken Plummer. After taking this last view, I +quitted the quarter deck, made my way to the bow of the sloop, and +spent the remainder of the day in looking ahead; interesting myself in +what was in the distance, rather than what was near by or behind. The +vessels, sweeping along the bay, were very interesting objects. The +broad bay opened like a shoreless ocean on my boyish vision, filling me +with wonder and admiration. + +Late in the afternoon, we reached Annapolis, the capital of the state, +stopping there not long enough to admit of my going ashore. It was the +first large town I had ever seen; and though it was inferior to many a +factory village in New England, my feelings, on seeing it, were excited +to a pitch very little below that reached by travelers at the first +view of Rome. The dome of the state house was especially imposing, and +surpassed in grandeur the appearance of the great house. The great +world was opening upon me very rapidly, and I was eagerly acquainting +myself with its multifarious lessons. + +We arrived in Baltimore on Sunday morning, and landed at Smith’s wharf, +not far from Bowly’s wharf. We had on board the sloop a large flock of +sheep, for the Baltimore market; and, after assisting in driving them +to the slaughter house of Mr. Curtis, on Loudon Slater’s Hill, I was +speedily conducted by Rich—one of the hands belonging to the sloop—to +my new home in Alliciana street, near Gardiner’s ship-yard, on Fell’s +Point. Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Auld, my new mistress and master, were both at +home, and met me at the door with their rosy cheeked little son, +Thomas, to take care of whom was to constitute my future occupation. In +fact, it was to “little Tommy,” rather than to his parents, that old +master made a present of me; and though there was no _legal_ form or +arrangement entered into, I have no doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Auld felt +that, in due time, I should be the legal property of their bright-eyed +and beloved boy, Tommy. I was struck with the appearance, especially, +of my new mistress. Her face was lighted with the kindliest emotions; +and the reflex influence of her countenance, as well as the tenderness +with which she seemed to regard me, while asking me sundry little +questions, greatly delighted me, and lit up, to my fancy, the pathway +of my future. Miss Lucretia was kind; but my new mistress, “Miss +Sophy,” surpassed her in kindness of manner. Little Thomas was +affectionately told by his mother, that _“there was his Freddy,”_ and +that “Freddy would take care of him;” and I was told to “be kind to +little Tommy”—an injunction I scarcely needed, for I had already fallen +in love with the dear boy; and with these little ceremonies I was +initiated into my new home, and entered upon my peculiar duties, with +not a cloud above the horizon. + +I may say here, that I regard my removal from Col. Lloyd’s plantation +as one of the most interesting and fortunate events of my life. Viewing +it in the light of human likelihoods, it is quite probable that, but +for the mere circumstance of being thus removed before the rigors of +slavery had fastened upon me; before my young spirit had been crushed +under the iron control of the slave-driver, instead of being, today, a +FREEMAN, I might have been wearing the galling chains of slavery. I +have sometimes felt, however, that there was something more intelligent +than _chance_, and something more certain than _luck_, to be seen in +the circumstance. If I have made any progress in knowledge; if I have +cherished any honorable aspirations, or have, in any manner, worthily +discharged the duties of a member of an oppressed people; this little +circumstance must be allowed its due weight in giving my life that +direction. I have ever regarded it as the first plain manifestation of +that + +Divinity that shapes our ends, +Rough hew them as we will. + + +I was not the only boy on the plantation that might have been sent to +live in Baltimore. There was a wide margin from which to select. There +were boys younger, boys older, and boys of the same age, belonging to +my old master some at his own house, and some at his farm—but the high +privilege fell to my lot. + +I may be deemed superstitious and egotistical, in regarding this event +as a special interposition of Divine Providence in my favor; but the +thought is a part of my history, and I should be false to the earliest +and most cherished sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed, or hesitated +to avow that opinion, although it may be characterized as irrational by +the wise, and ridiculous by the scoffer. From my earliest recollections +of serious matters, I date the entertainment of something like an +ineffaceable conviction, that slavery would not always be able to hold +me within its foul embrace; and this conviction, like a word of living +faith, strengthened me through the darkest trials of my lot. This good +spirit was from God; and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise. + + + + +CHAPTER X. _Life in Baltimore_ + + +CITY ANNOYANCES—PLANTATION REGRETS—MY MISTRESS, MISS SOPHA—HER +HISTORY—HER KINDNESS TO ME—MY MASTER, HUGH AULD—HIS SOURNESS—MY +INCREASED SENSITIVENESS—MY COMFORTS—MY OCCUPATION—THE BANEFUL EFFECTS +OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY DEAR AND GOOD MISTRESS—HOW SHE COMMENCED TEACHING +ME TO READ—WHY SHE CEASED TEACHING ME—CLOUDS GATHERING OVER MY BRIGHT +PROSPECTS—MASTER AULD’S EXPOSITION OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF +SLAVERY—CITY SLAVES—PLANTATION SLAVES—THE CONTRAST—EXCEPTIONS—MR. +HAMILTON’S TWO SLAVES, HENRIETTA AND MARY—MRS. HAMILTON’S CRUEL +TREATMENT OF THEM—THE PITEOUS ASPECT THEY PRESENTED—NO POWER MUST COME +BETWEEN THE SLAVE AND THE SLAVEHOLDER. + + +Once in Baltimore, with hard brick pavements under my feet, which +almost raised blisters, by their very heat, for it was in the height of +summer; walled in on all sides by towering brick buildings; with troops +of hostile boys ready to pounce upon me at every street corner; with +new and strange objects glaring upon me at every step, and with +startling sounds reaching my ears from all directions, I for a time +thought that, after all, the home plantation was a more desirable place +of residence than my home on Alliciana street, in Baltimore. My country +eyes and ears were confused and bewildered here; but the boys were my +chief trouble. They chased me, and called me _“Eastern Shore man,”_ +till really I almost wished myself back on the Eastern Shore. I had to +undergo a sort of moral acclimation, and when that was over, I did much +better. My new mistress happily proved to be all she _seemed_ to be, +when, with her husband, she met me at the door, with a most beaming, +benignant countenance. She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, +kind, gentle and cheerful. The supercilious contempt for the rights and +feelings of the slave, and the petulance and bad humor which generally +characterize slaveholding ladies, were all quite absent from kind +“Miss” Sophia’s manner and bearing toward me. She had, in truth, never +been a slaveholder, but had—a thing quite unusual in the south—depended +almost entirely upon her own industry for a living. To this fact the +dear lady, no doubt, owed the excellent preservation of her natural +goodness of heart, for slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an +angel into a demon. I hardly knew how to behave toward “Miss Sopha,” as +I used to call Mrs. Hugh Auld. I had been treated as a _pig_ on the +plantation; I was treated as a _child_ now. I could not even approach +her as I had formerly approached Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang +down my head, and speak with bated breath, when there was no pride to +scorn me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to inspire me with +fear? I therefore soon learned to regard her as something more akin to +a mother, than a slaveholding mistress. The crouching servility of a +slave, usually so acceptable a quality to the haughty slaveholder, was +not understood nor desired by this gentle woman. So far from deeming it +impudent in a slave to look her straight in the face, as some +slaveholding ladies do, she seemed ever to say, “look up, child; don’t +be afraid; see, I am full of kindness and good will toward you.” The +hands belonging to Col. Lloyd’s sloop, esteemed it a great privilege to +be the bearers of parcels or messages to my new mistress; for whenever +they came, they were sure of a most kind and pleasant reception. If +little Thomas was her son, and her most dearly beloved child, she, for +a time, at least, made me something like his half-brother in her +affections. If dear Tommy was exalted to a place on his mother’s knee, +“Feddy” was honored by a place at his mother’s side. Nor did he lack +the caressing strokes of her gentle hand, to convince him that, though +_motherless_, he was not _friendless_. Mrs. Auld was not only a +kind-hearted woman, but she was remarkably pious; frequent in her +attendance of public worship, much given to reading the bible, and to +chanting hymns of praise, when alone. Mr. Hugh Auld was altogether a +different character. He cared very little about religion, knew more of +the world, and was more of the world, than his wife. He set out, +doubtless to be—as the world goes—a respectable man, and to get on by +becoming a successful ship builder, in that city of ship building. This +was his ambition, and it fully occupied him. I was, of course, of very +little consequence to him, compared with what I was to good Mrs. Auld; +and, when he smiled upon me, as he sometimes did, the smile was +borrowed from his lovely wife, and, like all borrowed light, was +transient, and vanished with the source whence it was derived. While I +must characterize Master Hugh as being a very sour man, and of +forbidding appearance, it is due to him to acknowledge, that he was +never very cruel to me, according to the notion of cruelty in Maryland. +The first year or two which I spent in his house, he left me almost +exclusively to the management of his wife. She was my law-giver. In +hands so tender as hers, and in the absence of the cruelties of the +plantation, I became, both physically and mentally, much more sensitive +to good and ill treatment; and, perhaps, suffered more from a frown +from my mistress, than I formerly did from a cuff at the hands of Aunt +Katy. Instead of the cold, damp floor of my old master’s kitchen, I +found myself on carpets; for the corn bag in winter, I now had a good +straw bed, well furnished with covers; for the coarse corn-meal in the +morning, I now had good bread, and mush occasionally; for my poor +tow-lien shirt, reaching to my knees, I had good, clean clothes. I was +really well off. My employment was to run errands, and to take care of +Tommy; to prevent his getting in the way of carriages, and to keep him +out of harm’s way generally. Tommy, and I, and his mother, got on +swimmingly together, for a time. I say _for a time_, because the fatal +poison of irresponsible power, and the natural influence of slavery +customs, were not long in making a suitable impression on the gentle +and loving disposition of my excellent mistress. At first, Mrs. Auld +evidently regarded me simply as a child, like any other child; she had +not come to regard me as _property_. This latter thought was a thing of +conventional growth. The first was natural and spontaneous. A noble +nature, like hers, could not, instantly, be wholly perverted; and it +took several years to change the natural sweetness of her temper into +fretful bitterness. In her worst estate, however, there were, during +the first seven years I lived with her, occasional returns of her +former kindly disposition. + +The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the bible for she often +read aloud when her husband was absent soon awakened my curiosity in +respect to this _mystery_ of reading, and roused in me the desire to +learn. Having no fear of my kind mistress before my eyes, (she had then +given me no reason to fear,) I frankly asked her to teach me to read; +and, without hesitation, the dear woman began the task, and very soon, +by her assistance, I was master of the alphabet, and could spell words +of three or four letters. My mistress seemed almost as proud of my +progress, as if I had been her own child; and, supposing that her +husband would be as well pleased, she made no secret of what she was +doing for me. Indeed, she exultingly told him of the aptness of her +pupil, of her intention to persevere in teaching me, and of the duty +which she felt it to teach me, at least to read _the bible_. Here arose +the first cloud over my Baltimore prospects, the precursor of drenching +rains and chilling blasts. + +Master Hugh was amazed at the simplicity of his spouse, and, probably +for the first time, he unfolded to her the true philosophy of slavery, +and the peculiar rules necessary to be observed by masters and +mistresses, in the management of their human chattels. Mr. Auld +promptly forbade continuance of her instruction; telling her, in the +first place, that the thing itself was unlawful; that it was also +unsafe, and could only lead to mischief. To use his own words, further, +he said, “if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell;” “he +should know nothing but the will of his master, and learn to obey it.” +“if you teach that nigger—speaking of myself—how to read the bible, +there will be no keeping him;” “it would forever unfit him for the +duties of a slave;” and “as to himself, learning would do him no good, +but probably, a great deal of harm—making him disconsolate and +unhappy.” “If you learn him now to read, he’ll want to know how to +write; and, this accomplished, he’ll be running away with himself.” +Such was the tenor of Master Hugh’s oracular exposition of the true +philosophy of training a human chattel; and it must be confessed that +he very clearly comprehended the nature and the requirements of the +relation of master and slave. His discourse was the first decidedly +anti-slavery lecture to which it had been my lot to listen. Mrs. Auld +evidently felt the force of his remarks; and, like an obedient wife, +began to shape her course in the direction indicated by her husband. +The effect of his words, _on me_, was neither slight nor transitory. +His iron sentences—cold and harsh—sunk deep into my heart, and stirred +up not only my feelings into a sort of rebellion, but awakened within +me a slumbering train of vital thought. It was a new and special +revelation, dispelling a painful mystery, against which my youthful +understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit: the _white_ +man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the _black_ man. “Very +well,” thought I; “knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I +instinctively assented to the proposition; and from that moment I +understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom. This was just +what I needed; and I got it at a time, and from a source, whence I +least expected it. I was saddened at the thought of losing the +assistance of my kind mistress; but the information, so instantly +derived, to some extent compensated me for the loss I had sustained in +this direction. Wise as Mr. Auld was, he evidently underrated my +comprehension, and had little idea of the use to which I was capable of +putting the impressive lesson he was giving to his wife. _He_ wanted me +to be _a slave;_ I had already voted against that on the home +plantation of Col. Lloyd. That which he most loved I most hated; and +the very determination which he expressed to keep me in ignorance, only +rendered me the more resolute in seeking intelligence. In learning to +read, therefore, I am not sure that I do not owe quite as much to the +opposition of my master, as to the kindly assistance of my amiable +mistress. I acknowledge the benefit rendered me by the one, and by the +other; believing, that but for my mistress, I might have grown up in +ignorance. + +I had resided but a short time in Baltimore, before I observed a marked +difference in the manner of treating slaves, generally, from which I +had witnessed in that isolated and out-of-the-way part of the country +where I began life. A city slave is almost a free citizen, in +Baltimore, compared with a slave on Col. Lloyd’s plantation. He is much +better fed and clothed, is less dejected in his appearance, and enjoys +privileges altogether unknown to the whip-driven slave on the +plantation. Slavery dislikes a dense population, in which there is a +majority of non-slaveholders. The general sense of decency that must +pervade such a population, does much to check and prevent those +outbreaks of atrocious cruelty, and those dark crimes without a name, +almost openly perpetrated on the plantation. He is a desperate +slaveholder who will shock the humanity of his non-slaveholding +neighbors, by the cries of the lacerated slaves; and very few in the +city are willing to incur the odium of being cruel masters. I found, in +Baltimore, that no man was more odious to the white, as well as to the +colored people, than he, who had the reputation of starving his slaves. +Work them, flog them, if need be, but don’t starve them. These are, +however, some painful exceptions to this rule. While it is quite true +that most of the slaveholders in Baltimore feed and clothe their slaves +well, there are others who keep up their country cruelties in the city. + +An instance of this sort is furnished in the case of a family who lived +directly opposite to our house, and were named Hamilton. Mrs. Hamilton +owned two slaves. Their names were Henrietta and Mary. They had always +been house slaves. One was aged about twenty-two, and the other about +fourteen. They were a fragile couple by nature, and the treatment they +received was enough to break down the constitution of a horse. Of all +the dejected, emaciated, mangled and excoriated creatures I ever saw, +those two girls—in the refined, church going and Christian city of +Baltimore were the most deplorable. Of stone must that heart be made, +that could look upon Henrietta and Mary, without being sickened to the +core with sadness. Especially was Mary a heart-sickening object. Her +head, neck and shoulders, were literally cut to pieces. I have +frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered over with +festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do not +know that her master ever whipped her, but I have often been an eye +witness of the revolting and brutal inflictions by Mrs. Hamilton; and +what lends a deeper shade to this woman’s conduct, is the fact, that, +almost in the very moments of her shocking outrages of humanity and +decency, she would charm you by the sweetness of her voice and her +seeming piety. She used to sit in a large rocking chair, near the +middle of the room, with a heavy cowskin, such as I have elsewhere +described; and I speak within the truth when I say, that these girls +seldom passed that chair, during the day, without a blow from that +cowskin, either upon their bare arms, or upon their shoulders. As they +passed her, she would draw her cowskin and give them a blow, saying, +_“move faster, you black jip!”_ and, again, _“take that, you black +jip!”_ continuing, _“if you don’t move faster, I will give you more.”_ +Then the lady would go on, singing her sweet hymns, as though her +_righteous_ soul were sighing for the holy realms of paradise. + +Added to the cruel lashings to which these poor slave-girls were +subjected—enough in themselves to crush the spirit of men—they were, +really, kept nearly half starved; they seldom knew what it was to eat a +full meal, except when they got it in the kitchens of neighbors, less +mean and stingy than the psalm-singing Mrs. Hamilton. I have seen poor +Mary contending for the offal, with the pigs in the street. So much was +the poor girl pinched, kicked, cut and pecked to pieces, that the boys +in the street knew her only by the name of _“pecked,”_ a name derived +from the scars and blotches on her neck, head and shoulders. + +It is some relief to this picture of slavery in Baltimore, to say—what +is but the simple truth—that Mrs. Hamilton’s treatment of her slaves +was generally condemned, as disgraceful and shocking; but while I say +this, it must also be remembered, that the very parties who censured +the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton, would have condemned and promptly +punished any attempt to interfere with Mrs. Hamilton’s _right_ to cut +and slash her slaves to pieces. There must be no force between the +slave and the slaveholder, to restrain the power of the one, and +protect the weakness of the other; and the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton is +as justly chargeable to the upholders of the slave system, as +drunkenness is chargeable on those who, by precept and example, or by +indifference, uphold the drinking system. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. _“A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream”_ + + +HOW I LEARNED TO READ—MY MISTRESS—HER SLAVEHOLDING DUTIES—THEIR +DEPLORABLE EFFECTS UPON HER ORIGINALLY NOBLE NATURE—THE CONFLICT IN HER +MIND—HER FINAL OPPOSITION TO MY LEARNING TO READ—TOO LATE—SHE HAD GIVEN +ME THE INCH, I WAS RESOLVED TO TAKE THE ELL—HOW I PURSUED MY +EDUCATION—MY TUTORS—HOW I COMPENSATED THEM—WHAT PROGRESS I +MADE—SLAVERY—WHAT I HEARD SAID ABOUT IT—THIRTEEN YEARS OLD—THE +_Columbian Orator_—A RICH SCENE—A DIALOGUE—SPEECHES OF CHATHAM, +SHERIDAN, PITT AND FOX—KNOWLEDGE EVER INCREASING—MY EYES +OPENED—LIBERTY—HOW I PINED FOR IT—MY SADNESS—THE DISSATISFACTION OF MY +POOR MISTRESS—MY HATRED OF SLAVERY—ONE UPAS TREE OVERSHADOWED US BOTH. + + +I lived in the family of Master Hugh, at Baltimore, seven years, during +which time—as the almanac makers say of the weather—my condition was +variable. The most interesting feature of my history here, was my +learning to read and write, under somewhat marked disadvantages. In +attaining this knowledge, I was compelled to resort to indirections by +no means congenial to my nature, and which were really humiliating to +me. My mistress—who, as the reader has already seen, had begun to teach +me was suddenly checked in her benevolent design, by the strong advice +of her husband. In faithful compliance with this advice, the good lady +had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, but had set her face as a +flint against my learning to read by any means. It is due, however, to +my mistress to say, that she did not adopt this course in all its +stringency at the first. She either thought it unnecessary, or she +lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental +darkness. It was, at least, necessary for her to have some training, +and some hardening, in the exercise of the slaveholder’s prerogative, +to make her equal to forgetting my human nature and character, and to +treating me as a thing destitute of a moral or an intellectual nature. +Mrs. Auld—my mistress—was, as I have said, a most kind and +tender-hearted woman; and, in the humanity of her heart, and the +simplicity of her mind, she set out, when I first went to live with +her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat +another. + +It is easy to see, that, in entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, +some little experience is needed. Nature has done almost nothing to +prepare men and women to be either slaves or slaveholders. Nothing but +rigid training, long persisted in, can perfect the character of the one +or the other. One cannot easily forget to love freedom; and it is as +hard to cease to respect that natural love in our fellow creatures. On +entering upon the career of a slaveholding mistress, Mrs. Auld was +singularly deficient; nature, which fits nobody for such an office, had +done less for her than any lady I had known. It was no easy matter to +induce her to think and to feel that the curly-headed boy, who stood by +her side, and even leaned on her lap; who was loved by little Tommy, +and who loved little Tommy in turn; sustained to her only the relation +of a chattel. I was _more_ than that, and she felt me to be more than +that. I could talk and sing; I could laugh and weep; I could reason and +remember; I could love and hate. I was human, and she, dear lady, knew +and felt me to be so. How could she, then, treat me as a brute, without +a mighty struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul. That +struggle came, and the will and power of the husband was victorious. +Her noble soul was overthrown; but, he that overthrew it did not, +himself, escape the consequences. He, not less than the other parties, +was injured in his domestic peace by the fall. + +When I went into their family, it was the abode of happiness and +contentment. The mistress of the house was a model of affection and +tenderness. Her fervent piety and watchful uprightness made it +impossible to see her without thinking and feeling—“_that woman is a +Christian_.” There was no sorrow nor suffering for which she had not a +tear, and there was no innocent joy for which she did not a smile. She +had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every +mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to +divest her of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early +happiness. Conscience cannot stand much violence. Once thoroughly +broken down, _who_ is he that can repair the damage? It may be broken +toward the slave, on Sunday, and toward the master on Monday. It cannot +endure such shocks. It must stand entire, or it does not stand at all. +If my condition waxed bad, that of the family waxed not better. The +first step, in the wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and +to conscience, in arresting the benevolence that would have enlightened +my young mind. In ceasing to instruct me, she must begin to justify +herself _to_ herself; and, once consenting to take sides in such a +debate, she was riveted to her position. One needs very little +knowledge of moral philosophy, to see _where_ my mistress now landed. +She finally became even more violent in her opposition to my learning +to read, than was her husband himself. She was not satisfied with +simply doing as _well_ as her husband had commanded her, but seemed +resolved to better his instruction. Nothing appeared to make my poor +mistress—after her turning toward the downward path—more angry, than +seeing me, seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or a +newspaper. I have had her rush at me, with the utmost fury, and snatch +from my hand such newspaper or book, with something of the wrath and +consternation which a traitor might be supposed to feel on being +discovered in a plot by some dangerous spy. + +Mrs. Auld was an apt woman, and the advice of her husband, and her own +experience, soon demonstrated, to her entire satisfaction, that +education and slavery are incompatible with each other. When this +conviction was thoroughly established, I was most narrowly watched in +all my movements. If I remained in a separate room from the family for +any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a +book, and was at once called upon to give an account of myself. All +this, however, was entirely _too late_. The first, and never to be +retraced, step had been taken. In teaching me the alphabet, in the days +of her simplicity and kindness, my mistress had given me the _“inch,”_ +and now, no ordinary precaution could prevent me from taking the +_“ell.”_ + +Seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, I hit upon +many expedients to accomplish the desired end. The plea which I mainly +adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of using +my young white playmates, with whom I met in the streets as teachers. I +used to carry, almost constantly, a copy of Webster’s spelling book in +my pocket; and, when sent of errands, or when play time was allowed me, +I would step, with my young friends, aside, and take a lesson in +spelling. I generally paid my _tuition fee_ to the boys, with bread, +which I also carried in my pocket. For a single biscuit, any of my +hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than +bread. Not every one, however, demanded this consideration, for there +were those who took pleasure in teaching me, whenever I had a chance to +be taught by them. I am strongly tempted to give the names of two or +three of those little boys, as a slight testimonial of the gratitude +and affection I bear them, but prudence forbids; not that it would +injure me, but it might, possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an +unpardonable offense to do any thing, directly or indirectly, to +promote a slave’s freedom, in a slave state. It is enough to say, of my +warm-hearted little play fellows, that they lived on Philpot street, +very near Durgin & Bailey’s shipyard. + +Although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked +about among grown up people in Maryland, I frequently talked about +it—and that very freely—with the white boys. I would, sometimes, say to +them, while seated on a curb stone or a cellar door, “I wish I could be +free, as you will be when you get to be men.” “You will be free, you +know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but I +am a slave for life. Have I not as good a right to be free as you +have?” Words like these, I observed, always troubled them; and I had no +small satisfaction in wringing from the boys, occasionally, that fresh +and bitter condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature, unseared +and unperverted. Of all consciences let me have those to deal with +which have not been bewildered by the cares of life. I do not remember +ever to have met with a _boy_, while I was in slavery, who defended the +slave system; but I have often had boys to console me, with the hope +that something would yet occur, by which I might be made free. Over and +over again, they have told me, that “they believed I had as good a +right to be free as _they_ had;” and that “they did not believe God +ever made any one to be a slave.” The reader will easily see, that such +little conversations with my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my +love of liberty, nor to render me contented with my condition as a +slave. + +When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning to +read, every increase of knowledge, especially respecting the FREE +STATES, added something to the almost intolerable burden of the +thought—I AM A SLAVE FOR LIFE. To my bondage I saw no end. It was a +terrible reality, and I shall never be able to tell how sadly that +thought chafed my young spirit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, about +this time in my life, I had made enough money to buy what was then a +very popular school book, viz: the _Columbian Orator_. I bought this +addition to my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, Fell’s Point, +Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents for it. I was first led to buy this +book, by hearing some little boys say they were going to learn some +little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. This volume was, indeed, a +rich treasure, and every opportunity afforded me, for a time, was spent +in diligently perusing it. Among much other interesting matter, that +which I had perused and reperused with unflagging satisfaction, was a +short dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave is represented +as having been recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and the +master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave +with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say in his own +defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called upon to reply, the slave +rejoins, that he knows how little anything that he can say will avail, +seeing that he is completely in the hands of his owner; and with noble +resolution, calmly says, “I submit to my fate.” Touched by the slave’s +answer, the master insists upon his further speaking, and recapitulates +the many acts of kindness which he has performed toward the slave, and +tells him he is permitted to speak for himself. Thus invited to the +debate, the quondam slave made a spirited defense of himself, and +thereafter the whole argument, for and against slavery, was brought +out. The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument; and +seeing himself to be thus vanquished, he generously and meekly +emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. It is +scarcely neccessary(sic) to say, that a dialogue, with such an origin, +and such an ending—read when the fact of my being a slave was a +constant burden of grief—powerfully affected me; and I could not help +feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed answers made by +the slave to the master, in this instance, would find their counterpart +in myself. + +This, however, was not all the fanaticism which I found in this +_Columbian Orator_. I met there one of Sheridan’s mighty speeches, on +the subject of Catholic Emancipation, Lord Chatham’s speech on the +American war, and speeches by the great William Pitt and by Fox. These +were all choice documents to me, and I read them, over and over again, +with an interest that was ever increasing, because it was ever gaining +in intelligence; for the more I read them, the better I understood +them. The reading of these speeches added much to my limited stock of +language, and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting thoughts, +which had frequently flashed through my soul, and died away for want of +utterance. The mighty power and heart-searching directness of truth, +penetrating even the heart of a slaveholder, compelling him to yield up +his earthly interests to the claims of eternal justice, were finely +illustrated in the dialogue, just referred to; and from the speeches of +Sheridan, I got a bold and powerful denunciation of oppression, and a +most brilliant vindication of the rights of man. Here was, indeed, a +noble acquisition. If I ever wavered under the consideration, that the +Almighty, in some way, ordained slavery, and willed my enslavement for +his own glory, I wavered no longer. I had now penetrated the secret of +all slavery and oppression, and had ascertained their true foundation +to be in the pride, the power and the avarice of man. The dialogue and +the speeches were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and poured +floods of light on the nature and character of slavery. With a book of +this kind in my hand, my own human nature, and the facts of my +experience, to help me, I was equal to a contest with the religious +advocates of slavery, whether among the whites or among the colored +people, for blindness, in this matter, is not confined to the former. I +have met many religious colored people, at the south, who are under the +delusion that God requires them to submit to slavery, and to wear their +chains with meekness and humility. I could entertain no such nonsense +as this; and I almost lost my patience when I found any colored man +weak enough to believe such stuff. Nevertheless, the increase of +knowledge was attended with bitter, as well as sweet results. The more +I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest slavery, and my +enslavers. “Slaveholders,” thought I, “are only a band of successful +robbers, who left their homes and went into Africa for the purpose of +stealing and reducing my people to slavery.” I loathed them as the +meanest and the most wicked of men. As I read, behold! the very +discontent so graphically predicted by Master Hugh, had already come +upon me. I was no longer the light-hearted, gleesome boy, full of mirth +and play, as when I landed first at Baltimore. Knowledge had come; +light had penetrated the moral dungeon where I dwelt; and, behold! +there lay the bloody whip, for my back, and here was the iron chain; +and my good, _kind master_, he was the author of my situation. The +revelation haunted me, stung me, and made me gloomy and miserable. As I +writhed under the sting and torment of this knowledge, I almost envied +my fellow slaves their stupid contentment. This knowledge opened my +eyes to the horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the frightful +dragon that was ready to pounce upon me, but it opened no way for my +escape. I have often wished myself a beast, or a bird—anything, rather +than a slave. I was wretched and gloomy, beyond my ability to describe. +I was too thoughtful to be happy. It was this everlasting thinking +which distressed and tormented me; and yet there was no getting rid of +the subject of my thoughts. All nature was redolent of it. Once +awakened by the silver trump of knowledge, my spirit was roused to +eternal wakefulness. Liberty! the inestimable birthright of every man, +had, for me, converted every object into an asserter of this great +right. It was heard in every sound, and beheld in every object. It was +ever present, to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. The +more beautiful and charming were the smiles of nature, the more +horrible and desolate was my condition. I saw nothing without seeing +it, and I heard nothing without hearing it. I do not exaggerate, when I +say, that it looked from every star, smiled in every calm, breathed in +every wind, and moved in every storm. + +I have no doubt that my state of mind had something to do with the +change in the treatment adopted, by my once kind mistress toward me. I +can easily believe, that my leaden, downcast, and discontented look, +was very offensive to her. Poor lady! She did not know my trouble, and +I dared not tell her. Could I have freely made her acquainted with the +real state of my mind, and given her the reasons therefor, it might +have been well for both of us. Her abuse of me fell upon me like the +blows of the false prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an +_angel_ stood in the way; and—such is the relation of master and slave +I could not tell her. Nature had made us _friends;_ slavery made us +_enemies_. My interests were in a direction opposite to hers, and we +both had our private thoughts and plans. She aimed to keep me ignorant; +and I resolved to know, although knowledge only increased my +discontent. My feelings were not the result of any marked cruelty in +the treatment I received; they sprung from the consideration of my +being a slave at all. It was _slavery_—not its mere _incidents_—that I +hated. I had been cheated. I saw through the attempt to keep me in +ignorance; I saw that slaveholders would have gladly made me believe +that they were merely acting under the authority of God, in making a +slave of me, and in making slaves of others; and I treated them as +robbers and deceivers. The feeding and clothing me well, could not +atone for taking my liberty from me. The smiles of my mistress could +not remove the deep sorrow that dwelt in my young bosom. Indeed, these, +in time, came only to deepen my sorrow. She had changed; and the reader +will see that I had changed, too. We were both victims to the same +overshadowing evil—_she_, as mistress, I, as slave. I will not censure +her harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows I speak but the +truth, and have acted in my opposition to slavery, just as she herself +would have acted, in a reverse of circumstances. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. _Religious Nature Awakened_ + + +ABOLITIONISTS SPOKEN OF—MY EAGERNESS TO KNOW WHAT THIS WORD MEANT—MY +CONSULTATION OF THE DICTIONARY—INCENDIARY INFORMATION—HOW AND WHERE +DERIVED—THE ENIGMA SOLVED—NATHANIEL TURNER’S INSURRECTION—THE +CHOLERA—RELIGION—FIRST AWAKENED BY A METHODIST MINISTER NAMED HANSON—MY +DEAR AND GOOD OLD COLORED FRIEND, LAWSON—HIS CHARACTER AND +OCCUPATION—HIS INFLUENCE OVER ME—OUR MUTUAL ATTACHMENT—THE COMFORT I +DERIVED FROM HIS TEACHING—NEW HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS—HEAVENLY LIGHT +AMIDST EARTHLY DARKNESS—THE TWO IRISHMEN ON THE WHARF—THEIR +CONVERSATION—HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE—WHAT WERE MY AIMS. + + +Whilst in the painful state of mind described in the foregoing chapter, +almost regretting my very existence, because doomed to a life of +bondage, so goaded and so wretched, at times, that I was even tempted +to destroy my own life, I was keenly sensitive and eager to know any, +and every thing that transpired, having any relation to the subject of +slavery. I was all ears, all eyes, whenever the words _slave, slavery_, +dropped from the lips of any white person, and the occasions were not +unfrequent when these words became leading ones, in high, social +debate, at our house. Every little while, I could hear Master Hugh, or +some of his company, speaking with much warmth and excitement about +_“abolitionists.”_ Of _who_ or _what_ these were, I was totally +ignorant. I found, however, that whatever they might be, they were most +cordially hated and soundly abused by slaveholders, of every grade. I +very soon discovered, too, that slavery was, in some sort, under +consideration, whenever the abolitionists were alluded to. This made +the term a very interesting one to me. If a slave, for instance, had +made good his escape from slavery, it was generally alleged, that he +had been persuaded and assisted by the abolitionists. If, also, a slave +killed his master—as was sometimes the case—or struck down his +overseer, or set fire to his master’s dwelling, or committed any +violence or crime, out of the common way, it was certain to be said, +that such a crime was the legitimate fruits of the abolition movement. +Hearing such charges often repeated, I, naturally enough, received the +impression that abolition—whatever else it might be—could not be +unfriendly to the slave, nor very friendly to the slaveholder. I +therefore set about finding out, if possible, _who_ and _what_ the +abolitionists were, and _why_ they were so obnoxious to the +slaveholders. The dictionary afforded me very little help. It taught me +that abolition was the “act of abolishing;” but it left me in ignorance +at the very point where I most wanted information—and that was, as to +the _thing_ to be abolished. A city newspaper, the _Baltimore +American_, gave me the incendiary information denied me by the +dictionary. In its columns I found, that, on a certain day, a vast +number of petitions and memorials had been presented to congress, +praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and +for the abolition of the slave trade between the states of the Union. +This was enough. The vindictive bitterness, the marked caution, the +studied reverse, and the cumbrous ambiguity, practiced by our white +folks, when alluding to this subject, was now fully explained. Ever, +after that, when I heard the words “abolition,” or “abolition +movement,” mentioned, I felt the matter one of a personal concern; and +I drew near to listen, when I could do so, without seeming too +solicitous and prying. There was HOPE in those words. Ever and anon, +too, I could see some terrible denunciation of slavery, in our +papers—copied from abolition papers at the north—and the injustice of +such denunciation commented on. These I read with avidity. I had a deep +satisfaction in the thought, that the rascality of slaveholders was not +concealed from the eyes of the world, and that I was not alone in +abhorring the cruelty and brutality of slavery. A still deeper train of +thought was stirred. I saw that there was _fear_, as well as _rage_, in +the manner of speaking of the abolitionists. The latter, therefore, I +was compelled to regard as having some power in the country; and I felt +that they might, possibly, succeed in their designs. When I met with a +slave to whom I deemed it safe to talk on the subject, I would impart +to him so much of the mystery as I had been able to penetrate. Thus, +the light of this grand movement broke in upon my mind, by degrees; and +I must say, that, ignorant as I then was of the philosophy of that +movement, I believe in it from the first—and I believed in it, partly, +because I saw that it alarmed the consciences of slaveholders. The +insurrection of Nathaniel Turner had been quelled, but the alarm and +terror had not subsided. The cholera was on its way, and the thought +was present, that God was angry with the white people because of their +slaveholding wickedness, and, therefore, his judgments were abroad in +the land. It was impossible for me not to hope much from the abolition +movement, when I saw it supported by the Almighty, and armed with +DEATH! + +Previous to my contemplation of the anti-slavery movement, and its +probable results, my mind had been seriously awakened to the subject of +religion. I was not more than thirteen years old, when I felt the need +of God, as a father and protector. My religious nature was awakened by +the preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson. He thought +that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight +of God; that they were, by nature, rebels against His government; and +that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God, through +Christ. I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what was +required of me; but one thing I knew very well—I was wretched, and had +no means of making myself otherwise. Moreover, I knew that I could pray +for light. I consulted a good colored man, named Charles Johnson; and, +in tones of holy affection, he told me to pray, and what to pray for. I +was, for weeks, a poor, brokenhearted mourner, traveling through the +darkness and misery of doubts and fears. I finally found that change of +heart which comes by “casting all one’s care” upon God, and by having +faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Friend, and Savior of those who +diligently seek Him. + +After this, I saw the world in a new light. I seemed to live in a new +world, surrounded by new objects, and to be animated by new hopes and +desires. I loved all mankind—slaveholders not excepted; though I +abhorred slavery more than ever. My great concern was, now, to have the +world converted. The desire for knowledge increased, and especially did +I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the bible. I have +gathered scattered pages from this holy book, from the filthy street +gutters of Baltimore, and washed and dried them, that in the moments of +my leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them. While thus +religiously seeking knowledge, I became acquainted with a good old +colored man, named Lawson. A more devout man than he, I never saw. He +drove a dray for Mr. James Ramsey, the owner of a rope-walk on Fell’s +Point, Baltimore. This man not only prayed three time a day, but he +prayed as he walked through the streets, at his work—on his dray +everywhere. His life was a life of prayer, and his words (when he spoke +to his friends,) were about a better world. Uncle Lawson lived near +Master Hugh’s house; and, becoming deeply attached to the old man, I +went often with him to prayer-meeting, and spent much of my leisure +time with him on Sunday. The old man could read a little, and I was a +great help to him, in making out the hard words, for I was a better +reader than he. I could teach him _“the letter,”_ but he could teach me +_“the spirit;”_ and high, refreshing times we had together, in singing, +praying and glorifying God. These meetings with Uncle Lawson went on +for a long time, without the knowledge of Master Hugh or my mistress. +Both knew, however, that I had become religious, and they seemed to +respect my conscientious piety. My mistress was still a professor of +religion, and belonged to class. Her leader was no less a person than +the Rev. Beverly Waugh, the presiding elder, and now one of the bishops +of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Waugh was then stationed over +Wilk street church. I am careful to state these facts, that the reader +may be able to form an idea of the precise influences which had to do +with shaping and directing my mind. + +In view of the cares and anxieties incident to the life she was then +leading, and, especially, in view of the separation from religious +associations to which she was subjected, my mistress had, as I have +before stated, become lukewarm, and needed to be looked up by her +leader. This brought Mr. Waugh to our house, and gave me an opportunity +to hear him exhort and pray. But my chief instructor, in matters of +religion, was Uncle Lawson. He was my spiritual father; and I loved him +intensely, and was at his house every chance I got. + +This pleasure was not long allowed me. Master Hugh became averse to my +going to Father Lawson’s, and threatened to whip me if I ever went +there again. I now felt myself persecuted by a wicked man; and I +_would_ go to Father Lawson’s, notwithstanding the threat. The good old +man had told me, that the “Lord had a great work for me to do;” and I +must prepare to do it; and that he had been shown that I must preach +the gospel. His words made a deep impression on my mind, and I verily +felt that some such work was before me, though I could not see _how_ I +should ever engage in its performance. “The good Lord,” he said, “would +bring it to pass in his own good time,” and that I must go on reading +and studying the scriptures. The advice and the suggestions of Uncle +Lawson, were not without their influence upon my character and destiny. +He threw my thoughts into a channel from which they have never entirely +diverged. He fanned my already intense love of knowledge into a flame, +by assuring me that I was to be a useful man in the world. When I would +say to him, “How can these things be and what can _I_ do?” his simple +reply was, _“Trust in the Lord.”_ When I told him that “I was a slave, +and a slave FOR LIFE,” he said, “the Lord can make you free, my dear. +All things are possible with him, only _have faith in God.”_ “Ask, and +it shall be given.” “If you want liberty,” said the good old man, “ask +the Lord for it, _in faith_, AND HE WILL GIVE IT TO YOU.” + +Thus assured, and cheered on, under the inspiration of hope, I worked +and prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was under the +guidance of a wisdom higher than my own. With all other blessings +sought at the mercy seat, I always prayed that God would, of His great +mercy, and in His own good time, deliver me from my bondage. + +I went, one day, on the wharf of Mr. Waters; and seeing two Irishmen +unloading a large scow of stone, or ballast I went on board, unasked, +and helped them. When we had finished the work, one of the men came to +me, aside, and asked me a number of questions, and among them, if I +were a slave. I told him “I was a slave, and a slave for life.” The +good Irishman gave his shoulders a shrug, and seemed deeply affected by +the statement. He said, “it was a pity so fine a little fellow as +myself should be a slave for life.” They both had much to say about the +matter, and expressed the deepest sympathy with me, and the most +decided hatred of slavery. They went so far as to tell me that I ought +to run away, and go to the north; that I should find friends there, and +that I would be as free as anybody. I, however, pretended not to be +interested in what they said, for I feared they might be treacherous. +White men have been known to encourage slaves to escape, and then—to +get the reward—they have kidnapped them, and returned them to their +masters. And while I mainly inclined to the notion that these men were +honest and meant me no ill, I feared it might be otherwise. I +nevertheless remembered their words and their advice, and looked +forward to an escape to the north, as a possible means of gaining the +liberty for which my heart panted. It was not my enslavement, at the +then present time, that most affected me; the being a slave _for life_, +was the saddest thought. I was too young to think of running away +immediately; besides, I wished to learn how to write, before going, as +I might have occasion to write my own pass. I now not only had the hope +of freedom, but a foreshadowing of the means by which I might, some +day, gain that inestimable boon. Meanwhile, I resolved to add to my +educational attainments the art of writing. + +After this manner I began to learn to write: I was much in the ship +yard—Master Hugh’s, and that of Durgan & Bailey—and I observed that the +carpenters, after hewing and getting a piece of timber ready for use, +wrote on it the initials of the name of that part of the ship for which +it was intended. When, for instance, a piece of timber was ready for +the starboard side, it was marked with a capital “S.” A piece for the +larboard side was marked “L;” larboard forward, “L. F.;” larboard aft, +was marked “L. A.;” starboard aft, “S. A.;” and starboard forward “S. +F.” I soon learned these letters, and for what they were placed on the +timbers. + +My work was now, to keep fire under the steam box, and to watch the +ship yard while the carpenters had gone to dinner. This interval gave +me a fine opportunity for copying the letters named. I soon astonished +myself with the ease with which I made the letters; and the thought was +soon present, “if I can make four, I can make more.” But having made +these easily, when I met boys about Bethel church, or any of our +play-grounds, I entered the lists with them in the art of writing, and +would make the letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and +ask them to “beat that if they could.” With playmates for my teachers, +fences and pavements for my copy books, and chalk for my pen and ink, I +learned the art of writing. I, however, afterward adopted various +methods of improving my hand. The most successful, was copying the +_italics_ in Webster’s spelling book, until I could make them all +without looking on the book. By this time, my little “Master Tommy” had +grown to be a big boy, and had written over a number of copy books, and +brought them home. They had been shown to the neighbors, had elicited +due praise, and were now laid carefully away. Spending my time between +the ship yard and house, I was as often the lone keeper of the latter +as of the former. When my mistress left me in charge of the house, I +had a grand time; I got Master Tommy’s copy books and a pen and ink, +and, in the ample spaces between the lines, I wrote other lines, as +nearly like his as possible. The process was a tedious one, and I ran +the risk of getting a flogging for marring the highly prized copy books +of the oldest son. In addition to those opportunities, sleeping, as I +did, in the kitchen loft—a room seldom visited by any of the family—I +got a flour barrel up there, and a chair; and upon the head of that +barrel I have written (or endeavored to write) copying from the bible +and the Methodist hymn book, and other books which had accumulated on +my hands, till late at night, and when all the family were in bed and +asleep. I was supported in my endeavors by renewed advice, and by holy +promises from the good Father Lawson, with whom I continued to meet, +and pray, and read the scriptures. Although Master Hugh was aware of my +going there, I must say, for his credit, that he never executed his +threat to whip me, for having thus, innocently, employed-my leisure +time. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. _The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_ + + +DEATH OF OLD MASTER’S SON RICHARD, SPEEDILY FOLLOWED BY THAT OF OLD +MASTER—VALUATION AND DIVISION OF ALL THE PROPERTY, INCLUDING THE +SLAVES—MY PRESENCE REQUIRED AT HILLSBOROUGH TO BE APPRAISED AND +ALLOTTED TO A NEW OWNER—MY SAD PROSPECTS AND GRIEF—PARTING—THE UTTER +POWERLESSNESS OF THE SLAVES TO DECIDE THEIR OWN DESTINY—A GENERAL DREAD +OF MASTER ANDREW—HIS WICKEDNESS AND CRUELTY—MISS LUCRETIA MY NEW +OWNER—MY RETURN TO BALTIMORE—JOY UNDER THE ROOF OF MASTER HUGH—DEATH OF +MRS. LUCRETIA—MY POOR OLD GRANDMOTHER—HER SAD FATE—THE LONE COT IN THE +WOODS—MASTER THOMAS AULD’S SECOND MARRIAGE—AGAIN REMOVED FROM MASTER +HUGH’S—REASONS FOR REGRETTING THE CHANGE—A PLAN OF ESCAPE ENTERTAINED. + + +I must now ask the reader to go with me a little back in point of time, +in my humble story, and to notice another circumstance that entered +into my slavery experience, and which, doubtless, has had a share in +deepening my horror of slavery, and increasing my hostility toward +those men and measures that practically uphold the slave system. + +It has already been observed, that though I was, after my removal from +Col. Lloyd’s plantation, in _form_ the slave of Master Hugh, I was, in +_fact_, and in _law_, the slave of my old master, Capt. Anthony. Very +well. + +In a very short time after I went to Baltimore, my old master’s +youngest son, Richard, died; and, in three years and six months after +his death, my old master himself died, leaving only his son, Andrew, +and his daughter, Lucretia, to share his estate. The old man died while +on a visit to his daughter, in Hillsborough, where Capt. Auld and Mrs. +Lucretia now lived. The former, having given up the command of Col. +Lloyd’s sloop, was now keeping a store in that town. + +Cut off, thus unexpectedly, Capt. Anthony died intestate; and his +property must now be equally divided between his two children, Andrew +and Lucretia. + +The valuation and the division of slaves, among contending heirs, is an +important incident in slave life. The character and tendencies of the +heirs, are generally well understood among the slaves who are to be +divided, and all have their aversions and preferences. But, neither +their aversions nor their preferences avail them anything. + +On the death of old master, I was immediately sent for, to be valued +and divided with the other property. Personally, my concern was, +mainly, about my possible removal from the home of Master Hugh, which, +after that of my grandmother, was the most endeared to me. But, the +whole thing, as a feature of slavery, shocked me. It furnished me anew +insight into the unnatural power to which I was subjected. My +detestation of slavery, already great, rose with this new conception of +its enormity. + +That was a sad day for me, a sad day for little Tommy, and a sad day +for my dear Baltimore mistress and teacher, when I left for the Eastern +Shore, to be valued and divided. We, all three, wept bitterly that day; +for we might be parting, and we feared we were parting, forever. No one +could tell among which pile of chattels I should be flung. Thus early, +I got a foretaste of that painful uncertainty which slavery brings to +the ordinary lot of mortals. Sickness, adversity and death may +interfere with the plans and purposes of all; but the slave has the +added danger of changing homes, changing hands, and of having +separations unknown to other men. Then, too, there was the intensified +degradation of the spectacle. What an assemblage! Men and women, young +and old, married and single; moral and intellectual beings, in open +contempt of their humanity, level at a blow with horses, sheep, horned +cattle and swine! Horses and men—cattle and women—pigs and children—all +holding the same rank in the scale of social existence; and all +subjected to the same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in +gold and silver—the only standard of worth applied by slaveholders to +slaves! How vividly, at that moment, did the brutalizing power of +slavery flash before me! Personality swallowed up in the sordid idea of +property! Manhood lost in chattelhood! + +After the valuation, then came the division. This was an hour of high +excitement and distressing anxiety. Our destiny was now to be _fixed +for life_, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question, +than the oxen and cows that stood chewing at the haymow. One word from +the appraisers, against all preferences or prayers, was enough to +sunder all the ties of friendship and affection, and even to separate +husbands and wives, parents and children. We were all appalled before +that power, which, to human seeming, could bless or blast us in a +moment. Added to the dread of separation, most painful to the majority +of the slaves, we all had a decided horror of the thought of falling +into the hands of Master Andrew. He was distinguished for cruelty and +intemperance. + +Slaves generally dread to fall into the hands of drunken owners. Master +Andrew was almost a confirmed sot, and had already, by his reckless +mismanagement and profligate dissipation, wasted a large portion of old +master’s property. To fall into his hands, was, therefore, considered +merely as the first step toward being sold away to the far south. He +would spend his fortune in a few years, and his farms and slaves would +be sold, we thought, at public outcry; and we should be hurried away to +the cotton fields, and rice swamps, of the sunny south. This was the +cause of deep consternation. + +The people of the north, and free people generally, I think, have less +attachment to the places where they are born and brought up, than have +the slaves. Their freedom to go and come, to be here and there, as they +list, prevents any extravagant attachment to any one particular place, +in their case. On the other hand, the slave is a fixture; he has no +choice, no goal, no destination; but is pegged down to a single spot, +and must take root here, or nowhere. The idea of removal elsewhere, +comes, generally, in the shape of a threat, and in punishment of crime. +It is, therefore, attended with fear and dread. A slave seldom thinks +of bettering his condition by being sold, and hence he looks upon +separation from his native place, with none of the enthusiasm which +animates the bosoms of young freemen, when they contemplate a life in +the far west, or in some distant country where they intend to rise to +wealth and distinction. Nor can those from whom they separate, give +them up with that cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield +each other up, when they feel that it is for the good of the departing +one that he is removed from his native place. Then, too, there is +correspondence, and there is, at least, the hope of reunion, because +reunion is _possible_. But, with the slave, all these mitigating +circumstances are wanting. There is no improvement in his condition +_probable_,—no correspondence _possible_,—no reunion attainable. His +going out into the world, is like a living man going into the tomb, +who, with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of +wife, children and friends of kindred tie. + +In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our +circumstances, I probably suffered more than most of my fellow +servants. I had known what it was to experience kind, and even tender +treatment; they had known nothing of the sort. Life, to them, had been +rough and thorny, as well as dark. They had—most of them—lived on my +old master’s farm in Tuckahoe, and had felt the reign of Mr. Plummer’s +rule. The overseer had written his character on the living parchment of +most of their backs, and left them callous; my back (thanks to my early +removal from the plantation to Baltimore) was yet tender. I had left a +kind mistress at Baltimore, who was almost a mother to me. She was in +tears when we parted, and the probabilities of ever seeing her again, +trembling in the balance as they did, could not be viewed without alarm +and agony. The thought of leaving that kind mistress forever, and, +worse still, of being the slave of Andrew Anthony—a man who, but a few +days before the division of the property, had, in my presence, seized +my brother Perry by the throat, dashed him on the ground, and with the +heel of his boot stamped him on the head, until the blood gushed from +his nose and ears—was terrible! This fiendish proceeding had no better +apology than the fact, that Perry had gone to play, when Master Andrew +wanted him for some trifling service. This cruelty, too, was of a piece +with his general character. After inflicting his heavy blows on my +brother, on observing me looking at him with intense astonishment, he +said, “_That_ is the way I will serve you, one of these days;” meaning, +no doubt, when I should come into his possession. This threat, the +reader may well suppose, was not very tranquilizing to my feelings. I +could see that he really thirsted to get hold of me. But I was there +only for a few days. I had not received any orders, and had violated +none, and there was, therefore, no excuse for flogging me. + +At last, the anxiety and suspense were ended; and they ended, thanks to +a kind Providence, in accordance with my wishes. I fell to the portion +of Mrs. Lucretia—the dear lady who bound up my head, when the savage +Aunt Katy was adding to my sufferings her bitterest maledictions. + +Capt. Thomas Auld and Mrs. Lucretia at once decided on my return to +Baltimore. They knew how sincerely and warmly Mrs. Hugh Auld was +attached to me, and how delighted Mr. Hugh’s son would be to have me +back; and, withal, having no immediate use for one so young, they +willingly let me off to Baltimore. + +I need not stop here to narrate my joy on returning to Baltimore, nor +that of little Tommy; nor the tearful joy of his mother; nor the +evident saticfaction(sic) of Master Hugh. I was just one month absent +from Baltimore, before the matter was decided; and the time really +seemed full six months. + +One trouble over, and on comes another. The slave’s life is full of +uncertainty. I had returned to Baltimore but a short time, when the +tidings reached me, that my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, who was only second +in my regard to Mrs. Hugh Auld, was dead, leaving her husband and only +one child—a daughter, named Amanda. + +Shortly after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, strange to say, Master Andrew +died, leaving his wife and one child. Thus, the whole family of +Anthonys was swept away; only two children remained. All this happened +within five years of my leaving Col. Lloyd’s. + +No alteration took place in the condition of the slaves, in consequence +of these deaths, yet I could not help feeling less secure, after the +death of my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, than I had done during her life. +While she lived, I felt that I had a strong friend to plead for me in +any emergency. Ten years ago, while speaking of the state of things in +our family, after the events just named, I used this language: + +Now all the property of my old master, slaves included, was in the +hands of strangers—strangers who had nothing to do in accumulating it. +Not a slave was left free. All remained slaves, from youngest to +oldest. If any one thing in my experience, more than another, served to +deepen my conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and to fill +me with unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base +ingratitude to my poor old grandmother. She had served my old master +faithfully from youth to old age. She had been the source of all his +wealth; she had peopled his plantation with slaves; she had become a +great-grandmother in his service. She had rocked him in infancy, +attended him in childhood, served him through life, and at his death +wiped from his icy brow the cold death-sweat, and closed his eyes +forever. She was nevertheless left a slave—a slave for life—a slave in +the hands of strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her +grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many +sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a single +word, as to their or her own destiny. And, to cap the climax of their +base ingratitude and fiendish barbarity, my grandmother, who was now +very old, having outlived my old master and all his children, having +seen the beginning and end of all of them, and her present owners +finding she was of but little value, her frame already racked with the +pains of old age, and complete helplessness fast stealing over her once +active limbs, they took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put +up a little mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of +supporting herself there in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning +her out to die! If my poor old grandmother now lives, she lives to +suffer in utter loneliness; she lives to remember and mourn over the +loss of children, the loss of grandchildren, and the loss of +great-grandchildren. They are, in the language of the slave’s poet, +Whittier— + +Gone, gone, sold and gone, +To the rice swamp dank and lone, +Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, +Where the noisome insect stings, +Where the fever-demon strews +Poison with the falling dews, +Where the sickly sunbeams glare +Through the hot and misty air:— + Gone, gone, sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + From Virginia hills and waters— + Woe is me, my stolen daughters! + + +The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children, who +once sang and danced in her presence, are gone. She gropes her way, in +the darkness of age, for a drink of water. Instead of the voices of her +children, she hears by day the moans of the dove, and by night the +screams of the hideous owl. All is gloom. The grave is at the door. And +now, when weighed down by the pains and aches of old age, when the head +inclines to the feet, when the beginning and ending of human existence +meet, and helpless infancy and painful old age combine together—at this +time, this most needful time, the time for the exercise of that +tenderness and affection which children only can exercise toward a +declining parent—my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve +children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim +embers. + +Two years after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, Master Thomas married his +second wife. Her name was Rowena Hamilton, the eldest daughter of Mr. +William Hamilton, a rich slaveholder on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, +who lived about five miles from St. Michael’s, the then place of my +master’s residence. + +Not long after his marriage, Master Thomas had a misunderstanding with +Master Hugh, and, as a means of punishing his brother, he ordered him +to send me home. + +As the ground of misunderstanding will serve to illustrate the +character of southern chivalry, and humanity, I will relate it. + +Among the children of my Aunt Milly, was a daughter, named Henny. When +quite a child, Henny had fallen into the fire, and burnt her hands so +bad that they were of very little use to her. Her fingers were drawn +almost into the palms of her hands. She could make out to do something, +but she was considered hardly worth the having—of little more value +than a horse with a broken leg. This unprofitable piece of human +property, ill shapen, and disfigured, Capt. Auld sent off to Baltimore, +making his brother Hugh welcome to her services. + +After giving poor Henny a fair trial, Master Hugh and his wife came to +the conclusion, that they had no use for the crippled servant, and they +sent her back to Master Thomas. Thus, the latter took as an act of +ingratitude, on the part of his brother; and, as a mark of his +displeasure, he required him to send me immediately to St. Michael’s, +saying, if he cannot keep _“Hen,”_ he shall not have _“Fred.”_ + +Here was another shock to my nerves, another breaking up of my plans, +and another severance of my religious and social alliances. I was now a +big boy. I had become quite useful to several young colored men, who +had made me their teacher. I had taught some of them to read, and was +accustomed to spend many of my leisure hours with them. Our attachment +was strong, and I greatly dreaded the separation. But regrets, +especially in a slave, are unavailing. I was only a slave; my wishes +were nothing, and my happiness was the sport of my masters. + +My regrets at now leaving Baltimore, were not for the same reasons as +when I before left that city, to be valued and handed over to my proper +owner. My home was not now the pleasant place it had formerly been. A +change had taken place, both in Master Hugh, and in his once pious and +affectionate wife. The influence of brandy and bad company on him, and +the influence of slavery and social isolation upon her, had wrought +disastrously upon the characters of both. Thomas was no longer “little +Tommy,” but was a big boy, and had learned to assume the airs of his +class toward me. My condition, therefore, in the house of Master Hugh, +was not, by any means, so comfortable as in former years. My +attachments were now outside of our family. They were felt to those to +whom I _imparted_ instruction, and to those little white boys from whom +I _received_ instruction. There, too, was my dear old father, the pious +Lawson, who was, in christian graces, the very counterpart of “Uncle” +Tom. The resemblance is so perfect, that he might have been the +original of Mrs. Stowe’s christian hero. The thought of leaving these +dear friends, greatly troubled me, for I was going without the hope of +ever returning to Baltimore again; the feud between Master Hugh and his +brother being bitter and irreconcilable, or, at least, supposed to be +so. + +In addition to thoughts of friends from whom I was parting, as I +supposed, _forever_, I had the grief of neglected chances of escape to +brood over. I had put off running away, until now I was to be placed +where the opportunities for escaping were much fewer than in a large +city like Baltimore. + +On my way from Baltimore to St. Michael’s, down the Chesapeake bay, our +sloop—the “Amanda”—was passed by the steamers plying between that city +and Philadelphia, and I watched the course of those steamers, and, +while going to St. Michael’s, I formed a plan to escape from slavery; +of which plan, and matters connected therewith the kind reader shall +learn more hereafter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. _Experience in St. Michael’s_ + + +THE VILLAGE—ITS INHABITANTS—THEIR OCCUPATION AND LOW PROPENSITIES +CAPTAN(sic) THOMAS AULD—HIS CHARACTER—HIS SECOND WIFE, ROWENA—WELL +MATCHED—SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER—OBLIGED TO TAKE FOOD—MODE OF ARGUMENT IN +VINDICATION THEREOF—NO MORAL CODE OF FREE SOCIETY CAN APPLY TO SLAVE +SOCIETY—SOUTHERN CAMP MEETING—WHAT MASTER THOMAS DID +THERE—HOPES—SUSPICIONS ABOUT HIS CONVERSION—THE RESULT—FAITH AND WORKS +ENTIRELY AT VARIANCE—HIS RISE AND PROGRESS IN THE CHURCH—POOR COUSIN +“HENNY”—HIS TREATMENT OF HER—THE METHODIST PREACHERS—THEIR UTTER +DISREGARD OF US—ONE EXCELLENT EXCEPTION—REV. GEORGE COOKMAN—SABBATH +SCHOOL—HOW BROKEN UP AND BY WHOM—A FUNERAL PALL CAST OVER ALL MY +PROSPECTS—COVEY THE NEGRO-BREAKER. + + +St. Michael’s, the village in which was now my new home, compared +favorably with villages in slave states, generally. There were a few +comfortable dwellings in it, but the place, as a whole, wore a dull, +slovenly, enterprise-forsaken aspect. The mass of the buildings were +wood; they had never enjoyed the artificial adornment of paint, and +time and storms had worn off the bright color of the wood, leaving them +almost as black as buildings charred by a conflagration. + +St. Michael’s had, in former years, (previous to 1833, for that was the +year I went to reside there,) enjoyed some reputation as a ship +building community, but that business had almost entirely given place +to oyster fishing, for the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets—a course +of life highly unfavorable to morals, industry, and manners. Miles +river was broad, and its oyster fishing grounds were extensive; and the +fishermen were out, often, all day, and a part of the night, during +autumn, winter and spring. This exposure was an excuse for carrying +with them, in considerable quanties(sic), spirituous liquors, the then +supposed best antidote for cold. Each canoe was supplied with its jug +of rum; and tippling, among this class of the citizens of St. +Michael’s, became general. This drinking habit, in an ignorant +population, fostered coarseness, vulgarity and an indolent disregard +for the social improvement of the place, so that it was admitted, by +the few sober, thinking people who remained there, that St. Michael’s +had become a very _unsaintly_, as well as unsightly place, before I +went there to reside. + +I left Baltimore for St. Michael’s in the month of March, 1833. I know +the year, because it was the one succeeding the first cholera in +Baltimore, and was the year, also, of that strange phenomenon, when the +heavens seemed about to part with its starry train. I witnessed this +gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. The air seemed filled with +bright, descending messengers from the sky. It was about daybreak when +I saw this sublime scene. I was not without the suggestion, at the +moment, that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; +and, in my then state of mind, I was prepared to hail Him as my friend +and deliverer. I had read, that the “stars shall fall from heaven”; and +they were now falling. I was suffering much in my mind. It did seem +that every time the young tendrils of my affection became attached, +they were rudely broken by some unnatural outside power; and I was +beginning to look away to heaven for the rest denied me on earth. + +But, to my story. It was now more than seven years since I had lived +with Master Thomas Auld, in the family of my old master, on Col. +Lloyd’s plantation. We were almost entire strangers to each other; for, +when I knew him at the house of my old master, it was not as a +_master_, but simply as “Captain Auld,” who had married old master’s +daughter. All my lessons concerning his temper and disposition, and the +best methods of pleasing him, were yet to be learnt. Slaveholders, +however, are not very ceremonious in approaching a slave; and my +ignorance of the new material in shape of a master was but transient. +Nor was my mistress long in making known her animus. She was not a +“Miss Lucretia,” traces of whom I yet remembered, and the more +especially, as I saw them shining in the face of little Amanda, her +daughter, now living under a step-mother’s government. I had not +forgotten the soft hand, guided by a tender heart, that bound up with +healing balsam the gash made in my head by Ike, the son of Abel. Thomas +and Rowena, I found to be a well-matched pair. _He_ was stingy, and +_she_ was cruel; and—what was quite natural in such cases—she possessed +the ability to make him as cruel as herself, while she could easily +descend to the level of his meanness. In the house of Master Thomas, I +was made—for the first time in seven years to feel the pinchings of +hunger, and this was not very easy to bear. + +For, in all the changes of Master Hugh’s family, there was no change in +the bountifulness with which they supplied me with food. Not to give a +slave enough to eat, is meanness intensified, and it is so recognized +among slaveholders generally, in Maryland. The rule is, no matter how +coarse the food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory, +and—in the part of Maryland I came from—the general practice accords +with this theory. Lloyd’s plantation was an exception, as was, also, +the house of Master Thomas Auld. + +All know the lightness of Indian corn-meal, as an article of food, and +can easily judge from the following facts whether the statements I have +made of the stinginess of Master Thomas, are borne out. There were four +slaves of us in the kitchen, and four whites in the great house Thomas +Auld, Mrs. Auld, Hadaway Auld (brother of Thomas Auld) and little +Amanda. The names of the slaves in the kitchen, were Eliza, my sister; +Priscilla, my aunt; Henny, my cousin; and myself. There were eight +persons in the family. There was, each week, one half bushel of +corn-meal brought from the mill; and in the kitchen, corn-meal was +almost our exclusive food, for very little else was allowed us. Out of +this bushel of corn-meal, the family in the great house had a small +loaf every morning; thus leaving us, in the kitchen, with not quite a +half a peck per week, apiece. This allowance was less than half the +allowance of food on Lloyd’s plantation. It was not enough to subsist +upon; and we were, therefore, reduced to the wretched necessity of +living at the expense of our neighbors. We were compelled either to +beg, or to steal, and we did both. I frankly confess, that while I +hated everything like stealing, _as such_, I nevertheless did not +hesitate to take food, when I was hungry, wherever I could find it. Nor +was this practice the mere result of an unreasoning instinct; it was, +in my case, the result of a clear apprehension of the claims of +morality. I weighed and considered the matter closely, before I +ventured to satisfy my hunger by such means. Considering that my labor +and person were the property of Master Thomas, and that I was by him +deprived of the necessaries of life necessaries obtained by my own +labor—it was easy to deduce the right to supply myself with what was my +own. It was simply appropriating what was my own to the use of my +master, since the health and strength derived from such food were +exerted in _his_ service. To be sure, this was stealing, according to +the law and gospel I heard from St. Michael’s pulpit; but I had already +begun to attach less importance to what dropped from that quarter, on +that point, while, as yet, I retained my reverence for religion. It was +not always convenient to steal from master, and the same reason why I +might, innocently, steal from him, did not seem to justify me in +stealing from others. In the case of my master, it was only a question +of _removal_—the taking his meat out of one tub, and putting it into +another; the ownership of the meat was not affected by the transaction. +At first, he owned it in the _tub_, and last, he owned it in _me_. His +meat house was not always open. There was a strict watch kept on that +point, and the key was on a large bunch in Rowena’s pocket. A great +many times have we, poor creatures, been severely pinched with hunger, +when meat and bread have been moulding under the lock, while the key +was in the pocket of our mistress. This had been so when she _knew_ we +were nearly half starved; and yet, that mistress, with saintly air, +would kneel with her husband, and pray each morning that a merciful God +would bless them in basket and in store, and save them, at last, in his +kingdom. But I proceed with the argument. + +It was necessary that right to steal from _others_ should be +established; and this could only rest upon a wider range of +generalization than that which supposed the right to steal from my +master. + +It was sometime before I arrived at this clear right. The reader will +get some idea of my train of reasoning, by a brief statement of the +case. “I am,” thought I, “not only the slave of Thomas, but I am the +slave of society at large. Society at large has bound itself, in form +and in fact, to assist Master Thomas in robbing me of my rightful +liberty, and of the just reward of my labor; therefore, whatever rights +I have against Master Thomas, I have, equally, against those +confederated with him in robbing me of liberty. As society has marked +me out as privileged plunder, on the principle of self-preservation I +am justified in plundering in turn. Since each slave belongs to all; +all must, therefore, belong to each.” + +I shall here make a profession of faith which may shock some, offend +others, and be dissented from by all. It is this: Within the bounds of +his just earnings, I hold that the slave is fully justified in helping +himself to the _gold and silver, and the best apparel of his master, or +that of any other slaveholder; and that such taking is not stealing in +any just sense of that word_. + +The morality of _free_ society can have no application to _slave_ +society. Slaveholders have made it almost impossible for the slave to +commit any crime, known either to the laws of God or to the laws of +man. If he steals, he takes his own; if he kills his master, he +imitates only the heroes of the revolution. Slaveholders I hold to be +individually and collectively responsible for all the evils which grow +out of the horrid relation, and I believe they will be so held at the +judgment, in the sight of a just God. Make a man a slave, and you rob +him of moral responsibility. Freedom of choice is the essence of all +accountability. But my kind readers are, probably, less concerned about +my opinions, than about that which more nearly touches my personal +experience; albeit, my opinions have, in some sort, been formed by that +experience. + +Bad as slaveholders are, I have seldom met with one so entirely +destitute of every element of character capable of inspiring respect, +as was my present master, Capt. Thomas Auld. + +When I lived with him, I thought him incapable of a noble action. The +leading trait in his character was intense selfishness. I think he was +fully aware of this fact himself, and often tried to conceal it. Capt. +Auld was not a _born_ slaveholder—not a birthright member of the +slaveholding oligarchy. He was only a slaveholder by _marriage-right;_ +and, of all slaveholders, these latter are, _by far_, the most +exacting. There was in him all the love of domination, the pride of +mastery, and the swagger of authority, but his rule lacked the vital +element of consistency. He could be cruel; but his methods of showing +it were cowardly, and evinced his meanness rather than his spirit. His +commands were strong, his enforcement weak. + +Slaves are not insensible to the whole-souled characteristics of a +generous, dashing slaveholder, who is fearless of consequences; and +they prefer a master of this bold and daring kind—even with the risk of +being shot down for impudence to the fretful, little soul, who never +uses the lash but at the suggestion of a love of gain. + +Slaves, too, readily distinguish between the birthright bearing of the +original slaveholder and the assumed attitudes of the accidental +slaveholder; and while they cannot respect either, they certainly +despise the latter more than the former. + +The luxury of having slaves wait upon him was something new to Master +Thomas; and for it he was wholly unprepared. He was a slaveholder, +without the ability to hold or manage his slaves. We seldom called him +“master,” but generally addressed him by his “bay craft” title—“_Capt. +Auld_.” It is easy to see that such conduct might do much to make him +appear awkward, and, consequently, fretful. His wife was especially +solicitous to have us call her husband “master.” Is your _master_ at +the store?”—“Where is your _master_?”—“Go and tell your _master”_—“I +will make your _master_ acquainted with your conduct”—she would say; +but we were inapt scholars. Especially were I and my sister Eliza inapt +in this particular. Aunt Priscilla was less stubborn and defiant in her +spirit than Eliza and myself; and, I think, her road was less rough +than ours. + +In the month of August, 1833, when I had almost become desperate under +the treatment of Master Thomas, and when I entertained more strongly +than ever the oft-repeated determination to run away, a circumstance +occurred which seemed to promise brighter and better days for us all. +At a Methodist camp-meeting, held in the Bay Side (a famous place for +campmeetings) about eight miles from St. Michael’s, Master Thomas came +out with a profession of religion. He had long been an object of +interest to the church, and to the ministers, as I had seen by the +repeated visits and lengthy exhortations of the latter. He was a fish +quite worth catching, for he had money and standing. In the community +of St. Michael’s he was equal to the best citizen. He was strictly +temperate; _perhaps_, from principle, but most likely, from interest. +There was very little to do for him, to give him the appearance of +piety, and to make him a pillar in the church. Well, the camp-meeting +continued a week; people gathered from all parts of the county, and two +steamboat loads came from Baltimore. The ground was happily chosen; +seats were arranged; a stand erected; a rude altar fenced in, fronting +the preachers’ stand, with straw in it for the accommodation of +mourners. This latter would hold at least one hundred persons. In +front, and on the sides of the preachers’ stand, and outside the long +rows of seats, rose the first class of stately tents, each vieing with +the other in strength, neatness, and capacity for accommodating its +inmates. Behind this first circle of tents was another, less imposing, +which reached round the camp-ground to the speakers’ stand. Outside +this second class of tents were covered wagons, ox carts, and vehicles +of every shape and size. These served as tents to their owners. Outside +of these, huge fires were burning, in all directions, where roasting, +and boiling, and frying, were going on, for the benefit of those who +were attending to their own spiritual welfare within the circle. +_Behind_ the preachers’ stand, a narrow space was marked out for the +use of the colored people. There were no seats provided for this class +of persons; the preachers addressed them, _“over the left,”_ if they +addressed them at all. After the preaching was over, at every service, +an invitation was given to mourners to come into the pen; and, in some +cases, ministers went out to persuade men and women to come in. By one +of these ministers, Master Thomas Auld was persuaded to go inside the +pen. I was deeply interested in that matter, and followed; and, though +colored people were not allowed either in the pen or in front of the +preachers’ stand, I ventured to take my stand at a sort of half-way +place between the blacks and whites, where I could distinctly see the +movements of mourners, and especially the progress of Master Thomas. + +“If he has got religion,” thought I, “he will emancipate his slaves; +and if he should not do so much as this, he will, at any rate, behave +toward us more kindly, and feed us more generously than he has +heretofore done.” Appealing to my own religious experience, and judging +my master by what was true in my own case, I could not regard him as +soundly converted, unless some such good results followed his +profession of religion. + +But in my expectations I was doubly disappointed; Master Thomas was +_Master Thomas_ still. The fruits of his righteousness were to show +themselves in no such way as I had anticipated. His conversion was not +to change his relation toward men—at any rate not toward BLACK men—but +toward God. My faith, I confess, was not great. There was something in +his appearance that, in my mind, cast a doubt over his conversion. +Standing where I did, I could see his every movement. I watched +narrowly while he remained in the little pen; and although I saw that +his face was extremely red, and his hair disheveled, and though I heard +him groan, and saw a stray tear halting on his cheek, as if inquiring +“which way shall I go?”—I could not wholly confide in the genuineness +of his conversion. The hesitating behavior of that tear-drop and its +loneliness, distressed me, and cast a doubt upon the whole transaction, +of which it was a part. But people said, _“Capt. Auld had come +through,”_ and it was for me to hope for the best. I was bound to do +this, in charity, for I, too, was religious, and had been in the church +full three years, although now I was not more than sixteen years old. +Slaveholders may, sometimes, have confidence in the piety of some of +their slaves; but the slaves seldom have confidence in the piety of +their masters. _“He cant go to heaven with our blood in his skirts_,” +is a settled point in the creed of every slave; rising superior to all +teaching to the contrary, and standing forever as a fixed fact. The +highest evidence the slaveholder can give the slave of his acceptance +with God, is the emancipation of his slaves. This is proof that he is +willing to give up all to God, and for the sake of God. Not to do this, +was, in my estimation, and in the opinion of all the slaves, an +evidence of half-heartedness, and wholly inconsistent with the idea of +genuine conversion. I had read, also, somewhere in the Methodist +Discipline, the following question and answer: + +“_Question_. What shall be done for the extirpation of slavery? + +“_Answer_. We declare that we are much as ever convinced of the great +evil of slavery; therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any +official station in our church.” + +These words sounded in my ears for a long time, and encouraged me to +hope. But, as I have before said, I was doomed to disappointment. +Master Thomas seemed to be aware of my hopes and expectations +concerning him. I have thought, before now, that he looked at me in +answer to my glances, as much as to say, “I will teach you, young man, +that, though I have parted with my sins, I have not parted with my +sense. I shall hold my slaves, and go to heaven too.” + +Possibly, to convince us that we must not presume _too much_ upon his +recent conversion, he became rather more rigid and stringent in his +exactions. There always was a scarcity of good nature about the man; +but now his whole countenance was _soured_ over with the seemings of +piety. His religion, therefore, neither made him emancipate his slaves, +nor caused him to treat them with greater humanity. If religion had any +effect on his character at all, it made him more cruel and hateful in +all his ways. The natural wickedness of his heart had not been removed, +but only reinforced, by the profession of religion. Do I judge him +harshly? God forbid. Facts _are_ facts. Capt. Auld made the greatest +profession of piety. His house was, literally, a house of prayer. In +the morning, and in the evening, loud prayers and hymns were heard +there, in which both himself and his wife joined; yet, _no more meal_ +was brought from the mill, _no more attention_ was paid to the moral +welfare of the kitchen; and nothing was done to make us feel that the +heart of Master Thomas was one whit better than it was before he went +into the little pen, opposite to the preachers’ stand, on the camp +ground. + +Our hopes (founded on the discipline) soon vanished; for the +authorities let him into the church _at once_, and before he was out of +his term of _probation_, I heard of his leading class! He distinguished +himself greatly among the brethren, and was soon an exhorter. His +progress was almost as rapid as the growth of the fabled vine of Jack’s +bean. No man was more active than he, in revivals. He would go many +miles to assist in carrying them on, and in getting outsiders +interested in religion. His house being one of the holiest, if not the +happiest in St. Michael’s, became the “preachers’ home.” These +preachers evidently liked to share Master Thomas’s hospitality; for +while he _starved us_, he _stuffed_ them. Three or four of these +ambassadors of the gospel—according to slavery—have been there at a +time; all living on the fat of the land, while we, in the kitchen, were +nearly starving. Not often did we get a smile of recognition from these +holy men. They seemed almost as unconcerned about our getting to +heaven, as they were about our getting out of slavery. To this general +charge there was one exception—the Rev. GEORGE COOKMAN. Unlike Rev. +Messrs. Storks, Ewry, Hickey, Humphrey and Cooper (all whom were on the +St. Michael’s circuit) he kindly took an interest in our temporal and +spiritual welfare. Our souls and our bodies were all alike sacred in +his sight; and he really had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery +feeling mingled with his colonization ideas. There was not a slave in +our neighborhood that did not love, and almost venerate, Mr. Cookman. +It was pretty generally believed that he had been chiefly instrumental +in bringing one of the largest slaveholders—Mr. Samuel Harrison—in that +neighborhood, to emancipate all his slaves, and, indeed, the general +impression was, that Mr. Cookman had labored faithfully with +slaveholders, whenever he met them, to induce them to emancipate their +bondmen, and that he did this as a religious duty. When this good man +was at our house, we were all sure to be called in to prayers in the +morning; and he was not slow in making inquiries as to the state of our +minds, nor in giving us a word of exhortation and of encouragement. +Great was the sorrow of all the slaves, when this faithful preacher of +the gospel was removed from the Talbot county circuit. He was an +eloquent preacher, and possessed what few ministers, south of Mason +Dixon’s line, possess, or _dare_ to show, viz: a warm and philanthropic +heart. The Mr. Cookman, of whom I speak, was an Englishman by birth, +and perished while on his way to England, on board the ill-fated +“President”. Could the thousands of slaves in Maryland know the fate of +the good man, to whose words of comfort they were so largely indebted, +they would thank me for dropping a tear on this page, in memory of +their favorite preacher, friend and benefactor. + +But, let me return to Master Thomas, and to my experience, after his +conversion. In Baltimore, I could, occasionally, get into a Sabbath +school, among the free children, and receive lessons, with the rest; +but, having already learned both to read and to write, I was more of a +teacher than a pupil, even there. When, however, I went back to the +Eastern Shore, and was at the house of Master Thomas, I was neither +allowed to teach, nor to be taught. The whole community—with but a +single exception, among the whites—frowned upon everything like +imparting instruction either to slaves or to free colored persons. That +single exception, a pious young man, named Wilson, asked me, one day, +if I would like to assist him in teaching a little Sabbath school, at +the house of a free colored man in St. Michael’s, named James Mitchell. +The idea was to me a delightful one, and I told him I would gladly +devote as much of my Sabbath as I could command, to that most laudable +work. Mr. Wilson soon mustered up a dozen old spelling books, and a few +testaments; and we commenced operations, with some twenty scholars, in +our Sunday school. Here, thought I, is something worth living for; here +is an excellent chance for usefulness; and I shall soon have a company +of young friends, lovers of knowledge, like some of my Baltimore +friends, from whom I now felt parted forever. + +Our first Sabbath passed delightfully, and I spent the week after very +joyously. I could not go to Baltimore, but I could make a little +Baltimore here. At our second meeting, I learned that there was some +objection to the existence of the Sabbath school; and, sure enough, we +had scarcely got at work—_good work_, simply teaching a few colored +children how to read the gospel of the Son of God—when in rushed a mob, +headed by Mr. Wright Fairbanks and Mr. Garrison West—two +class-leaders—and Master Thomas; who, armed with sticks and other +missiles, drove us off, and commanded us never to meet for such a +purpose again. One of this pious crew told me, that as for my part, I +wanted to be another Nat Turner; and if I did not look out, I should +get as many balls into me, as Nat did into him. Thus ended the infant +Sabbath school, in the town of St. Michael’s. The reader will not be +surprised when I say, that the breaking up of my Sabbath school, by +these class-leaders, and professedly holy men, did not serve to +strengthen my religious convictions. The cloud over my St. Michael’s +home grew heavier and blacker than ever. + +It was not merely the agency of Master Thomas, in breaking up and +destroying my Sabbath school, that shook my confidence in the power of +southern religion to make men wiser or better; but I saw in him all the +cruelty and meanness, _after_ his conversion, which he had exhibited +before he made a profession of religion. His cruelty and meanness were +especially displayed in his treatment of my unfortunate cousin, Henny, +whose lameness made her a burden to him. I have no extraordinary +personal hard usage toward myself to complain of, against him, but I +have seen him tie up the lame and maimed woman, and whip her in a +manner most brutal, and shocking; and then, with blood-chilling +blasphemy, he would quote the passage of scripture, “That servant which +knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according +to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Master would keep this +lacerated woman tied up by her wrists, to a bolt in the joist, three, +four and five hours at a time. He would tie her up early in the +morning, whip her with a cowskin before breakfast; leave her tied up; +go to his store, and, returning to his dinner, repeat the castigation; +laying on the rugged lash, on flesh already made raw by repeated blows. +He seemed desirous to get the poor girl out of existence, or, at any +rate, off his hands. In proof of this, he afterwards gave her away to +his sister Sarah (Mrs. Cline) but, as in the case of Master Hugh, Henny +was soon returned on his hands. Finally, upon a pretense that he could +do nothing with her (I use his own words) he “set her adrift, to take +care of herself.” Here was a recently converted man, holding, with +tight grasp, the well-framed, and able bodied slaves left him by old +master—the persons, who, in freedom, could have taken care of +themselves; yet, turning loose the only cripple among them, virtually +to starve and die. + +No doubt, had Master Thomas been asked, by some pious northern brother, +_why_ he continued to sustain the relation of a slaveholder, to those +whom he retained, his answer would have been precisely the same as many +other religious slaveholders have returned to that inquiry, viz: “I +hold my slaves for their own good.” + +Bad as my condition was when I lived with Master Thomas, I was soon to +experience a life far more goading and bitter. The many differences +springing up between myself and Master Thomas, owing to the clear +perception I had of his character, and the boldness with which I +defended myself against his capricious complaints, led him to declare +that I was unsuited to his wants; that my city life had affected me +perniciously; that, in fact, it had almost ruined me for every good +purpose, and had fitted me for everything that was bad. One of my +greatest faults, or offenses, was that of letting his horse get away, +and go down to the farm belonging to his father-in-law. The animal had +a liking for that farm, with which I fully sympathized. Whenever I let +it out, it would go dashing down the road to Mr. Hamilton’s, as if +going on a grand frolic. My horse gone, of course I must go after it. +The explanation of our mutual attachment to the place is the same; the +horse found there good pasturage, and I found there plenty of bread. +Mr. Hamilton had his faults, but starving his slaves was not among +them. He gave food, in abundance, and that, too, of an excellent +quality. In Mr. Hamilton’s cook—Aunt Mary—I found a most generous and +considerate friend. She never allowed me to go there without giving me +bread enough to make good the deficiencies of a day or two. Master +Thomas at last resolved to endure my behavior no longer; he could +neither keep me, nor his horse, we liked so well to be at his +father-in-law’s farm. I had now lived with him nearly nine months, and +he had given me a number of severe whippings, without any visible +improvement in my character, or my conduct; and now he was resolved to +put me out—as he said—“_to be broken._” + +There was, in the Bay Side, very near the camp ground, where my master +got his religious impressions, a man named Edward Covey, who enjoyed +the execrated reputation, of being a first rate hand at breaking young +Negroes. This Covey was a poor man, a farm renter; and this reputation +(hateful as it was to the slaves and to all good men) was, at the same +time, of immense advantage to him. It enabled him to get his farm +tilled with very little expense, compared with what it would have cost +him without this most extraordinary reputation. Some slaveholders +thought it an advantage to let Mr. Covey have the government of their +slaves a year or two, almost free of charge, for the sake of the +excellent training such slaves got under his happy management! Like +some horse breakers, noted for their skill, who ride the best horses in +the country without expense, Mr. Covey could have under him, the most +fiery bloods of the neighborhood, for the simple reward of returning +them to their owners, _well broken_. Added to the natural fitness of +Mr. Covey for the duties of his profession, he was said to “enjoy +religion,” and was as strict in the cultivation of piety, as he was in +the cultivation of his farm. I was made aware of his character by some +who had been under his hand; and while I could not look forward to +going to him with any pleasure, I was glad to get away from St. +Michael’s. I was sure of getting enough to eat at Covey’s, even if I +suffered in other respects. _This_, to a hungry man, is not a prospect +to be regarded with indifference. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. _Covey, the Negro Breaker_ + + +JOURNEY TO MY NEW MASTER’S—MEDITATIONS BY THE WAY—VIEW OF COVEY’S +RESIDENCE—THE FAMILY—MY AWKWARDNESS AS A FIELD HAND—A CRUEL BEATING—WHY +IT WAS GIVEN—DESCRIPTION OF COVEY—FIRST ADVENTURE AT OX DRIVING—HAIR +BREADTH ESCAPES—OX AND MAN ALIKE PROPERTY—COVEY’S MANNER OF PROCEEDING +TO WHIP—HARD LABOR BETTER THAN THE WHIP FOR BREAKING DOWN THE +SPIRIT—CUNNING AND TRICKERY OF COVEY—FAMILY WORSHIP—SHOCKING CONTEMPT +FOR CHASTITY—I AM BROKEN DOWN—GREAT MENTAL AGITATION IN CONTRASTING THE +FREEDOM OF THE SHIPS WITH HIS OWN SLAVERY—ANGUISH BEYOND DESCRIPTION. + + +The morning of the first of January, 1834, with its chilling wind and +pinching frost, quite in harmony with the winter in my own mind, found +me, with my little bundle of clothing on the end of a stick, swung +across my shoulder, on the main road, bending my way toward Covey’s, +whither I had been imperiously ordered by Master Thomas. The latter had +been as good as his word, and had committed me, without reserve, to the +mastery of Mr. Edward Covey. Eight or ten years had now passed since I +had been taken from my grandmother’s cabin, in Tuckahoe; and these +years, for the most part, I had spent in Baltimore, where—as the reader +has already seen—I was treated with comparative tenderness. I was now +about to sound profounder depths in slave life. The rigors of a field, +less tolerable than the field of battle, awaited me. My new master was +notorious for his fierce and savage disposition, and my only +consolation in going to live with him was, the certainty of finding him +precisely as represented by common fame. There was neither joy in my +heart, nor elasticity in my step, as I started in search of the +tyrant’s home. Starvation made me glad to leave Thomas Auld’s, and the +cruel lash made me dread to go to Covey’s. Escape was impossible; so, +heavy and sad, I paced the seven miles, which separated Covey’s house +from St. Michael’s—thinking much by the solitary way—averse to my +condition; but _thinking_ was all I could do. Like a fish in a net, +allowed to play for a time, I was now drawn rapidly to the shore, +secured at all points. “I am,” thought I, “but the sport of a power +which makes no account, either of my welfare or of my happiness. By a +law which I can clearly comprehend, but cannot evade nor resist, I am +ruthlessly snatched from the hearth of a fond grandmother, and hurried +away to the home of a mysterious ‘old master;’ again I am removed from +there, to a master in Baltimore; thence am I snatched away to the +Eastern Shore, to be valued with the beasts of the field, and, with +them, divided and set apart for a possessor; then I am sent back to +Baltimore; and by the time I have formed new attachments, and have +begun to hope that no more rude shocks shall touch me, a difference +arises between brothers, and I am again broken up, and sent to St. +Michael’s; and now, from the latter place, I am footing my way to the +home of a new master, where, I am given to understand, that, like a +wild young working animal, I am to be broken to the yoke of a bitter +and life-long bondage.” + +With thoughts and reflections like these, I came in sight of a small +wood-colored building, about a mile from the main road, which, from the +description I had received, at starting, I easily recognized as my new +home. The Chesapeake bay—upon the jutting banks of which the little +wood-colored house was standing—white with foam, raised by the heavy +north-west wind; Poplar Island, covered with a thick, black pine +forest, standing out amid this half ocean; and Kent Point, stretching +its sandy, desert-like shores out into the foam-cested bay—were all in +sight, and deepened the wild and desolate aspect of my new home. + +The good clothes I had brought with me from Baltimore were now worn +thin, and had not been replaced; for Master Thomas was as little +careful to provide us against cold, as against hunger. Met here by a +north wind, sweeping through an open space of forty miles, I was glad +to make any port; and, therefore, I speedily pressed on to the little +wood-colored house. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Covey; Miss +Kemp (a broken-backed woman) a sister of Mrs. Covey; William Hughes, +cousin to Edward Covey; Caroline, the cook; Bill Smith, a hired man; +and myself. Bill Smith, Bill Hughes, and myself, were the working force +of the farm, which consisted of three or four hundred acres. I was now, +for the first time in my life, to be a field hand; and in my new +employment I found myself even more awkward than a green country boy +may be supposed to be, upon his first entrance into the bewildering +scenes of city life; and my awkwardness gave me much trouble. Strange +and unnatural as it may seem, I had been at my new home but three days, +before Mr. Covey (my brother in the Methodist church) gave me a bitter +foretaste of what was in reserve for me. I presume he thought, that +since he had but a single year in which to complete his work, the +sooner he began, the better. Perhaps he thought that by coming to blows +at once, we should mutually better understand our relations. But to +whatever motive, direct or indirect, the cause may be referred, I had +not been in his possession three whole days, before he subjected me to +a most brutal chastisement. Under his heavy blows, blood flowed freely, +and wales were left on my back as large as my little finger. The sores +on my back, from this flogging, continued for weeks, for they were kept +open by the rough and coarse cloth which I wore for shirting. The +occasion and details of this first chapter of my experience as a field +hand, must be told, that the reader may see how unreasonable, as well +as how cruel, my new master, Covey, was. The whole thing I found to be +characteristic of the man; and I was probably treated no worse by him +than scores of lads who had previously been committed to him, for +reasons similar to those which induced my master to place me with him. +But, here are the facts connected with the affair, precisely as they +occurred. + +On one of the coldest days of the whole month of January, 1834, I was +ordered, at day break, to get a load of wood, from a forest about two +miles from the house. In order to perform this work, Mr. Covey gave me +a pair of unbroken oxen, for, it seems, his breaking abilities had not +been turned in this direction; and I may remark, in passing, that +working animals in the south, are seldom so well trained as in the +north. In due form, and with all proper ceremony, I was introduced to +this huge yoke of unbroken oxen, and was carefully told which was +“Buck,” and which was “Darby”—which was the “in hand,” and which was +the “off hand” ox. The master of this important ceremony was no less a +person than Mr. Covey, himself; and the introduction was the first of +the kind I had ever had. My life, hitherto, had led me away from horned +cattle, and I had no knowledge of the art of managing them. What was +meant by the “in ox,” as against the “off ox,” when both were equally +fastened to one cart, and under one yoke, I could not very easily +divine; and the difference, implied by the names, and the peculiar +duties of each, were alike _Greek_ to me. Why was not the “off ox” +called the “in ox?” Where and what is the reason for this distinction +in names, when there is none in the things themselves? After initiating +me into the _“woa,” “back” “gee,” “hither”_—the entire spoken language +between oxen and driver—Mr. Covey took a rope, about ten feet long and +one inch thick, and placed one end of it around the horns of the “in +hand ox,” and gave the other end to me, telling me that if the oxen +started to run away, as the scamp knew they would, I must hold on to +the rope and stop them. I need not tell any one who is acquainted with +either the strength of the disposition of an untamed ox, that this +order was about as unreasonable as a command to shoulder a mad bull! I +had never driven oxen before, and I was as awkward, as a driver, as it +is possible to conceive. It did not answer for me to plead ignorance, +to Mr. Covey; there was something in his manner that quite forbade +that. He was a man to whom a slave seldom felt any disposition to +speak. Cold, distant, morose, with a face wearing all the marks of +captious pride and malicious sternness, he repelled all advances. Covey +was not a large man; he was only about five feet ten inches in height, +I should think; short necked, round shoulders; of quick and wiry +motion, of thin and wolfish visage; with a pair of small, greenish-gray +eyes, set well back under a forehead without dignity, and constantly in +motion, and floating his passions, rather than his thoughts, in sight, +but denying them utterance in words. The creature presented an +appearance altogether ferocious and sinister, disagreeable and +forbidding, in the extreme. When he spoke, it was from the corner of +his mouth, and in a sort of light growl, like a dog, when an attempt is +made to take a bone from him. The fellow had already made me believe +him even _worse_ than he had been presented. With his directions, and +without stopping to question, I started for the woods, quite anxious to +perform my first exploit in driving, in a creditable manner. The +distance from the house to the woods gate a full mile, I should +think—was passed over with very little difficulty; for although the +animals ran, I was fleet enough, in the open field, to keep pace with +them; especially as they pulled me along at the end of the rope; but, +on reaching the woods, I was speedily thrown into a distressing plight. +The animals took fright, and started off ferociously into the woods, +carrying the cart, full tilt, against trees, over stumps, and dashing +from side to side, in a manner altogether frightful. As I held the +rope, I expected every moment to be crushed between the cart and the +huge trees, among which they were so furiously dashing. After running +thus for several minutes, my oxen were, finally, brought to a stand, by +a tree, against which they dashed themselves with great violence, +upsetting the cart, and entangling themselves among sundry young +saplings. By the shock, the body of the cart was flung in one +direction, and the wheels and tongue in another, and all in the +greatest confusion. There I was, all alone, in a thick wood, to which I +was a stranger; my cart upset and shattered; my oxen entangled, wild, +and enraged; and I, poor soul! but a green hand, to set all this +disorder right. I knew no more of oxen than the ox driver is supposed +to know of wisdom. After standing a few moments surveying the damage +and disorder, and not without a presentiment that this trouble would +draw after it others, even more distressing, I took one end of the cart +body, and, by an extra outlay of strength, I lifted it toward the +axle-tree, from which it had been violently flung; and after much +pulling and straining, I succeeded in getting the body of the cart in +its place. This was an important step out of the difficulty, and its +performance increased my courage for the work which remained to be +done. The cart was provided with an ax, a tool with which I had become +pretty well acquainted in the ship yard at Baltimore. With this, I cut +down the saplings by which my oxen were entangled, and again pursued my +journey, with my heart in my mouth, lest the oxen should again take it +into their senseless heads to cut up a caper. My fears were groundless. +Their spree was over for the present, and the rascals now moved off as +soberly as though their behavior had been natural and exemplary. On +reaching the part of the forest where I had been, the day before, +chopping wood, I filled the cart with a heavy load, as a security +against another running away. But, the neck of an ox is equal in +strength to iron. It defies all ordinary burdens, when excited. Tame +and docile to a proverb, when _well_ trained, the ox is the most sullen +and intractable of animals when but half broken to the yoke. + +I now saw, in my situation, several points of similarity with that of +the oxen. They were property, so was I; they were to be broken, so was +I. Covey was to break me, I was to break them; break and be broken—such +is life. + +Half the day already gone, and my face not yet homeward! It required +only two day’s experience and observation to teach me, that such +apparent waste of time would not be lightly overlooked by Covey. I +therefore hurried toward home; but, on reaching the lane gate, I met +with the crowning disaster for the day. This gate was a fair specimen +of southern handicraft. There were two huge posts, eighteen inches in +diameter, rough hewed and square, and the heavy gate was so hung on one +of these, that it opened only about half the proper distance. On +arriving here, it was necessary for me to let go the end of the rope on +the horns of the “in hand ox;” and now as soon as the gate was open, +and I let go of it to get the rope, again, off went my oxen—making +nothing of their load—full tilt; and in doing so they caught the huge +gate between the wheel and the cart body, literally crushing it to +splinters, and coming only within a few inches of subjecting me to a +similar crushing, for I was just in advance of the wheel when it struck +the left gate post. With these two hair-breadth escape, I thought I +could sucessfully(sic) explain to Mr. Covey the delay, and avert +apprehended punishment. I was not without a faint hope of being +commended for the stern resolution which I had displayed in +accomplishing the difficult task—a task which, I afterwards learned, +even Covey himself would not have undertaken, without first driving the +oxen for some time in the open field, preparatory to their going into +the woods. But, in this I was disappointed. On coming to him, his +countenance assumed an aspect of rigid displeasure, and, as I gave him +a history of the casualties of my trip, his wolfish face, with his +greenish eyes, became intensely ferocious. “Go back to the woods +again,” he said, muttering something else about wasting time. I hastily +obeyed; but I had not gone far on my way, when I saw him coming after +me. My oxen now behaved themselves with singular propriety, opposing +their present conduct to my representation of their former antics. I +almost wished, now that Covey was coming, they would do something in +keeping with the character I had given them; but no, they had already +had their spree, and they could afford now to be extra good, readily +obeying my orders, and seeming to understand them quite as well as I +did myself. On reaching the woods, my tormentor—who seemed all the way +to be remarking upon the good behavior of his oxen—came up to me, and +ordered me to stop the cart, accompanying the same with the threat that +he would now teach me how to break gates, and idle away my time, when +he sent me to the woods. Suiting the action to the word, Covey paced +off, in his own wiry fashion, to a large, black gum tree, the young +shoots of which are generally used for ox _goads_, they being +exceedingly tough. Three of these _goads_, from four to six feet long, +he cut off, and trimmed up, with his large jack-knife. This done, he +ordered me to take off my clothes. To this unreasonable order I made no +reply, but sternly refused to take off my clothing. “If you will beat +me,” thought I, “you shall do so over my clothes.” After many threats, +which made no impression on me, he rushed at me with something of the +savage fierceness of a wolf, tore off the few and thinly worn clothes I +had on, and proceeded to wear out, on my back, the heavy goads which he +had cut from the gum tree. This flogging was the first of a series of +floggings; and though very severe, it was less so than many which came +after it, and these, for offenses far lighter than the gate breaking. + +I remained with Mr. Covey one year (I cannot say I _lived_ with him) +and during the first six months that I was there, I was whipped, either +with sticks or cowskins, every week. Aching bones and a sore back were +my constant companions. Frequent as the lash was used, Mr. Covey +thought less of it, as a means of breaking down my spirit, than that of +hard and long continued labor. He worked me steadily, up to the point +of my powers of endurance. From the dawn of day in the morning, till +the darkness was complete in the evening, I was kept at hard work, in +the field or the woods. At certain seasons of the year, we were all +kept in the field till eleven and twelve o’clock at night. At these +times, Covey would attend us in the field, and urge us on with words or +blows, as it seemed best to him. He had, in his life, been an overseer, +and he well understood the business of slave driving. There was no +deceiving him. He knew just what a man or boy could do, and he held +both to strict account. When he pleased, he would work himself, like a +very Turk, making everything fly before him. It was, however, scarcely +necessary for Mr. Covey to be really present in the field, to have his +work go on industriously. He had the faculty of making us feel that he +was always present. By a series of adroitly managed surprises, which he +practiced, I was prepared to expect him at any moment. His plan was, +never to approach the spot where his hands were at work, in an open, +manly and direct manner. No thief was ever more artful in his devices +than this man Covey. He would creep and crawl, in ditches and gullies; +hide behind stumps and bushes, and practice so much of the cunning of +the serpent, that Bill Smith and I—between ourselves—never called him +by any other name than _“the snake.”_ We fancied that in his eyes and +his gait we could see a snakish resemblance. One half of his +proficiency in the art of Negro breaking, consisted, I should think, in +this species of cunning. We were never secure. He could see or hear us +nearly all the time. He was, to us, behind every stump, tree, bush and +fence on the plantation. He carried this kind of trickery so far, that +he would sometimes mount his horse, and make believe he was going to +St. Michael’s; and, in thirty minutes afterward, you might find his +horse tied in the woods, and the snake-like Covey lying flat in the +ditch, with his head lifted above its edge, or in a fence corner, +watching every movement of the slaves! I have known him walk up to us +and give us special orders, as to our work, in advance, as if he were +leaving home with a view to being absent several days; and before he +got half way to the house, he would avail himself of our inattention to +his movements, to turn short on his heels, conceal himself behind a +fence corner or a tree, and watch us until the going down of the sun. +Mean and contemptible as is all this, it is in keeping with the +character which the life of a slaveholder is calculated to produce. +There is no earthly inducement, in the slave’s condition, to incite him +to labor faithfully. The fear of punishment is the sole motive for any +sort of industry, with him. Knowing this fact, as the slaveholder does, +and judging the slave by himself, he naturally concludes the slave will +be idle whenever the cause for this fear is absent. Hence, all sorts of +petty deceptions are practiced, to inspire this fear. + +But, with Mr. Covey, trickery was natural. Everything in the shape of +learning or religion, which he possessed, was made to conform to this +semi-lying propensity. He did not seem conscious that the practice had +anything unmanly, base or contemptible about it. It was a part of an +important system, with him, essential to the relation of master and +slave. I thought I saw, in his very religious devotions, this +controlling element of his character. A long prayer at night made up +for the short prayer in the morning; and few men could seem more +devotional than he, when he had nothing else to do. + +Mr. Covey was not content with the cold style of family worship, +adopted in these cold latitudes, which begin and end with a simple +prayer. No! the voice of praise, as well as of prayer, must be heard in +his house, night and morning. At first, I was called upon to bear some +part in these exercises; but the repeated flogging given me by Covey, +turned the whole thing into mockery. He was a poor singer, and mainly +relied on me for raising the hymn for the family, and when I failed to +do so, he was thrown into much confusion. I do not think that he ever +abused me on account of these vexations. His religion was a thing +altogether apart from his worldly concerns. He knew nothing of it as a +holy principle, directing and controlling his daily life, making the +latter conform to the requirements of the gospel. One or two facts will +illustrate his character better than a volume of generalties(sic). + +I have already said, or implied, that Mr. Edward Covey was a poor man. +He was, in fact, just commencing to lay the foundation of his fortune, +as fortune is regarded in a slave state. The first condition of wealth +and respectability there, being the ownership of human property, every +nerve is strained, by the poor man, to obtain it, and very little +regard is had to the manner of obtaining it. In pursuit of this object, +pious as Mr. Covey was, he proved himself to be as unscrupulous and +base as the worst of his neighbors. In the beginning, he was only +able—as he said—“to buy one slave;” and, scandalous and shocking as is +the fact, he boasted that he bought her simply “_as a breeder_.” But +the worst is not told in this naked statement. This young woman +(Caroline was her name) was virtually compelled by Mr. Covey to abandon +herself to the object for which he had purchased her; and the result +was, the birth of twins at the end of the year. At this addition to his +human stock, both Edward Covey and his wife, Susan, were ecstatic with +joy. No one dreamed of reproaching the woman, or of finding fault with +the hired man—Bill Smith—the father of the children, for Mr. Covey +himself had locked the two up together every night, thus inviting the +result. + +But I will pursue this revolting subject no further. No better +illustration of the unchaste and demoralizing character of slavery can +be found, than is furnished in the fact that this professedly Christian +slaveholder, amidst all his prayers and hymns, was shamelessly and +boastfully encouraging, and actually compelling, in his own house, +undisguised and unmitigated fornication, as a means of increasing his +human stock. I may remark here, that, while this fact will be read with +disgust and shame at the north, it will be _laughed at_, as smart and +praiseworthy in Mr. Covey, at the south; for a man is no more condemned +there for buying a woman and devoting her to this life of dishonor, +than for buying a cow, and raising stock from her. The same rules are +observed, with a view to increasing the number and quality of the +former, as of the latter. + +I will here reproduce what I said of my own experience in this wretched +place, more than ten years ago: + +If at any one time of my life, more than another, I was made to drink +the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six +months of my stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked all weathers. It was +never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, snow, or hail too +hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more +the order of the day than the night. The longest days were too short +for him, and the shortest nights were too long for him. I was somewhat +unmanageable when I first went there; but a few months of his +discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken +in body, soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; my +intellect languished; the disposition to read departed; the cheerful +spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed +in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! + +Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beast-like +stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree. At times, I +would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, +accompanied with a faint beam of hope, flickered for a moment, and then +vanished. I sank down again, mourning over my wretched condition. I was +sometimes prompted to take my life, and that of Covey, but was +prevented by a combination of hope and fear. My sufferings on this +plantation seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality. + +Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake bay, whose broad +bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable +globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to +the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and +torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the +deep stillness of a summer’s Sabbath, stood all alone upon the banks of +that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the +countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of +these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel +utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour +out my soul’s complaint in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the +moving multitude of ships: + +“You are loosed from your moorings, and free; I am fast in my chains, +and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly +before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly +around the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O, that I were free! +O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting +wing! Alas! betwixt me and you the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O +that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I +born a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone; she hides +in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. +O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why +am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught, or get +clear, I’ll try it. I had as well die with ague as with fever. I have +only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing. +Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! Try +it? Yes! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die +a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into +freedom. The steamboats steered in a north-east coast from North Point. +I will do the same; and when I get to the head of the bay, I will turn +my canoe adrift, and walk straight through Delaware into Pennsylvania. +When I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass; I will travel +without being disturbed. Let but the first opportunity offer, and come +what will, I am off. Meanwhile, I will try to bear up under the yoke. I +am not the only slave in the world. Why should I fret? I can bear as +much as any of them. Besides, I am but a boy, and all boys are bound to +some one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my +happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming.” + +I shall never be able to narrate the mental experience through which it +was my lot to pass during my stay at Covey’s. I was completely wrecked, +changed and bewildered; goaded almost to madness at one time, and at +another reconciling myself to my wretched condition. Everything in the +way of kindness, which I had experienced at Baltimore; all my former +hopes and aspirations for usefulness in the world, and the happy +moments spent in the exercises of religion, contrasted with my then +present lot, but increased my anguish. + +I suffered bodily as well as mentally. I had neither sufficient time in +which to eat or to sleep, except on Sundays. The overwork, and the +brutal chastisements of which I was the victim, combined with that +ever-gnawing and soul-devouring thought—“_I am a slave—a slave for +life—a slave with no rational ground to hope for freedom_”—rendered me +a living embodiment of mental and physical wretchedness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. _Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice_ + + +EXPERIENCE AT COVEY’S SUMMED UP—FIRST SIX MONTHS SEVERER THAN THE +SECOND—PRELIMINARIES TO THE CHANCE—REASONS FOR NARRATING THE +CIRCUMSTANCES—SCENE IN TREADING YARD—TAKEN ILL—UNUSUAL BRUTALITY OF +COVEY—ESCAPE TO ST. MICHAEL’S—THE PURSUIT—SUFFERING IN THE WOODS—DRIVEN +BACK AGAIN TO COVEY’S—BEARING OF MASTER THOMAS—THE SLAVE IS NEVER +SICK—NATURAL TO EXPECT SLAVES TO FEIGN SICKNESS—LAZINESS OF +SLAVEHOLDERS. + + +The foregoing chapter, with all its horrid incidents and shocking +features, may be taken as a fair representation of the first six months +of my life at Covey’s. The reader has but to repeat, in his own mind, +once a week, the scene in the woods, where Covey subjected me to his +merciless lash, to have a true idea of my bitter experience there, +during the first period of the breaking process through which Mr. Covey +carried me. I have no heart to repeat each separate transaction, in +which I was victim of his violence and brutality. Such a narration +would fill a volume much larger than the present one. I aim only to +give the reader a truthful impression of my slave life, without +unnecessarily affecting him with harrowing details. + +As I have elsewhere intimated that my hardships were much greater +during the first six months of my stay at Covey’s, than during the +remainder of the year, and as the change in my condition was owing to +causes which may help the reader to a better understanding of human +nature, when subjected to the terrible extremities of slavery, I will +narrate the circumstances of this change, although I may seem thereby +to applaud my own courage. You have, dear reader, seen me humbled, +degraded, broken down, enslaved, and brutalized, and you understand how +it was done; now let us see the converse of all this, and how it was +brought about; and this will take us through the year 1834. + +On one of the hottest days of the month of August, of the year just +mentioned, had the reader been passing through Covey’s farm, he might +have seen me at work, in what is there called the “treading yard”—a +yard upon which wheat is trodden out from the straw, by the horses’ +feet. I was there, at work, feeding the “fan,” or rather bringing wheat +to the fan, while Bill Smith was feeding. Our force consisted of Bill +Hughes, Bill Smith, and a slave by the name of Eli; the latter having +been hired for this occasion. The work was simple, and required +strength and activity, rather than any skill or intelligence, and yet, +to one entirely unused to such work, it came very hard. The heat was +intense and overpowering, and there was much hurry to get the wheat, +trodden out that day, through the fan; since, if that work was done an +hour before sundown, the hands would have, according to a promise of +Covey, that hour added to their night’s rest. I was not behind any of +them in the wish to complete the day’s work before sundown, and, hence, +I struggled with all my might to get the work forward. The promise of +one hour’s repose on a week day, was sufficient to quicken my pace, and +to spur me on to extra endeavor. Besides, we had all planned to go +fishing, and I certainly wished to have a hand in that. But I was +disappointed, and the day turned out to be one of the bitterest I ever +experienced. About three o’clock, while the sun was pouring down his +burning rays, and not a breeze was stirring, I broke down; my strength +failed me; I was seized with a violent aching of the head, attended +with extreme dizziness, and trembling in every limb. Finding what was +coming, and feeling it would never do to stop work, I nerved myself up, +and staggered on until I fell by the side of the wheat fan, feeling +that the earth had fallen upon me. This brought the entire work to a +dead stand. There was work for four; each one had his part to perform, +and each part depended on the other, so that when one stopped, all were +compelled to stop. Covey, who had now become my dread, as well as my +tormentor, was at the house, about a hundred yards from where I was +fanning, and instantly, upon hearing the fan stop, he came down to the +treading yard, to inquire into the cause of our stopping. Bill Smith +told him I was sick, and that I was unable longer to bring wheat to the +fan. + +I had, by this time, crawled away, under the side of a post-and-rail +fence, in the shade, and was exceeding ill. The intense heat of the +sun, the heavy dust rising from the fan, the stooping, to take up the +wheat from the yard, together with the hurrying, to get through, had +caused a rush of blood to my head. In this condition, Covey finding out +where I was, came to me; and, after standing over me a while, he asked +me what the matter was. I told him as well as I could, for it was with +difficulty that I could speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the +side, which jarred my whole frame, and commanded me to get up. The man +had obtained complete control over me; and if he had commanded me to do +any possible thing, I should, in my then state of mind, have endeavored +to comply. I made an effort to rise, but fell back in the attempt, +before gaining my feet. The brute now gave me another heavy kick, and +again told me to rise. I again tried to rise, and succeeded in gaining +my feet; but upon stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding the +fan, I again staggered and fell to the ground; and I must have so +fallen, had I been sure that a hundred bullets would have pierced me, +as the consequence. While down, in this sad condition, and perfectly +helpless, the merciless Negro breaker took up the hickory slab, with +which Hughes had been striking off the wheat to a level with the sides +of the half bushel measure (a very hard weapon) and with the sharp edge +of it, he dealt me a heavy blow on my head which made a large gash, and +caused the blood to run freely, saying, at the same time, “If _you have +got the headache, I’ll cure you_.” This done, he ordered me again to +rise, but I made no effort to do so; for I had made up my mind that it +was useless, and that the heartless monster might now do his worst; he +could but kill me, and that might put me out of my misery. Finding me +unable to rise, or rather despairing of my doing so, Covey left me, +with a view to getting on with the work without me. I was bleeding very +freely, and my face was soon covered with my warm blood. Cruel and +merciless as was the motive that dealt that blow, dear reader, the +wound was fortunate for me. Bleeding was never more efficacious. The +pain in my head speedily abated, and I was soon able to rise. Covey +had, as I have said, now left me to my fate; and the question was, +shall I return to my work, or shall I find my way to St. Michael’s, and +make Capt. Auld acquainted with the atrocious cruelty of his brother +Covey, and beseech him to get me another master? Remembering the object +he had in view, in placing me under the management of Covey, and +further, his cruel treatment of my poor crippled cousin, Henny, and his +meanness in the matter of feeding and clothing his slaves, there was +little ground to hope for a favorable reception at the hands of Capt. +Thomas Auld. Nevertheless, I resolved to go straight to Capt. Auld, +thinking that, if not animated by motives of humanity, he might be +induced to interfere on my behalf from selfish considerations. “He +cannot,” thought I, “allow his property to be thus bruised and +battered, marred and defaced; and I will go to him, and tell him the +simple truth about the matter.” In order to get to St. Michael’s, by +the most favorable and direct road, I must walk seven miles; and this, +in my sad condition, was no easy performance. I had already lost much +blood; I was exhausted by over exertion; my sides were sore from the +heavy blows planted there by the stout boots of Mr. Covey; and I was, +in every way, in an unfavorable plight for the journey. I however +watched my chance, while the cruel and cunning Covey was looking in an +opposite direction, and started off, across the field, for St. +Michael’s. This was a daring step; if it failed, it would only +exasperate Covey, and increase the rigors of my bondage, during the +remainder of my term of service under him; but the step was taken, and +I must go forward. I succeeded in getting nearly half way across the +broad field, toward the woods, before Mr. Covey observed me. I was +still bleeding, and the exertion of running had started the blood +afresh. _“Come back! Come back!”_ vociferated Covey, with threats of +what he would do if I did not return instantly. But, disregarding his +calls and his threats, I pressed on toward the woods as fast as my +feeble state would allow. Seeing no signs of my stopping, Covey caused +his horse to be brought out and saddled, as if he intended to pursue +me. The race was now to be an unequal one; and, thinking I might be +overhauled by him, if I kept the main road, I walked nearly the whole +distance in the woods, keeping far enough from the road to avoid +detection and pursuit. But, I had not gone far, before my little +strength again failed me, and I laid down. The blood was still oozing +from the wound in my head; and, for a time, I suffered more than I can +describe. There I was, in the deep woods, sick and emaciated, pursued +by a wretch whose character for revolting cruelty beggars all +opprobrious speech—bleeding, and almost bloodless. I was not without +the fear of bleeding to death. The thought of dying in the woods, all +alone, and of being torn to pieces by the buzzards, had not yet been +rendered tolerable by my many troubles and hardships, and I was glad +when the shade of the trees, and the cool evening breeze, combined with +my matted hair to stop the flow of blood. After lying there about three +quarters of an hour, brooding over the singular and mournful lot to +which I was doomed, my mind passing over the whole scale or circle of +belief and unbelief, from faith in the overruling providence of God, to +the blackest atheism, I again took up my journey toward St. Michael’s, +more weary and sad than in the morning when I left Thomas Auld’s for +the home of Mr. Covey. I was bare-footed and bare-headed, and in my +shirt sleeves. The way was through bogs and briers, and I tore my feet +often during the journey. I was full five hours in going the seven or +eight miles; partly, because of the difficulties of the way, and +partly, because of the feebleness induced by my illness, bruises and +loss of blood. On gaining my master’s store, I presented an appearance +of wretchedness and woe, fitted to move any but a heart of stone. From +the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, there were marks of blood. +My hair was all clotted with dust and blood, and the back of my shirt +was literally stiff with the same. Briers and thorns had scarred and +torn my feet and legs, leaving blood marks there. Had I escaped from a +den of tigers, I could not have looked worse than I did on reaching St. +Michael’s. In this unhappy plight, I appeared before my professedly +_Christian_ master, humbly to invoke the interposition of his power and +authority, to protect me from further abuse and violence. I had begun +to hope, during the latter part of my tedious journey toward St. +Michael’s, that Capt. Auld would now show himself in a nobler light +than I had ever before seen him. I was disappointed. I had jumped from +a sinking ship into the sea; I had fled from the tiger to something +worse. I told him all the circumstances, as well as I could; how I was +endeavoring to please Covey; how hard I was at work in the present +instance; how unwilling I sunk down under the heat, toil and pain; the +brutal manner in which Covey had kicked me in the side; the gash cut in +my head; my hesitation about troubling him (Capt. Auld) with +complaints; but, that now I felt it would not be best longer to conceal +from him the outrages committed on me from time to time by Covey. At +first, master Thomas seemed somewhat affected by the story of my +wrongs, but he soon repressed his feelings and became cold as iron. It +was impossible—as I stood before him at the first—for him to seem +indifferent. I distinctly saw his human nature asserting its conviction +against the slave system, which made cases like mine _possible;_ but, +as I have said, humanity fell before the systematic tyranny of slavery. +He first walked the floor, apparently much agitated by my story, and +the sad spectacle I presented; but, presently, it was _his_ turn to +talk. He began moderately, by finding excuses for Covey, and ending +with a full justification of him, and a passionate condemnation of me. +“He had no doubt I deserved the flogging. He did not believe I was +sick; I was only endeavoring to get rid of work. My dizziness was +laziness, and Covey did right to flog me, as he had done.” After thus +fairly annihilating me, and rousing himself by his own eloquence, he +fiercely demanded what I wished _him_ to do in the case! + +With such a complete knock-down to all my hopes, as he had given me, +and feeling, as I did, my entire subjection to his power, I had very +little heart to reply. I must not affirm my innocence of the +allegations which he had piled up against me; for that would be +impudence, and would probably call down fresh violence as well as wrath +upon me. The guilt of a slave is always, and everywhere, presumed; and +the innocence of the slaveholder or the slave employer, is always +asserted. The word of the slave, against this presumption, is generally +treated as impudence, worthy of punishment. “Do you contradict me, you +rascal?” is a final silencer of counter statements from the lips of a +slave. + +Calming down a little in view of my silence and hesitation, and, +perhaps, from a rapid glance at the picture of misery I presented, he +inquired again, “what I would have him do?” Thus invited a second time, +I told Master Thomas I wished him to allow me to get a new home and to +find a new master; that, as sure as I went back to live with Mr. Covey +again, I should be killed by him; that he would never forgive my coming +to him (Capt. Auld) with a complaint against him (Covey); that, since I +had lived with him, he almost crushed my spirit, and I believed that he +would ruin me for future service; that my life was not safe in his +hands. This, Master Thomas _(my brother in the church)_ regarded as +“nonsence(sic).” “There was no danger of Mr. Covey’s killing me; he was +a good man, industrious and religious, and he would not think of +removing me from that home; besides,” said he and this I found was the +most distressing thought of all to him—“if you should leave Covey now, +that your year has but half expired, I should lose your wages for the +entire year. You belong to Mr. Covey for one year, and you _must go +back_ to him, come what will. You must not trouble me with any more +stories about Mr. Covey; and if you do not go immediately home, I will +get hold of you myself.” This was just what I expected, when I found he +had _prejudged_ the case against me. “But, Sir,” I said, “I am sick and +tired, and I cannot get home to-night.” At this, he again relented, and +finally he allowed me to remain all night at St. Michael’s; but said I +must be off early in the morning, and concluded his directions by +making me swallow a huge dose of _epsom salts_—about the only medicine +ever administered to slaves. + +It was quite natural for Master Thomas to presume I was feigning +sickness to escape work, for he probably thought that were _he_ in the +place of a slave with no wages for his work, no praise for well doing, +no motive for toil but the lash—he would try every possible scheme by +which to escape labor. I say I have no doubt of this; the reason is, +that there are not, under the whole heavens, a set of men who cultivate +such an intense dread of labor as do the slaveholders. The charge of +laziness against the slave is ever on their lips, and is the standing +apology for every species of cruelty and brutality. These men literally +“bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s +shoulders; but they, themselves, will not move them with one of their +fingers.” + +My kind readers shall have, in the next chapter—what they were led, +perhaps, to expect to find in this—namely: an account of my partial +disenthrallment from the tyranny of Covey, and the marked change which +it brought about. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. _The Last Flogging_ + + +A SLEEPLESS NIGHT—RETURN TO COVEY’S—PURSUED BY COVEY—THE CHASE +DEFEATED—VENGEANCE POSTPONED—MUSINGS IN THE WOODS—THE +ALTERNATIVE—DEPLORABLE SPECTACLE—NIGHT IN THE WOODS—EXPECTED +ATTACK—ACCOSTED BY SANDY, A FRIEND, NOT A HUNTER—SANDY’S +HOSPITALITY—THE “ASH CAKE” SUPPER—THE INTERVIEW WITH SANDY—HIS +ADVICE—SANDY A CONJURER AS WELL AS A CHRISTIAN—THE MAGIC ROOT—STRANGE +MEETING WITH COVEY—HIS MANNER—COVEY’S SUNDAY FACE—MY DEFENSIVE +RESOLVE—THE FIGHT—THE VICTORY, AND ITS RESULTS. + + +Sleep itself does not always come to the relief of the weary in body, +and the broken in spirit; especially when past troubles only foreshadow +coming disasters. The last hope had been extinguished. My master, who I +did not venture to hope would protect me as _a man_, had even now +refused to protect me as _his property;_ and had cast me back, covered +with reproaches and bruises, into the hands of a stranger to that mercy +which was the soul of the religion he professed. May the reader never +spend such a night as that allotted to me, previous to the morning +which was to herald my return to the den of horrors from which I had +made a temporary escape. + +I remained all night—sleep I did not—at St. Michael’s; and in the +morning (Saturday) I started off, according to the order of Master +Thomas, feeling that I had no friend on earth, and doubting if I had +one in heaven. I reached Covey’s about nine o’clock; and just as I +stepped into the field, before I had reached the house, Covey, true to +his snakish habits, darted out at me from a fence corner, in which he +had secreted himself, for the purpose of securing me. He was amply +provided with a cowskin and a rope; and he evidently intended to _tie +me up_, and to wreak his vengeance on me to the fullest extent. I +should have been an easy prey, had he succeeded in getting his hands +upon me, for I had taken no refreshment since noon on Friday; and this, +together with the pelting, excitement, and the loss of blood, had +reduced my strength. I, however, darted back into the woods, before the +ferocious hound could get hold of me, and buried myself in a thicket, +where he lost sight of me. The corn-field afforded me cover, in getting +to the woods. But for the tall corn, Covey would have overtaken me, and +made me his captive. He seemed very much chagrined that he did not +catch me, and gave up the chase, very reluctantly; for I could see his +angry movements, toward the house from which he had sallied, on his +foray. + +Well, now I am clear of Covey, and of his wrathful lash, for present. I +am in the wood, buried in its somber gloom, and hushed in its solemn +silence; hid from all human eyes; shut in with nature and nature’s God, +and absent from all human contrivances. Here was a good place to pray; +to pray for help for deliverance—a prayer I had often made before. But +how could I pray? Covey could pray—Capt. Auld could pray—I would fain +pray; but doubts (arising partly from my own neglect of the means of +grace, and partly from the sham religion which everywhere prevailed, +cast in my mind a doubt upon all religion, and led me to the conviction +that prayers were unavailing and delusive) prevented my embracing the +opportunity, as a religious one. Life, in itself, had almost become +burdensome to me. All my outward relations were against me; I must stay +here and starve (I was already hungry) or go home to Covey’s, and have +my flesh torn to pieces, and my spirit humbled under the cruel lash of +Covey. This was the painful alternative presented to me. The day was +long and irksome. My physical condition was deplorable. I was weak, +from the toils of the previous day, and from the want of food and rest; +and had been so little concerned about my appearance, that I had not +yet washed the blood from my garments. I was an object of horror, even +to myself. Life, in Baltimore, when most oppressive, was a paradise to +this. What had I done, what had my parents done, that such a life as +this should be mine? That day, in the woods, I would have exchanged my +manhood for the brutehood of an ox. + +Night came. I was still in the woods, unresolved what to do. Hunger had +not yet pinched me to the point of going home, and I laid myself down +in the leaves to rest; for I had been watching for hunters all day, but +not being molested during the day, I expected no disturbance during the +night. I had come to the conclusion that Covey relied upon hunger to +drive me home; and in this I was quite correct—the facts showed that he +had made no effort to catch me, since morning. + +During the night, I heard the step of a man in the woods. He was coming +toward the place where I lay. A person lying still has the advantage +over one walking in the woods, in the day time, and this advantage is +much greater at night. I was not able to engage in a physical struggle, +and I had recourse to the common resort of the weak. I hid myself in +the leaves to prevent discovery. But, as the night rambler in the woods +drew nearer, I found him to be a _friend_, not an enemy; it was a slave +of Mr. William Groomes, of Easton, a kind hearted fellow, named +“Sandy.” Sandy lived with Mr. Kemp that year, about four miles from St. +Michael’s. He, like myself had been hired out by the year; but, unlike +myself, had not been hired out to be broken. Sandy was the husband of a +free woman, who lived in the lower part of _“Potpie Neck,”_ and he was +now on his way through the woods, to see her, and to spend the Sabbath +with her. + +As soon as I had ascertained that the disturber of my solitude was not +an enemy, but the good-hearted Sandy—a man as famous among the slaves +of the neighborhood for his good nature, as for his good sense I came +out from my hiding place, and made myself known to him. I explained the +circumstances of the past two days, which had driven me to the woods, +and he deeply compassionated my distress. It was a bold thing for him +to shelter me, and I could not ask him to do so; for, had I been found +in his hut, he would have suffered the penalty of thirty-nine lashes on +his bare back, if not something worse. But Sandy was too generous to +permit the fear of punishment to prevent his relieving a brother +bondman from hunger and exposure; and, therefore, on his own motion, I +accompanied him to his home, or rather to the home of his wife—for the +house and lot were hers. His wife was called up—for it was now about +midnight—a fire was made, some Indian meal was soon mixed with salt and +water, and an ash cake was baked in a hurry to relieve my hunger. +Sandy’s wife was not behind him in kindness—both seemed to esteem it a +privilege to succor me; for, although I was hated by Covey and by my +master, I was loved by the colored people, because _they_ thought I was +hated for my knowledge, and persecuted because I was feared. I was the +_only_ slave _now_ in that region who could read and write. There had +been one other man, belonging to Mr. Hugh Hamilton, who could read (his +name was “Jim”), but he, poor fellow, had, shortly after my coming into +the neighborhood, been sold off to the far south. I saw Jim ironed, in +the cart, to be carried to Easton for sale—pinioned like a yearling for +the slaughter. My knowledge was now the pride of my brother slaves; +and, no doubt, Sandy felt something of the general interest in me on +that account. The supper was soon ready, and though I have feasted +since, with honorables, lord mayors and aldermen, over the sea, my +supper on ash cake and cold water, with Sandy, was the meal, of all my +life, most sweet to my taste, and now most vivid in my memory. + +Supper over, Sandy and I went into a discussion of what was _possible_ +for me, under the perils and hardships which now overshadowed my path. +The question was, must I go back to Covey, or must I now tempt to run +away? Upon a careful survey, the latter was found to be impossible; for +I was on a narrow neck of land, every avenue from which would bring me +in sight of pursuers. There was the Chesapeake bay to the right, and +“Pot-pie” river to the left, and St. Michael’s and its neighborhood +occupying the only space through which there was any retreat. + +I found Sandy an old advisor. He was not only a religious man, but he +professed to believe in a system for which I have no name. He was a +genuine African, and had inherited some of the so-called magical +powers, said to be possessed by African and eastern nations. He told me +that he could help me; that, in those very woods, there was an herb, +which in the morning might be found, possessing all the powers required +for my protection (I put his thoughts in my own language); and that, if +I would take his advice, he would procure me the root of the herb of +which he spoke. He told me further, that if I would take that root and +wear it on my right side, it would be impossible for Covey to strike me +a blow; that with this root about my person, no white man could whip +me. He said he had carried it for years, and that he had fully tested +its virtues. He had never received a blow from a slaveholder since he +carried it; and he never expected to receive one, for he always meant +to carry that root as a protection. He knew Covey well, for Mrs. Covey +was the daughter of Mr. Kemp; and he (Sandy) had heard of the barbarous +treatment to which I was subjected, and he wanted to do something for +me. + +Now all this talk about the root, was to me, very absurd and +ridiculous, if not positively sinful. I at first rejected the idea that +the simple carrying a root on my right side (a root, by the way, over +which I walked every time I went into the woods) could possess any such +magic power as he ascribed to it, and I was, therefore, not disposed to +cumber my pocket with it. I had a positive aversion to all pretenders +to _“divination.”_ It was beneath one of my intelligence to countenance +such dealings with the devil, as this power implied. But, with all my +learning—it was really precious little—Sandy was more than a match for +me. “My book learning,” he said, “had not kept Covey off me” (a +powerful argument just then) and he entreated me, with flashing eyes, +to try this. If it did me no good, it could do me no harm, and it would +cost me nothing, any way. Sandy was so earnest, and so confident of the +good qualities of this weed, that, to please him, rather than from any +conviction of its excellence, I was induced to take it. He had been to +me the good Samaritan, and had, almost providentially, found me, and +helped me when I could not help myself; how did I know but that the +hand of the Lord was in it? With thoughts of this sort, I took the +roots from Sandy, and put them in my right hand pocket. + +This was, of course, Sunday morning. Sandy now urged me to go home, +with all speed, and to walk up bravely to the house, as though nothing +had happened. I saw in Sandy too deep an insight into human nature, +with all his superstition, not to have some respect for his advice; and +perhaps, too, a slight gleam or shadow of his superstition had fallen +upon me. At any rate, I started off toward Covey’s, as directed by +Sandy. Having, the previous night, poured my griefs into Sandy’s ears, +and got him enlisted in my behalf, having made his wife a sharer in my +sorrows, and having, also, become well refreshed by sleep and food, I +moved off, quite courageously, toward the much dreaded Covey’s. +Singularly enough, just as I entered his yard gate, I met him and his +wife, dressed in their Sunday best—looking as smiling as angels—on +their way to church. The manner of Covey astonished me. There was +something really benignant in his countenance. He spoke to me as never +before; told me that the pigs had got into the lot, and he wished me to +drive them out; inquired how I was, and seemed an altered man. This +extraordinary conduct of Covey, really made me begin to think that +Sandy’s herb had more virtue in it than I, in my pride, had been +willing to allow; and, had the day been other than Sunday, I should +have attributed Covey’s altered manner solely to the magic power of the +root. I suspected, however, that the _Sabbath_, and not the _root_, was +the real explanation of Covey’s manner. His religion hindered him from +breaking the Sabbath, but not from breaking my skin. He had more +respect for the _day_ than for the _man_, for whom the day was +mercifully given; for while he would cut and slash my body during the +week, he would not hesitate, on Sunday, to teach me the value of my +soul, or the way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. + +All went well with me till Monday morning; and then, whether the root +had lost its virtue, or whether my tormentor had gone deeper into the +black art than myself (as was sometimes said of him), or whether he had +obtained a special indulgence, for his faithful Sabbath day’s worship, +it is not necessary for me to know, or to inform the reader; but, this +I _may_ say—the pious and benignant smile which graced Covey’s face on +_Sunday_, wholly disappeared on _Monday_. Long before daylight, I was +called up to go and feed, rub, and curry the horses. I obeyed the call, +and would have so obeyed it, had it been made at an earilier(sic) hour, +for I had brought my mind to a firm resolve, during that Sunday’s +reflection, viz: to obey every order, however unreasonable, if it were +possible, and, if Mr. Covey should then undertake to beat me, to defend +and protect myself to the best of my ability. My religious views on the +subject of resisting my master, had suffered a serious shock, by the +savage persecution to which I had been subjected, and my hands were no +longer tied by my religion. Master Thomas’s indifference had served the +last link. I had now to this extent “backslidden” from this point in +the slave’s religious creed; and I soon had occasion to make my fallen +state known to my Sunday-pious brother, Covey. + +Whilst I was obeying his order to feed and get the horses ready for the +field, and when in the act of going up the stable loft for the purpose +of throwing down some blades, Covey sneaked into the stable, in his +peculiar snake-like way, and seizing me suddenly by the leg, he brought +me to the stable floor, giving my newly mended body a fearful jar. I +now forgot my roots, and remembered my pledge to _stand up in my own +defense_. The brute was endeavoring skillfully to get a slip-knot on my +legs, before I could draw up my feet. As soon as I found what he was up +to, I gave a sudden spring (my two day’s rest had been of much service +to me,) and by that means, no doubt, he was able to bring me to the +floor so heavily. He was defeated in his plan of tying me. While down, +he seemed to think he had me very securely in his power. He little +thought he was—as the rowdies say—“in” for a “rough and tumble” fight; +but such was the fact. Whence came the daring spirit necessary to +grapple with a man who, eight-and-forty hours before, could, with his +slightest word have made me tremble like a leaf in a storm, I do not +know; at any rate, _I was resolved to fight_, and, what was better +still, I was actually hard at it. The fighting madness had come upon +me, and I found my strong fingers firmly attached to the throat of my +cowardly tormentor; as heedless of consequences, at the moment, as +though we stood as equals before the law. The very color of the man was +forgotten. I felt as supple as a cat, and was ready for the snakish +creature at every turn. Every blow of his was parried, though I dealt +no blows in turn. I was strictly on the _defensive_, preventing him +from injuring me, rather than trying to injure him. I flung him on the +ground several times, when he meant to have hurled me there. I held him +so firmly by the throat, that his blood followed my nails. He held me, +and I held him. + +All was fair, thus far, and the contest was about equal. My resistance +was entirely unexpected, and Covey was taken all aback by it, for he +trembled in every limb. _“Are you going to resist_, you scoundrel?” +said he. To which, I returned a polite _“Yes sir;”_ steadily gazing my +interrogator in the eye, to meet the first approach or dawning of the +blow, which I expected my answer would call forth. But, the conflict +did not long remain thus equal. Covey soon cried out lustily for help; +not that I was obtaining any marked advantage over him, or was injuring +him, but because he was gaining none over me, and was not able, single +handed, to conquer me. He called for his cousin Hughs, to come to his +assistance, and now the scene was changed. I was compelled to give +blows, as well as to parry them; and, since I was, in any case, to +suffer for resistance, I felt (as the musty proverb goes) that “I might +as well be hanged for an old sheep as a lamb.” I was still _defensive_ +toward Covey, but _aggressive_ toward Hughs; and, at the first approach +of the latter, I dealt a blow, in my desperation, which fairly sickened +my youthful assailant. He went off, bending over with pain, and +manifesting no disposition to come within my reach again. The poor +fellow was in the act of trying to catch and tie my right hand, and +while flattering himself with success, I gave him the kick which sent +him staggering away in pain, at the same time that I held Covey with a +firm hand. + +Taken completely by surprise, Covey seemed to have lost his usual +strength and coolness. He was frightened, and stood puffing and +blowing, seemingly unable to command words or blows. When he saw that +poor Hughes was standing half bent with pain—his courage quite gone the +cowardly tyrant asked if I “meant to persist in my resistance.” I told +him “_I did mean to resist, come what might_;” that I had been by him +treated like a _brute_, during the last six months; and that I should +stand it _no longer_. With that, he gave me a shake, and attempted to +drag me toward a stick of wood, that was lying just outside the stable +door. He meant to knock me down with it; but, just as he leaned over to +get the stick, I seized him with both hands by the collar, and, with a +vigorous and sudden snatch, I brought my assailant harmlessly, his full +length, on the _not_ overclean ground—for we were now in the cow yard. +He had selected the place for the fight, and it was but right that he +should have all the advantges(sic) of his own selection. + +By this time, Bill, the hiredman, came home. He had been to Mr. +Hemsley’s, to spend the Sunday with his nominal wife, and was coming +home on Monday morning, to go to work. Covey and I had been skirmishing +from before daybreak, till now, that the sun was almost shooting his +beams over the eastern woods, and we were still at it. I could not see +where the matter was to terminate. He evidently was afraid to let me +go, lest I should again make off to the woods; otherwise, he would +probably have obtained arms from the house, to frighten me. Holding me, +Covey called upon Bill for assistance. The scene here, had something +comic about it. “Bill,” who knew _precisely_ what Covey wished him to +do, affected ignorance, and pretended he did not know what to do. “What +shall I do, Mr. Covey,” said Bill. “Take hold of him—take hold of him!” +said Covey. With a toss of his head, peculiar to Bill, he said, +“indeed, Mr. Covey I want to go to work.” _“This is_ your work,” said +Covey; “take hold of him.” Bill replied, with spirit, “My master hired +me here, to work, and _not_ to help you whip Frederick.” It was now my +turn to speak. “Bill,” said I, “don’t put your hands on me.” To which +he replied, “My GOD! Frederick, I ain’t goin’ to tech ye,” and Bill +walked off, leaving Covey and myself to settle our matters as best we +might. + +But, my present advantage was threatened when I saw Caroline (the +slave-woman of Covey) coming to the cow yard to milk, for she was a +powerful woman, and could have mastered me very easily, exhausted as I +now was. As soon as she came into the yard, Covey attempted to rally +her to his aid. Strangely—and, I may add, fortunately—Caroline was in +no humor to take a hand in any such sport. We were all in open +rebellion, that morning. Caroline answered the command of her master to +_“take hold of me,”_ precisely as Bill had answered, but in _her_, it +was at greater peril so to answer; she was the slave of Covey, and he +could do what he pleased with her. It was _not_ so with Bill, and Bill +knew it. Samuel Harris, to whom Bill belonged, did not allow his slaves +to be beaten, unless they were guilty of some crime which the law would +punish. But, poor Caroline, like myself, was at the mercy of the +merciless Covey; nor did she escape the dire effects of her refusal. He +gave her several sharp blows. + +Covey at length (two hours had elapsed) gave up the contest. Letting me +go, he said—puffing and blowing at a great rate—“Now, you scoundrel, go +to your work; I would not have whipped you half so much as I have had +you not resisted.” The fact was, _he had not whipped me at all_. He had +not, in all the scuffle, drawn a single drop of blood from me. I had +drawn blood from him; and, even without this satisfaction, I should +have been victorious, because my aim had not been to injure him, but to +prevent his injuring me. + +During the whole six months that I lived with Covey, after this +transaction, he never laid on me the weight of his finger in anger. He +would, occasionally, say he did not want to have to get hold of me +again—a declaration which I had no difficulty in believing; and I had a +secret feeling, which answered, “You need not wish to get hold of me +again, for you will be likely to come off worse in a second fight than +you did in the first.” + +Well, my dear reader, this battle with Mr. Covey—undignified as it was, +and as I fear my narration of it is—was the turning point in my _“life +as a slave_.” It rekindled in my breast the smouldering embers of +liberty; it brought up my Baltimore dreams, and revived a sense of my +own manhood. I was a changed being after that fight. I was _nothing_ +before; I WAS A MAN NOW. It recalled to life my crushed self-respect +and my self-confidence, and inspired me with a renewed determination to +be A FREEMAN. A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of +humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot _honor_ a +helpless man, although it can _pity_ him; and even this it cannot do +long, if the signs of power do not arise. + +He can only understand the effect of this combat on my spirit, who has +himself incurred something, hazarded something, in repelling the unjust +and cruel aggressions of a tyrant. Covey was a tyrant, and a cowardly +one, withal. After resisting him, I felt as I had never felt before. It +was a resurrection from the dark and pestiferous tomb of slavery, to +the heaven of comparative freedom. I was no longer a servile coward, +trembling under the frown of a brother worm of the dust, but, my +long-cowed spirit was roused to an attitude of manly independence. I +had reached the point, at which I was _not afraid to die_. This spirit +made me a freeman in _fact_, while I remained a slave in _form_. When a +slave cannot be flogged he is more than half free. He has a domain as +broad as his own manly heart to defend, and he is really _“a power on +earth_.” While slaves prefer their lives, with flogging, to instant +death, they will always find Christians enough, like unto Covey, to +accommodate that preference. From this time, until that of my escape +from slavery, I was never fairly whipped. Several attempts were made to +whip me, but they were always unsuccessful. Bruises I did get, as I +shall hereafter inform the reader; but the case I have been describing, +was the end of the brutification to which slavery had subjected me. + +The reader will be glad to know why, after I had so grievously offended +Mr. Covey, he did not have me taken in hand by the authorities; indeed, +why the law of Maryland, which assigns hanging to the slave who resists +his master, was not put in force against me; at any rate, why I was not +taken up, as is usual in such cases, and publicly whipped, for an +example to other slaves, and as a means of deterring me from committing +the same offense again. I confess, that the easy manner in which I got +off, for a long time, a surprise to me, and I cannot, even now, fully +explain the cause. + +The only explanation I can venture to suggest, is the fact, that Covey +was, probably, ashamed to have it known and confessed that he had been +mastered by a boy of sixteen. Mr. Covey enjoyed the unbounded and very +valuable reputation, of being a first rate overseer and _Negro +breaker_. By means of this reputation, he was able to procure his hands +for _very trifling_ compensation, and with very great ease. His +interest and his pride mutually suggested the wisdom of passing the +matter by, in silence. The story that he had undertaken to whip a lad, +and had been resisted, was, of itself, sufficient to damage him; for +his bearing should, in the estimation of slaveholders, be of that +imperial order that should make such an occurrence _impossible_. I +judge from these circumstances, that Covey deemed it best to give me +the go-by. It is, perhaps, not altogether creditable to my natural +temper, that, after this conflict with Mr. Covey, I did, at times, +purposely aim to provoke him to an attack, by refusing to keep with the +other hands in the field, but I could never bully him to another +battle. I had made up my mind to do him serious damage, if he ever +again attempted to lay violent hands on me. + +Hereditary bondmen, know ye not +Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. _New Relations and Duties_ + + +CHANGE OF MASTERS—BENEFITS DERIVED BY THE CHANGE—FAME OF THE FIGHT WITH +COVEY—RECKLESS UNCONCERN—MY ABHORRENCE OF SLAVERY—ABILITY TO READ A +CAUSE OF PREJUDICE—THE HOLIDAYS—HOW SPENT—SHARP HIT AT SLAVERY—EFFECTS +OF HOLIDAYS—A DEVICE OF SLAVERY—DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COVEY AND +FREELAND—AN IRRELIGIOUS MASTER PREFERRED TO A RELIGIOUS ONE—CATALOGUE +OF FLOGGABLE OFFENSES—HARD LIFE AT COVEY’S USEFUL—IMPROVED CONDITION +NOT FOLLOWED BY CONTENTMENT—CONGENIAL SOCIETY AT FREELAND’S—SABBATH +SCHOOL INSTITUTED—SECRECY NECESSARY—AFFECTIONATE RELATIONS OF TUTOR AND +PUPILS—CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP AMONG SLAVES—I DECLINE PUBLISHING +PARTICULARS OF CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FRIENDS—SLAVERY THE INVITER OF +VENGEANCE. + + +My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas day, +1834. I gladly left the snakish Covey, although he was now as gentle as +a lamb. My home for the year 1835 was already secured—my next master +was already selected. There is always more or less excitement about the +matter of changing hands, but I had become somewhat reckless. I cared +very little into whose hands I fell—I meant to fight my way. Despite of +Covey, too, the report got abroad, that I was hard to whip; that I was +guilty of kicking back; that though generally a good tempered Negro, I +sometimes “_got the devil in me_.” These sayings were rife in Talbot +county, and they distinguished me among my servile brethren. Slaves, +generally, will fight each other, and die at each other’s hands; but +there are few who are not held in awe by a white man. Trained from the +cradle up, to think and feel that their masters are superior, and +invested with a sort of sacredness, there are few who can outgrow or +rise above the control which that sentiment exercises. I had now got +free from it, and the thing was known. One bad sheep will spoil a whole +flock. Among the slaves, I was a bad sheep. I hated slavery, +slaveholders, and all pertaining to them; and I did not fail to inspire +others with the same feeling, wherever and whenever opportunity was +presented. This made me a marked lad among the slaves, and a suspected +one among the slaveholders. A knowledge of my ability to read and +write, got pretty widely spread, which was very much against me. + +The days between Christmas day and New Year’s, are allowed the slaves +as holidays. During these days, all regular work was suspended, and +there was nothing to do but to keep fires, and look after the stock. +This time was regarded as our own, by the grace of our masters, and we, +therefore used it, or abused it, as we pleased. Those who had families +at a distance, were now expected to visit them, and to spend with them +the entire week. The younger slaves, or the unmarried ones, were +expected to see to the cattle, and attend to incidental duties at home. +The holidays were variously spent. The sober, thinking and industrious +ones of our number, would employ themselves in manufacturing corn +brooms, mats, horse collars and baskets, and some of these were very +well made. Another class spent their time in hunting opossums, coons, +rabbits, and other game. But the majority spent the holidays in sports, +ball playing, wrestling, boxing, running foot races, dancing, and +drinking whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was +generally most agreeable to their masters. A slave who would work +during the holidays, was thought, by his master, undeserving of +holidays. Such an one had rejected the favor of his master. There was, +in this simple act of continued work, an accusation against slaves; and +a slave could not help thinking, that if he made three dollars during +the holidays, he might make three hundred during the year. Not to be +drunk during the holidays, was disgraceful; and he was esteemed a lazy +and improvident man, who could not afford to drink whisky during +Christmas. + +The fiddling, dancing and _“jubilee beating_,” was going on in all +directions. This latter performance is strictly southern. It supplies +the place of a violin, or of other musical instruments, and is played +so easily, that almost every farm has its “Juba” beater. The performer +improvises as he beats, and sings his merry songs, so ordering the +words as to have them fall pat with the movement of his hands. Among a +mass of nonsense and wild frolic, once in a while a sharp hit is given +to the meanness of slaveholders. Take the following, for an example: + +_We raise de wheat, +Dey gib us de corn; +We bake de bread, +Dey gib us de cruss; +We sif de meal, +Dey gib us de huss; +We peal de meat, +Dey gib us de skin, +And dat’s de way +Dey takes us in. +We skim de pot, +Dey gib us the liquor, +And say dat’s good enough for nigger. + Walk over! walk over! +Tom butter and de fat; + Poor nigger you can’t get over dat; + Walk over_! + + +This is not a bad summary of the palpable injustice and fraud of +slavery, giving—as it does—to the lazy and idle, the comforts which God +designed should be given solely to the honest laborer. But to the +holiday’s. + +Judging from my own observation and experience, I believe these +holidays to be among the most effective means, in the hands of +slaveholders, of keeping down the spirit of insurrection among the +slaves. + +To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to have their +minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of +which they are deprived. A certain degree of attainable good must be +kept before them. These holidays serve the purpose of keeping the minds +of the slaves occupied with prospective pleasure, within the limits of +slavery. The young man can go wooing; the married man can visit his +wife; the father and mother can see their children; the industrious and +money loving can make a few dollars; the great wrestler can win +laurels; the young people can meet, and enjoy each other’s society; the +drunken man can get plenty of whisky; and the religious man can hold +prayer meetings, preach, pray and exhort during the holidays. Before +the holidays, these are pleasures in prospect; after the holidays, they +become pleasures of memory, and they serve to keep out thoughts and +wishes of a more dangerous character. Were slaveholders at once to +abandon the practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, +periodically, and to keep them, the year round, closely confined to the +narrow circle of their homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze +with insurrections. These holidays are conductors or safety valves to +carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the human mind, when +reduced to the condition of slavery. But for these, the rigors of +bondage would become too severe for endurance, and the slave would be +forced up to dangerous desperation. Woe to the slaveholder when he +undertakes to hinder or to prevent the operation of these electric +conductors. A succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, than +the insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in +different parts of the south, from such interference. + +Thus, the holidays, became part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrongs +and inhumanity of slavery. Ostensibly, they are institutions of +benevolence, designed to mitigate the rigors of slave life, but, +practically, they are a fraud, instituted by human selfishness, the +better to secure the ends of injustice and oppression. The slave’s +happiness is not the end sought, but, rather, the master’s safety. It +is not from a generous unconcern for the slave’s labor that this +cessation from labor is allowed, but from a prudent regard to the +safety of the slave system. I am strengthened in this opinion, by the +fact, that most slaveholders like to have their slaves spend the +holidays in such a manner as to be of no real benefit to the slaves. It +is plain, that everything like rational enjoyment among the slaves, is +frowned upon; and only those wild and low sports, peculiar to +semi-civilized people, are encouraged. All the license allowed, appears +to have no other object than to disgust the slaves with their temporary +freedom, and to make them as glad to return to their work, as they were +to leave it. By plunging them into exhausting depths of drunkenness and +dissipation, this effect is almost certain to follow. I have known +slaveholders resort to cunning tricks, with a view of getting their +slaves deplorably drunk. A usual plan is, to make bets on a slave, that +he can drink more whisky than any other; and so to induce a rivalry +among them, for the mastery in this degradation. The scenes, brought +about in this way, were often scandalous and loathsome in the extreme. +Whole multitudes might be found stretched out in brutal drunkenness, at +once helpless and disgusting. Thus, when the slave asks for a few hours +of virtuous freedom, his cunning master takes advantage of his +ignorance, and cheers him with a dose of vicious and revolting +dissipation, artfully labeled with the name of LIBERTY. We were induced +to drink, I among the rest, and when the holidays were over, we all +staggered up from our filth and wallowing, took a long breath, and went +away to our various fields of work; feeling, upon the whole, rather +glad to go from that which our masters artfully deceived us into the +belief was freedom, back again to the arms of slavery. It was not what +we had taken it to be, nor what it might have been, had it not been +abused by us. It was about as well to be a slave to _master_, as to be +a slave to _rum_ and _whisky._ + +I am the more induced to take this view of the holiday system, adopted +by slaveholders, from what I know of their treatment of slaves, in +regard to other things. It is the commonest thing for them to try to +disgust their slaves with what they do not want them to have, or to +enjoy. A slave, for instance, likes molasses; he steals some; to cure +him of the taste for it, his master, in many cases, will go away to +town, and buy a large quantity of the _poorest_ quality, and set it +before his slave, and, with whip in hand, compel him to eat it, until +the poor fellow is made to sicken at the very thought of molasses. The +same course is often adopted to cure slaves of the disagreeable and +inconvenient practice of asking for more food, when their allowance has +failed them. The same disgusting process works well, too, in other +things, but I need not cite them. When a slave is drunk, the +slaveholder has no fear that he will plan an insurrection; no fear that +he will escape to the north. It is the sober, thinking slave who is +dangerous, and needs the vigilance of his master, to keep him a slave. +But, to proceed with my narrative. + +On the first of January, 1835, I proceeded from St. Michael’s to Mr. +William Freeland’s, my new home. Mr. Freeland lived only three miles +from St. Michael’s, on an old worn out farm, which required much labor +to restore it to anything like a self-supporting establishment. + +I was not long in finding Mr. Freeland to be a very different man from +Mr. Covey. Though not rich, Mr. Freeland was what may be called a +well-bred southern gentleman, as different from Covey, as a +well-trained and hardened Negro breaker is from the best specimen of +the first families of the south. Though Freeland was a slaveholder, and +shared many of the vices of his class, he seemed alive to the sentiment +of honor. He had some sense of justice, and some feelings of humanity. +He was fretful, impulsive and passionate, but I must do him the justice +to say, he was free from the mean and selfish characteristics which +distinguished the creature from which I had now, happily, escaped. He +was open, frank, imperative, and practiced no concealments, disdaining +to play the spy. In all this, he was the opposite of the crafty Covey. + +Among the many advantages gained in my change from Covey’s to +Freeland’s—startling as the statement may be—was the fact that the +latter gentleman made no profession of religion. I assert _most +unhesitatingly_, that the religion of the south—as I have observed it +and proved it—is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes; the +justifier of the most appalling barbarity; a sanctifier of the most +hateful frauds; and a secure shelter, under which the darkest, foulest, +grossest, and most infernal abominations fester and flourish. Were I +again to be reduced to the condition of a slave, _next_ to that +calamity, I should regard the fact of being the slave of a religious +slaveholder, the greatest that could befall me. For all slaveholders +with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have +found them, almost invariably, the vilest, meanest and basest of their +class. Exceptions there may be, but this is true of religious +slaveholders, _as a class_. It is not for me to explain the fact. +Others may do that; I simply state it as a fact, and leave the +theological, and psychological inquiry, which it raises, to be decided +by others more competent than myself. Religious slaveholders, like +religious persecutors, are ever extreme in their malice and violence. +Very near my new home, on an adjoining farm, there lived the Rev. +Daniel Weeden, who was both pious and cruel after the real Covey +pattern. Mr. Weeden was a local preacher of the Protestant Methodist +persuasion, and a most zealous supporter of the ordinances of religion, +generally. This Weeden owned a woman called “Ceal,” who was a standing +proof of his mercilessness. Poor Ceal’s back, always scantily clothed, +was kept literally raw, by the lash of this religious man and gospel +minister. The most notoriously wicked man—so called in distinction from +church members—could hire hands more easily than this brute. When sent +out to find a home, a slave would never enter the gates of the preacher +Weeden, while a sinful sinner needed a hand. Be have ill, or behave +well, it was the known maxim of Weeden, that it is the duty of a master +to use the lash. If, for no other reason, he contended that this was +essential to remind a slave of his condition, and of his master’s +authority. The good slave must be whipped, to be _kept_ good, and the +bad slave must be whipped, to be _made_ good. Such was Weeden’s theory, +and such was his practice. The back of his slave-woman will, in the +judgment, be the swiftest witness against him. + +While I am stating particular cases, I might as well immortalize +another of my neighbors, by calling him by name, and putting him in +print. He did not think that a “chiel” was near, “taking notes,” and +will, doubtless, feel quite angry at having his character touched off +in the ragged style of a slave’s pen. I beg to introduce the reader to +REV. RIGBY HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins resides between Easton and St. +Michael’s, in Talbot county, Maryland. The severity of this man made +him a perfect terror to the slaves of his neighborhood. The peculiar +feature of his government, was, his system of whipping slaves, as he +said, _in advance_ of deserving it. He always managed to have one or +two slaves to whip on Monday morning, so as to start his hands to their +work, under the inspiration of a new assurance on Monday, that his +preaching about kindness, mercy, brotherly love, and the like, on +Sunday, did not interfere with, or prevent him from establishing his +authority, by the cowskin. He seemed to wish to assure them, that his +tears over poor, lost and ruined sinners, and his pity for them, did +not reach to the blacks who tilled his fields. This saintly Hopkins +used to boast, that he was the best hand to manage a Negro in the +county. He whipped for the smallest offenses, by way of preventing the +commission of large ones. + +The reader might imagine a difficulty in finding faults enough for such +frequent whipping. But this is because you have no idea how easy a +matter it is to offend a man who is on the look-out for offenses. The +man, unaccustomed to slaveholding, would be astonished to observe how +many _foggable_ offenses there are in the slaveholder’s catalogue of +crimes; and how easy it is to commit any one of them, even when the +slave least intends it. A slaveholder, bent on finding fault, will +hatch up a dozen a day, if he chooses to do so, and each one of these +shall be of a punishable description. A mere look, word, or motion, a +mistake, accident, or want of power, are all matters for which a slave +may be whipped at any time. Does a slave look dissatisfied with his +condition? It is said, that he has the devil in him, and it must be +whipped out. Does he answer _loudly_, when spoken to by his master, +with an air of self-consciousness? Then, must he be taken down a +button-hole lower, by the lash, well laid on. Does he forget, and omit +to pull off his hat, when approaching a white person? Then, he must, or +may be, whipped for his bad manners. Does he ever venture to vindicate +his conduct, when harshly and unjustly accused? Then, he is guilty of +impudence, one of the greatest crimes in the social catalogue of +southern society. To allow a slave to escape punishment, who has +impudently attempted to exculpate himself from unjust charges, +preferred against him by some white person, is to be guilty of great +dereliction of duty. Does a slave ever venture to suggest a better way +of doing a thing, no matter what? He is, altogether, too officious—wise +above what is written—and he deserves, even if he does not get, a +flogging for his presumption. Does he, while plowing, break a plow, or +while hoeing, break a hoe, or while chopping, break an ax? No matter +what were the imperfections of the implement broken, or the natural +liabilities for breaking, the slave can be whipped for carelessness. +The _reverend_ slaveholder could always find something of this sort, to +justify him in using the lash several times during the week. +Hopkins—like Covey and Weeden—were shunned by slaves who had the +privilege (as many had) of finding their own masters at the end of each +year; and yet, there was not a man in all that section of country, who +made a louder profession of religion, than did MR. RIGBY HOPKINS. + +But, to continue the thread of my story, through my experience when at +Mr. William Freeland’s. + +My poor, weather-beaten bark now reached smoother water, and gentler +breezes. My stormy life at Covey’s had been of service to me. The +things that would have seemed very hard, had I gone direct to Mr. +Freeland’s, from the home of Master Thomas, were now (after the +hardships at Covey’s) “trifles light as air.” I was still a field hand, +and had come to prefer the severe labor of the field, to the enervating +duties of a house servant. I had become large and strong; and had begun +to take pride in the fact, that I could do as much hard work as some of +the older men. There is much rivalry among slaves, at times, as to +which can do the most work, and masters generally seek to promote such +rivalry. But some of us were too wise to race with each other very +long. Such racing, we had the sagacity to see, was not likely to pay. +We had our times for measuring each other’s strength, but we knew too +much to keep up the competition so long as to produce an extraordinary +day’s work. We knew that if, by extraordinary exertion, a large +quantity of work was done in one day, the fact, becoming known to the +master, might lead him to require the same amount every day. This +thought was enough to bring us to a dead halt when over so much excited +for the race. + +At Mr. Freeland’s, my condition was every way improved. I was no longer +the poor scape-goat that I was when at Covey’s, where every wrong thing +done was saddled upon me, and where other slaves were whipped over my +shoulders. Mr. Freeland was too just a man thus to impose upon me, or +upon any one else. + +It is quite usual to make one slave the object of especial abuse, and +to beat him often, with a view to its effect upon others, rather than +with any expectation that the slave whipped will be improved by it, but +the man with whom I now was, could descend to no such meanness and +wickedness. Every man here was held individually responsible for his +own conduct. + +This was a vast improvement on the rule at Covey’s. There, I was the +general pack horse. Bill Smith was protected, by a positive prohibition +made by his rich master, and the command of the rich slaveholder is LAW +to the poor one; Hughes was favored, because of his relationship to +Covey; and the hands hired temporarily, escaped flogging, except as +they got it over my poor shoulders. Of course, this comparison refers +to the time when Covey _could_ whip me. + +Mr. Freeland, like Mr. Covey, gave his hands enough to eat, but, unlike +Mr. Covey, he gave them time to take their meals; he worked us hard +during the day, but gave us the night for rest—another advantage to be +set to the credit of the sinner, as against that of the saint. We were +seldom in the field after dark in the evening, or before sunrise in the +morning. Our implements of husbandry were of the most improved pattern, +and much superior to those used at Covey’s. + +Nothwithstanding the improved condition which was now mine, and the +many advantages I had gained by my new home, and my new master, I was +still restless and discontented. I was about as hard to please by a +master, as a master is by slave. The freedom from bodily torture and +unceasing labor, had given my mind an increased sensibility, and +imparted to it greater activity. I was not yet exactly in right +relations. “How be it, that was not first which is spiritual, but that +which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.” When entombed +at Covey’s, shrouded in darkness and physical wretchedness, temporal +wellbeing was the grand _desideratum;_ but, temporal wants supplied, +the spirit puts in its claims. Beat and cuff your slave, keep him +hungry and spiritless, and he will follow the chain of his master like +a dog; but, feed and clothe him well—work him moderately—surround him +with physical comfort—and dreams of freedom intrude. Give him a _bad_ +master, and he aspires to a _good_ master; give him a good master, and +he wishes to become his _own_ master. Such is human nature. You may +hurl a man so low, beneath the level of his kind, that he loses all +just ideas of his natural position; but elevate him a little, and the +clear conception of rights arises to life and power, and leads him +onward. Thus elevated, a little, at Freeland’s, the dreams called into +being by that good man, Father Lawson, when in Baltimore, began to +visit me; and shoots from the tree of liberty began to put forth tender +buds, and dim hopes of the future began to dawn. + +I found myself in congenial society, at Mr. Freeland’s. There were +Henry Harris, John Harris, Handy Caldwell, and Sandy Jenkins. 6 + +Henry and John were brothers, and belonged to Mr. Freeland. They were +both remarkably bright and intelligent, though neither of them could +read. Now for mischief! I had not been long at Freeland’s before I was +up to my old tricks. I early began to address my companions on the +subject of education, and the advantages of intelligence over +ignorance, and, as far as I dared, I tried to show the agency of +ignorance in keeping men in slavery. Webster’s spelling book and the +_Columbian Orator_ were looked into again. As summer came on, and the +long Sabbath days stretched themselves over our idleness, I became +uneasy, and wanted a Sabbath school, in which to exercise my gifts, and +to impart the little knowledge of letters which I possessed, to my +brother slaves. A house was hardly necessary in the summer time; I +could hold my school under the shade of an old oak tree, as well as any +where else. The thing was, to get the scholars, and to have them +thoroughly imbued with the desire to learn. Two such boys were quickly +secured, in Henry and John, and from them the contagion spread. I was +not long bringing around me twenty or thirty young men, who enrolled +themselves, gladly, in my Sabbath school, and were willing to meet me +regularly, under the trees or elsewhere, for the purpose of learning to +read. It was surprising with what ease they provided themselves with +spelling books. These were mostly the cast off books of their young +masters or mistresses. I taught, at first, on our own farm. All were +impressed with the necessity of keeping the matter as private as +possible, for the fate of the St. Michael’s attempt was notorious, and +fresh in the minds of all. Our pious masters, at St. Michael’s, must +not know that a few of their dusky brothers were learning to read the +word of God, lest they should come down upon us with the lash and +chain. We might have met to drink whisky, to wrestle, fight, and to do +other unseemly things, with no fear of interruption from the saints or +sinners of St. Michael’s. + +But, to meet for the purpose of improving the mind and heart, by +learning to read the sacred scriptures, was esteemed a most dangerous +nuisance, to be instantly stopped. The slaveholders of St. Michael’s, +like slaveholders elsewhere, would always prefer to see the slaves +engaged in degrading sports, rather than to see them acting like moral +and accountable beings. + +Had any one asked a religious white man, in St. Michael’s, twenty years +ago, the names of three men in that town, whose lives were most after +the pattern of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the first three would +have been as follows: + +GARRISON WEST, _Class Leader_. +WRIGHT FAIRBANKS, _Class Leader_. +THOMAS AULD, _Class Leader_. + + +And yet, these were men who ferociously rushed in upon my Sabbath +school, at St. Michael’s, armed with mob-like missiles, and I must say, +I thought him a Christian, until he took part in bloody by the lash. +This same Garrison West was my class leader, and I must say, I thought +him a Christian, until he took part in breaking up my school. He led me +no more after that. The plea for this outrage was then, as it is now +and at all times—the danger to good order. If the slaves learnt to +read, they would learn something else, and something worse. The peace +of slavery would be disturbed; slave rule would be endangered. I leave +the reader to characterize a system which is endangered by such causes. +I do not dispute the soundness of the reasoning. It is perfectly sound; +and, if slavery be _right_, Sabbath schools for teaching slaves to read +the bible are _wrong_, and ought to be put down. These Christian class +leaders were, to this extent, consistent. They had settled the +question, that slavery is _right_, and, by that standard, they +determined that Sabbath schools are wrong. To be sure, they were +Protestant, and held to the great Protestant right of every man to +_“search the scriptures”_ for himself; but, then, to all general rules, +there are _exceptions_. How convenient! What crimes may not be +committed under the doctrine of the last remark. But, my dear, class +leading Methodist brethren, did not condescend to give me a reason for +breaking up the Sabbath school at St. Michael’s; it was enough that +they had determined upon its destruction. I am, however, digressing. + +After getting the school cleverly into operation, the second time +holding it in the woods, behind the barn, and in the shade of trees—I +succeeded in inducing a free colored man, who lived several miles from +our house, to permit me to hold my school in a room at his house. He, +very kindly, gave me this liberty; but he incurred much peril in doing +so, for the assemblage was an unlawful one. I shall not mention, here, +the name of this man; for it might, even now, subject him to +persecution, although the offenses were committed more than twenty +years ago. I had, at one time, more than forty scholars, all of the +right sort; and many of them succeeded in learning to read. I have met +several slaves from Maryland, who were once my scholars; and who +obtained their freedom, I doubt not, partly in consequence of the ideas +imparted to them in that school. I have had various employments during +my short life; but I look back to _none_ with more satisfaction, than +to that afforded by my Sunday school. An attachment, deep and lasting, +sprung up between me and my persecuted pupils, which made parting from +them intensely grievous; and, when I think that most of these dear +souls are yet shut up in this abject thralldom, I am overwhelmed with +grief. + +Besides my Sunday school, I devoted three evenings a week to my fellow +slaves, during the winter. Let the reader reflect upon the fact, that, +in this christian country, men and women are hiding from professors of +religion, in barns, in the woods and fields, in order to learn to read +the _holy bible_. Those dear souls, who came to my Sabbath school, came +_not_ because it was popular or reputable to attend such a place, for +they came under the liability of having forty stripes laid on their +naked backs. Every moment they spend in my school, they were under this +terrible liability; and, in this respect, I was sharer with them. Their +minds had been cramped and starved by their cruel masters; the light of +education had been completely excluded; and their hard earnings had +been taken to educate their master’s children. I felt a delight in +circumventing the tyrants, and in blessing the victims of their curses. + +The year at Mr. Freeland’s passed off very smoothly, to outward +seeming. Not a blow was given me during the whole year. To the credit +of Mr. Freeland—irreligious though he was—it must be stated, that he +was the best master I ever had, until I became my own master, and +assumed for myself, as I had a right to do, the responsibility of my +own existence and the exercise of my own powers. For much of the +happiness—or absence of misery—with which I passed this year with Mr. +Freeland, I am indebted to the genial temper and ardent friendship of +my brother slaves. They were, every one of them, manly, generous and +brave, yes; I say they were brave, and I will add, fine looking. It is +seldom the lot of mortals to have truer and better friends than were +the slaves on this farm. It is not uncommon to charge slaves with great +treachery toward each other, and to believe them incapable of confiding +in each other; but I must say, that I never loved, esteemed, or +confided in men, more than I did in these. They were as true as steel, +and no band of brothers could have been more loving. There were no mean +advantages taken of each other, as is sometimes the case where slaves +are situated as we were; no tattling; no giving each other bad names to +Mr. Freeland; and no elevating one at the expense of the other. We +never undertook to do any thing, of any importance, which was likely to +affect each other, without mutual consultation. We were generally a +unit, and moved together. Thoughts and sentiments were exchanged +between us, which might well be called very incendiary, by oppressors +and tyrants; and perhaps the time has not even now come, when it is +safe to unfold all the flying suggestions which arise in the minds of +intelligent slaves. Several of my friends and brothers, if yet alive, +are still in some part of the house of bondage; and though twenty years +have passed away, the suspicious malice of slavery might punish them +for even listening to my thoughts. + +The slaveholder, kind or cruel, is a slaveholder still—the every hour +violator of the just and inalienable rights of man; and he is, +therefore, every hour silently whetting the knife of vengeance for his +own throat. He never lisps a syllable in commendation of the fathers of +this republic, nor denounces any attempted oppression of himself, +without inviting the knife to his own throat, and asserting the rights +of rebellion for his own slaves. + +The year is ended, and we are now in the midst of the Christmas +holidays, which are kept this year as last, according to the general +description previously given. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. _The Run-Away Plot_ + + +NEW YEAR’S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS—AGAIN BOUGHT BY FREELAND—NO +AMBITION TO BE A SLAVE—KINDNESS NO COMPENSATION FOR SLAVERY—INCIPIENT +STEPS TOWARD ESCAPE—CONSIDERATIONS LEADING THERETO—IRRECONCILABLE +HOSTILITY TO SLAVERY—SOLEMN VOW TAKEN—PLAN DIVULGED TO THE +SLAVES—_Columbian Orator—_SCHEME GAINS FAVOR, DESPITE PRO-SLAVERY +PREACHING—DANGER OF DISCOVERY—SKILL OF SLAVEHOLDERS IN READING THE +MINDS OF THEIR SLAVES—SUSPICION AND COERCION—HYMNS WITH DOUBLE +MEANING—VALUE, IN DOLLARS, OF OUR COMPANY—PRELIMINARY +CONSULTATION—PASS-WORD—CONFLICTS OF HOPE AND FEAR—DIFFICULTIES TO BE +OVERCOME—IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY—SURVEY OF IMAGINARY DIFFICULTIES—EFFECT +ON OUR MINDS—PATRICK HENRY—SANDY BECOMES A DREAMER—ROUTE TO THE NORTH +LAID OUT—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED—FRAUDS PRACTICED ON FREEMEN—PASSES +WRITTEN—ANXIETIES AS THE TIME DREW NEAR—DREAD OF FAILURE—APPEALS TO +COMRADES—STRANGE PRESENTIMENT—COINCIDENCE—THE BETRAYAL DISCOVERED—THE +MANNER OF ARRESTING US—RESISTANCE MADE BY HENRY HARRIS—ITS EFFECT—THE +UNIQUE SPEECH OF MRS. FREELAND—OUR SAD PROCESSION TO PRISON—BRUTAL +JEERS BY THE MULTITUDE ALONG THE ROAD—PASSES EATEN—THE DENIAL—SANDY TOO +WELL LOVED TO BE SUSPECTED—DRAGGED BEHIND HORSES—THE JAIL A RELIEF—A +NEW SET OF TORMENTORS—SLAVE-TRADERS—JOHN, CHARLES AND HENRY +RELEASED—ALONE IN PRISON—I AM TAKEN OUT, AND SENT TO BALTIMORE. + + +I am now at the beginning of the year 1836, a time favorable for +serious thoughts. The mind naturally occupies itself with the mysteries +of life in all its phases—the ideal, the real and the actual. Sober +people look both ways at the beginning of the year, surveying the +errors of the past, and providing against possible errors of the +future. I, too, was thus exercised. I had little pleasure in +retrospect, and the prospect was not very brilliant. “Notwithstanding,” +thought I, “the many resolutions and prayers I have made, in behalf of +freedom, I am, this first day of the year 1836, still a slave, still +wandering in the depths of spirit-devouring thralldom. My faculties and +powers of body and soul are not my own, but are the property of a +fellow mortal, in no sense superior to me, except that he has the +physical power to compel me to be owned and controlled by him. By the +combined physical force of the community, I am his slave—a slave for +life.” With thoughts like these, I was perplexed and chafed; they +rendered me gloomy and disconsolate. The anguish of my mind may not be +written. + +At the close of the year 1835, Mr. Freeland, my temporary master, had +bought me of Capt. Thomas Auld, for the year 1836. His promptness in +securing my services, would have been flattering to my vanity, had I +been ambitious to win the reputation of being a valuable slave. Even as +it was, I felt a slight degree of complacency at the circumstance. It +showed he was as well pleased with me as a slave, as I was with him as +a master. I have already intimated my regard for Mr. Freeland, and I +may say here, in addressing northern readers—where is no selfish motive +for speaking in praise of a slaveholder—that Mr. Freeland was a man of +many excellent qualities, and to me quite preferable to any master I +ever had. + +But the kindness of the slavemaster only gilds the chain of slavery, +and detracts nothing from its weight or power. The thought that men are +made for other and better uses than slavery, thrives best under the +gentle treatment of a kind master. But the grim visage of slavery can +assume no smiles which can fascinate the partially enlightened slave, +into a forgetfulness of his bondage, nor of the desirableness of +liberty. + +I was not through the first month of this, my second year with the kind +and gentlemanly Mr. Freeland, before I was earnestly considering and +advising plans for gaining that freedom, which, when I was but a mere +child, I had ascertained to be the natural and inborn right of every +member of the human family. The desire for this freedom had been +benumbed, while I was under the brutalizing dominion of Covey; and it +had been postponed, and rendered inoperative, by my truly pleasant +Sunday school engagements with my friends, during the year 1835, at Mr. +Freeland’s. It had, however, never entirely subsided. I hated slavery, +always, and the desire for freedom only needed a favorable breeze, to +fan it into a blaze, at any moment. The thought of only being a +creature of the _present_ and the _past_, troubled me, and I longed to +have a _future_—a future with hope in it. To be shut up entirely to the +past and present, is abhorrent to the human mind; it is to the +soul—whose life and happiness is unceasing progress—what the prison is +to the body; a blight and mildew, a hell of horrors. The dawning of +this, another year, awakened me from my temporary slumber, and roused +into life my latent, but long cherished aspirations for freedom. I was +now not only ashamed to be contented in slavery, but ashamed to _seem_ +to be contented, and in my present favorable condition, under the mild +rule of Mr. F., I am not sure that some kind reader will not condemn me +for being over ambitious, and greatly wanting in proper humility, when +I say the truth, that I now drove from me all thoughts of making the +best of my lot, and welcomed only such thoughts as led me away from the +house of bondage. The intense desires, now felt, _to be free_, +quickened by my present favorable circumstances, brought me to the +determination to act, as well as to think and speak. Accordingly, at +the beginning of this year 1836, I took upon me a solemn vow, that the +year which had now dawned upon me should not close, without witnessing +an earnest attempt, on my part, to gain my liberty. This vow only bound +me to make my escape individually; but the year spent with Mr. Freeland +had attached me, as with “hooks of steel,” to my brother slaves. The +most affectionate and confiding friendship existed between us; and I +felt it my duty to give them an opportunity to share in my virtuous +determination by frankly disclosing to them my plans and purposes. +Toward Henry and John Harris, I felt a friendship as strong as one man +can feel for another; for I could have died with and for them. To them, +therefore, with a suitable degree of caution, I began to disclose my +sentiments and plans; sounding them, the while on the subject of +running away, provided a good chance should offer. I scarcely need tell +the reader, that I did my _very best_ to imbue the minds of my dear +friends with my own views and feelings. Thoroughly awakened, now, and +with a definite vow upon me, all my little reading, which had any +bearing on the subject of human rights, was rendered available in my +communications with my friends. That (to me) gem of a book, the +_Columbian Orator_, with its eloquent orations and spicy dialogues, +denouncing oppression and slavery—telling of what had been dared, done +and suffered by men, to obtain the inestimable boon of liberty—was +still fresh in my memory, and whirled into the ranks of my speech with +the aptitude of well trained soldiers, going through the drill. The +fact is, I here began my public speaking. I canvassed, with Henry and +John, the subject of slavery, and dashed against it the condemning +brand of God’s eternal justice, which it every hour violates. My fellow +servants were neither indifferent, dull, nor inapt. Our feelings were +more alike than our opinions. All, however, were ready to act, when a +feasible plan should be proposed. “Show us _how_ the thing is to be +done,” said they, “and all is clear.” + +We were all, except Sandy, quite free from slaveholding priestcraft. It +was in vain that we had been taught from the pulpit at St. Michael’s, +the duty of obedience to our masters; to recognize God as the author of +our enslavement; to regard running away an offense, alike against God +and man; to deem our enslavement a merciful and beneficial arrangement; +to esteem our condition, in this country, a paradise to that from which +we had been snatched in Africa; to consider our hard hands and dark +color as God’s mark of displeasure, and as pointing us out as the +proper subjects of slavery; that the relation of master and slave was +one of reciprocal benefits; that our work was not more serviceable to +our masters, than our master’s thinking was serviceable to us. I say, +it was in vain that the pulpit of St. Michael’s had constantly +inculcated these plausible doctrine. Nature laughed them to scorn. For +my own part, I had now become altogether too big for my chains. Father +Lawson’s solemn words, of what I ought to be, and might be, in the +providence of God, had not fallen dead on my soul. I was fast verging +toward manhood, and the prophecies of my childhood were still +unfulfilled. The thought, that year after year had passed away, and my +resolutions to run away had failed and faded—that I was _still a +slave_, and a slave, too, with chances for gaining my freedom +diminished and still diminishing—was not a matter to be slept over +easily; nor did I easily sleep over it. + +But here came a new trouble. Thoughts and purposes so incendiary as +those I now cherished, could not agitate the mind long, without danger +of making themselves manifest to scrutinizing and unfriendly beholders. +I had reason to fear that my sable face might prove altogether too +transparent for the safe concealment of my hazardous enterprise. Plans +of greater moment have leaked through stone walls, and revealed their +projectors. But, here was no stone wall to hide my purpose. I would +have given my poor, tell tale face for the immoveable countenance of an +Indian, for it was far from being proof against the daily, searching +glances of those with whom I met. + +It is the interest and business of slaveholders to study human nature, +with a view to practical results, and many of them attain astonishing +proficiency in discerning the thoughts and emotions of slaves. They +have to deal not with earth, wood, or stone, but with _men;_ and, by +every regard they have for their safety and prosperity, they must study +to know the material on which they are at work. So much intellect as +the slaveholder has around him, requires watching. Their safety depends +upon their vigilance. Conscious of the injustice and wrong they are +every hour perpetrating, and knowing what they themselves would do if +made the victims of such wrongs, they are looking out for the first +signs of the dread retribution of justice. They watch, therefore, with +skilled and practiced eyes, and have learned to read, with great +accuracy, the state of mind and heart of the slaves, through his sable +face. These uneasy sinners are quick to inquire into the matter, where +the slave is concerned. Unusual sobriety, apparent abstraction, +sullenness and indifference—indeed, any mood out of the common +way—afford ground for suspicion and inquiry. Often relying on their +superior position and wisdom, they hector and torture the slave into a +confession, by affecting to know the truth of their accusations. “You +have got the devil in you,” say they, “and we will whip him out of +you.” I have often been put thus to the torture, on bare suspicion. +This system has its disadvantages as well as their opposite. The slave +is sometimes whipped into the confession of offenses which he never +committed. The reader will see that the good old rule—“a man is to be +held innocent until proved to be guilty”—does not hold good on the +slave plantation. Suspicion and torture are the approved methods of +getting at the truth, here. It was necessary for me, therefore, to keep +a watch over my deportment, lest the enemy should get the better of me. + +But with all our caution and studied reserve, I am not sure that Mr. +Freeland did not suspect that all was not right with us. It _did_ seem +that he watched us more narrowly, after the plan of escape had been +conceived and discussed amongst us. Men seldom see themselves as others +see them; and while, to ourselves, everything connected with our +contemplated escape appeared concealed, Mr. Freeland may have, with the +peculiar prescience of a slaveholder, mastered the huge thought which +was disturbing our peace in slavery. + +I am the more inclined to think that he suspected us, because, prudent +as we were, as I now look back, I can see that we did many silly +things, very well calculated to awaken suspicion. We were, at times, +remarkably buoyant, singing hymns and making joyous exclamations, +almost as triumphant in their tone as if we reached a land of freedom +and safety. A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing +of + +_O Canaan, sweet Canaan, +I am bound for the land of Canaan,_ + + +something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the +_north_—and the north was our Canaan. + +_I thought I heard them say, +There were lions in the way, +I don’t expect to Star + Much longer here._ + +_Run to Jesus—shun the danger— +I don’t expect to stay + Much longer here_. + + +was a favorite air, and had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it +meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but, +in the lips of _our_ company, it simply meant, a speedy pilgrimage +toward a free state, and deliverance from all the evils and dangers of +slavery. + +I had succeeded in winning to my (what slaveholders would call wicked) +scheme, a company of five young men, the very flower of the +neighborhood, each one of whom would have commanded one thousand +dollars in the home market. At New Orleans, they would have brought +fifteen hundred dollars a piece, and, perhaps, more. The names of our +party were as follows: Henry Harris; John Harris, brother to Henry; +Sandy Jenkins, of root memory; Charles Roberts, and Henry Bailey. I was +the youngest, but one, of the party. I had, however, the advantage of +them all, in experience, and in a knowledge of letters. This gave me +great influence over them. Perhaps not one of them, left to himself, +would have dreamed of escape as a possible thing. Not one of them was +self-moved in the matter. They all wanted to be free; but the serious +thought of running away, had not entered into their minds, until I won +them to the undertaking. They all were tolerably well off—for +slaves—and had dim hopes of being set free, some day, by their masters. +If any one is to blame for disturbing the quiet of the slaves and +slave-masters of the neighborhood of St. Michael’s, _I am the man_. I +claim to be the instigator of the high crime (as the slaveholders +regard it) and I kept life in it, until life could be kept in it no +longer. + +Pending the time of our contemplated departure out of our Egypt, we met +often by night, and on every Sunday. At these meetings we talked the +matter over; told our hopes and fears, and the difficulties discovered +or imagined; and, like men of sense, we counted the cost of the +enterprise to which we were committing ourselves. + +These meetings must have resembled, on a small scale, the meetings of +revolutionary conspirators, in their primary condition. We were +plotting against our (so called) lawful rulers; with this difference +that we sought our own good, and not the harm of our enemies. We did +not seek to overthrow them, but to escape from them. As for Mr. +Freeland, we all liked him, and would have gladly remained with him, +_as freeman_. LIBERTY was our aim; and we had now come to think that we +had a right to liberty, against every obstacle even against the lives +of our enslavers. + +We had several words, expressive of things, important to us, which we +understood, but which, even if distinctly heard by an outsider, would +convey no certain meaning. I have reasons for suppressing these +_pass-words_, which the reader will easily divine. I hated the secrecy; +but where slavery is powerful, and liberty is weak, the latter is +driven to concealment or to destruction. + +The prospect was not always a bright one. At times, we were almost +tempted to abandon the enterprise, and to get back to that comparative +peace of mind, which even a man under the gallows might feel, when all +hope of escape had vanished. Quiet bondage was felt to be better than +the doubts, fears and uncertainties, which now so sadly perplexed and +disturbed us. + +The infirmities of humanity, generally, were represented in our little +band. We were confident, bold and determined, at times; and, again, +doubting, timid and wavering; whistling, like the boy in the graveyard, +to keep away the spirits. + +To look at the map, and observe the proximity of Eastern Shore, +Maryland, to Delaware and Pennsylvania, it may seem to the reader quite +absurd, to regard the proposed escape as a formidable undertaking. But +to _understand_, some one has said a man must _stand under_. The real +distance was great enough, but the imagined distance was, to our +ignorance, even greater. Every slaveholder seeks to impress his slave +with a belief in the boundlessness of slave territory, and of his own +almost illimitable power. We all had vague and indistinct notions of +the geography of the country. + +The distance, however, is not the chief trouble. The nearer are the +lines of a slave state and the borders of a free one, the greater the +peril. Hired kidnappers infest these borders. Then, too, we knew that +merely reaching a free state did not free us; that, wherever caught, we +could be returned to slavery. We could see no spot on this side the +ocean, where we could be free. We had heard of Canada, the real Canaan +of the American bondmen, simply as a country to which the wild goose +and the swan repaired at the end of winter, to escape the heat of +summer, but not as the home of man. I knew something of theology, but +nothing of geography. I really did not, at that time, know that there +was a state of New York, or a state of Massachusetts. I had heard of +Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, and all the southern states, but +was ignorant of the free states, generally. New York city was our +northern limit, and to go there, and be forever harassed with the +liability of being hunted down and returned to slavery—with the +certainty of being treated ten times worse than we had ever been +treated before was a prospect far from delightful, and it might well +cause some hesitation about engaging in the enterprise. The case, +sometimes, to our excited visions, stood thus: At every gate through +which we had to pass, we saw a watchman; at every ferry, a guard; on +every bridge, a sentinel; and in every wood, a patrol or slave-hunter. +We were hemmed in on every side. The good to be sought, and the evil to +be shunned, were flung in the balance, and weighed against each other. +On the one hand, there stood slavery; a stern reality, glaring +frightfully upon us, with the blood of millions in his polluted +skirts—terrible to behold—greedily devouring our hard earnings and +feeding himself upon our flesh. Here was the evil from which to escape. +On the other hand, far away, back in the hazy distance, where all forms +seemed but shadows, under the flickering light of the north star—behind +some craggy hill or snow-covered mountain—stood a doubtful freedom, +half frozen, beckoning us to her icy domain. This was the good to be +sought. The inequality was as great as that between certainty and +uncertainty. This, in itself, was enough to stagger us; but when we +came to survey the untrodden road, and conjecture the many possible +difficulties, we were appalled, and at times, as I have said, were upon +the point of giving over the struggle altogether. + +The reader can have little idea of the phantoms of trouble which flit, +in such circumstances, before the uneducated mind of the slave. Upon +either side, we saw grim death assuming a variety of horrid shapes. +Now, it was starvation, causing us, in a strange and friendless land, +to eat our own flesh. Now, we were contending with the waves (for our +journey was in part by water) and were drowned. Now, we were hunted by +dogs, and overtaken and torn to pieces by their merciless fangs. We +were stung by scorpions—chased by wild beasts—bitten by snakes; and, +worst of all, after having succeeded in swimming rivers—encountering +wild beasts—sleeping in the woods—suffering hunger, cold, heat and +nakedness—we supposed ourselves to be overtaken by hired kidnappers, +who, in the name of the law, and for their thrice accursed reward, +would, perchance, fire upon us—kill some, wound others, and capture +all. This dark picture, drawn by ignorance and fear, at times greatly +shook our determination, and not unfrequently caused us to + +Rather bear those ills we had +Than fly to others which we knew not of. + + +I am not disposed to magnify this circumstance in my experience, and +yet I think I shall seem to be so disposed, to the reader. No man can +tell the intense agony which is felt by the slave, when wavering on the +point of making his escape. All that he has is at stake; and even that +which he has not, is at stake, also. The life which he has, may be +lost, and the liberty which he seeks, may not be gained. + +Patrick Henry, to a listening senate, thrilled by his magic eloquence, +and ready to stand by him in his boldest flights, could say, GIVE ME +LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH, and this saying was a sublime one, even for a +freeman; but, incomparably more sublime, is the same sentiment, when +_practically_ asserted by men accustomed to the lash and chain—men +whose sensibilities must have become more or less deadened by their +bondage. With us it was a _doubtful_ liberty, at best, that we sought; +and a certain, lingering death in the rice swamps and sugar fields, if +we failed. Life is not lightly regarded by men of sane minds. It is +precious, alike to the pauper and to the prince—to the slave, and to +his master; and yet, I believe there was not one among us, who would +not rather have been shot down, than pass away life in hopeless +bondage. + +In the progress of our preparations, Sandy, the root man, became +troubled. He began to have dreams, and some of them were very +distressing. One of these, which happened on a Friday night, was, to +him, of great significance; and I am quite ready to confess, that I +felt somewhat damped by it myself. He said, “I dreamed, last night, +that I was roused from sleep, by strange noises, like the voices of a +swarm of angry birds, that caused a roar as they passed, which fell +upon my ear like a coming gale over the tops of the trees. Looking up +to see what it could mean,” said Sandy, “I saw you, Frederick, in the +claws of a huge bird, surrounded by a large number of birds, of all +colors and sizes. These were all picking at you, while you, with your +arms, seemed to be trying to protect your eyes. Passing over me, the +birds flew in a south-westerly direction, and I watched them until they +were clean out of sight. Now, I saw this as plainly as I now see you; +and furder, honey, watch de Friday night dream; dare is sumpon in it, +shose you born; dare is, indeed, honey.” + +I confess I did not like this dream; but I threw off concern about it, +by attributing it to the general excitement and perturbation consequent +upon our contemplated plan of escape. I could not, however, shake off +its effect at once. I felt that it boded me no good. Sandy was +unusually emphatic and oracular, and his manner had much to do with the +impression made upon me. + +The plan of escape which I recommended, and to which my comrades +assented, was to take a large canoe, owned by Mr. Hamilton, and, on the +Saturday night previous to the Easter holidays, launch out into the +Chesapeake bay, and paddle for its head—a distance of seventy miles +with all our might. Our course, on reaching this point, was, to turn +the canoe adrift, and bend our steps toward the north star, till we +reached a free state. + +There were several objections to this plan. One was, the danger from +gales on the bay. In rough weather, the waters of the Chesapeake are +much agitated, and there is danger, in a canoe, of being swamped by the +waves. Another objection was, that the canoe would soon be missed; the +absent persons would, at once, be suspected of having taken it; and we +should be pursued by some of the fast sailing bay craft out of St. +Michael’s. Then, again, if we reached the head of the bay, and turned +the canoe adrift, she might prove a guide to our track, and bring the +land hunters after us. + +These and other objections were set aside, by the stronger ones which +could be urged against every other plan that could then be suggested. +On the water, we had a chance of being regarded as fishermen, in the +service of a master. On the other hand, by taking the land route, +through the counties adjoining Delaware, we should be subjected to all +manner of interruptions, and many very disagreeable questions, which +might give us serious trouble. Any white man is authorized to stop a +man of color, on any road, and examine him, and arrest him, if he so +desires. + +By this arrangement, many abuses (considered such even by slaveholders) +occur. Cases have been known, where freemen have been called upon to +show their free papers, by a pack of ruffians—and, on the presentation +of the papers, the ruffians have torn them up, and seized their victim, +and sold him to a life of endless bondage. + +The week before our intended start, I wrote a pass for each of our +party, giving them permission to visit Baltimore, during the Easter +holidays. The pass ran after this manner: + +This is to certify, that I, the undersigned, have given the bearer, my +servant, John, full liberty to go to Baltimore, to spend the Easter +holidays. + + +W.H. +Near St. Michael’s, Talbot county, Maryland + + +Although we were not going to Baltimore, and were intending to land +east of North Point, in the direction where I had seen the Philadelphia +steamers go, these passes might be made useful to us in the lower part +of the bay, while steering toward Baltimore. These were not, however, +to be shown by us, until all other answers failed to satisfy the +inquirer. We were all fully alive to the importance of being calm and +self-possessed, when accosted, if accosted we should be; and we more +times than one rehearsed to each other how we should behave in the hour +of trial. + +These were long, tedious days and nights. The suspense was painful, in +the extreme. To balance probabilities, where life and liberty hang on +the result, requires steady nerves. I panted for action, and was glad +when the day, at the close of which we were to start, dawned upon us. +Sleeping, the night before, was out of the question. I probably felt +more deeply than any of my companions, because I was the instigator of +the movement. The responsibility of the whole enterprise rested on my +shoulders. The glory of success, and the shame and confusion of +failure, could not be matters of indifference to me. Our food was +prepared; our clothes were packed up; we were all ready to go, and +impatient for Saturday morning—considering that the last morning of our +bondage. + +I cannot describe the tempest and tumult of my brain, that morning. The +reader will please to bear in mind, that, in a slave state, an +unsuccessful runaway is not only subjected to cruel torture, and sold +away to the far south, but he is frequently execrated by the other +slaves. He is charged with making the condition of the other slaves +intolerable, by laying them all under the suspicion of their +masters—subjecting them to greater vigilance, and imposing greater +limitations on their privileges. I dreaded murmurs from this quarter. +It is difficult, too, for a slavemaster to believe that slaves escaping +have not been aided in their flight by some one of their fellow slaves. +When, therefore, a slave is missing, every slave on the place is +closely examined as to his knowledge of the undertaking; and they are +sometimes even tortured, to make them disclose what they are suspected +of knowing of such escape. + +Our anxiety grew more and more intense, as the time of our intended +departure for the north drew nigh. It was truly felt to be a matter of +life and death with us; and we fully intended to _fight_ as well as +_run_, if necessity should occur for that extremity. But the trial hour +was not yet to come. It was easy to resolve, but not so easy to act. I +expected there might be some drawing back, at the last. It was natural +that there should be; therefore, during the intervening time, I lost no +opportunity to explain away difficulties, to remove doubts, to dispel +fears, and to inspire all with firmness. It was too late to look back; +and _now_ was the time to go forward. Like most other men, we had done +the talking part of our work, long and well; and the time had come to +_act_ as if we were in earnest, and meant to be as true in action as in +words. I did not forget to appeal to the pride of my comrades, by +telling them that, if after having solemnly promised to go, as they had +done, they now failed to make the attempt, they would, in effect, brand +themselves with cowardice, and might as well sit down, fold their arms, +and acknowledge themselves as fit only to be _slaves_. This detestable +character, all were unwilling to assume. Every man except Sandy (he, +much to our regret, withdrew) stood firm; and at our last meeting we +pledged ourselves afresh, and in the most solemn manner, that, at the +time appointed, we _would_ certainly start on our long journey for a +free country. This meeting was in the middle of the week, at the end of +which we were to start. + +Early that morning we went, as usual, to the field, but with hearts +that beat quickly and anxiously. Any one intimately acquainted with us, +might have seen that all was not well with us, and that some monster +lingered in our thoughts. Our work that morning was the same as it had +been for several days past—drawing out and spreading manure. While thus +engaged, I had a sudden presentiment, which flashed upon me like +lightning in a dark night, revealing to the lonely traveler the gulf +before, and the enemy behind. I instantly turned to Sandy Jenkins, who +was near me, and said to him, _“Sandy, we are betrayed;_ something has +just told me so.” I felt as sure of it, as if the officers were there +in sight. Sandy said, “Man, dat is strange; but I feel just as you do.” +If my mother—then long in her grave—had appeared before me, and told me +that we were betrayed, I could not, at that moment, have felt more +certain of the fact. + +In a few minutes after this, the long, low and distant notes of the +horn summoned us from the field to breakfast. I felt as one may be +supposed to feel before being led forth to be executed for some great +offense. I wanted no breakfast; but I went with the other slaves toward +the house, for form’s sake. My feelings were not disturbed as to the +right of running away; on that point I had no trouble, whatever. My +anxiety arose from a sense of the consequences of failure. + +In thirty minutes after that vivid presentiment came the apprehended +crash. On reaching the house, for breakfast, and glancing my eye toward +the lane gate, the worst was at once made known. The lane gate off Mr. +Freeland’s house, is nearly a half mile from the door, and shaded by +the heavy wood which bordered the main road. I was, however, able to +descry four white men, and two colored men, approaching. The white men +were on horseback, and the colored men were walking behind, and seemed +to be tied. _“It is all over with us,”_ thought I, _“we are surely +betrayed_.” I now became composed, or at least comparatively so, and +calmly awaited the result. I watched the ill-omened company, till I saw +them enter the gate. Successful flight was impossible, and I made up my +mind to stand, and meet the evil, whatever it might be; for I was not +without a slight hope that things might turn differently from what I at +first expected. In a few moments, in came Mr. William Hamilton, riding +very rapidly, and evidently much excited. He was in the habit of riding +very slowly, and was seldom known to gallop his horse. This time, his +horse was nearly at full speed, causing the dust to roll thick behind +him. Mr. Hamilton, though one of the most resolute men in the whole +neighborhood, was, nevertheless, a remarkably mild spoken man; and, +even when greatly excited, his language was cool and circumspect. He +came to the door, and inquired if Mr. Freeland was in. I told him that +Mr. Freeland was at the barn. Off the old gentleman rode, toward the +barn, with unwonted speed. Mary, the cook, was at a loss to know what +was the matter, and I did not profess any skill in making her +understand. I knew she would have united, as readily as any one, in +cursing me for bringing trouble into the family; so I held my peace, +leaving matters to develop themselves, without my assistance. In a few +moments, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Freeland came down from the barn to the +house; and, just as they made their appearance in the front yard, three +men (who proved to be constables) came dashing into the lane, on +horseback, as if summoned by a sign requiring quick work. A few seconds +brought them into the front yard, where they hastily dismounted, and +tied their horses. This done, they joined Mr. Freeland and Mr. +Hamilton, who were standing a short distance from the kitchen. A few +moments were spent, as if in consulting how to proceed, and then the +whole party walked up to the kitchen door. There was now no one in the +kitchen but myself and John Harris. Henry and Sandy were yet at the +barn. Mr. Freeland came inside the kitchen door, and with an agitated +voice, called me by name, and told me to come forward; that there was +some gentlemen who wished to see me. I stepped toward them, at the +door, and asked what they wanted, when the constables grabbed me, and +told me that I had better not resist; that I had been in a scrape, or +was said to have been in one; that they were merely going to take me +where I could be examined; that they were going to carry me to St. +Michael’s, to have me brought before my master. They further said, +that, in case the evidence against me was not true, I should be +acquitted. I was now firmly tied, and completely at the mercy of my +captors. Resistance was idle. They were five in number, armed to the +very teeth. When they had secured me, they next turned to John Harris, +and, in a few moments, succeeded in tying him as firmly as they had +already tied me. They next turned toward Henry Harris, who had now +returned from the barn. “Cross your hands,” said the constables, to +Henry. “I won’t” said Henry, in a voice so firm and clear, and in a +manner so determined, as for a moment to arrest all proceedings. “Won’t +you cross your hands?” said Tom Graham, the constable. “_No I won’t_,” +said Henry, with increasing emphasis. Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Freeland, and +the officers, now came near to Henry. Two of the constables drew out +their shining pistols, and swore by the name of God, that he should +cross his hands, or they would shoot him down. Each of these hired +ruffians now cocked their pistols, and, with fingers apparently on the +triggers, presented their deadly weapons to the breast of the unarmed +slave, saying, at the same time, if he did not cross his hands, they +would “blow his d—d heart out of him.” + +_“Shoot! shoot me!”_ said Henry. “_You can’t kill me but once_. +Shoot!—shoot! and be d—d. _I won’t be tied_.” This, the brave fellow +said in a voice as defiant and heroic in its tone, as was the language +itself; and, at the moment of saying this, with the pistols at his very +breast, he quickly raised his arms, and dashed them from the puny hands +of his assassins, the weapons flying in opposite directions. Now came +the struggle. All hands was now rushed upon the brave fellow, and, +after beating him for some time, they succeeded in overpowering and +tying him. Henry put me to shame; he fought, and fought bravely. John +and I had made no resistance. The fact is, I never see much use in +fighting, unless there is a reasonable probability of whipping +somebody. Yet there was something almost providential in the resistance +made by the gallant Henry. But for that resistance, every soul of us +would have been hurried off to the far south. Just a moment previous to +the trouble with Henry, Mr. Hamilton _mildly_ said—and this gave me the +unmistakable clue to the cause of our arrest—“Perhaps we had now better +make a search for those protections, which we understand Frederick has +written for himself and the rest.” Had these passes been found, they +would have been point blank proof against us, and would have confirmed +all the statements of our betrayer. Thanks to the resistance of Henry, +the excitement produced by the scuffle drew all attention in that +direction, and I succeeded in flinging my pass, unobserved, into the +fire. The confusion attendant upon the scuffle, and the apprehension of +further trouble, perhaps, led our captors to forego, for the present, +any search for _“those protections” which Frederick was said to have +written for his companions_; so we were not yet convicted of the +purpose to run away; and it was evident that there was some doubt, on +the part of all, whether we had been guilty of such a purpose. + +Just as we were all completely tied, and about ready to start toward +St. Michael’s, and thence to jail, Mrs. Betsey Freeland (mother to +William, who was very much attached—after the southern fashion—to Henry +and John, they having been reared from childhood in her house) came to +the kitchen door, with her hands full of biscuits—for we had not had +time to take our breakfast that morning—and divided them between Henry +and John. This done, the lady made the following parting address to me, +looking and pointing her bony finger at me. “You devil! you yellow +devil! It was you that put it into the heads of Henry and John to run +away. But for _you_, you _long legged yellow devil_, Henry and John +would never have thought of running away.” I gave the lady a look, +which called forth a scream of mingled wrath and terror, as she slammed +the kitchen door, and went in, leaving me, with the rest, in hands as +harsh as her own broken voice. + +Could the kind reader have been quietly riding along the main road to +or from Easton, that morning, his eye would have met a painful sight. +He would have seen five young men, guilty of no crime, save that of +preferring _liberty_ to a life of _bondage_, drawn along the public +highway—firmly bound together—tramping through dust and heat, +bare-footed and bare-headed—fastened to three strong horses, whose +riders were armed to the teeth, with pistols and daggers—on their way +to prison, like felons, and suffering every possible insult from the +crowds of idle, vulgar people, who clustered around, and heartlessly +made their failure the occasion for all manner of ribaldry and sport. +As I looked upon this crowd of vile persons, and saw myself and friends +thus assailed and persecuted, I could not help seeing the fulfillment +of Sandy’s dream. I was in the hands of moral vultures, and firmly held +in their sharp talons, and was hurried away toward Easton, in a +south-easterly direction, amid the jeers of new birds of the same +feather, through every neighborhood we passed. It seemed to me (and +this shows the good understanding between the slaveholders and their +allies) that every body we met knew the cause of our arrest, and were +out, awaiting our passing by, to feast their vindictive eyes on our +misery and to gloat over our ruin. Some said, _I ought to be hanged_, +and others, _I ought to be burnt_, others, I ought to have the _“hide”_ +taken from my back; while no one gave us a kind word or sympathizing +look, except the poor slaves, who were lifting their heavy hoes, and +who cautiously glanced at us through the post-and-rail fences, behind +which they were at work. Our sufferings, that morning, can be more +easily imagined than described. Our hopes were all blasted, at a blow. +The cruel injustice, the victorious crime, and the helplessness of +innocence, led me to ask, in my ignorance and weakness “Where now is +the God of justice and mercy? And why have these wicked men the power +thus to trample upon our rights, and to insult our feelings?” And yet, +in the next moment, came the consoling thought, _“The day of oppressor +will come at last.”_ Of one thing I could be glad—not one of my dear +friends, upon whom I had brought this great calamity, either by word or +look, reproached me for having led them into it. We were a band of +brothers, and never dearer to each other than now. The thought which +gave us the most pain, was the probable separation which would now take +place, in case we were sold off to the far south, as we were likely to +be. While the constables were looking forward, Henry and I, being +fastened together, could occasionally exchange a word, without being +observed by the kidnappers who had us in charge. “What shall I do with +my pass?” said Henry. “Eat it with your biscuit,” said I; “it won’t do +to tear it up.” We were now near St. Michael’s. The direction +concerning the passes was passed around, and executed. _“Own nothing!”_ +said I. _“Own nothing!”_ was passed around and enjoined, and assented +to. Our confidence in each other was unshaken; and we were quite +resolved to succeed or fail together—as much after the calamity which +had befallen us, as before. + +On reaching St. Michael’s, we underwent a sort of examination at my +master’s store, and it was evident to my mind, that Master Thomas +suspected the truthfulness of the evidence upon which they had acted in +arresting us; and that he only affected, to some extent, the +positiveness with which he asserted our guilt. There was nothing said +by any of our company, which could, in any manner, prejudice our cause; +and there was hope, yet, that we should be able to return to our +homes—if for nothing else, at least to find out the guilty man or woman +who had betrayed us. + +To this end, we all denied that we had been guilty of intended flight. +Master Thomas said that the evidence he had of our intention to run +away, was strong enough to hang us, in a case of murder. “But,” said I, +“the cases are not equal. If murder were committed, some one must have +committed it—the thing is done! In our case, nothing has been done! We +have not run away. Where is the evidence against us? We were quietly at +our work.” I talked thus, with unusual freedom, to bring out the +evidence against us, for we all wanted, above all things, to know the +guilty wretch who had betrayed us, that we might have something +tangible upon which to pour the execrations. From something which +dropped, in the course of the talk, it appeared that there was but one +witness against us—and that that witness could not be produced. Master +Thomas would not tell us _who_ his informant was; but we suspected, and +suspected _one_ person _only_. Several circumstances seemed to point +SANDY out, as our betrayer. His entire knowledge of our plans his +participation in them—his withdrawal from us—his dream, and his +simultaneous presentiment that we were betrayed—the taking us, and the +leaving him—were calculated to turn suspicion toward him; and yet, we +could not suspect him. We all loved him too well to think it _possible_ +that he could have betrayed us. So we rolled the guilt on other +shoulders. + +We were literally dragged, that morning, behind horses, a distance of +fifteen miles, and placed in the Easton jail. We were glad to reach the +end of our journey, for our pathway had been the scene of insult and +mortification. Such is the power of public opinion, that it is hard, +even for the innocent, to feel the happy consolations of innocence, +when they fall under the maledictions of this power. How could we +regard ourselves as in the right, when all about us denounced us as +criminals, and had the power and the disposition to treat us as such. + +In jail, we were placed under the care of Mr. Joseph Graham, the +sheriff of the county. Henry, and John, and myself, were placed in one +room, and Henry Baily and Charles Roberts, in another, by themselves. +This separation was intended to deprive us of the advantage of concert, +and to prevent trouble in jail. + +Once shut up, a new set of tormentors came upon us. A swarm of imps, in +human shape the slave-traders, deputy slave-traders, and agents of +slave-traders—that gather in every country town of the state, watching +for chances to buy human flesh (as buzzards to eat carrion) flocked in +upon us, to ascertain if our masters had placed us in jail to be sold. +Such a set of debased and villainous creatures, I never saw before, and +hope never to see again. I felt myself surrounded as by a pack of +_fiends_, fresh from _perdition_. They laughed, leered, and grinned at +us; saying, “Ah! boys, we’ve got you, havn’t we? So you were about to +make your escape? Where were you going to?” After taunting us, and +peering at us, as long as they liked, they one by one subjected us to +an examination, with a view to ascertain our value; feeling our arms +and legs, and shaking us by the shoulders to see if we were sound and +healthy; impudently asking us, “how we would like to have them for +masters?” To such questions, we were, very much to their annoyance, +quite dumb, disdaining to answer them. For one, I detested the +whisky-bloated gamblers in human flesh; and I believe I was as much +detested by them in turn. One fellow told me, “if he had me, he would +cut the devil out of me pretty quick.” + +These Negro buyers are very offensive to the genteel southern Christian +public. They are looked upon, in respectable Maryland society, as +necessary, but detestable characters. As a class, they are hardened +ruffians, made such by nature and by occupation. Their ears are made +quite familiar with the agonizing cry of outraged and woe-smitted +humanity. Their eyes are forever open to human misery. They walk amid +desecrated affections, insulted virtue, and blasted hopes. They have +grown intimate with vice and blood; they gloat over the wildest +illustrations of their soul-damning and earth-polluting business, and +are moral pests. Yes; they are a legitimate fruit of slavery; and it is +a puzzle to make out a case of greater villainy for them, than for the +slaveholders, who make such a class _possible_. They are mere hucksters +of the surplus slave produce of Maryland and Virginia coarse, cruel, +and swaggering bullies, whose very breathing is of blasphemy and blood. + +Aside from these slave-buyers, who infested the prison, from time to +time, our quarters were much more comfortable than we had any right to +expect they would be. Our allowance of food was small and coarse, but +our room was the best in the jail—neat and spacious, and with nothing +about it necessarily reminding us of being in prison, but its heavy +locks and bolts and the black, iron lattice-work at the windows. We +were prisoners of state, compared with most slaves who are put into +that Easton jail. But the place was not one of contentment. Bolts, bars +and grated windows are not acceptable to freedom-loving people of any +color. The suspense, too, was painful. Every step on the stairway was +listened to, in the hope that the comer would cast a ray of light on +our fate. We would have given the hair off our heads for half a dozen +words with one of the waiters in Sol. Lowe’s hotel. Such waiters were +in the way of hearing, at the table, the probable course of things. We +could see them flitting about in their white jackets in front of this +hotel, but could speak to none of them. + +Soon after the holidays were over, contrary to all our expectations, +Messrs. Hamilton and Freeland came up to Easton; not to make a bargain +with the “Georgia traders,” nor to send us up to Austin Woldfolk, as is +usual in the case of run-away slaves, but to release Charles, Henry +Harris, Henry Baily and John Harris, from prison, and this, too, +without the infliction of a single blow. I was now left entirely alone +in prison. The innocent had been taken, and the guilty left. My friends +were separated from me, and apparently forever. This circumstance +caused me more pain than any other incident connected with our capture +and imprisonment. Thirty-nine lashes on my naked and bleeding back, +would have been joyfully borne, in preference to this separation from +these, the friends of my youth. And yet, I could not but feel that I +was the victim of something like justice. Why should these young men, +who were led into this scheme by me, suffer as much as the instigator? +I felt glad that they were leased from prison, and from the dread +prospect of a life (or death I should rather say) in the rice swamps. +It is due to the noble Henry, to say, that he seemed almost as +reluctant to leave the prison with me in it, as he was to be tied and +dragged to prison. But he and the rest knew that we should, in all the +likelihoods of the case, be separated, in the event of being sold; and +since we were now completely in the hands of our owners, we all +concluded it would be best to go peaceably home. + +Not until this last separation, dear reader, had I touched those +profounder depths of desolation, which it is the lot of slaves often to +reach. I was solitary in the world, and alone within the walls of a +stone prison, left to a fate of life-long misery. I had hoped and +expected much, for months before, but my hopes and expectations were +now withered and blasted. The ever dreaded slave life in Georgia, +Louisiana and Alabama—from which escape is next to impossible now, in +my loneliness, stared me in the face. The possibility of ever becoming +anything but an abject slave, a mere machine in the hands of an owner, +had now fled, and it seemed to me it had fled forever. A life of living +death, beset with the innumerable horrors of the cotton field, and the +sugar plantation, seemed to be my doom. The fiends, who rushed into the +prison when we were first put there, continued to visit me, and to ply +me with questions and with their tantalizing remarks. I was insulted, +but helpless; keenly alive to the demands of justice and liberty, but +with no means of asserting them. To talk to those imps about justice +and mercy, would have been as absurd as to reason with bears and +tigers. Lead and steel are the only arguments that they understand. + +After remaining in this life of misery and despair about a week, which, +by the way, seemed a month, Master Thomas, very much to my surprise, +and greatly to my relief, came to the prison, and took me out, for the +purpose, as he said, of sending me to Alabama, with a friend of his, +who would emancipate me at the end of eight years. I was glad enough to +get out of prison; but I had no faith in the story that this friend of +Capt. Auld would emancipate me, at the end of the time indicated. +Besides, I never had heard of his having a friend in Alabama, and I +took the announcement, simply as an easy and comfortable method of +shipping me off to the far south. There was a little scandal, too, +connected with the idea of one Christian selling another to the Georgia +traders, while it was deemed every way proper for them to sell to +others. I thought this friend in Alabama was an invention, to meet this +difficulty, for Master Thomas was quite jealous of his Christian +reputation, however unconcerned he might be about his real Christian +character. In these remarks, however, it is possible that I do Master +Thomas Auld injustice. He certainly did not exhaust his power upon me, +in the case, but acted, upon the whole, very generously, considering +the nature of my offense. He had the power and the provocation to send +me, without reserve, into the very everglades of Florida, beyond the +remotest hope of emancipation; and his refusal to exercise that power, +must be set down to his credit. + +After lingering about St. Michael’s a few days, and no friend from +Alabama making his appearance, to take me there, Master Thomas decided +to send me back again to Baltimore, to live with his brother Hugh, with +whom he was now at peace; possibly he became so by his profession of +religion, at the camp-meeting in the Bay Side. Master Thomas told me +that he wished me to go to Baltimore, and learn a trade; and that, if I +behaved myself properly, he would _emancipate me at twenty-five!_ +Thanks for this one beam of hope in the future. The promise had but one +fault; it seemed too good to be true. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. _Apprenticeship Life_ + + +NOTHING LOST BY THE ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY—COMRADES IN THEIR OLD +HOMES—REASONS FOR SENDING ME AWAY—RETURN TO BALTIMORE—CONTRAST BETWEEN +TOMMY AND THAT OF HIS COLORED COMPANION—TRIALS IN GARDINER’S SHIP +YARD—DESPERATE FIGHT—ITS CAUSES—CONFLICT BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK +LABOR—DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTRAGE—COLORED TESTIMONY NOTHING—CONDUCT OF +MASTER HUGH—SPIRIT OF SLAVERY IN BALTIMORE—MY CONDITION IMPROVES—NEW +ASSOCIATIONS—SLAVEHOLDER’S RIGHT TO TAKE HIS WAGES—HOW TO MAKE A +CONTENTED SLAVE. + + +Well! dear reader, I am not, as you may have already inferred, a loser +by the general upstir, described in the foregoing chapter. The little +domestic revolution, notwithstanding the sudden snub it got by the +treachery of somebody—I dare not say or think who—did not, after all, +end so disastrously, as when in the iron cage at Easton, I conceived it +would. The prospect, from that point, did look about as dark as any +that ever cast its gloom over the vision of the anxious, out-looking, +human spirit. “All is well that ends well.” My affectionate comrades, +Henry and John Harris, are still with Mr. William Freeland. Charles +Roberts and Henry Baily are safe at their homes. I have not, therefore, +any thing to regret on their account. Their masters have mercifully +forgiven them, probably on the ground suggested in the spirited little +speech of Mrs. Freeland, made to me just before leaving for the +jail—namely: that they had been allured into the wicked scheme of +making their escape, by me; and that, but for me, they would never have +dreamed of a thing so shocking! My friends had nothing to regret, +either; for while they were watched more closely on account of what had +happened, they were, doubtless, treated more kindly than before, and +got new assurances that they would be legally emancipated, some day, +provided their behavior should make them deserving, from that time +forward. Not a blow, as I learned, was struck any one of them. As for +Master William Freeland, good, unsuspecting soul, he did not believe +that we were intending to run away at all. Having given—as he +thought—no occasion to his boys to leave him, he could not think it +probable that they had entertained a design so grievous. This, however, +was not the view taken of the matter by “Mas’ Billy,” as we used to +call the soft spoken, but crafty and resolute Mr. William Hamilton. He +had no doubt that the crime had been meditated; and regarding me as the +instigator of it, he frankly told Master Thomas that he must remove me +from that neighborhood, or he would shoot me down. He would not have +one so dangerous as “Frederick” tampering with his slaves. William +Hamilton was not a man whose threat might be safely disregarded. I have +no doubt that he would have proved as good as his word, had the warning +given not been promptly taken. He was furious at the thought of such a +piece of high-handed _theft_, as we were about to perpetrate the +stealing of our own bodies and souls! The feasibility of the plan, too, +could the first steps have been taken, was marvelously plain. Besides, +this was a _new_ idea, this use of the bay. Slaves escaping, until now, +had taken to the woods; they had never dreamed of profaning and abusing +the waters of the noble Chesapeake, by making them the highway from +slavery to freedom. Here was a broad road of destruction to slavery, +which, before, had been looked upon as a wall of security by +slaveholders. But Master Billy could not get Mr. Freeland to see +matters precisely as he did; nor could he get Master Thomas so excited +as he was himself. The latter—I must say it to his credit—showed much +humane feeling in his part of the transaction, and atoned for much that +had been harsh, cruel and unreasonable in his former treatment of me +and others. His clemency was quite unusual and unlooked for. “Cousin +Tom” told me that while I was in jail, Master Thomas was very unhappy; +and that the night before his going up to release me, he had walked the +floor nearly all night, evincing great distress; that very tempting +offers had been made to him, by the Negro-traders, but he had rejected +them all, saying that _money could not tempt him to sell me to the far +south_. All this I can easily believe, for he seemed quite reluctant to +send me away, at all. He told me that he only consented to do so, +because of the very strong prejudice against me in the neighborhood, +and that he feared for my safety if I remained there. + +Thus, after three years spent in the country, roughing it in the field, +and experiencing all sorts of hardships, I was again permitted to +return to Baltimore, the very place, of all others, short of a free +state, where I most desired to live. The three years spent in the +country, had made some difference in me, and in the household of Master +Hugh. “Little Tommy” was no longer _little_ Tommy; and I was not the +slender lad who had left for the Eastern Shore just three years before. +The loving relations between me and Mas’ Tommy were broken up. He was +no longer dependent on me for protection, but felt himself a _man_, +with other and more suitable associates. In childhood, he scarcely +considered me inferior to himself certainly, as good as any other boy +with whom he played; but the time had come when his _friend_ must +become his _slave_. So we were cold, and we parted. It was a sad thing +to me, that, loving each other as we had done, we must now take +different roads. To him, a thousand avenues were open. Education had +made him acquainted with all the treasures of the world, and liberty +had flung open the gates thereunto; but I, who had attended him seven +years, and had watched over him with the care of a big brother, +fighting his battles in the street, and shielding him from harm, to an +extent which had induced his mother to say, “Oh! Tommy is always safe, +when he is with Freddy,” must be confined to a single condition. He +could grow, and become a MAN; I could grow, though I could _not_ become +a man, but must remain, all my life, a minor—a mere boy. Thomas Auld, +Junior, obtained a situation on board the brig “Tweed,” and went to +sea. I know not what has become of him; he certainly has my good wishes +for his welfare and prosperity. There were few persons to whom I was +more sincerely attached than to him, and there are few in the world I +would be more pleased to meet. + +Very soon after I went to Baltimore to live, Master Hugh succeeded in +getting me hired to Mr. William Gardiner, an extensive ship builder on +Fell’s Point. I was placed here to learn to calk, a trade of which I +already had some knowledge, gained while in Mr. Hugh Auld’s ship-yard, +when he was a master builder. Gardiner’s, however, proved a very +unfavorable place for the accomplishment of that object. Mr. Gardiner +was, that season, engaged in building two large man-of-war vessels, +professedly for the Mexican government. These vessels were to be +launched in the month of July, of that year, and, in failure thereof, +Mr. G. would forfeit a very considerable sum of money. So, when I +entered the ship-yard, all was hurry and driving. There were in the +yard about one hundred men; of these about seventy or eighty were +regular carpenters—privileged men. Speaking of my condition here I +wrote, years ago—and I have now no reason to vary the picture as +follows: + +There was no time to learn any thing. Every man had to do that which he +knew how to do. In entering the ship-yard, my orders from Mr. Gardiner +were, to do whatever the carpenters commanded me to do. This was +placing me at the beck and call of about seventy-five men. I was to +regard all these as masters. Their word was to be my law. My situation +was a most trying one. At times I needed a dozen pair of hands. I was +called a dozen ways in the space of a single minute. Three or four +voices would strike my ear at the same moment. It was—“Fred., come help +me to cant this timber here.” “Fred., come carry this timber +yonder.”—“Fred., bring that roller here.”—“Fred., go get a fresh can of +water.”—“Fred., come help saw off the end of this timber.”—“Fred., go +quick and get the crow bar.”—“Fred., hold on the end of this +fall.”—“Fred., go to the blacksmith’s shop, and get a new punch.”— + +“Hurra, Fred.! run and bring me a cold chisel.”—“I say, Fred., bear a +hand, and get up a fire as quick as lightning under that +steam-box.”—“Halloo, nigger! come, turn this grindstone.”—“Come, come! +move, move! and _bowse_ this timber forward.”—“I say, darkey, blast +your eyes, why don’t you heat up some pitch?”—“Halloo! halloo! halloo!” +(Three voices at the same time.) “Come here!—Go there!—Hold on where +you are! D—n you, if you move, I’ll knock your brains out!” + +Such, dear reader, is a glance at the school which was mine, during, +the first eight months of my stay at Baltimore. At the end of the eight +months, Master Hugh refused longer to allow me to remain with Mr. +Gardiner. The circumstance which led to his taking me away, was a +brutal outrage, committed upon me by the white apprentices of the +ship-yard. The fight was a desperate one, and I came out of it most +shockingly mangled. I was cut and bruised in sundry places, and my left +eye was nearly knocked out of its socket. The facts, leading to this +barbarous outrage upon me, illustrate a phase of slavery destined to +become an important element in the overthrow of the slave system, and I +may, therefore state them with some minuteness. That phase is this: +_the conflict of slavery with the interests of the white mechanics and +laborers of the south_. In the country, this conflict is not so +apparent; but, in cities, such as Baltimore, Richmond, New Orleans, +Mobile, &c., it is seen pretty clearly. The slaveholders, with a +craftiness peculiar to themselves, by encouraging the enmity of the +poor, laboring white man against the blacks, succeeds in making the +said white man almost as much a slave as the black slave himself. The +difference between the white slave, and the black slave, is this: the +latter belongs to _one_ slaveholder, and the former belongs to _all_ +the slaveholders, collectively. The white slave has taken from him, by +indirection, what the black slave has taken from him, directly, and +without ceremony. Both are plundered, and by the same plunderers. The +slave is robbed, by his master, of all his earnings, above what is +required for his bare physical necessities; and the white man is robbed +by the slave system, of the just results of his labor, because he is +flung into competition with a class of laborers who work without wages. +The competition, and its injurious consequences, will, one day, array +the nonslaveholding white people of the slave states, against the slave +system, and make them the most effective workers against the great +evil. At present, the slaveholders blind them to this competition, by +keeping alive their prejudice against the slaves, _as men_—not against +them _as slaves_. They appeal to their pride, often denouncing +emancipation, as tending to place the white man, on an equality with +Negroes, and, by this means, they succeed in drawing off the minds of +the poor whites from the real fact, that, by the rich slave-master, +they are already regarded as but a single remove from equality with the +slave. The impression is cunningly made, that slavery is the only power +that can prevent the laboring white man from falling to the level of +the slave’s poverty and degradation. To make this enmity deep and +broad, between the slave and the poor white man, the latter is allowed +to abuse and whip the former, without hinderance. But—as I have +suggested—this state of facts prevails _mostly_ in the country. In the +city of Baltimore, there are not unfrequent murmurs, that educating the +slaves to be mechanics may, in the end, give slavemasters power to +dispense with the services of the poor white man altogether. But, with +characteristic dread of offending the slaveholders, these poor, white +mechanics in Mr. Gardiner’s ship-yard—instead of applying the natural, +honest remedy for the apprehended evil, and objecting at once to work +there by the side of slaves—made a cowardly attack upon the free +colored mechanics, saying _they_ were eating the bread which should be +eaten by American freemen, and swearing that they would not work with +them. The feeling was, _really_, against having their labor brought +into competition with that of the colored people at all; but it was too +much to strike directly at the interest of the slaveholders; and, +therefore proving their servility and cowardice they dealt their blows +on the poor, colored freeman, and aimed to prevent _him_ from serving +himself, in the evening of life, with the trade with which he had +served his master, during the more vigorous portion of his days. Had +they succeeded in driving the black freemen out of the ship-yard, they +would have determined also upon the removal of the black slaves. The +feeling was very bitter toward all colored people in Baltimore, about +this time (1836), and they—free and slave suffered all manner of insult +and wrong. + +Until a very little before I went there, white and black ship +carpenters worked side by side, in the ship yards of Mr. Gardiner, Mr. +Duncan, Mr. Walter Price, and Mr. Robb. Nobody seemed to see any +impropriety in it. To outward seeming, all hands were well satisfied. +Some of the blacks were first rate workmen, and were given jobs +requiring highest skill. All at once, however, the white carpenters +knocked off, and swore that they would no longer work on the same stage +with free Negroes. Taking advantage of the heavy contract resting upon +Mr. Gardiner, to have the war vessels for Mexico ready to launch in +July, and of the difficulty of getting other hands at that season of +the year, they swore they would not strike another blow for him, unless +he would discharge his free colored workmen. + +Now, although this movement did not extend to me, _in form_, it did +reach me, _in fact_. The spirit which it awakened was one of malice and +bitterness, toward colored people _generally_, and I suffered with the +rest, and suffered severely. My fellow apprentices very soon began to +feel it to be degrading to work with me. They began to put on high +looks, and to talk contemptuously and maliciously of _“the Niggers;”_ +saying, that “they would take the country,” that “they ought to be +killed.” Encouraged by the cowardly workmen, who, knowing me to be a +slave, made no issue with Mr. Gardiner about my being there, these +young men did their utmost to make it impossible for me to stay. They +seldom called me to do any thing, without coupling the call with a +curse, and Edward North, the biggest in every thing, rascality +included, ventured to strike me, whereupon I picked him up, and threw +him into the dock. Whenever any of them struck me, I struck back again, +regardless of consequences. I could manage any of them _singly_, and, +while I could keep them from combining, I succeeded very well. In the +conflict which ended my stay at Mr. Gardiner’s, I was beset by four of +them at once—Ned North, Ned Hays, Bill Stewart, and Tom Humphreys. Two +of them were as large as myself, and they came near killing me, in +broad day light. The attack was made suddenly, and simultaneously. One +came in front, armed with a brick; there was one at each side, and one +behind, and they closed up around me. I was struck on all sides; and, +while I was attending to those in front, I received a blow on my head, +from behind, dealt with a heavy hand-spike. I was completely stunned by +the blow, and fell, heavily, on the ground, among the timbers. Taking +advantage of my fall, they rushed upon me, and began to pound me with +their fists. I let them lay on, for a while, after I came to myself, +with a view of gaining strength. They did me little damage, so far; +but, finally, getting tired of that sport, I gave a sudden surge, and, +despite their weight, I rose to my hands and knees. Just as I did this, +one of their number (I know not which) planted a blow with his boot in +my left eye, which, for a time, seemed to have burst my eyeball. When +they saw my eye completely closed, my face covered with blood, and I +staggering under the stunning blows they had given me, they left me. As +soon as I gathered sufficient strength, I picked up the hand-spike, +and, madly enough, attempted to pursue them; but here the carpenters +interfered, and compelled me to give up my frenzied pursuit. It was +impossible to stand against so many. + +Dear reader, you can hardly believe the statement, but it is true, and, +therefore, I write it down: not fewer than fifty white men stood by, +and saw this brutal and shameless outrage committed, and not a man of +them all interposed a single word of mercy. There were four against +one, and that one’s face was beaten and battered most horribly, and no +one said, “that is enough;” but some cried out, “Kill him—kill him—kill +the d—d nigger! knock his brains out—he struck a white person.” I +mention this inhuman outcry, to show the character of the men, and the +spirit of the times, at Gardiner’s ship yard, and, indeed, in Baltimore +generally, in 1836. As I look back to this period, I am almost amazed +that I was not murdered outright, in that ship yard, so murderous was +the spirit which prevailed there. On two occasions, while there, I came +near losing my life. I was driving bolts in the hold, through the +keelson, with Hays. In its course, the bolt bent. Hays cursed me, and +said that it was my blow which bent the bolt. I denied this, and +charged it upon him. In a fit of rage he seized an adze, and darted +toward me. I met him with a maul, and parried his blow, or I should +have then lost my life. A son of old Tom Lanman (the latter’s double +murder I have elsewhere charged upon him), in the spirit of his +miserable father, made an assault upon me, but the blow with his maul +missed me. After the united assault of North, Stewart, Hays and +Humphreys, finding that the carpenters were as bitter toward me as the +apprentices, and that the latter were probably set on by the former, I +found my only chances for life was in flight. I succeeded in getting +away, without an additional blow. To strike a white man, was death, by +Lynch law, in Gardiner’s ship yard; nor was there much of any other law +toward colored people, at that time, in any other part of Maryland. The +whole sentiment of Baltimore was murderous. + +After making my escape from the ship yard, I went straight home, and +related the story of the outrage to Master Hugh Auld; and it is due to +him to say, that his conduct—though he was not a religious man—was +every way more humane than that of his brother, Thomas, when I went to +the latter in a somewhat similar plight, from the hands of _“Brother +Edward Covey.”_ He listened attentively to my narration of the +circumstances leading to the ruffianly outrage, and gave many proofs of +his strong indignation at what was done. Hugh was a rough, but +manly-hearted fellow, and, at this time, his best nature showed itself. + +The heart of my once almost over-kind mistress, Sophia, was again +melted in pity toward me. My puffed-out eye, and my scarred and +blood-covered face, moved the dear lady to tears. She kindly drew a +chair by me, and with friendly, consoling words, she took water, and +washed the blood from my face. No mother’s hand could have been more +tender than hers. She bound up my head, and covered my wounded eye with +a lean piece of fresh beef. It was almost compensation for the +murderous assault, and my suffering, that it furnished and occasion for +the manifestation, once more, of the orignally(sic) characteristic +kindness of my mistress. Her affectionate heart was not yet dead, +though much hardened by time and by circumstances. + +As for Master Hugh’s part, as I have said, he was furious about it; and +he gave expression to his fury in the usual forms of speech in that +locality. He poured curses on the heads of the whole ship yard company, +and swore that he would have satisfaction for the outrage. His +indignation was really strong and healthy; but, unfortunately, it +resulted from the thought that his rights of property, in my person, +had not been respected, more than from any sense of the outrage +committed on me _as a man_. I inferred as much as this, from the fact +that he could, himself, beat and mangle when it suited him to do so. +Bent on having satisfaction, as he said, just as soon as I got a little +the better of my bruises, Master Hugh took me to Esquire Watson’s +office, on Bond street, Fell’s Point, with a view to procuring the +arrest of those who had assaulted me. He related the outrage to the +magistrate, as I had related it to him, and seemed to expect that a +warrant would, at once, be issued for the arrest of the lawless +ruffians. + +Mr. Watson heard it all, and instead of drawing up his warrant, he +inquired.— + +“Mr. Auld, who saw this assault of which you speak?” + +“It was done, sir, in the presence of a ship yard full of hands.” + +“Sir,” said Watson, “I am sorry, but I cannot move in this matter +except upon the oath of white witnesses.” + +“But here’s the boy; look at his head and face,” said the excited +Master Hugh; _“they_ show _what_ has been done.” + +But Watson insisted that he was not authorized to do anything, unless +_white_ witnesses of the transaction would come forward, and testify to +what had taken place. He could issue no warrant on my word, against +white persons; and, if I had been killed in the presence of a _thousand +blacks_, their testimony, combined would have been insufficient to +arrest a single murderer. Master Hugh, for once, was compelled to say, +that this state of things was _too bad;_ and he left the office of the +magistrate, disgusted. + +Of course, it was impossible to get any white man to testify against my +assailants. The carpenters saw what was done; but the actors were but +the agents of their malice, and only what the carpenters sanctioned. +They had cried, with one accord, _“Kill the nigger!” “Kill the +nigger!”_ Even those who may have pitied me, if any such were among +them, lacked the moral courage to come and volunteer their evidence. +The slightest manifestation of sympathy or justice toward a person of +color, was denounced as abolitionism; and the name of abolitionist, +subjected its bearer to frightful liabilities. “D—n _abolitionists,”_ +and _“Kill the niggers,”_ were the watch-words of the foul-mouthed +ruffians of those days. Nothing was done, and probably there would not +have been any thing done, had I been killed in the affray. The laws and +the morals of the Christian city of Baltimore, afforded no protection +to the sable denizens of that city. + +Master Hugh, on finding he could get no redress for the cruel wrong, +withdrew me from the employment of Mr. Gardiner, and took me into his +own family, Mrs. Auld kindly taking care of me, and dressing my wounds, +until they were healed, and I was ready to go again to work. + +While I was on the Eastern Shore, Master Hugh had met with reverses, +which overthrew his business; and he had given up ship building in his +own yard, on the City Block, and was now acting as foreman of Mr. +Walter Price. The best he could now do for me, was to take me into Mr. +Price’s yard, and afford me the facilities there, for completing the +trade which I had began to learn at Gardiner’s. Here I rapidly became +expert in the use of my calking tools; and, in the course of a single +year, I was able to command the highest wages paid to journeymen +calkers in Baltimore. + +The reader will observe that I was now of some pecuniary value to my +master. During the busy season, I was bringing six and seven dollars +per week. I have, sometimes, brought him as much as nine dollars a +week, for the wages were a dollar and a half per day. + +After learning to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own +contracts, and collected my own earnings; giving Master Hugh no trouble +in any part of the transactions to which I was a party. + +Here, then, were better days for the Eastern Shore _slave_. I was now +free from the vexatious assalts(sic) of the apprentices at Mr. +Gardiner’s; and free from the perils of plantation life, and once more +in a favorable condition to increase my little stock of education, +which had been at a dead stand since my removal from Baltimore. I had, +on the Eastern Shore, been only a teacher, when in company with other +slaves, but now there were colored persons who could instruct me. Many +of the young calkers could read, write and cipher. Some of them had +high notions about mental improvement; and the free ones, on Fell’s +Point, organized what they called the _“East Baltimore Mental +Improvement Society.”_ To this society, notwithstanding it was intended +that only free persons should attach themselves, I was admitted, and +was, several times, assigned a prominent part in its debates. I owe +much to the society of these young men. + +The reader already knows enough of the _ill_ effects of good treatment +on a slave, to anticipate what was now the case in my improved +condition. It was not long before I began to show signs of disquiet +with slavery, and to look around for means to get out of that condition +by the shortest route. I was living among _free men;_ and was, in all +respects, equal to them by nature and by attainments. _Why should I be +a slave?_ There was _no_ reason why I should be the thrall of any man. + +Besides, I was now getting—as I have said—a dollar and fifty cents per +day. I contracted for it, worked for it, earned it, collected it; it +was paid to me, and it was _rightfully_ my own; and yet, upon every +returning Saturday night, this money—my own hard earnings, every cent +of it—was demanded of me, and taken from me by Master Hugh. He did not +earn it; he had no hand in earning it; why, then, should he have it? I +owed him nothing. He had given me no schooling, and I had received from +him only my food and raiment; and for these, my services were supposed +to pay, from the first. The right to take my earnings, was the right of +the robber. He had the power to compel me to give him the fruits of my +labor, and this power was his only right in the case. I became more and +more dissatisfied with this state of things; and, in so becoming, I +only gave proof of the same human nature which every reader of this +chapter in my life—slaveholder, or nonslaveholder—is conscious of +possessing. + +To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is +necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as +possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect +no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be +able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must not +depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his +master’s will. The whole relationship must not only demonstrate, to his +mind, its necessity, but its absolute rightfulness. If there be one +crevice through which a single drop can fall, it will certainly rust +off the slave’s chain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. _My Escape from Slavery_ + + +CLOSING INCIDENTS OF “MY LIFE AS A SLAVE”—REASONS WHY FULL PARTICULARS +OF THE MANNER OF MY ESCAPE WILL NOT BE GIVEN—CRAFTINESS AND MALICE OF +SLAVEHOLDERS—SUSPICION OF AIDING A SLAVE’S ESCAPE ABOUT AS DANGEROUS AS +POSITIVE EVIDENCE—WANT OF WISDOM SHOWN IN PUBLISHING DETAILS OF THE +ESCAPE OF THE FUGITIVES—PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS REACH THE MASTERS, NOT THE +SLAVES—SLAVEHOLDERS STIMULATED TO GREATER WATCHFULNESS—MY +CONDITION—DISCONTENT—SUSPICIONS IMPLIED BY MASTER HUGH’S MANNER, WHEN +RECEIVING MY WAGES—HIS OCCASIONAL GENEROSITY!—DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY +OF ESCAPE—EVERY AVENUE GUARDED—PLAN TO OBTAIN MONEY—I AM ALLOWED TO +HIRE MY TIME—A GLEAM OF HOPE—ATTENDS CAMP-MEETING, WITHOUT +PERMISSION—ANGER OF MASTER HUGH THEREAT—THE RESULT—MY PLANS OF ESCAPE +ACCELERATED THERBY—THE DAY FOR MY DEPARTURE FIXED—HARASSED BY DOUBTS +AND FEARS—PAINFUL THOUGHTS OF SEPARATION FROM FRIENDS—THE ATTEMPT +MADE—ITS SUCCESS. + + +I will now make the kind reader acquainted with the closing incidents +of my “Life as a Slave,” having already trenched upon the limit +allotted to my “Life as a Freeman.” Before, however, proceeding with +this narration, it is, perhaps, proper that I should frankly state, in +advance, my intention to withhold a part of the(sic) connected with my +escape from slavery. There are reasons for this suppression, which I +trust the reader will deem altogether valid. It may be easily +conceived, that a full and complete statement of all facts pertaining +to the flight of a bondman, might implicate and embarrass some who may +have, wittingly or unwittingly, assisted him; and no one can wish me to +involve any man or woman who has befriended me, even in the liability +of embarrassment or trouble. + +Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the +rattlesnake, his malice retains its poison long; and, although it is +now nearly seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well to be +careful, in dealing with the circumstances relating to it. Were I to +give but a shadowy outline of the process adopted, with characteristic +aptitude, the crafty and malicious among the slaveholders might, +possibly, hit upon the track I pursued, and involve some one in +suspicion which, in a slave state, is about as bad as positive +evidence. The colored man, there, must not only shun evil, but shun the +very _appearance_ of evil, or be condemned as a criminal. A +slaveholding community has a peculiar taste for ferreting out offenses +against the slave system, justice there being more sensitive in its +regard for the peculiar rights of this system, than for any other +interest or institution. By stringing together a train of events and +circumstances, even if I were not very explicit, the means of escape +might be ascertained, and, possibly, those means be rendered, +thereafter, no longer available to the liberty-seeking children of +bondage I have left behind me. No antislavery man can wish me to do +anything favoring such results, and no slaveholding reader has any +right to expect the impartment of such information. + +While, therefore, it would afford me pleasure, and perhaps would +materially add to the interest of my story, were I at liberty to +gratify a curiosity which I know to exist in the minds of many, as to +the manner of my escape, I must deprive myself of this pleasure, and +the curious of the gratification, which such a statement of facts would +afford. I would allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations +that evil minded men might suggest, rather than exculpate myself by +explanation, and thereby run the hazards of closing the slightest +avenue by which a brother in suffering might clear himself of the +chains and fetters of slavery. + +The practice of publishing every new invention by which a slave is +known to have escaped from slavery, has neither wisdom nor necessity to +sustain it. Had not Henry Box Brown and his friends attracted +slaveholding attention to the manner of his escape, we might have had a +thousand _Box Browns_ per annum. The singularly original plan adopted +by William and Ellen Crafts, perished with the first using, because +every slaveholder in the land was apprised of it. The _salt water +slave_ who hung in the guards of a steamer, being washed three days and +three nights—like another Jonah—by the waves of the sea, has, by the +publicity given to the circumstance, set a spy on the guards of every +steamer departing from southern ports. + +I have never approved of the very public manner, in which some of our +western friends have conducted what _they_ call the _“Under-ground +Railroad,”_ but which, I think, by their open declarations, has been +made, most emphatically, the _“Upper_-ground Railroad.” Its stations +are far better known to the slaveholders than to the slaves. I honor +those good men and women for their noble daring, in willingly +subjecting themselves to persecution, by openly avowing their +participation in the escape of slaves; nevertheless, the good resulting +from such avowals, is of a very questionable character. It may kindle +an enthusiasm, very pleasant to inhale; but that is of no practical +benefit to themselves, nor to the slaves escaping. Nothing is more +evident, than that such disclosures are a positive evil to the slaves +remaining, and seeking to escape. In publishing such accounts, the +anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, _not the slave;_ he +stimulates the former to greater watchfulness, and adds to his +facilities for capturing his slave. We owe something to the slaves, +south of Mason and Dixon’s line, as well as to those north of it; and, +in discharging the duty of aiding the latter, on their way to freedom, +we should be careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder the +former, in making their escape from slavery. Such is my detestation of +slavery, that I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly +ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. He should be left +to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever +ready to snatch, from his infernal grasp, his trembling prey. In +pursuing his victim, let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let +shades of darkness, commensurate with his crime, shut every ray of +light from his pathway; and let him be made to feel, that, at every +step he takes, with the hellish purpose of reducing a brother man to +slavery, he is running the frightful risk of having his hot brains +dashed out by an invisible hand. + +But, enough of this. I will now proceed to the statement of those +facts, connected with my escape, for which I am alone responsible, and +for which no one can be made to suffer but myself. + +My condition in the year (1838) of my escape, was, comparatively, a +free and easy one, so far, at least, as the wants of the physical man +were concerned; but the reader will bear in mind, that my troubles from +the beginning, have been less physical than mental, and he will thus be +prepared to find, after what is narrated in the previous chapters, that +slave life was adding nothing to its charms for me, as I grew older, +and became better acquainted with it. The practice, from week to week, +of openly robbing me of all my earnings, kept the nature and character +of slavery constantly before me. I could be robbed by _indirection_, +but this was _too_ open and barefaced to be endured. I could see no +reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of my +honest toil into the purse of any man. The thought itself vexed me, and +the manner in which Master Hugh received my wages, vexed me more than +the original wrong. Carefully counting the money and rolling it out, +dollar by dollar, he would look me in the face, as if he would search +my heart as well as my pocket, and reproachfully ask me, “_Is that +all_?”—implying that I had, perhaps, kept back part of my wages; or, if +not so, the demand was made, possibly, to make me feel, that, after +all, I was an “unprofitable servant.” Draining me of the last cent of +my hard earnings, he would, however, occasionally—when I brought home +an extra large sum—dole out to me a sixpence or a shilling, with a +view, perhaps, of kindling up my gratitude; but this practice had the +opposite effect—it was an admission of _my right to the whole sum_. The +fact, that he gave me any part of my wages, was proof that he suspected +that I had a right _to the whole of them_. I always felt uncomfortable, +after having received anything in this way, for I feared that the +giving me a few cents, might, possibly, ease his conscience, and make +him feel himself a pretty honorable robber, after all! + +Held to a strict account, and kept under a close watch—the old +suspicion of my running away not having been entirely removed—escape +from slavery, even in Baltimore, was very difficult. The railroad from +Baltimore to Philadelphia was under regulations so stringent, that even +_free_ colored travelers were almost excluded. They must have _free_ +papers; they must be measured and carefully examined, before they were +allowed to enter the cars; they only went in the day time, even when so +examined. The steamboats were under regulations equally stringent. All +the great turnpikes, leading northward, were beset with kidnappers, a +class of men who watched the newspapers for advertisements for runaway +slaves, making their living by the accursed reward of slave hunting. + +My discontent grew upon me, and I was on the look-out for means of +escape. With money, I could easily have managed the matter, and, +therefore, I hit upon the plan of soliciting the privilege of hiring my +time. It is quite common, in Baltimore, to allow slaves this privilege, +and it is the practice, also, in New Orleans. A slave who is considered +trustworthy, can, by paying his master a definite sum regularly, at the +end of each week, dispose of his time as he likes. It so happened that +I was not in very good odor, and I was far from being a trustworthy +slave. Nevertheless, I watched my opportunity when Master Thomas came +to Baltimore (for I was still his property, Hugh only acted as his +agent) in the spring of 1838, to purchase his spring supply of goods, +and applied to him, directly, for the much-coveted privilege of hiring +my time. This request Master Thomas unhesitatingly refused to grant; +and he charged me, with some sternness, with inventing this stratagem +to make my escape. He told me, “I could go _nowhere_ but he could catch +me; and, in the event of my running away, I might be assured he should +spare no pains in his efforts to recapture me.” He recounted, with a +good deal of eloquence, the many kind offices he had done me, and +exhorted me to be contented and obedient. “Lay out no plans for the +future,” said he. “If you behave yourself properly, I will take care of +you.” Now, kind and considerate as this offer was, it failed to soothe +me into repose. In spite of Master Thomas, and, I may say, in spite of +myself, also, I continued to think, and worse still, to think almost +exclusively about the injustice and wickedness of slavery. No effort of +mine or of his could silence this trouble-giving thought, or change my +purpose to run away. + +About two months after applying to Master Thomas for the privilege of +hiring my time, I applied to Master Hugh for the same liberty, +supposing him to be unacquainted with the fact that I had made a +similar application to Master Thomas, and had been refused. My boldness +in making this request, fairly astounded him at the first. He gazed at +me in amazement. But I had many good reasons for pressing the matter; +and, after listening to them awhile, he did not absolutely refuse, but +told me he would think of it. Here, then, was a gleam of hope. Once +master of my own time, I felt sure that I could make, over and above my +obligation to him, a dollar or two every week. Some slaves have made +enough, in this way, to purchase their freedom. It is a sharp spur to +industry; and some of the most enterprising colored men in Baltimore +hire themselves in this way. After mature reflection—as I must suppose +it was Master Hugh granted me the privilege in question, on the +following terms: I was to be allowed all my time; to make all bargains +for work; to find my own employment, and to collect my own wages; and, +in return for this liberty, I was required, or obliged, to pay him +three dollars at the end of each week, and to board and clothe myself, +and buy my own calking tools. A failure in any of these particulars +would put an end to my privilege. This was a hard bargain. The wear and +tear of clothing, the losing and breaking of tools, and the expense of +board, made it necessary for me to earn at least six dollars per week, +to keep even with the world. All who are acquainted with calking, know +how uncertain and irregular that employment is. It can be done to +advantage only in dry weather, for it is useless to put wet oakum into +a seam. Rain or shine, however, work or no work, at the end of each +week the money must be forthcoming. + +Master Hugh seemed to be very much pleased, for a time, with this +arrangement; and well he might be, for it was decidedly in his favor. +It relieved him of all anxiety concerning me. His money was sure. He +had armed my love of liberty with a lash and a driver, far more +efficient than any I had before known; and, while he derived all the +benefits of slaveholding by the arrangement, without its evils, I +endured all the evils of being a slave, and yet suffered all the care +and anxiety of a responsible freeman. “Nevertheless,” thought I, “it is +a valuable privilege another step in my career toward freedom.” It was +something even to be permitted to stagger under the disadvantages of +liberty, and I was determined to hold on to the newly gained footing, +by all proper industry. I was ready to work by night as well as by day; +and being in the enjoyment of excellent health, I was able not only to +meet my current expenses, but also to lay by a small sum at the end of +each week. All went on thus, from the month of May till August; +then—for reasons which will become apparent as I proceed—my much valued +liberty was wrested from me. + +During the week previous to this (to me) calamitous event, I had made +arrangements with a few young friends, to accompany them, on Saturday +night, to a camp-meeting, held about twelve miles from Baltimore. On +the evening of our intended start for the camp-ground, something +occurred in the ship yard where I was at work, which detained me +unusually late, and compelled me either to disappoint my young friends, +or to neglect carrying my weekly dues to Master Hugh. Knowing that I +had the money, and could hand it to him on another day, I decided to go +to camp-meeting, and to pay him the three dollars, for the past week, +on my return. Once on the camp-ground, I was induced to remain one day +longer than I had intended, when I left home. But, as soon as I +returned, I went straight to his house on Fell street, to hand him his +(my) money. Unhappily, the fatal mistake had been committed. I found +him exceedingly angry. He exhibited all the signs of apprehension and +wrath, which a slaveholder may be surmised to exhibit on the supposed +escape of a favorite slave. “You rascal! I have a great mind to give +you a severe whipping. How dare you go out of the city without first +asking and obtaining my permission?” “Sir,” said I, “I hired my time +and paid you the price you asked for it. I did not know that it was any +part of the bargain that I should ask you when or where I should go.” + +“You did not know, you rascal! You are bound to show yourself here +every Saturday night.” After reflecting, a few moments, he became +somewhat cooled down; but, evidently greatly troubled, he said, “Now, +you scoundrel! you have done for yourself; you shall hire your time no +longer. The next thing I shall hear of, will be your running away. +Bring home your tools and your clothes, at once. I’ll teach you how to +go off in this way.” + +Thus ended my partial freedom. I could hire my time no longer; and I +obeyed my master’s orders at once. The little taste of liberty which I +had had—although as the reader will have seen, it was far from being +unalloyed—by no means enhanced my contentment with slavery. Punished +thus by Master Hugh, it was now my turn to punish him. “Since,” thought +I, “you _will_ make a slave of me, I will await your orders in all +things;” and, instead of going to look for work on Monday morning, as I +had formerly done, I remained at home during the entire week, without +the performance of a single stroke of work. Saturday night came, and he +called upon me, as usual, for my wages. I, of course, told him I had +done no work, and had no wages. Here we were at the point of coming to +blows. His wrath had been accumulating during the whole week; for he +evidently saw that I was making no effort to get work, but was most +aggravatingly awaiting his orders, in all things. As I look back to +this behavior of mine, I scarcely know what possessed me, thus to +trifle with those who had such unlimited power to bless or to blast me. +Master Hugh raved and swore his determination to _“get hold of me;”_ +but, wisely for _him_, and happily for _me_, his wrath only employed +those very harmless, impalpable missiles, which roll from a limber +tongue. In my desperation, I had fully made up my mind to measure +strength with Master Hugh, in case he should undertake to execute his +threats. I am glad there was no necessity for this; for resistance to +him could not have ended so happily for me, as it did in the case of +Covey. He was not a man to be safely resisted by a slave; and I freely +own, that in my conduct toward him, in this instance, there was more +folly than wisdom. Master Hugh closed his reproofs, by telling me that, +hereafter, I need give myself no uneasiness about getting work; that he +“would, himself, see to getting work for me, and enough of it, at +that.” This threat I confess had some terror in it; and, on thinking +the matter over, during the Sunday, I resolved, not only to save him +the trouble of getting me work, but that, upon the third day of +September, I would attempt to make my escape from slavery. The refusal +to allow me to hire my time, therefore, hastened the period of flight. +I had three weeks, now, in which to prepare for my journey. + +Once resolved, I felt a certain degree of repose, and on Monday, +instead of waiting for Master Hugh to seek employment for me, I was up +by break of day, and off to the ship yard of Mr. Butler, on the City +Block, near the draw-bridge. I was a favorite with Mr. B., and, young +as I was, I had served as his foreman on the float stage, at calking. +Of course, I easily obtained work, and, at the end of the week—which by +the way was exceedingly fine I brought Master Hugh nearly nine dollars. +The effect of this mark of returning good sense, on my part, was +excellent. He was very much pleased; he took the money, commended me, +and told me I might have done the same thing the week before. It is a +blessed thing that the tyrant may not always know the thoughts and +purposes of his victim. Master Hugh little knew what my plans were. The +going to camp-meeting without asking his permission—the insolent +answers made to his reproaches—the sulky deportment the week after +being deprived of the privilege of hiring my time—had awakened in him +the suspicion that I might be cherishing disloyal purposes. My object, +therefore, in working steadily, was to remove suspicion, and in this I +succeeded admirably. He probably thought I was never better satisfied +with my condition, than at the very time I was planning my escape. The +second week passed, and again I carried him my full week’s wages—_nine +dollars;_ and so well pleased was he, that he gave me TWENTY-FIVE +CENTS! and “bade me make good use of it!” I told him I would, for one +of the uses to which I meant to put it, was to pay my fare on the +underground railroad. + +Things without went on as usual; but I was passing through the same +internal excitement and anxiety which I had experienced two years and a +half before. The failure, in that instance, was not calculated to +increase my confidence in the success of this, my second attempt; and I +knew that a second failure could not leave me where my first did—I must +either get to the _far north_, or be sent to the _far south_. Besides +the exercise of mind from this state of facts, I had the painful +sensation of being about to separate from a circle of honest and warm +hearted friends, in Baltimore. The thought of such a separation, where +the hope of ever meeting again is excluded, and where there can be no +correspondence, is very painful. It is my opinion, that thousands would +escape from slavery who now remain there, but for the strong cords of +affection that bind them to their families, relatives and friends. The +daughter is hindered from escaping, by the love she bears her mother, +and the father, by the love he bears his children; and so, to the end +of the chapter. I had no relations in Baltimore, and I saw no +probability of ever living in the neighborhood of sisters and brothers; +but the thought of leaving my friends, was among the strongest +obstacles to my running away. The last two days of the week—Friday and +Saturday—were spent mostly in collecting my things together, for my +journey. Having worked four days that week, for my master, I handed him +six dollars, on Saturday night. I seldom spent my Sundays at home; and, +for fear that something might be discovered in my conduct, I kept up my +custom, and absented myself all day. On Monday, the third day of +September, 1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to +the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence +from childhood. + +How I got away—in what direction I traveled—whether by land or by +water; whether with or without assistance—must, for reasons already +mentioned, remain unexplained. + + + + +LIFE as a FREEMAN + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. _Liberty Attained_ + + +TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM—A WANDERER IN NEW YORK—FEELINGS ON +REACHING THAT CITY—AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE MET—UNFAVORABLE +IMPRESSIONS—LONELINESS AND INSECURITY—APOLOGY FOR SLAVES WHO RETURN TO +THEIR MASTERS—COMPELLED TO TELL MY CONDITION—SUCCORED BY A SAILOR—DAVID +RUGGLES—THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD—MARRIAGE—BAGGAGE TAKEN FROM +ME—KINDNESS OF NATHAN JOHNSON—MY CHANGE OF NAME—DARK NOTIONS OF +NORTHERN CIVILIZATION—THE CONTRAST—COLORED PEOPLE IN NEW BEDFORD—AN +INCIDENT ILLUSTRATING THEIR SPIRIT—A COMMON LABORER—DENIED WORK AT MY +TRADE—THE FIRST WINTER AT THE NORTH—REPULSE AT THE DOORS OF THE +CHURCH—SANCTIFIED HATE—THE _Liberator_ AND ITS EDITOR. + + +There is no necessity for any extended notice of the incidents of this +part of my life. There is nothing very striking or peculiar about my +career as a freeman, when viewed apart from my life as a slave. The +relation subsisting between my early experience and that which I am now +about to narrate, is, perhaps, my best apology for adding another +chapter to this book. + +Disappearing from the kind reader, in a flying cloud or balloon (pardon +the figure), driven by the wind, and knowing not where I should +land—whether in slavery or in freedom—it is proper that I should +remove, at once, all anxiety, by frankly making known where I alighted. +The flight was a bold and perilous one; but here I am, in the great +city of New York, safe and sound, without loss of blood or bone. In +less than a week after leaving Baltimore, I was walking amid the +hurrying throng, and gazing upon the dazzling wonders of Broadway. The +dreams of my childhood and the purposes of my manhood were now +fulfilled. A free state around me, and a free earth under my feet! What +a moment was this to me! A whole year was pressed into a single day. A +new world burst upon my agitated vision. I have often been asked, by +kind friends to whom I have told my story, how I felt when first I +found myself beyond the limits of slavery; and I must say here, as I +have often said to them, there is scarcely anything about which I could +not give a more satisfactory answer. It was a moment of joyous +excitement, which no words can describe. In a letter to a friend, +written soon after reaching New York. I said I felt as one might be +supposed to feel, on escaping from a den of hungry lions. But, in a +moment like that, sensations are too intense and too rapid for words. +Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be described, but joy +and gladness, like the rainbow of promise, defy alike the pen and +pencil. + +For ten or fifteen years I had been dragging a heavy chain, with a huge +block attached to it, cumbering my every motion. I had felt myself +doomed to drag this chain and this block through life. All efforts, +before, to separate myself from the hateful encumbrance, had only +seemed to rivet me the more firmly to it. Baffled and discouraged at +times, I had asked myself the question, May not this, after all, be +God’s work? May He not, for wise ends, have doomed me to this lot? A +contest had been going on in my mind for years, between the clear +consciousness of right and the plausible errors of superstition; +between the wisdom of manly courage, and the foolish weakness of +timidity. The contest was now ended; the chain was severed; God and +right stood vindicated. I was A FREEMAN, and the voice of peace and joy +thrilled my heart. + +Free and joyous, however, as I was, joy was not the only sensation I +experienced. It was like the quick blaze, beautiful at the first, but +which subsiding, leaves the building charred and desolate. I was soon +taught that I was still in an enemy’s land. A sense of loneliness and +insecurity oppressed me sadly. I had been but a few hours in New York, +before I was met in the streets by a fugitive slave, well known to me, +and the information I got from him respecting New York, did nothing to +lessen my apprehension of danger. The fugitive in question was +“Allender’s Jake,” in Baltimore; but, said he, I am “WILLIAM DIXON,” in +New York! I knew Jake well, and knew when Tolly Allender and Mr. Price +(for the latter employed Master Hugh as his foreman, in his shipyard on +Fell’s Point) made an attempt to recapture Jake, and failed. Jake told +me all about his circumstances, and how narrowly he escaped being taken +back to slavery; that the city was now full of southerners, returning +from the springs; that the black people in New York were not to be +trusted; that there were hired men on the lookout for fugitives from +slavery, and who, for a few dollars, would betray me into the hands of +the slave-catchers; that I must trust no man with my secret; that I +must not think of going either on the wharves to work, or to a +boarding-house to board; and, worse still, this same Jake told me it +was not in his power to help me. He seemed, even while cautioning me, +to be fearing lest, after all, I might be a party to a second attempt +to recapture him. Under the inspiration of this thought, I must suppose +it was, he gave signs of a wish to get rid of me, and soon left me his +whitewash brush in hand—as he said, for his work. He was soon lost to +sight among the throng, and I was alone again, an easy prey to the +kidnappers, if any should happen to be on my track. + +New York, seventeen years ago, was less a place of safety for a runaway +slave than now, and all know how unsafe it now is, under the new +fugitive slave bill. I was much troubled. I had very little money +enough to buy me a few loaves of bread, but not enough to pay board, +outside a lumber yard. I saw the wisdom of keeping away from the ship +yards, for if Master Hugh pursued me, he would naturally expect to find +me looking for work among the calkers. For a time, every door seemed +closed against me. A sense of my loneliness and helplessness crept over +me, and covered me with something bordering on despair. In the midst of +thousands of my fellowmen, and yet a perfect stranger! In the midst of +human brothers, and yet more fearful of them than of hungry wolves! I +was without home, without friends, without work, without money, and +without any definite knowledge of which way to go, or where to look for +succor. + +Some apology can easily be made for the few slaves who have, after +making good their escape, turned back to slavery, preferring the actual +rule of their masters, to the life of loneliness, apprehension, hunger, +and anxiety, which meets them on their first arrival in a free state. +It is difficult for a freeman to enter into the feelings of such +fugitives. He cannot see things in the same light with the slave, +because he does not, and cannot, look from the same point from which +the slave does. “Why do you tremble,” he says to the slave “you are in +a free state;” but the difficulty is, in realizing that he is in a free +state, the slave might reply. A freeman cannot understand why the +slave-master’s shadow is bigger, to the slave, than the might and +majesty of a free state; but when he reflects that the slave knows more +about the slavery of his master than he does of the might and majesty +of the free state, he has the explanation. The slave has been all his +life learning the power of his master—being trained to dread his +approach—and only a few hours learning the power of the state. The +master is to him a stern and flinty reality, but the state is little +more than a dream. He has been accustomed to regard every white man as +the friend of his master, and every colored man as more or less under +the control of his master’s friends—the white people. It takes stout +nerves to stand up, in such circumstances. A man, homeless, +shelterless, breadless, friendless, and moneyless, is not in a +condition to assume a very proud or joyous tone; and in just this +condition was I, while wandering about the streets of New York city and +lodging, at least one night, among the barrels on one of its wharves. I +was not only free from slavery, but I was free from home, as well. The +reader will easily see that I had something more than the simple fact +of being free to think of, in this extremity. + +I kept my secret as long as I could, and at last was forced to go in +search of an honest man—a man sufficiently _human_ not to betray me +into the hands of slave-catchers. I was not a bad reader of the human +face, nor long in selecting the right man, when once compelled to +disclose the facts of my condition to some one. + +I found my man in the person of one who said his name was Stewart. He +was a sailor, warm-hearted and generous, and he listened to my story +with a brother’s interest. I told him I was running for my freedom—knew +not where to go—money almost gone—was hungry—thought it unsafe to go +the shipyards for work, and needed a friend. Stewart promptly put me in +the way of getting out of my trouble. He took me to his house, and went +in search of the late David Ruggles, who was then the secretary of the +New York Vigilance Committee, and a very active man in all anti-slavery +works. Once in the hands of Mr. Ruggles, I was comparatively safe. I +was hidden with Mr. Ruggles several days. In the meantime, my intended +wife, Anna, came on from Baltimore—to whom I had written, informing her +of my safe arrival at New York—and, in the presence of Mrs. Mitchell +and Mr. Ruggles, we were married, by Rev. James W. C. Pennington. + +Mr. Ruggles 7 was the first officer on the under-ground railroad with +whom I met after reaching the north, and, indeed, the first of whom I +ever heard anything. Learning that I was a calker by trade, he promptly +decided that New Bedford was the proper place to send me. “Many ships,” +said he, “are there fitted out for the whaling business, and you may +there find work at your trade, and make a good living.” Thus, in one +fortnight after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, +regularly entered upon the exercise of the rights, responsibilities, +and duties of a freeman. + +I may mention a little circumstance which annoyed me on reaching New +Bedford. I had not a cent of money, and lacked two dollars toward +paying our fare from Newport, and our baggage not very costly—was taken +by the stage driver, and held until I could raise the money to redeem +it. This difficulty was soon surmounted. Mr. Nathan Johnson, to whom we +had a line from Mr. Ruggles, not only received us kindly and +hospitably, but, on being informed about our baggage, promptly loaned +me two dollars with which to redeem my little property. I shall ever be +deeply grateful, both to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson, for the lively +interest they were pleased to take in me, in this hour of my extremest +need. They not only gave myself and wife bread and shelter, but taught +us how to begin to secure those benefits for ourselves. Long may they +live, and may blessings attend them in this life and in that which is +to come! + +Once initiated into the new life of freedom, and assured by Mr. Johnson +that New Bedford was a safe place, the comparatively unimportant +matter, as to what should be my name, came up for considertion(sic). It +was necessary to have a name in my new relations. The name given me by +my beloved mother was no less pretentious than “Frederick Augustus +Washington Bailey.” I had, however, before leaving Maryland, dispensed +with the _Augustus Washington_, and retained the name _Frederick +Bailey_. Between Baltimore and New Bedford, however, I had several +different names, the better to avoid being overhauled by the hunters, +which I had good reason to believe would be put on my track. Among +honest men an honest man may well be content with one name, and to +acknowledge it at all times and in all places; but toward fugitives, +Americans are not honest. When I arrived at New Bedford, my name was +Johnson; and finding that the Johnson family in New Bedford were +already quite numerous—sufficiently so to produce some confusion in +attempts to distinguish one from another—there was the more reason for +making another change in my name. In fact, “Johnson” had been assumed +by nearly every slave who had arrived in New Bedford from Maryland, and +this, much to the annoyance of the original “Johnsons” (of whom there +were many) in that place. Mine host, unwilling to have another of his +own name added to the community in this unauthorized way, after I spent +a night and a day at his house, gave me my present name. He had been +reading the “Lady of the Lake,” and was pleased to regard me as a +suitable person to wear this, one of Scotland’s many famous names. +Considering the noble hospitality and manly character of Nathan +Johnson, I have felt that he, better than I, illustrated the virtues of +the great Scottish chief. Sure I am, that had any slave-catcher entered +his domicile, with a view to molest any one of his household, he would +have shown himself like him of the “stalwart hand.” + +The reader will be amused at my ignorance, when I tell the notions I +had of the state of northern wealth, enterprise, and civilization. Of +wealth and refinement, I supposed the north had none. My _Columbian +Orator_, which was almost my only book, had not done much to enlighten +me concerning northern society. The impressions I had received were all +wide of the truth. New Bedford, especially, took me by surprise, in the +solid wealth and grandeur there exhibited. I had formed my notions +respecting the social condition of the free states, by what I had seen +and known of free, white, non-slaveholding people in the slave states. +Regarding slavery as the basis of wealth, I fancied that no people +could become very wealthy without slavery. A free white man, holding no +slaves, in the country, I had known to be the most ignorant and +poverty-stricken of men, and the laughing stock even of slaves +themselves—called generally by them, in derision, _“poor white trash_.” +Like the non-slaveholders at the south, in holding no slaves, I suppose +the northern people like them, also, in poverty and degradation. Judge, +then, of my amazement and joy, when I found—as I did find—the very +laboring population of New Bedford living in better houses, more +elegantly furnished—surrounded by more comfort and refinement—than a +majority of the slaveholders on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. There +was my friend, Mr. Johnson, himself a colored man (who at the south +would have been regarded as a proper marketable commodity), who lived +in a better house—dined at a richer board—was the owner of more +books—the reader of more newspapers—was more conversant with the +political and social condition of this nation and the world—than +nine-tenths of all the slaveholders of Talbot county, Maryland. Yet Mr. +Johnson was a working man, and his hands were hardened by honest toil. +Here, then, was something for observation and study. Whence the +difference? The explanation was soon furnished, in the superiority of +mind over simple brute force. Many pages might be given to the +contrast, and in explanation of its causes. But an incident or two will +suffice to show the reader as to how the mystery gradually vanished +before me. + +My first afternoon, on reaching New Bedford, was spent in visiting the +wharves and viewing the shipping. The sight of the broad brim and the +plain, Quaker dress, which met me at every turn, greatly increased my +sense of freedom and security. “I am among the Quakers,” thought I, +“and am safe.” Lying at the wharves and riding in the stream, were +full-rigged ships of finest model, ready to start on whaling voyages. +Upon the right and the left, I was walled in by large granite-fronted +warehouses, crowded with the good things of this world. On the wharves, +I saw industry without bustle, labor without noise, and heavy toil +without the whip. There was no loud singing, as in southern ports, +where ships are loading or unloading—no loud cursing or swearing—but +everything went on as smoothly as the works of a well adjusted machine. +How different was all this from the nosily fierce and clumsily absurd +manner of labor-life in Baltimore and St. Michael’s! One of the first +incidents which illustrated the superior mental character of northern +labor over that of the south, was the manner of unloading a ship’s +cargo of oil. In a southern port, twenty or thirty hands would have +been employed to do what five or six did here, with the aid of a single +ox attached to the end of a fall. Main strength, unassisted by skill, +is slavery’s method of labor. An old ox, worth eighty dollars, was +doing, in New Bedford, what would have required fifteen thousand +dollars worth of human bones and muscles to have performed in a +southern port. I found that everything was done here with a scrupulous +regard to economy, both in regard to men and things, time and strength. +The maid servant, instead of spending at least a tenth part of her time +in bringing and carrying water, as in Baltimore, had the pump at her +elbow. The wood was dry, and snugly piled away for winter. Woodhouses, +in-door pumps, sinks, drains, self-shutting gates, washing machines, +pounding barrels, were all new things, and told me that I was among a +thoughtful and sensible people. To the ship-repairing dock I went, and +saw the same wise prudence. The carpenters struck where they aimed, and +the calkers wasted no blows in idle flourishes of the mallet. I learned +that men went from New Bedford to Baltimore, and bought old ships, and +brought them here to repair, and made them better and more valuable +than they ever were before. Men talked here of going whaling on a four +_years’_ voyage with more coolness than sailors where I came from +talked of going a four _months’_ voyage. + +I now find that I could have landed in no part of the United States, +where I should have found a more striking and gratifying contrast to +the condition of the free people of color in Baltimore, than I found +here in New Bedford. No colored man is really free in a slaveholding +state. He wears the badge of bondage while nominally free, and is often +subjected to hardships to which the slave is a stranger; but here in +New Bedford, it was my good fortune to see a pretty near approach to +freedom on the part of the colored people. I was taken all aback when +Mr. Johnson—who lost no time in making me acquainted with the fact—told +me that there was nothing in the constitution of Massachusetts to +prevent a colored man from holding any office in the state. There, in +New Bedford, the black man’s children—although anti-slavery was then +far from popular—went to school side by side with the white children, +and apparently without objection from any quarter. To make me at home, +Mr. Johnson assured me that no slaveholder could take a slave from New +Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their lives, +before such an outrage could be perpetrated. The colored people +themselves were of the best metal, and would fight for liberty to the +death. + +Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, I was told the following story, +which was said to illustrate the spirit of the colored people in that +goodly town: A colored man and a fugitive slave happened to have a +little quarrel, and the former was heard to threaten the latter with +informing his master of his whereabouts. As soon as this threat became +known, a notice was read from the desk of what was then the only +colored church in the place, stating that business of importance was to +be then and there transacted. Special measures had been taken to secure +the attendance of the would-be Judas, and had proved successful. +Accordingly, at the hour appointed, the people came, and the betrayer +also. All the usual formalities of public meetings were scrupulously +gone through, even to the offering prayer for Divine direction in the +duties of the occasion. The president himself performed this part of +the ceremony, and I was told that he was unusually fervent. Yet, at the +close of his prayer, the old man (one of the numerous family of +Johnsons) rose from his knees, deliberately surveyed his audience, and +then said, in a tone of solemn resolution, _“Well, friends, we have got +him here, and I would now recommend that you young men should just take +him outside the door and kill him.”_ With this, a large body of the +congregation, who well understood the business they had come there to +transact, made a rush at the villain, and doubtless would have killed +him, had he not availed himself of an open sash, and made good his +escape. He has never shown his head in New Bedford since that time. +This little incident is perfectly characteristic of the spirit of the +colored people in New Bedford. A slave could not be taken from that +town seventeen years ago, any more than he could be so taken away now. +The reason is, that the colored people in that city are educated up to +the point of fighting for their freedom, as well as speaking for it. + +Once assured of my safety in New Bedford, I put on the habiliments of a +common laborer, and went on the wharf in search of work. I had no +notion of living on the honest and generous sympathy of my colored +brother, Johnson, or that of the abolitionists. My cry was like that of +Hood’s laborer, “Oh! only give me work.” Happily for me, I was not long +in searching. I found employment, the third day after my arrival in New +Bedford, in stowing a sloop with a load of oil for the New York market. +It was new, hard, and dirty work, even for a calker, but I went at it +with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was now my own master—a +tremendous fact—and the rapturous excitement with which I seized the +job, may not easily be understood, except by some one with an +experience like mine. The thoughts—“I can work! I can work for a +living; I am not afraid of work; I have no Master Hugh to rob me of my +earnings”—placed me in a state of independence, beyond seeking +friendship or support of any man. That day’s work I considered the real +starting point of something like a new existence. Having finished this +job and got my pay for the same, I went next in pursuit of a job at +calking. It so happened that Mr. Rodney French, late mayor of the city +of New Bedford, had a ship fitting out for sea, and to which there was +a large job of calking and coppering to be done. I applied to that +noblehearted man for employment, and he promptly told me to go to work; +but going on the float-stage for the purpose, I was informed that every +white man would leave the ship if I struck a blow upon her. “Well, +well,” thought I, “this is a hardship, but yet not a very serious one +for me.” The difference between the wages of a calker and that of a +common day laborer, was an hundred per cent in favor of the former; but +then I was free, and free to work, though not at my trade. I now +prepared myself to do anything which came to hand in the way of turning +an honest penny; sawed wood—dug cellars—shoveled coal—swept chimneys +with Uncle Lucas Debuty—rolled oil casks on the wharves—helped to load +and unload vessels—worked in Ricketson’s candle works—in Richmond’s +brass foundery, and elsewhere; and thus supported myself and family for +three years. + +The first winter was unusually severe, in consequence of the high +prices of food; but even during that winter we probably suffered less +than many who had been free all their lives. During the hardest of the +winter, I hired out for nine dolars(sic) a month; and out of this +rented two rooms for nine dollars per quarter, and supplied my wife—who +was unable to work—with food and some necessary articles of furniture. +We were closely pinched to bring our wants within our means; but the +jail stood over the way, and I had a wholesome dread of the +consequences of running in debt. This winter past, and I was up with +the times—got plenty of work—got well paid for it—and felt that I had +not done a foolish thing to leave Master Hugh and Master Thomas. I was +now living in a new world, and was wide awake to its advantages. I +early began to attend the meetings of the colored people of New +Bedford, and to take part in them. I was somewhat amazed to see colored +men drawing up resolutions and offering them for consideration. Several +colored young men of New Bedford, at that period, gave promise of great +usefulness. They were educated, and possessed what seemed to me, at the +time, very superior talents. Some of them have been cut down by death, +and others have removed to different parts of the world, and some +remain there now, and justify, in their present activities, my early +impressions of them. + +Among my first concerns on reaching New Bedford, was to become united +with the church, for I had never given up, in reality, my religious +faith. I had become lukewarm and in a backslidden state, but I was +still convinced that it was my duty to join the Methodist church. I was +not then aware of the powerful influence of that religious body in +favor of the enslavement of my race, nor did I see how the northern +churches could be responsible for the conduct of southern churches; +neither did I fully understand how it could be my duty to remain +separate from the church, because bad men were connected with it. The +slaveholding church, with its Coveys, Weedens, Aulds, and Hopkins, I +could see through at once, but I could not see how Elm Street church, +in New Bedford, could be regarded as sanctioning the Christianity of +these characters in the church at St. Michael’s. I therefore resolved +to join the Methodist church in New Bedford, and to enjoy the spiritual +advantage of public worship. The minister of the Elm Street Methodist +church, was the Rev. Mr. Bonney; and although I was not allowed a seat +in the body of the house, and was proscribed on account of my color, +regarding this proscription simply as an accommodation of the +uncoverted congregation who had not yet been won to Christ and his +brotherhood, I was willing thus to be proscribed, lest sinners should +be driven away form the saving power of the gospel. Once converted, I +thought they would be sure to treat me as a man and a brother. +“Surely,” thought I, “these Christian people have none of this feeling +against color. They, at least, have renounced this unholy feeling.” +Judge, then, dear reader, of my astonishment and mortification, when I +found, as soon I did find, all my charitable assumptions at fault. + +An opportunity was soon afforded me for ascertaining the exact position +of Elm Street church on that subject. I had a chance of seeing the +religious part of the congregation by themselves; and although they +disowned, in effect, their black brothers and sisters, before the +world, I did think that where none but the saints were assembled, and +no offense could be given to the wicked, and the gospel could not be +“blamed,” they would certainly recognize us as children of the same +Father, and heirs of the same salvation, on equal terms with +themselves. + +The occasion to which I refer, was the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, +that most sacred and most solemn of all the ordinances of the Christian +church. Mr. Bonney had preached a very solemn and searching discourse, +which really proved him to be acquainted with the inmost secerts(sic) +of the human heart. At the close of his discourse, the congregation was +dismissed, and the church remained to partake of the sacrament. I +remained to see, as I thought, this holy sacrament celebrated in the +spirit of its great Founder. + +There were only about a half dozen colored members attached to the Elm +Street church, at this time. After the congregation was dismissed, +these descended from the gallery, and took a seat against the wall most +distant from the altar. Brother Bonney was very animated, and sung very +sweetly, “Salvation ‘tis a joyful sound,” and soon began to administer +the sacrament. I was anxious to observe the bearing of the colored +members, and the result was most humiliating. During the whole +ceremony, they looked like sheep without a shepherd. The white members +went forward to the altar by the bench full; and when it was evident +that all the whites had been served with the bread and wine, Brother +Bonney—pious Brother Bonney—after a long pause, as if inquiring whether +all the whites members had been served, and fully assuring himself on +that important point, then raised his voice to an unnatural pitch, and +looking to the corner where his black sheep seemed penned, beckoned +with his hand, exclaiming, “Come forward, colored friends! come +forward! You, too, have an interest in the blood of Christ. God is no +respecter of persons. Come forward, and take this holy sacrament to +your comfort.” The colored members poor, slavish souls went forward, as +invited. I went out, and have never been in that church since, although +I honestly went there with a view to joining that body. I found it +impossible to respect the religious profession of any who were under +the dominion of this wicked prejudice, and I could not, therefore, feel +that in joining them, I was joining a Christian church, at all. I tried +other churches in New Bedford, with the same result, and finally, I +attached myself to a small body of colored Methodists, known as the +Zion Methodists. Favored with the affection and confidence of the +members of this humble communion, I was soon made a classleader and a +local preacher among them. Many seasons of peace and joy I experienced +among them, the remembrance of which is still precious, although I +could not see it to be my duty to remain with that body, when I found +that it consented to the same spirit which held my brethren in chains. + +In four or five months after reaching New Bedford, there came a young +man to me, with a copy of the _Liberator_, the paper edited by WILLIAM +LLOYD GARRISON, and published by ISAAC KNAPP, and asked me to subscribe +for it. I told him I had but just escaped from slavery, and was of +course very poor, and remarked further, that I was unable to pay for it +then; the agent, however, very willingly took me as a subscriber, and +appeared to be much pleased with securing my name to his list. From +this time I was brought in contact with the mind of William Lloyd +Garrison. His paper took its place with me next to the bible. + +The _Liberator_ was a paper after my own heart. It detested slavery +exposed hypocrisy and wickedness in high places—made no truce with the +traffickers in the bodies and souls of men; it preached human +brotherhood, denounced oppression, and, with all the solemnity of God’s +word, demanded the complete emancipation of my race. I not only liked—I +_loved_ this paper, and its editor. He seemed a match for all the +oponents(sic) of emancipation, whether they spoke in the name of the +law, or the gospel. His words were few, full of holy fire, and straight +to the point. Learning to love him, through his paper, I was prepared +to be pleased with his presence. Something of a hero worshiper, by +nature, here was one, on first sight, to excite my love and reverence. + +Seventeen years ago, few men possessed a more heavenly countenance than +William Lloyd Garrison, and few men evinced a more genuine or a more +exalted piety. The bible was his text book—held sacred, as the word of +the Eternal Father—sinless perfection—complete submission to insults +and injuries—literal obedience to the injunction, if smitten on one +side to turn the other also. Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all +days were Sabbaths, and to be kept holy. All sectarism false and +mischievous—the regenerated, throughout the world, members of one body, +and the HEAD Christ Jesus. Prejudice against color was rebellion +against God. Of all men beneath the sky, the slaves, because most +neglected and despised, were nearest and dearest to his great heart. +Those ministers who defended slavery from the bible, were of their +“father the devil”; and those churches which fellowshiped slaveholders +as Christians, were synagogues of Satan, and our nation was a nation of +liars. Never loud or noisy—calm and serene as a summer sky, and as +pure. “You are the man, the Moses, raised up by God, to deliver his +modern Israel from bondage,” was the spontaneous feeling of my heart, +as I sat away back in the hall and listened to his mighty words; mighty +in truth—mighty in their simple earnestness. + +I had not long been a reader of the _Liberator_, and listener to its +editor, before I got a clear apprehension of the principles of the +anti-slavery movement. I had already the spirit of the movement, and +only needed to understand its principles and measures. These I got from +the _Liberator_, and from those who believed in that paper. My +acquaintance with the movement increased my hope for the ultimate +freedom of my race, and I united with it from a sense of delight, as +well as duty. + +Every week the _Liberator_ came, and every week I made myself master of +its contents. All the anti-slavery meetings held in New Bedford I +promptly attended, my heart burning at every true utterance against the +slave system, and every rebuke of its friends and supporters. Thus +passed the first three years of my residence in New Bedford. I had not +then dreamed of the posibility(sic) of my becoming a public advocate of +the cause so deeply imbedded in my heart. It was enough for me to +listen—to receive and applaud the great words of others, and only +whisper in private, among the white laborers on the wharves, and +elsewhere, the truths which burned in my breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. _Introduced to the Abolitionists_ + + +FIRST SPEECH AT NANTUCKET—MUCH SENSATION—EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH OF MR. +GARRISON—AUTHOR BECOMES A PUBLIC LECTURER—FOURTEEN YEARS +EXPERIENCE—YOUTHFUL ENTHUSIASM—A BRAND NEW FACT—MATTER OF MY AUTHOR’S +SPEECH—COULD NOT FOLLOW THE PROGRAMME—FUGITIVE SLAVESHIP DOUBTED—TO +SETTLE ALL DOUBT I WRITE MY EXPERIENCE OF SLAVERY—DANGER OF RECAPTURE +INCREASED. + + +In the summer of 1841, a grand anti-slavery convention was held in +Nantucket, under the auspices of Mr. Garrison and his friends. Until +now, I had taken no holiday since my escape from slavery. Having worked +very hard that spring and summer, in Richmond’s brass +foundery—sometimes working all night as well as all day—and needing a +day or two of rest, I attended this convention, never supposing that I +should take part in the proceedings. Indeed, I was not aware that any +one connected with the convention even so much as knew my name. I was, +however, quite mistaken. Mr. William C. Coffin, a prominent +abolitionst(sic) in those days of trial, had heard me speaking to my +colored friends, in the little school house on Second street, New +Bedford, where we worshiped. He sought me out in the crowd, and invited +me to say a few words to the convention. Thus sought out, and thus +invited, I was induced to speak out the feelings inspired by the +occasion, and the fresh recollection of the scenes through which I had +passed as a slave. My speech on this occasion is about the only one I +ever made, of which I do not remember a single connected sentence. It +was with the utmost difficulty that I could stand erect, or that I +could command and articulate two words without hesitation and +stammering. I trembled in every limb. I am not sure that my +embarrassment was not the most effective part of my speech, if speech +it could be called. At any rate, this is about the only part of my +performance that I now distinctly remember. But excited and convulsed +as I was, the audience, though remarkably quiet before, became as much +excited as myself. Mr. Garrison followed me, taking me as his text; and +now, whether I had made an eloquent speech in behalf of freedom or not, +his was one never to be forgotten by those who heard it. Those who had +heard Mr. Garrison oftenest, and had known him longest, were +astonished. It was an effort of unequaled power, sweeping down, like a +very tornado, every opposing barrier, whether of sentiment or opinion. +For a moment, he possessed that almost fabulous inspiration, often +referred to but seldom attained, in which a public meeting is +transformed, as it were, into a single individuality—the orator +wielding a thousand heads and hearts at once, and by the simple majesty +of his all controlling thought, converting his hearers into the express +image of his own soul. That night there were at least one thousand +Garrisonians in Nantucket! A(sic) the close of this great meeting, I +was duly waited on by Mr. John A. Collins—then the general agent of the +Massachusetts anti-slavery society—and urgently solicited by him to +become an agent of that society, and to publicly advocate its +anti-slavery principles. I was reluctant to take the proffered +position. I had not been quite three years from slavery—was honestly +distrustful of my ability—wished to be excused; publicity exposed me to +discovery and arrest by my master; and other objections came up, but +Mr. Collins was not to be put off, and I finally consented to go out +for three months, for I supposed that I should have got to the end of +my story and my usefulness, in that length of time. + +Here opened upon me a new life a life for which I had had no +preparation. I was a “graduate from the peculiar institution,” Mr. +Collins used to say, when introducing me, _“with my diploma written on +my back!”_ The three years of my freedom had been spent in the hard +school of adversity. My hands had been furnished by nature with +something like a solid leather coating, and I had bravely marked out +for myself a life of rough labor, suited to the hardness of my hands, +as a means of supporting myself and rearing my children. + +Now what shall I say of this fourteen years’ experience as a public +advocate of the cause of my enslaved brothers and sisters? The time is +but as a speck, yet large enough to justify a pause for +retrospection—and a pause it must only be. + +Young, ardent, and hopeful, I entered upon this new life in the full +gush of unsuspecting enthusiasm. The cause was good; the men engaged in +it were good; the means to attain its triumph, good; Heaven’s blessing +must attend all, and freedom must soon be given to the pining millions +under a ruthless bondage. My whole heart went with the holy cause, and +my most fervent prayer to the Almighty Disposer of the hearts of men, +were continually offered for its early triumph. “Who or what,” thought +I, “can withstand a cause so good, so holy, so indescribably glorious. +The God of Israel is with us. The might of the Eternal is on our side. +Now let but the truth be spoken, and a nation will start forth at the +sound!” In this enthusiastic spirit, I dropped into the ranks of +freedom’s friends, and went forth to the battle. For a time I was made +to forget that my skin was dark and my hair crisped. For a time I +regretted that I could not have shared the hardships and dangers +endured by the earlier workers for the slave’s release. I soon, +however, found that my enthusiasm had been extravagant; that hardships +and dangers were not yet passed; and that the life now before me, had +shadows as well as sunbeams. + +Among the first duties assigned me, on entering the ranks, was to +travel, in company with Mr. George Foster, to secure subscribers to the +_Anti-slavery Standard_ and the _Liberator_. With him I traveled and +lectured through the eastern counties of Massachusetts. Much interest +was awakened—large meetings assembled. Many came, no doubt, from +curiosity to hear what a Negro could say in his own cause. I was +generally introduced as a _“chattel”—_a_“thing”_—a piece of southern +_“property”_—the chairman assuring the audience that _it_ could speak. +Fugitive slaves, at that time, were not so plentiful as now; and as a +fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being a _“brand new +fact”_—the first one out. Up to that time, a colored man was deemed a +fool who confessed himself a runaway slave, not only because of the +danger to which he exposed himself of being retaken, but because it was +a confession of a very _low_ origin! Some of my colored friends in New +Bedford thought very badly of my wisdom for thus exposing and degrading +myself. The only precaution I took, at the beginning, to prevent Master +Thomas from knowing where I was, and what I was about, was the +withholding my former name, my master’s name, and the name of the state +and county from which I came. During the first three or four months, my +speeches were almost exclusively made up of narrations of my own +personal experience as a slave. “Let us have the facts,” said the +people. So also said Friend George Foster, who always wished to pin me +down to my simple narrative. “Give us the facts,” said Collins, “we +will take care of the philosophy.” Just here arose some embarrassment. +It was impossible for me to repeat the same old story month after +month, and to keep up my interest in it. It was new to the people, it +is true, but it was an old story to me; and to go through with it night +after night, was a task altogether too mechanical for my nature. “Tell +your story, Frederick,” would whisper my then revered friend, William +Lloyd Garrison, as I stepped upon the platform. I could not always +obey, for I was now reading and thinking. New views of the subject were +presented to my mind. It did not entirely satisfy me to _narrate_ +wrongs; I felt like _denouncing_ them. I could not always curb my moral +indignation for the perpetrators of slaveholding villainy, long enough +for a circumstantial statement of the facts which I felt almost +everybody must know. Besides, I was growing, and needed room. “People +won’t believe you ever was a slave, Frederick, if you keep on this +way,” said Friend Foster. “Be yourself,” said Collins, “and tell your +story.” It was said to me, “Better have a _little_ of the plantation +manner of speech than not; ‘tis not best that you seem too learned.” +These excellent friends were actuated by the best of motives, and were +not altogether wrong in their advice; and still I must speak just the +word that seemed to _me_ the word to be spoken _by_ me. + +At last the apprehended trouble came. People doubted if I had ever been +a slave. They said I did not talk like a slave, look like a slave, nor +act like a slave, and that they believed I had never been south of +Mason and Dixon’s line. “He don’t tell us where he came from—what his +master’s name was—how he got away—nor the story of his experience. +Besides, he is educated, and is, in this, a contradiction of all the +facts we have concerning the ignorance of the slaves.” Thus, I was in a +pretty fair way to be denounced as an impostor. The committee of the +Massachusetts anti-slavery society knew all the facts in my case, and +agreed with me in the prudence of keeping them private. They, +therefore, never doubted my being a genuine fugitive; but going down +the aisles of the churches in which I spoke, and hearing the free +spoken Yankees saying, repeatedly, _“He’s never been a slave, I’ll +warrant ye_,” I resolved to dispel all doubt, at no distant day, by +such a revelation of facts as could not be made by any other than a +genuine fugitive. + +In a little less than four years, therefore, after becoming a public +lecturer, I was induced to write out the leading facts connected with +my experience in slavery, giving names of persons, places, and +dates—thus putting it in the power of any who doubted, to ascertain the +truth or falsehood of my story of being a fugitive slave. This +statement soon became known in Maryland, and I had reason to believe +that an effort would be made to recapture me. + +It is not probable that any open attempt to secure me as a slave could +have succeeded, further than the obtainment, by my master, of the money +value of my bones and sinews. Fortunately for me, in the four years of +my labors in the abolition cause, I had gained many friends, who would +have suffered themselves to be taxed to almost any extent to save me +from slavery. It was felt that I had committed the double offense of +running away, and exposing the secrets and crimes of slavery and +slaveholders. There was a double motive for seeking my +reenslavement—avarice and vengeance; and while, as I have said, there +was little probability of successful recapture, if attempted openly, I +was constantly in danger of being spirited away, at a moment when my +friends could render me no assistance. In traveling about from place to +place—often alone I was much exposed to this sort of attack. Any one +cherishing the design to betray me, could easily do so, by simply +tracing my whereabouts through the anti-slavery journals, for my +meetings and movements were promptly made known in advance. My true +friends, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips, had no faith in the power of +Massachusetts to protect me in my right to liberty. Public sentiment +and the law, in their opinion, would hand me over to the tormentors. +Mr. Phillips, especially, considered me in danger, and said, when I +showed him the manuscript of my story, if in my place, he would throw +it into the fire. Thus, the reader will observe, the settling of one +difficulty only opened the way for another; and that though I had +reached a free state, and had attained position for public usefulness, +I ws(sic) still tormented with the liability of losing my liberty. How +this liability was dispelled, will be related, with other incidents, in +the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. _Twenty-One Months in Great Britain_ + + +GOOD ARISING OUT OF UNPROPITIOUS EVENTS—DENIED CABIN +PASSAGE—PROSCRIPTION TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT—THE HUTCHINSON FAMILY—THE +MOB ON BOARD THE “CAMBRIA”—HAPPY INTRODUCTION TO THE BRITISH +PUBLIC—LETTER ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON—TIME AND LABORS WHILE +ABROAD—FREEDOM PURCHASED—MRS. HENRY RICHARDSON—FREE +PAPERS—ABOLITIONISTS DISPLEASED WITH THE RANSOM—HOW MY ENERGIES WERE +DIRECTED—RECEPTION SPEECH IN LONDON—CHARACTER OF THE SPEECH +DEFENDED—CIRCUMSTANCES EXPLAINED—CAUSES CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUCCESS OF +MY MISSION—FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND—TESTIMONIAL. + + +The allotments of Providence, when coupled with trouble and anxiety, +often conceal from finite vision the wisdom and goodness in which they +are sent; and, frequently, what seemed a harsh and invidious +dispensation, is converted by after experience into a happy and +beneficial arrangement. Thus, the painful liability to be returned +again to slavery, which haunted me by day, and troubled my dreams by +night, proved to be a necessary step in the path of knowledge and +usefulness. The writing of my pamphlet, in the spring of 1845, +endangered my liberty, and led me to seek a refuge from republican +slavery in monarchical England. A rude, uncultivated fugitive slave was +driven, by stern necessity, to that country to which young American +gentlemen go to increase their stock of knowledge, to seek pleasure, to +have their rough, democratic manners softened by contact with English +aristocratic refinement. On applying for a passage to England, on board +the “Cambria”, of the Cunard line, my friend, James N. Buffum, of Lynn, +Massachusetts, was informed that I could not be received on board as a +cabin passenger. American prejudice against color triumphed over +British liberality and civilization, and erected a color test and +condition for crossing the sea in the cabin of a British vessel. The +insult was keenly felt by my white friends, but to me, it was common, +expected, and therefore, a thing of no great consequence, whether I +went in the cabin or in the steerage. Moreover, I felt that if I could +not go into the first cabin, first-cabin passengers could come into the +second cabin, and the result justified my anticipations to the fullest +extent. Indeed, I soon found myself an object of more general interest +than I wished to be; and so far from being degraded by being placed in +the second cabin, that part of the ship became the scene of as much +pleasure and refinement, during the voyage, as the cabin itself. The +Hutchinson Family, celebrated vocalists—fellow-passengers—often came to +my rude forecastle deck, and sung their sweetest songs, enlivening the +place with eloquent music, as well as spirited conversation, during the +voyage. In two days after leaving Boston, one part of the ship was +about as free to me as another. My fellow-passengers not only visited +me, but invited me to visit them, on the saloon deck. My visits there, +however, were but seldom. I preferred to live within my privileges, and +keep upon my own premises. I found this quite as much in accordance +with good policy, as with my own feelings. The effect was, that with +the majority of the passengers, all color distinctions were flung to +the winds, and I found myself treated with every mark of respect, from +the beginning to the end of the voyage, except in a single instance; +and in that, I came near being mobbed, for complying with an invitation +given me by the passengers, and the captain of the “Cambria,” to +deliver a lecture on slavery. Our New Orleans and Georgia passengers +were pleased to regard my lecture as an insult offered to them, and +swore I should not speak. They went so far as to threaten to throw me +overboard, and but for the firmness of Captain Judkins, probably would +have (under the inspiration of _slavery_ and _brandy_) attempted to put +their threats into execution. I have no space to describe this scene, +although its tragic and comic peculiarities are well worth describing. +An end was put to the _melee_, by the captain’s calling the ship’s +company to put the salt water mobocrats in irons. At this determined +order, the gentlemen of the lash scampered, and for the rest of the +voyage conducted themselves very decorously. + +This incident of the voyage, in two days after landing at Liverpool, +brought me at once before the British public, and that by no act of my +own. The gentlemen so promptly snubbed in their meditated violence, +flew to the press to justify their conduct, and to denounce me as a +worthless and insolent Negro. This course was even less wise than the +conduct it was intended to sustain; for, besides awakening something +like a national interest in me, and securing me an audience, it brought +out counter statements, and threw the blame upon themselves, which they +had sought to fasten upon me and the gallant captain of the ship. + +Some notion may be formed of the difference in my feelings and +circumstances, while abroad, from the following extract from one of a +series of letters addressed by me to Mr. Garrison, and published in the +_Liberator_. It was written on the first day of January, 1846: + +MY DEAR FRIEND GARRISON: Up to this time, I have given no direct +expression of the views, feelings, and opinions which I have formed, +respecting the character and condition of the people of this land. I +have refrained thus, purposely. I wish to speak advisedly, and in order +to do this, I have waited till, I trust, experience has brought my +opinions to an intelligent maturity. I have been thus careful, not +because I think what I say will have much effect in shaping the +opinions of the world, but because whatever of influence I may possess, +whether little or much, I wish it to go in the right direction, and +according to truth. I hardly need say that, in speaking of Ireland, I +shall be influenced by no prejudices in favor of America. I think my +circumstances all forbid that. I have no end to serve, no creed to +uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to none. I +have no protection at home, or resting-place abroad. The land of my +birth welcomes me to her shores only as a slave, and spurns with +contempt the idea of treating me differently; so that I am an outcast +from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw in the land of my +birth. “I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers +were.” That men should be patriotic, is to me perfectly natural; and as +a philosophical fact, I am able to give it an _intellectual_ +recognition. But no further can I go. If ever I had any patriotism, or +any capacity for the feeling, it was whipped out of me long since, by +the lash of the American soul-drivers. + +In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright +blue sky, her grand old woods, her fertile fields, her beautiful +rivers, her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is +soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that +all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery, and +wrong; when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the +tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, +and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my +outraged sisters; I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to +reproach myself that anything could fall from my lips in praise of such +a land. America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent +on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst +enemies. May God give her repentance, before it is too late, is the +ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor, and wait, +believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of +justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity. + +My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the people +of this land have been very great. I have traveled almost from the Hill +of Howth to the Giant’s Causeway, and from the Giant’s Causway, to Cape +Clear. During these travels, I have met with much in the chara@@ and +condition of the people to approve, and much to condemn; much that +@@thrilled me with pleasure, and very much that has filled me with +pain. I @@ @@t, in this letter, attempt to give any description of +those scenes which have given me pain. This I will do hereafter. I have +enough, and more than your subscribers will be disposed to read at one +time, of the bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have spent +some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. +I seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life. The warm +and generous cooperation extended to me by the friends of my despised +race; the prompt and liberal manner with which the press has rendered +me its aid; the glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have flocked +to hear the cruel wrongs of my down-trodden and long-enslaved +fellow-countrymen portrayed; the deep sympathy for the slave, and the +strong abhorrence of the slaveholder, everywhere evinced; the +cordiality with which members and ministers of various religious +bodies, and of various shades of religious opinion, have embraced me, +and lent me their aid; the kind of hospitality constantly proffered to +me by persons of the highest rank in society; the spirit of freedom +that seems to animate all with whom I come in contact, and the entire +absence of everything that looked like prejudice against me, on account +of the color of my skin—contrasted so strongly with my long and bitter +experience in the United States, that I look with wonder and amazement +on the transition. In the southern part of the United States, I was a +slave, thought of and spoken of as property; in the language of the +LAW, “_held, taken, reputed, and adjudged to be a chattel in the hands +of my owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and +assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever_.” +(Brev. Digest, 224). In the northern states, a fugitive slave, liable +to be hunted at any moment, like a felon, and to be hurled into the +terrible jaws of slavery—doomed by an inveterate prejudice against +color to insult and outrage on every hand (Massachusetts out of the +question)—denied the privileges and courtesies common to others in the +use of the most humble means of conveyance—shut out from the cabins on +steamboats—refused admission to respectable hotels—caricatured, +scorned, scoffed, mocked, and maltreated with impunity by any one (no +matter how black his heart), so he has a white skin. But now behold the +change! Eleven days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand +miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am +under a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of +America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I +breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for +one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or +offer me an insult. I employ a cab—I am seated beside white people—I +reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown into the same parlor—I +dine at the same table and no one is offended. No delicate nose grows +deformed in my presence. I find no difficulty here in obtaining +admission into any place of worship, instruction, or amusement, on +equal terms with people as white as any I ever saw in the United +States. I meet nothing to remind me of my complexion. I find myself +regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid +to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and +scornful lip to tell me, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” + +I remember, about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the +south-west corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long desired to +see such a collection as I understood was being exhibited there. Never +having had an opportunity while a slave, I resolved to seize this, my +first, since my escape. I went, and as I approached the entrance to +gain admission, I was met and told by the door-keeper, in a harsh and +contemptuous tone, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_.” I also remember +attending a revival meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson’s meeting-house, +at New Bedford, and going up the broad aisle to find a seat, I was met +by a good deacon, who told me, in a pious tone, “_We don’t allow +niggers in here_!” Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, from the +south, I had a strong desire to attend the Lyceum, but was told, “_They +don’t allow niggers in here_!” While passing from New York to Boston, +on the steamer Massachusetts, on the night of the 9th of December, +1843, when chilled almost through with the cold, I went into the cabin +to get a little warm. I was soon touched upon the shoulder, and told, +“_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” On arriving in Boston, from an +anti-slavery tour, hungry and tired, I went into an eating-house, near +my friend, Mr. Campbell’s to get some refreshments. I was met by a lad +in a white apron, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” A week or two +before leaving the United States, I had a meeting appointed at +Weymouth, the home of that glorious band of true abolitionists, the +Weston family, and others. On attempting to take a seat in the omnibus +to that place, I was told by the driver (and I never shall forget his +fiendish hate). “_I don’t allow niggers in here_!” Thank heaven for the +respite I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin but a few days, when a +gentleman of great respectability kindly offered to conduct me through +all the public buildings of that beautiful city; and a little +afterward, I found myself dining with the lord mayor of Dublin. What a +pity there was not some American democratic Christian at the door of +his splendid mansion, to bark out at my approach, “_They don’t allow +niggers in here_!” The truth is, the people here know nothing of the +republican Negro hate prevalent in our glorious land. They measure and +esteem men according to their moral and intellectual worth, and not +according to the color of their skin. Whatever may be said of the +aristocracies here, there is none based on the color of a man’s skin. +This species of aristocracy belongs preeminently to “the land of the +free, and the home of the brave.” I have never found it abroad, in any +but Americans. It sticks to them wherever they go. They find it almost +as hard to get rid of, as to get rid of their skins. + +The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my +friend, Buffum, and several other friends, I went to Eaton Hall, the +residence of the Marquis of Westminster, one of the most splendid +buildings in England. On approaching the door, I found several of our +American passengers, who came out with us in the “Cambria,” waiting for +admission, as but one party was allowed in the house at a time. We all +had to wait till the company within came out. And of all the faces, +expressive of chagrin, those of the Americans were preeminent. They +looked as sour as vinegar, and as bitter as gall, when they found I was +to be admitted on equal terms with themselves. When the door was +opened, I walked in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, +and from all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the +servants that showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin. As +I walked through the building, the statuary did not fall down, the +pictures did not leap from their places, the doors did not refuse to +open, and the servants did not say, “_We don’t allow niggers in here_!” + +A happy new-year to you, and all the friends of freedom. + +My time and labors, while abroad were divided between England, Ireland, +Scotland, and Wales. Upon this experience alone, I might write a book +twice the size of this, _My Bondage and My Freedom_. I visited and +lectured in nearly all the large towns and cities in the United +Kingdom, and enjoyed many favorable opportunities for observation and +information. But books on England are abundant, and the public may, +therefore, dismiss any fear that I am meditating another infliction in +that line; though, in truth, I should like much to write a book on +those countries, if for nothing else, to make grateful mention of the +many dear friends, whose benevolent actions toward me are ineffaceably +stamped upon my memory, and warmly treasured in my heart. To these +friends I owe my freedom in the United States. On their own motion, +without any solicitation from me (Mrs. Henry Richardson, a clever lady, +remarkable for her devotion to every good work, taking the lead), they +raised a fund sufficient to purchase my freedom, and actually paid it +over, and placed the papers 8 of my manumission in my hands, before +they would tolerate the idea of my returning to this, my native +country. To this commercial transaction I owe my exemption from the +democratic operation of the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. But for this, +I might at any time become a victim of this most cruel and scandalous +enactment, and be doomed to end my life, as I began it, a slave. The +sum paid for my freedom was one hundred and fifty pounds sterling. + +Some of my uncompromising anti-slavery friends in this country failed +to see the wisdom of this arrangement, and were not pleased that I +consented to it, even by my silence. They thought it a violation of +anti-slavery principles—conceding a right of property in man—and a +wasteful expenditure of money. On the other hand, viewing it simply in +the light of a ransom, or as money extorted by a robber, and my liberty +of more value than one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, I could not +see either a violation of the laws of morality, or those of economy, in +the transaction. + +It is true, I was not in the possession of my claimants, and could have +easily remained in England, for the same friends who had so generously +purchased my freedom, would have assisted me in establishing myself in +that country. To this, however, I could not consent. I felt that I had +a duty to perform—and that was, to labor and suffer with the oppressed +in my native land. Considering, therefore, all the circumstances—the +fugitive slave bill included—I think the very best thing was done in +letting Master Hugh have the hundred and fifty pounds sterling, and +leaving me free to return to my appropriate field of labor. Had I been +a private person, having no other relations or duties than those of a +personal and family nature, I should never have consented to the +payment of so large a sum for the privilege of living securely under +our glorious republican form of government. I could have remained in +England, or have gone to some other country; and perhaps I could even +have lived unobserved in this. But to this I could not consent. I had +already become somewhat notorious, and withal quite as unpopular as +notorious; and I was, therefore, much exposed to arrest and recapture. + +The main object to which my labors in Great Britain were directed, was +the concentration of the moral and religious sentiment of its people +against American slavery. England is often charged with having +established slavery in the United States, and if there were no other +justification than this, for appealing to her people to lend their +moral aid for the abolition of slavery, I should be justified. My +speeches in Great Britain were wholly extemporaneous, and I may not +always have been so guarded in my expressions, as I otherwise should +have been. I was ten years younger then than now, and only seven years +from slavery. I cannot give the reader a better idea of the nature of +my discourses, than by republishing one of them, delivered in Finsbury +chapel, London, to an audience of about two thousand persons, and which +was published in the _London Universe_, at the time. 9 + +Those in the United States who may regard this speech as being harsh in +its spirit and unjust in its statements, because delivered before an +audience supposed to be anti-republican in their principles and +feelings, may view the matter differently, when they learn that the +case supposed did not exist. It so happened that the great mass of the +people in England who attended and patronized my anti-slavery meetings, +were, in truth, about as good republicans as the mass of Americans, and +with this decided advantage over the latter—they are lovers of +republicanism for all men, for black men as well as for white men. They +are the people who sympathize with Louis Kossuth and Mazzini, and with +the oppressed and enslaved, of every color and nation, the world over. +They constitute the democratic element in British politics, and are as +much opposed to the union of church and state as we, in America, are to +such an union. At the meeting where this speech was delivered, Joseph +Sturge—a world-wide philanthropist, and a member of the society of +Friends—presided, and addressed the meeting. George William Alexander, +another Friend, who has spent more than an Ameriacn(sic) fortune in +promoting the anti-slavery cause in different sections of the world, +was on the platform; and also Dr. Campbell (now of the _British +Banner_) who combines all the humane tenderness of Melanchthon, with +the directness and boldness of Luther. He is in the very front ranks of +non-conformists, and looks with no unfriendly eye upon America. George +Thompson, too, was there; and America will yet own that he did a true +man’s work in relighting the rapidly dying-out fire of true +republicanism in the American heart, and be ashamed of the treatment he +met at her hands. Coming generations in this country will applaud the +spirit of this much abused republican friend of freedom. There were +others of note seated on the platform, who would gladly ingraft upon +English institutions all that is purely republican in the institutions +of America. Nothing, therefore, must be set down against this speech on +the score that it was delivered in the presence of those who cannot +appreciate the many excellent things belonging to our system of +government, and with a view to stir up prejudice against republican +institutions. + +Again, let it also be remembered—for it is the simple truth—that +neither in this speech, nor in any other which I delivered in England, +did I ever allow myself to address Englishmen as against Americans. I +took my stand on the high ground of human brotherhood, and spoke to +Englishmen as men, in behalf of men. Slavery is a crime, not against +Englishmen, but against God, and all the members of the human family; +and it belongs to the whole human family to seek its suppression. In a +letter to Mr. Greeley, of the New York Tribune, written while abroad, I +said: + +I am, nevertheless aware that the wisdom of exposing the sins of one +nation in the ear of another, has been seriously questioned by good and +clear-sighted people, both on this and on your side of the Atlantic. +And the thought is not without weight on my own mind. I am satisfied +that there are many evils which can be best removed by confining our +efforts to the immediate locality where such evils exist. This, +however, is by no means the case with the system of slavery. It is such +a giant sin—such a monstrous aggregation of iniquity—so hardening to +the human heart—so destructive to the moral sense, and so well +calculated to beget a character, in every one around it, favorable to +its own continuance,—that I feel not only at liberty, but abundantly +justified, in appealing to the whole world to aid in its removal. + +But, even if I had—as has been often charged—labored to bring American +institutions generally into disrepute, and had not confined my labors +strictly within the limits of humanity and morality, I should not have +been without illustrious examples to support me. Driven into semi-exile +by civil and barbarous laws, and by a system which cannot be thought of +without a shudder, I was fully justified in turning, if possible, the +tide of the moral universe against the heaven-daring outrage. + +Four circumstances greatly assisted me in getting the question of +American slavery before the British public. First, the mob on board the +“Cambria,” already referred to, which was a sort of national +announcement of my arrival in England. Secondly, the highly +reprehensible course pursued by the Free Church of Scotland, in +soliciting, receiving, and retaining money in its sustentation fund for +supporting the gospel in Scotland, which was evidently the ill-gotten +gain of slaveholders and slave-traders. Third, the great Evangelical +Alliance—or rather the attempt to form such an alliance, which should +include slaveholders of a certain description—added immensely to the +interest felt in the slavery question. About the same time, there was +the World’s Temperance Convention, where I had the misfortune to come +in collision with sundry American doctors of divinity—Dr. Cox among the +number—with whom I had a small controversy. + +It has happened to me—as it has happened to most other men engaged in a +good cause—often to be more indebted to my enemies than to my own skill +or to the assistance of my friends, for whatever success has attended +my labors. Great surprise was expressed by American newspapers, north +and south, during my stay in Great Britain, that a person so illiterate +and insignificant as myself could awaken an interest so marked in +England. These papers were not the only parties surprised. I was myself +not far behind them in surprise. But the very contempt and scorn, the +systematic and extravagant disparagement of which I was the object, +served, perhaps, to magnify my few merits, and to render me of some +account, whether deserving or not. A man is sometimes made great, by +the greatness of the abuse a portion of mankind may think proper to +heap upon him. Whether I was of as much consequence as the English +papers made me out to be, or not, it was easily seen, in England, that +I could not be the ignorant and worthless creature, some of the +American papers would have them believe I was. Men, in their senses, do +not take bowie-knives to kill mosquitoes, nor pistols to shoot flies; +and the American passengers who thought proper to get up a mob to +silence me, on board the “Cambria,” took the most effective method of +telling the British public that I had something to say. + +But to the second circumstance, namely, the position of the Free Church +of Scotland, with the great Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish +at its head. That church, with its leaders, put it out of the power of +the Scotch people to ask the old question, which we in the north have +often most wickedly asked—“_What have we to do with slavery_?” That +church had taken the price of blood into its treasury, with which to +build _free_ churches, and to pay _free_ church ministers for preaching +the gospel; and, worse still, when honest John Murray, of Bowlien +Bay—now gone to his reward in heaven—with William Smeal, Andrew Paton, +Frederick Card, and other sterling anti-slavery men in Glasgow, +denounced the transaction as disgraceful and shocking to the religious +sentiment of Scotland, this church, through its leading divines, +instead of repenting and seeking to mend the mistake into which it had +fallen, made it a flagrant sin, by undertaking to defend, in the name +of God and the bible, the principle not only of taking the money of +slave-dealers to build churches, but of holding fellowship with the +holders and traffickers in human flesh. This, the reader will see, +brought up the whole question of slavery, and opened the way to its +full discussion, without any agency of mine. I have never seen a people +more deeply moved than were the people of Scotland, on this very +question. Public meeting succeeded public meeting. Speech after speech, +pamphlet after pamphlet, editorial after editorial, sermon after +sermon, soon lashed the conscientious Scotch people into a perfect +_furore_. “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was indignantly cried out, from +Greenock to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. George Thompson, +of London, Henry C. Wright, of the United States, James N. Buffum, of +Lynn, Massachusetts, and myself were on the anti-slavery side; and +Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish on the other. In a conflict +where the latter could have had even the show of right, the truth, in +our hands as against them, must have been driven to the wall; and while +I believe we were able to carry the conscience of the country against +the action of the Free Church, the battle, it must be confessed, was a +hard-fought one. Abler defenders of the doctrine of fellowshiping +slaveholders as christians, have not been met with. In defending this +doctrine, it was necessary to deny that slavery is a sin. If driven +from this position, they were compelled to deny that slaveholders were +responsible for the sin; and if driven from both these positions, they +must deny that it is a sin in such a sense, and that slaveholders are +sinners in such a sense, as to make it wrong, in the circumstances in +which they were placed, to recognize them as Christians. Dr. Cunningham +was the most powerful debater on the slavery side of the question; Mr. +Thompson was the ablest on the anti-slavery side. A scene occurred +between these two men, a parallel to which I think I never witnessed +before, and I know I never have since. The scene was caused by a single +exclamation on the part of Mr. Thompson. + +The general assembly of the Free Church was in progress at Cannon +Mills, Edinburgh. The building would hold about twenty-five hundred +persons; and on this occasion it was densely packed, notice having been +given that Doctors Cunningham and Candlish would speak, that day, in +defense of the relations of the Free Church of Scotland to slavery in +America. Messrs. Thompson, Buffum, myself, and a few anti-slavery +friends, attended, but sat at such a distance, and in such a position, +that, perhaps we were not observed from the platform. The excitement +was intense, having been greatly increased by a series of meetings held +by Messrs. Thompson, Wright, Buffum, and myself, in the most splendid +hall in that most beautiful city, just previous to the meetings of the +general assembly. “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” stared at us from every street +corner; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” in large capitals, adorned the broad +flags of the pavement; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was the chorus of the +popular street songs; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was the heading of leading +editorials in the daily newspapers. This day, at Cannon Mills, the +great doctors of the church were to give an answer to this loud and +stern demand. Men of all parties and all sects were most eager to hear. +Something great was expected. The occasion was great, the men great, +and great speeches were expected from them. + +In addition to the outside pressure upon Doctors Cunningham and +Candlish, there was wavering in their own ranks. The conscience of the +church itself was not at ease. A dissatisfaction with the position of +the church touching slavery, was sensibly manifest among the members, +and something must be done to counteract this untoward influence. The +great Dr. Chalmers was in feeble health, at the time. His most potent +eloquence could not now be summoned to Cannon Mills, as formerly. He +whose voice was able to rend asunder and dash down the granite walls of +the established church of Scotland, and to lead a host in solemn +procession from it, as from a doomed city, was now old and enfeebled. +Besides, he had said his word on this very question; and his word had +not silenced the clamor without, nor stilled the anxious heavings +within. The occasion was momentous, and felt to be so. The church was +in a perilous condition. A change of some sort must take place in her +condition, or she must go to pieces. To stand where she did, was +impossible. The whole weight of the matter fell on Cunningham and +Candlish. No shoulders in the church were broader than theirs; and I +must say, badly as I detest the principles laid down and defended by +them, I was compelled to acknowledge the vast mental endowments of the +men. Cunningham rose; and his rising was the signal for almost +tumultous applause. You will say this was scarcely in keeping with the +solemnity of the occasion, but to me it served to increase its grandeur +and gravity. The applause, though tumultuous, was not joyous. It seemed +to me, as it thundered up from the vast audience, like the fall of an +immense shaft, flung from shoulders already galled by its crushing +weight. It was like saying, “Doctor, we have borne this burden long +enough, and willingly fling it upon you. Since it was you who brought +it upon us, take it now, and do what you will with it, for we are too +weary to bear it. [“no close”]. + +Doctor Cunningham proceeded with his speech, abounding in logic, +learning, and eloquence, and apparently bearing down all opposition; +but at the moment—the fatal moment—when he was just bringing all his +arguments to a point, and that point being, that neither Jesus Christ +nor his holy apostles regarded slaveholding as a sin, George Thompson, +in a clear, sonorous, but rebuking voice, broke the deep stillness of +the audience, exclaiming, HEAR! HEAR! HEAR! The effect of this simple +and common exclamation is almost incredible. It was as if a granite +wall had been suddenly flung up against the advancing current of a +mighty river. For a moment, speaker and audience were brought to a dead +silence. Both the doctor and his hearers seemed appalled by the +audacity, as well as the fitness of the rebuke. At length a shout went +up to the cry of “_Put him out_!” Happily, no one attempted to execute +this cowardly order, and the doctor proceeded with his discourse. Not, +however, as before, did the learned doctor proceed. The exclamation of +Thompson must have reechoed itself a thousand times in his memory, +during the remainder of his speech, for the doctor never recovered from +the blow. + +The deed was done, however; the pillars of the church—_the proud, Free +Church of Scotland_—were committed and the humility of repentance was +absent. The Free Church held on to the blood-stained money, and +continued to justify itself in its position—and of course to apologize +for slavery—and does so till this day. She lost a glorious opportunity +for giving her voice, her vote, and her example to the cause of +humanity; and to-day she is staggering under the curse of the enslaved, +whose blood is in her skirts. The people of Scotland are, to this day, +deeply grieved at the course pursued by the Free Church, and would +hail, as a relief from a deep and blighting shame, the “sending back +the money” to the slaveholders from whom it was gathered. + +One good result followed the conduct of the Free Church; it furnished +an occasion for making the people of Scotland thoroughly acquainted +with the character of slavery, and for arraying against the system the +moral and religious sentiment of that country. Therefore, while we did +not succeed in accomplishing the specific object of our mission, +namely—procure the sending back of the money—we were amply justified by +the good which really did result from our labors. + +Next comes the Evangelical Alliance. This was an attempt to form a +union of all evangelical Christians throughout the world. Sixty or +seventy American divines attended, and some of them went there merely +to weave a world-wide garment with which to clothe evangelical +slaveholders. Foremost among these divines, was the Rev. Samuel Hanson +Cox, moderator of the New School Presbyterian General Assembly. He and +his friends spared no pains to secure a platform broad enough to hold +American slaveholders, and in this partly succeeded. But the question +of slavery is too large a question to be finally disposed of, even by +the Evangelical Alliance. We appealed from the judgment of the +Alliance, to the judgment of the people of Great Britain, and with the +happiest effect. This controversy with the Alliance might be made the +subject of extended remark, but I must forbear, except to say, that +this effort to shield the Christian character of slaveholders greatly +served to open a way to the British ear for anti-slavery discussion, +and that it was well improved. + +The fourth and last circumstance that assisted me in getting before the +British public, was an attempt on the part of certain doctors of +divinity to silence me on the platform of the World’s Temperance +Convention. Here I was brought into point blank collison with Rev. Dr. +Cox, who made me the subject not only of bitter remark in the +convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter published in the New +York Evangelist and other American papers. I replied to the doctor as +well as I could, and was successful in getting a respectful hearing +before the British public, who are by nature and practice ardent lovers +of fair play, especially in a conflict between the weak and the strong. + +Thus did circumstances favor me, and favor the cause of which I strove +to be the advocate. After such distinguished notice, the public in both +countries was compelled to attach some importance to my labors. By the +very ill usage I received at the hands of Dr. Cox and his party, by the +mob on board the “Cambria,” by the attacks made upon me in the American +newspapers, and by the aspersions cast upon me through the organs of +the Free Church of Scotland, I became one of that class of men, who, +for the moment, at least, “have greatness forced upon them.” People +became the more anxious to hear for themselves, and to judge for +themselves, of the truth which I had to unfold. While, therefore, it is +by no means easy for a stranger to get fairly before the British +public, it was my lot to accomplish it in the easiest manner possible. + +Having continued in Great Britain and Ireland nearly two years, and +being about to return to America—not as I left it, a slave, but a +freeman—leading friends of the cause of emancipation in that country +intimated their intention to make me a testimonial, not only on grounds +of personal regard to myself, but also to the cause to which they were +so ardently devoted. How far any such thing could have succeeded, I do +not know; but many reasons led me to prefer that my friends should +simply give me the means of obtaining a printing press and printing +materials, to enable me to start a paper, devoted to the interests of +my enslaved and oppressed people. I told them that perhaps the greatest +hinderance to the adoption of abolition principles by the people of the +United States, was the low estimate, everywhere in that country, placed +upon the Negro, as a man; that because of his assumed natural +inferiority, people reconciled themselves to his enslavement and +oppression, as things inevitable, if not desirable. The grand thing to +be done, therefore, was to change the estimation in which the colored +people of the United States were held; to remove the prejudice which +depreciated and depressed them; to prove them worthy of a higher +consideration; to disprove their alleged inferiority, and demonstrate +their capacity for a more exalted civilization than slavery and +prejudice had assigned to them. I further stated, that, in my judgment, +a tolerably well conducted press, in the hands of persons of the +despised race, by calling out the mental energies of the race itself; +by making them acquainted with their own latent powers; by enkindling +among them the hope that for them there is a future; by developing +their moral power; by combining and reflecting their talents—would +prove a most powerful means of removing prejudice, and of awakening an +interest in them. I further informed them—and at that time the +statement was true—that there was not, in the United States, a single +newspaper regularly published by the colored people; that many attempts +had been made to establish such papers; but that, up to that time, they +had all failed. These views I laid before my friends. The result was, +nearly two thousand five hundred dollars were speedily raised toward +starting my paper. For this prompt and generous assistance, rendered +upon my bare suggestion, without any personal efforts on my part, I +shall never cease to feel deeply grateful; and the thought of +fulfilling the noble expectations of the dear friends who gave me this +evidence of their confidence, will never cease to be a motive for +persevering exertion. + +Proposing to leave England, and turning my face toward America, in the +spring of 1847, I was met, on the threshold, with something which +painfully reminded me of the kind of life which awaited me in my native +land. For the first time in the many months spent abroad, I was met +with proscription on account of my color. A few weeks before departing +from England, while in London, I was careful to purchase a ticket, and +secure a berth for returning home, in the “Cambria”—the steamer in +which I left the United States—paying therefor the round sum of forty +pounds and nineteen shillings sterling. This was first cabin fare. But +on going aboard the Cambria, I found that the Liverpool agent had +ordered my berth to be given to another, and had forbidden my entering +the saloon! This contemptible conduct met with stern rebuke from the +British press. For, upon the point of leaving England, I took occasion +to expose the disgusting tyranny, in the columns of the London _Times_. +That journal, and other leading journals throughout the United Kingdom, +held up the outrage to unmitigated condemnation. So good an opportunity +for calling out a full expression of British sentiment on the subject, +had not before occurred, and it was most fully embraced. The result +was, that Mr. Cunard came out in a letter to the public journals, +assuring them of his regret at the outrage, and promising that the like +should never occur again on board his steamers; and the like, we +believe, has never since occurred on board the steamships of the Cunard +line. + +It is not very pleasant to be made the subject of such insults; but if +all such necessarily resulted as this one did, I should be very happy +to bear, patiently, many more than I have borne, of the same sort. +Albeit, the lash of proscription, to a man accustomed to equal social +position, even for a time, as I was, has a sting for the soul hardly +less severe than that which bites the flesh and draws the blood from +the back of the plantation slave. It was rather hard, after having +enjoyed nearly two years of equal social privileges in England, often +dining with gentlemen of great literary, social, political, and +religious eminence never, during the whole time, having met with a +single word, look, or gesture, which gave me the slightest reason to +think my color was an offense to anybody—now to be cooped up in the +stern of the “Cambria,” and denied the right to enter the saloon, lest +my dark presence should be deemed an offense to some of my democratic +fellow-passengers. The reader will easily imagine what must have been +my feelings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. _Various Incidents_ + + +NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE—UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION—THE OBJECTIONS TO IT—THEIR +PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED—MOTIVES FOR COMING TO ROCHESTER—DISCIPLE OF MR. +GARRISON—CHANGE OF OPINION—CAUSES LEADING TO IT—THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE +CHANGE—PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR—AMUSING CONDESCENSION—“JIM CROW +CARS”—COLLISIONS WITH CONDUCTORS AND BRAKEMEN—TRAINS ORDERED NOT TO +STOP AT LYNN—AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE—SEPARATE TABLES FOR MASTER AND +MAN—PREJUDICE UNNATURAL—ILLUSTRATIONS—IN HIGH COMPANY—ELEVATION OF THE +FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR—PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE. + + +I have now given the reader an imperfect sketch of nine years’ +experience in freedom—three years as a common laborer on the wharves of +New Bedford, four years as a lecturer in New England, and two years of +semi-exile in Great Britain and Ireland. A single ray of light remains +to be flung upon my life during the last eight years, and my story will +be done. + +A trial awaited me on my return from England to the United States, for +which I was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans for my then future +usefulness as an anti-slavery advocate were all settled. My friends in +England had resolved to raise a given sum to purchase for me a press +and printing materials; and I already saw myself wielding my pen, as +well as my voice, in the great work of renovating the public mind, and +building up a public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery and +oppression to the grave, and restore to “liberty and the pursuit of +happiness” the people with whom I had suffered, both as a slave and as +a freeman. Intimation had reached my friends in Boston of what I +intended to do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find them +favorably disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was +mistaken. I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my +starting a paper, and for several reasons. First, the paper was not +needed; secondly, it would interfere with my usefulness as a lecturer; +thirdly, I was better fitted to speak than to write; fourthly, the +paper could not succeed. This opposition, from a quarter so highly +esteemed, and to which I had been accustomed to look for advice and +direction, caused me not only to hesitate, but inclined me to abandon +the enterprise. All previous attempts to establish such a journal +having failed, I felt that probably I should but add another to the +list of failures, and thus contribute another proof of the mental and +moral deficiencies of my race. Very much that was said to me in respect +to my imperfect literary acquirements, I felt to be most painfully +true. The unsuccessful projectors of all the previous colored +newspapers were my superiors in point of education, and if they failed, +how could I hope for success? Yet I did hope for success, and persisted +in the undertaking. Some of my English friends greatly encouraged me to +go forward, and I shall never cease to be grateful for their words of +cheer and generous deeds. + +I can easily pardon those who have denounced me as ambitious and +presumptuous, in view of my persistence in this enterprise. I was but +nine years from slavery. In point of mental experience, I was but nine +years old. That one, in such circumstances, should aspire to establish +a printing press, among an educated people, might well be considered, +if not ambitious, quite silly. My American friends looked at me with +astonishment! “A wood-sawyer” offering himself to the public as an +editor! A slave, brought up in the very depths of ignorance, assuming +to instruct the highly civilized people of the north in the principles +of liberty, justice, and humanity! The thing looked absurd. +Nevertheless, I persevered. I felt that the want of education, great as +it was, could be overcome by study, and that knowledge would come by +experience; and further (which was perhaps the most controlling +consideration). I thought that an intelligent public, knowing my early +history, would easily pardon a large share of the deficiencies which I +was sure that my paper would exhibit. The most distressing thing, +however, was the offense which I was about to give my Boston friends, +by what seemed to them a reckless disregard of their sage advice. I am +not sure that I was not under the influence of something like a slavish +adoration of my Boston friends, and I labored hard to convince them of +the wisdom of my undertaking, but without success. Indeed, I never +expect to succeed, although time has answered all their original +objections. The paper has been successful. It is a large sheet, costing +eighty dollars per week—has three thousand subscribers—has been +published regularly nearly eight years—and bids fair to stand eight +years longer. At any rate, the eight years to come are as full of +promise as were the eight that are past. + +It is not to be concealed, however, that the maintenance of such a +journal, under the circumstances, has been a work of much difficulty; +and could all the perplexity, anxiety, and trouble attending it, have +been clearly foreseen, I might have shrunk from the undertaking. As it +is, I rejoice in having engaged in the enterprise, and count it joy to +have been able to suffer, in many ways, for its success, and for the +success of the cause to which it has been faithfully devoted. I look +upon the time, money, and labor bestowed upon it, as being amply +rewarded, in the development of my own mental and moral energies, and +in the corresponding development of my deeply injured and oppressed +people. + +From motives of peace, instead of issuing my paper in Boston, among my +New England friends, I came to Rochester, western New York, among +strangers, where the circulation of my paper could not interfere with +the local circulation of the _Liberator_ and the _Standard;_ for at +that time I was, on the anti-slavery question, a faithful disciple of +William Lloyd Garrison, and fully committed to his doctrine touching +the pro-slavery character of the constitution of the United States, and +the _non-voting principle_, of which he is the known and distinguished +advocate. With Mr. Garrison, I held it to be the first duty of the +non-slaveholding states to dissolve the union with the slaveholding +states; and hence my cry, like his, was, “No union with slaveholders.” +With these views, I came into western New York; and during the first +four years of my labor here, I advocated them with pen and tongue, +according to the best of my ability. + +About four years ago, upon a reconsideration of the whole subject, I +became convinced that there was no necessity for dissolving the “union +between the northern and southern states;” that to seek this +dissolution was no part of my duty as an abolitionist; that to abstain +from voting, was to refuse to exercise a legitimate and powerful means +for abolishing slavery; and that the constitution of the United States +not only contained no guarantees in favor of slavery, but, on the +contrary, it is, in its letter and spirit, an anti-slavery instrument, +demanding the abolition of slavery as a condition of its own existence, +as the supreme law of the land. + +Here was a radical change in my opinions, and in the action logically +resulting from that change. To those with whom I had been in agreement +and in sympathy, I was now in opposition. What they held to be a great +and important truth, I now looked upon as a dangerous error. A very +painful, and yet a very natural, thing now happened. Those who could +not see any honest reasons for changing their views, as I had done, +could not easily see any such reasons for my change, and the common +punishment of apostates was mine. + +The opinions first entertained were naturally derived and honestly +entertained, and I trust that my present opinions have the same claims +to respect. Brought directly, when I escaped from slavery, into contact +with a class of abolitionists regarding the constitution as a +slaveholding instrument, and finding their views supported by the +united and entire history of every department of the government, it is +not strange that I assumed the constitution to be just what their +interpretation made it. I was bound, not only by their superior +knowledge, to take their opinions as the true ones, in respect to the +subject, but also because I had no means of showing their unsoundness. +But for the responsibility of conducting a public journal, and the +necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite views from abolitionists +in this state, I should in all probability have remained as firm in my +disunion views as any other disciple of William Lloyd Garrison. + +My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject, and to +study, with some care, not only the just and proper rules of legal +interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and +duties of civil government, and also the relations which human beings +sustain to it. By such a course of thought and reading, I was conducted +to the conclusion that the constitution of the United +States—inaugurated “to form a more perfect union, establish justice, +insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote +the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty”—could not well +have been designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system +of rapine and murder, like slavery; especially, as not one word can be +found in the constitution to authorize such a belief. Then, again, if +the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern the meaning of all +its parts and details, as they clearly should, the constitution of our +country is our warrant for the abolition of slavery in every state in +the American Union. I mean, however, not to argue, but simply to state +my views. It would require very many pages of a volume like this, to +set forth the arguments demonstrating the unconstitutionality and the +complete illegality of slavery in our land; and as my experience, and +not my arguments, is within the scope and contemplation of this volume, +I omit the latter and proceed with the former. + +I will now ask the kind reader to go back a little in my story, while I +bring up a thread left behind for convenience sake, but which, small as +it is, cannot be properly omitted altogether; and that thread is +American prejudice against color, and its varied illustrations in my +own experience. + +When I first went among the abolitionists of New England, and began to +travel, I found this prejudice very strong and very annoying. The +abolitionists themselves were not entirely free from it, and I could +see that they were nobly struggling against it. In their eagerness, +sometimes, to show their contempt for the feeling, they proved that +they had not entirely recovered from it; often illustrating the saying, +in their conduct, that a man may “stand up so straight as to lean +backward.” When it was said to me, “Mr. Douglass, I will walk to +meeting with you; I am not afraid of a black man,” I could not help +thinking—seeing nothing very frightful in my appearance—“And why should +you be?” The children at the north had all been educated to believe +that if they were bad, the old _black_ man—not the old _devil_—would +get them; and it was evidence of some courage, for any so educated to +get the better of their fears. + +The custom of providing separate cars for the accommodation of colored +travelers, was established on nearly all the railroads of New England, +a dozen years ago. Regarding this custom as fostering the spirit of +caste, I made it a rule to seat myself in the cars for the +accommodation of passengers generally. Thus seated, I was sure to be +called upon to betake myself to the “_Jim Crow car_.” Refusing to obey, +I was often dragged out of my seat, beaten, and severely bruised, by +conductors and brakemen. Attempting to start from Lynn, one day, for +Newburyport, on the Eastern railroad, I went, as my custom was, into +one of the best railroad carriages on the road. The seats were very +luxuriant and beautiful. I was soon waited upon by the conductor, and +ordered out; whereupon I demanded the reason for my invidious removal. +After a good deal of parleying, I was told that it was because I was +black. This I denied, and appealed to the company to sustain my denial; +but they were evidently unwilling to commit themselves, on a point so +delicate, and requiring such nice powers of discrimination, for they +remained as dumb as death. I was soon waited on by half a dozen fellows +of the baser sort (just such as would volunteer to take a bull-dog out +of a meeting-house in time of public worship), and told that I must +move out of that seat, and if I did not, they would drag me out. I +refused to move, and they clutched me, head, neck, and shoulders. But, +in anticipation of the stretching to which I was about to be subjected, +I had interwoven myself among the seats. In dragging me out, on this +occasion, it must have cost the company twenty-five or thirty dollars, +for I tore up seats and all. So great was the excitement in Lynn, on +the subject, that the superintendent, Mr. Stephen A. Chase, ordered the +trains to run through Lynn without stopping, while I remained in that +town; and this ridiculous farce was enacted. For several days the +trains went dashing through Lynn without stopping. At the same time +that they excluded a free colored man from their cars, this same +company allowed slaves, in company with their masters and mistresses, +to ride unmolested. + +After many battles with the railroad conductors, and being roughly +handled in not a few instances, proscription was at last abandoned; and +the “Jim Crow car”—set up for the degradation of colored people—is +nowhere found in New England. This result was not brought about without +the intervention of the people, and the threatened enactment of a law +compelling railroad companies to respect the rights of travelers. Hon. +Charles Francis Adams performed signal service in the Massachusetts +legislature, in bringing this reformation; and to him the colored +citizens of that state are deeply indebted. + +Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice +against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet +amusement. A half-cured subject of it is sometimes driven into awkward +straits, especially if he happens to get a genuine specimen of the race +into his house. + +In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and lecturing, in company with +William A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana. Anti-slavery +friends were not very abundant in Indiana, at that time, and beds were +not more plentiful than friends. We often slept out, in preference to +sleeping in the houses, at some points. At the close of one of our +meetings, we were invited home with a kindly-disposed old farmer, who, +in the generous enthusiasm of the moment, seemed to have forgotten that +he had but one spare bed, and that his guests were an ill-matched pair. +All went on pretty well, till near bed time, when signs of uneasiness +began to show themselves, among the unsophisticated sons and daughters. +White is remarkably fine looking, and very evidently a born gentleman; +the idea of putting us in the same bed was hardly to be tolerated; and +yet, there we were, and but the one bed for us, and that, by the way, +was in the same room occupied by the other members of the family. +White, as well as I, perceived the difficulty, for yonder slept the old +folks, there the sons, and a little farther along slept the daughters; +and but one other bed remained. Who should have this bed, was the +puzzling question. There was some whispering between the old folks, +some confused looks among the young, as the time for going to bed +approached. After witnessing the confusion as long as I liked, I +relieved the kindly-disposed family by playfully saying, “Friend White, +having got entirely rid of my prejudice against color, I think, as a +proof of it, I must allow you to sleep with me to-night.” White kept up +the joke, by seeming to esteem himself the favored party, and thus the +difficulty was removed. If we went to a hotel, and called for dinner, +the landlord was sure to set one table for White and another for me, +always taking him to be master, and me the servant. Large eyes were +generally made when the order was given to remove the dishes from my +table to that of White’s. In those days, it was thought strange that a +white man and a colored man could dine peaceably at the same table, and +in some parts the strangeness of such a sight has not entirely +subsided. + +Some people will have it that there is a natural, an inherent, and an +invincible repugnance in the breast of the white race toward +dark-colored people; and some very intelligent colored men think that +their proscription is owing solely to the color which nature has given +them. They hold that they are rated according to their color, and that +it is impossible for white people ever to look upon dark races of men, +or men belonging to the African race, with other than feelings of +aversion. My experience, both serious and mirthful, combats this +conclusion. Leaving out of sight, for a moment, grave facts, to this +point, I will state one or two, which illustrate a very interesting +feature of American character as well as American prejudice. Riding +from Boston to Albany, a few years ago, I found myself in a large car, +well filled with passengers. The seat next to me was about the only +vacant one. At every stopping place we took in new passengers, all of +whom, on reaching the seat next to me, cast a disdainful glance upon +it, and passed to another car, leaving me in the full enjoyment of a +hole form. For a time, I did not know but that my riding there was +prejudicial to the interest of the railroad company. A circumstance +occurred, however, which gave me an elevated position at once. Among +the passengers on this train was Gov. George N. Briggs. I was not +acquainted with him, and had no idea that I was known to him, however, +I was, for upon observing me, the governor left his place, and making +his way toward me, respectfully asked the privilege of a seat by my +side; and upon introducing himself, we entered into a conversation very +pleasant and instructive to me. The despised seat now became honored. +His excellency had removed all the prejudice against sitting by the +side of a Negro; and upon his leaving it, as he did, on reaching +Pittsfield, there were at least one dozen applicants for the place. The +governor had, without changing my skin a single shade, made the place +respectable which before was despicable. + +A similar incident happened to me once on the Boston and New Bedford +railroad, and the leading party to it has since been governor of the +state of Massachusetts. I allude to Col. John Henry Clifford. Lest the +reader may fancy I am aiming to elevate myself, by claiming too much +intimacy with great men, I must state that my only acquaintance with +Col. Clifford was formed while I was _his hired servant_, during the +first winter of my escape from slavery. I owe it him to say, that in +that relation I found him always kind and gentlemanly. But to the +incident. I entered a car at Boston, for New Bedford, which, with the +exception of a single seat was full, and found I must occupy this, or +stand up, during the journey. Having no mind to do this, I stepped up +to the man having the next seat, and who had a few parcels on the seat, +and gently asked leave to take a seat by his side. My fellow-passenger +gave me a look made up of reproach and indignation, and asked me why I +should come to that particular seat. I assured him, in the gentlest +manner, that of all others this was the seat for me. Finding that I was +actually about to sit down, he sang out, “O! stop, stop! and let me get +out!” Suiting the action to the word, up the agitated man got, and +sauntered to the other end of the car, and was compelled to stand for +most of the way thereafter. Halfway to New Bedford, or more, Col. +Clifford, recognizing me, left his seat, and not having seen me before +since I had ceased to wait on him (in everything except hard arguments +against his pro-slavery position), apparently forgetful of his rank, +manifested, in greeting me, something of the feeling of an old friend. +This demonstration was not lost on the gentleman whose dignity I had, +an hour before, most seriously offended. Col. Clifford was known to be +about the most aristocratic gentleman in Bristol county; and it was +evidently thought that I must be somebody, else I should not have been +thus noticed, by a person so distinguished. Sure enough, after Col. +Clifford left me, I found myself surrounded with friends; and among the +number, my offended friend stood nearest, and with an apology for his +rudeness, which I could not resist, although it was one of the lamest +ever offered. With such facts as these before me—and I have many of +them—I am inclined to think that pride and fashion have much to do with +the treatment commonly extended to colored people in the United States. +I once heard a very plain man say (and he was cross-eyed, and awkwardly +flung together in other respects) that he should be a handsome man when +public opinion shall be changed. + +Since I have been editing and publishing a journal devoted to the cause +of liberty and progress, I have had my mind more directed to the +condition and circumstances of the free colored people than when I was +the agent of an abolition society. The result has been a corresponding +change in the disposition of my time and labors. I have felt it to be a +part of my mission—under a gracious Providence to impress my sable +brothers in this country with the conviction that, notwithstanding the +ten thousand discouragements and the powerful hinderances, which beset +their existence in this country—notwithstanding the blood-written +history of Africa, and her children, from whom we have descended, or +the clouds and darkness (whose stillness and gloom are made only more +awful by wrathful thunder and lightning) now overshadowing +them—progress is yet possible, and bright skies shall yet shine upon +their pathway; and that “Ethiopia shall yet reach forth her hand unto +God.” + +Believing that one of the best means of emancipating the slaves of the +south is to improve and elevate the character of the free colored +people of the north I shall labor in the future, as I have labored in +the past, to promote the moral, social, religious, and intellectual +elevation of the free colored people; never forgetting my own humble +orgin(sic), nor refusing, while Heaven lends me ability, to use my +voice, my pen, or my vote, to advocate the great and primary work of +the universal and unconditional emancipation of my entire race. + + + + +RECEPTION SPEECH 10. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, + + +1846 + +Mr. Douglass rose amid loud cheers, and said: I feel exceedingly glad +of the opportunity now afforded me of presenting the claims of my +brethren in bonds in the United States, to so many in London and from +various parts of Britain, who have assembled here on the present +occasion. I have nothing to commend me to your consideration in the way +of learning, nothing in the way of education, to entitle me to your +attention; and you are aware that slavery is a very bad school for +rearing teachers of morality and religion. Twenty-one years of my life +have been spent in slavery—personal slavery—surrounded by degrading +influences, such as can exist nowhere beyond the pale of slavery; and +it will not be strange, if under such circumstances, I should betray, +in what I have to say to you, a deficiency of that refinement which is +seldom or ever found, except among persons that have experienced +superior advantages to those which I have enjoyed. But I will take it +for granted that you know something about the degrading influences of +slavery, and that you will not expect great things from me this +evening, but simply such facts as I may be able to advance immediately +in connection with my own experience of slavery. + +Now, what is this system of slavery? This is the subject of my lecture +this evening—what is the character of this institution? I am about to +answer the inquiry, what is American slavery? I do this the more +readily, since I have found persons in this country who have identified +the term slavery with that which I think it is not, and in some +instances, I have feared, in so doing, have rather (unwittingly, I +know) detracted much from the horror with which the term slavery is +contemplated. It is common in this country to distinguish every bad +thing by the name of slavery. Intemperance is slavery; to be deprived +of the right to vote is slavery, says one; to have to work hard is +slavery, says another; and I do not know but that if we should let them +go on, they would say that to eat when we are hungry, to walk when we +desire to have exercise, or to minister to our necessities, or have +necessities at all, is slavery. I do not wish for a moment to detract +from the horror with which the evil of intemperance is contemplated—not +at all; nor do I wish to throw the slightest obstruction in the way of +any political freedom that any class of persons in this country may +desire to obtain. But I am here to say that I think the term slavery is +sometimes abused by identifying it with that which it is not. Slavery +in the United States is the granting of that power by which one man +exercises and enforces a right of property in the body and soul of +another. The condition of a slave is simply that of the brute beast. He +is a piece of property—a marketable commodity, in the language of the +law, to be bought or sold at the will and caprice of the master who +claims him to be his property; he is spoken of, thought of, and treated +as property. His own good, his conscience, his intellect, his +affections, are all set aside by the master. The will and the wishes of +the master are the law of the slave. He is as much a piece of property +as a horse. If he is fed, he is fed because he is property. If he is +clothed, it is with a view to the increase of his value as property. +Whatever of comfort is necessary to him for his body or soul that is +inconsistent with his being property, is carefully wrested from him, +not only by public opinion, but by the law of the country. He is +carefully deprived of everything that tends in the slightest degree to +detract from his value as property. He is deprived of education. God +has given him an intellect; the slaveholder declares it shall not be +cultivated. If his moral perception leads him in a course contrary to +his value as property, the slaveholder declares he shall not exercise +it. The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one-sixth +of the population of democratic America is denied its privileges by the +law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its +liberty, boasting of its humanity, boasting of its Christianity, +boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its +own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of +marriage?—what must be the condition of that people? I need not lift up +the veil by giving you any experience of my own. Every one that can put +two ideas together, must see the most fearful results from such a state +of things as I have just mentioned. If any of these three millions find +for themselves companions, and prove themselves honest, upright, +virtuous persons to each other, yet in these cases—few as I am bound to +confess they are—the virtuous live in constant apprehension of being +torn asunder by the merciless men-stealers that claim them as their +property. This is American slavery; no marriage—no education—the light +of the gospel shut out from the dark mind of the bondman—and he +forbidden by law to learn to read. If a mother shall teach her children +to read, the law in Louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the +neck. If the father attempt to give his son a knowledge of letters, he +may be punished by the whip in one instance, and in another be killed, +at the discretion of the court. Three millions of people shut out from +the light of knowledge! It is easy for you to conceive the evil that +must result from such a state of things. + +I now come to the physical evils of slavery. I do not wish to dwell at +length upon these, but it seems right to speak of them, not so much to +influence your minds on this question, as to let the slaveholders of +America know that the curtain which conceals their crimes is being +lifted abroad; that we are opening the dark cell, and leading the +people into the horrible recesses of what they are pleased to call +their domestic institution. We want them to know that a knowledge of +their whippings, their scourgings, their brandings, their chainings, is +not confined to their plantations, but that some Negro of theirs has +broken loose from his chains—has burst through the dark incrustation of +slavery, and is now exposing their deeds of deep damnation to the gaze +of the christian people of England. + +The slaveholders resort to all kinds of cruelty. If I were disposed, I +have matter enough to interest you on this question for five or six +evenings, but I will not dwell at length upon these cruelties. Suffice +it to say, that all of the peculiar modes of torture that were resorted +to in the West India islands, are resorted to, I believe, even more +frequently, in the United States of America. Starvation, the bloody +whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, cat-hauling, the +cat-o’-nine-tails, the dungeon, the blood-hound, are all in requisition +to keep the slave in his condition as a slave in the United States. If +any one has a doubt upon this point, I would ask him to read the +chapter on slavery in Dickens’s _Notes on America_. If any man has a +doubt upon it, I have here the “testimony of a thousand witnesses,” +which I can give at any length, all going to prove the truth of my +statement. The blood-hound is regularly trained in the United States, +and advertisements are to be found in the southern papers of the Union, +from persons advertising themselves as blood-hound trainers, and +offering to hunt down slaves at fifteen dollars a piece, recommending +their hounds as the fleetest in the neighborhood, never known to fail. +Advertisements are from time to time inserted, stating that slaves have +escaped with iron collars about their necks, with bands of iron about +their feet, marked with the lash, branded with red-hot irons, the +initials of their master’s name burned into their flesh; and the +masters advertise the fact of their being thus branded with their own +signature, thereby proving to the world, that, however damning it may +appear to non-slavers, such practices are not regarded discreditable +among the slaveholders themselves. Why, I believe if a man should brand +his horse in this country—burn the initials of his name into any of his +cattle, and publish the ferocious deed here—that the united execrations +of Christians in Britain would descend upon him. Yet in the United +States, human beings are thus branded. As Whittier says— + +... Our countrymen in chains, +The whip on woman’s shrinking flesh, +Our soil yet reddening with the stains +Caught from her scourgings warm and fresh. + + +The slave-dealer boldly publishes his infamous acts to the world. Of +all things that have been said of slavery to which exception has been +taken by slaveholders, this, the charge of cruelty, stands foremost, +and yet there is no charge capable of clearer demonstration, than that +of the most barbarous inhumanity on the part of the slaveholders toward +their slaves. And all this is necessary; it is necessary to resort to +these cruelties, in order to _make the slave a slave_, and to _keep him +a slave_. Why, my experience all goes to prove the truth of what you +will call a marvelous proposition, that the better you treat a slave, +the more you destroy his value _as a slave_, and enhance the +probability of his eluding the grasp of the slaveholder; the more +kindly you treat him, the more wretched you make him, while you keep +him in the condition of a slave. My experience, I say, confirms the +truth of this proposition. When I was treated exceedingly ill; when my +back was being scourged daily; when I was whipped within an inch of my +life—_life_ was all I cared for. “Spare my life,” was my continual +prayer. When I was looking for the blow about to be inflicted upon my +head, I was not thinking of my liberty; it was my life. But, as soon as +the blow was not to be feared, then came the longing for liberty. If a +slave has a bad master, his ambition is to get a better; when he gets a +better, he aspires to have the best; and when he gets the best, he +aspires to be his own master. But the slave must be brutalized to keep +him as a slave. The slaveholder feels this necessity. I admit this +necessity. If it be right to hold slaves at all, it is right to hold +them in the only way in which they can be held; and this can be done +only by shutting out the light of education from their minds, and +brutalizing their persons. The whip, the chain, the gag, the +thumb-screw, the blood-hound, the stocks, and all the other bloody +paraphernalia of the slave system, are indispensably necessary to the +relation of master and slave. The slave must be subjected to these, or +he ceases to be a slave. Let him know that the whip is burned; that the +fetters have been turned to some useful and profitable employment; that +the chain is no longer for his limbs; that the blood-hound is no longer +to be put upon his track; that his master’s authority over him is no +longer to be enforced by taking his life—and immediately he walks out +from the house of bondage and asserts his freedom as a man. The +slaveholder finds it necessary to have these implements to keep the +slave in bondage; finds it necessary to be able to say, “Unless you do +so and so; unless you do as I bid you—I will take away your life!” + +Some of the most awful scenes of cruelty are constantly taking place in +the middle states of the Union. We have in those states what are called +the slave-breeding states. Allow me to speak plainly. Although it is +harrowing to your feelings, it is necessary that the facts of the case +should be stated. We have in the United States slave-breeding states. +The very state from which the minister from our court to yours comes, +is one of these states—Maryland, where men, women, and children are +reared for the market, just as horses, sheep, and swine are raised for +the market. Slave-rearing is there looked upon as a legitimate trade; +the law sanctions it, public opinion upholds it, the church does not +condemn it. It goes on in all its bloody horrors, sustained by the +auctioneer’s block. If you would see the cruelties of this system, hear +the following narrative. Not long since the following scene occurred. A +slave-woman and a slaveman had united themselves as man and wife in the +absence of any law to protect them as man and wife. They had lived +together by the permission, not by right, of their master, and they had +reared a family. The master found it expedient, and for his interest, +to sell them. He did not ask them their wishes in regard to the matter +at all; they were not consulted. The man and woman were brought to the +auctioneer’s block, under the sound of the hammer. The cry was raised, +“Here goes; who bids cash?” Think of it—a man and wife to be sold! The +woman was placed on the auctioneer’s block; her limbs, as is customary, +were brutally exposed to the purchasers, who examined her with all the +freedom with which they would examine a horse. There stood the husband, +powerless; no right to his wife; the master’s right preeminent. She was +sold. He was next brought to the auctioneer’s block. His eyes followed +his wife in the distance; and he looked beseechingly, imploringly, to +the man that had bought his wife, to buy him also. But he was at length +bid off to another person. He was about to be separated forever from +her he loved. No word of his, no work of his, could save him from this +separation. He asked permission of his new master to go and take the +hand of his wife at parting. It was denied him. In the agony of his +soul he rushed from the man who had just bought him, that he might take +a farewell of his wife; but his way was obstructed, he was struck over +the head with a loaded whip, and was held for a moment; but his agony +was too great. When he was let go, he fell a corpse at the feet of his +master. His heart was broken. Such scenes are the everyday fruits of +American slavery. Some two years since, the Hon. Seth. M. Gates, an +anti-slavery gentleman of the state of New York, a representative in +the congress of the United States, told me he saw with his own eyes the +following circumstances. In the national District of Columbia, over +which the star-spangled emblem is constantly waving, where orators are +ever holding forth on the subject of American liberty, American +democracy, American republicanism, there are two slave prisons. When +going across a bridge, leading to one of these prisons, he saw a young +woman run out, bare-footed and bare-headed, and with very little +clothing on. She was running with all speed to the bridge he was +approaching. His eye was fixed upon her, and he stopped to see what was +the matter. He had not paused long before he saw three men run out +after her. He now knew what the nature of the case was; a slave +escaping from her chains—a young woman, a sister—escaping from the +bondage in which she had been held. She made her way to the bridge, but +had not reached, ere from the Virginia side there came two +slaveholders. As soon as they saw them, her pursuers called out, “Stop +her!” True to their Virginian instincts, they came to the rescue of +their brother kidnappers, across the bridge. The poor girl now saw that +there was no chance for her. It was a trying time. She knew if she went +back, she must be a slave forever—she must be dragged down to the +scenes of pollution which the slaveholders continually provide for most +of the poor, sinking, wretched young women, whom they call their +property. She formed her resolution; and just as those who were about +to take her, were going to put hands upon her, to drag her back, she +leaped over the balustrades of the bridge, and down she went to rise no +more. She chose death, rather than to go back into the hands of those +christian slaveholders from whom she had escaped. + +Can it be possible that such things as these exist in the United +States? Are not these the exceptions? Are any such scenes as this +general? Are not such deeds condemned by the law and denounced by +public opinion? Let me read to you a few of the laws of the +slaveholding states of America. I think no better exposure of slavery +can be made than is made by the laws of the states in which slavery +exists. I prefer reading the laws to making any statement in +confirmation of what I have said myself; for the slaveholders cannot +object to this testimony, since it is the calm, the cool, the +deliberate enactment of their wisest heads, of their most +clear-sighted, their own constituted representatives. “If more than +seven slaves together are found in any road without a white person, +twenty lashes a piece; for visiting a plantation without a written +pass, ten lashes; for letting loose a boat from where it is made fast, +thirty-nine lashes for the first offense; and for the second, shall +have cut off from his head one ear; for keeping or carrying a club, +thirty-nine lashes; for having any article for sale, without a ticket +from his master, ten lashes; for traveling in any other than the most +usual and accustomed road, when going alone to any place, forty lashes; +for traveling in the night without a pass, forty lashes.” I am afraid +you do not understand the awful character of these lashes. You must +bring it before your mind. A human being in a perfect state of nudity, +tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man standing behind with a +heavy whip, knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh, and +leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet; and for these trifles. +“For being found in another person’s negro-quarters, forty lashes; for +hunting with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes; for being on horseback +without the written permission of his master, twenty-five lashes; for +riding or going abroad in the night, or riding horses in the day time, +without leave, a slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the cheek +with the letter R. or otherwise punished, such punishment not extending +to life, or so as to render him unfit for labor.” The laws referred to, +may be found by consulting _Brevard’s Digest; Haywood’s Manual; +Virginia Revised Code; Prince’s Digest; Missouri Laws; Mississippi +Revised Code_. A man, for going to visit his brethren, without the +permission of his master—and in many instances he may not have that +permission; his master, from caprice or other reasons, may not be +willing to allow it—may be caught on his way, dragged to a post, the +branding-iron heated, and the name of his master or the letter R +branded into his cheek or on his forehead. They treat slaves thus, on +the principle that they must punish for light offenses, in order to +prevent the commission of larger ones. I wish you to mark that in the +single state of Virginia there are seventy-one crimes for which a +colored man may be executed; while there are only three of these +crimes, which, when committed by a white man, will subject him to that +punishment. There are many of these crimes which if the white man did +not commit, he would be regarded as a scoundrel and a coward. In the +state of Maryland, there is a law to this effect: that if a slave shall +strike his master, he may be hanged, his head severed from his body, +his body quartered, and his head and quarters set up in the most +prominent places in the neighborhood. If a colored woman, in the +defense of her own virtue, in defense of her own person, should shield +herself from the brutal attacks of her tyrannical master, or make the +slightest resistance, she may be killed on the spot. No law whatever +will bring the guilty man to justice for the crime. + +But you will ask me, can these things be possible in a land professing +Christianity? Yes, they are so; and this is not the worst. No; a darker +feature is yet to be presented than the mere existence of these facts. +I have to inform you that the religion of the southern states, at this +time, is the great supporter, the great sanctioner of the bloody +atrocities to which I have referred. While America is printing tracts +and bibles; sending missionaries abroad to convert the heathen; +expending her money in various ways for the promotion of the gospel in +foreign lands—the slave not only lies forgotten, uncared for, but is +trampled under foot by the very churches of the land. What have we in +America? Why, we have slavery made part of the religion of the land. +Yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender of this cursed +_institution_, as it is called. Ministers of religion come forward and +torture the hallowed pages of inspired wisdom to sanction the bloody +deed. They stand forth as the foremost, the strongest defenders of this +“institution.” As a proof of this, I need not do more than state the +general fact, that slavery has existed under the droppings of the +sanctuary of the south for the last two hundred years, and there has +not been any war between the _religion_ and the _slavery_ of the south. +Whips, chains, gags, and thumb-screws have all lain under the droppings +of the sanctuary, and instead of rusting from off the limbs of the +bondman, those droppings have served to preserve them in all their +strength. Instead of preaching the gospel against this tyranny, rebuke, +and wrong, ministers of religion have sought, by all and every means, +to throw in the back-ground whatever in the bible could be construed +into opposition to slavery, and to bring forward that which they could +torture into its support. This I conceive to be the darkest feature of +slavery, and the most difficult to attack, because it is identified +with religion, and exposes those who denounce it to the charge of +infidelity. Yes, those with whom I have been laboring, namely, the old +organization anti-slavery society of America, have been again and again +stigmatized as infidels, and for what reason? Why, solely in +consequence of the faithfulness of their attacks upon the slaveholding +religion of the southern states, and the northern religion that +sympathizes with it. I have found it difficult to speak on this matter +without persons coming forward and saying, “Douglass, are you not +afraid of injuring the cause of Christ? You do not desire to do so, we +know; but are you not undermining religion?” This has been said to me +again and again, even since I came to this country, but I cannot be +induced to leave off these exposures. I love the religion of our +blessed Savior. I love that religion that comes from above, in the +“wisdom of God,” which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy +to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and +without hypocrisy. I love that religion that sends its votaries to bind +up the wounds of him that has fallen among thieves. I love that +religion that makes it the duty of its disciples to visit the father +less and the widow in their affliction. I love that religion that is +based upon the glorious principle, of love to God and love to man; +which makes its followers do unto others as they themselves would be +done by. If you demand liberty to yourself, it says, grant it to your +neighbors. If you claim a right to think for yourself, it says, allow +your neighbors the same right. If you claim to act for yourself, it +says, allow your neighbors the same right. It is because I love this +religion that I hate the slaveholding, the woman-whipping, the +mind-darkening, the soul-destroying religion that exists in the +southern states of America. It is because I regard the one as good, and +pure, and holy, that I cannot but regard the other as bad, corrupt, and +wicked. Loving the one I must hate the other; holding to the one I must +reject the other. + +I may be asked, why I am so anxious to bring this subject before the +British public—why I do not confine my efforts to the United States? My +answer is, first, that slavery is the common enemy of mankind, and all +mankind should be made acquainted with its abominable character. My +next answer is, that the slave is a man, and, as such, is entitled to +your sympathy as a brother. All the feelings, all the susceptibilities, +all the capacities, which you have, he has. He is a part of the human +family. He has been the prey—the common prey—of Christendom for the +last three hundred years, and it is but right, it is but just, it is +but proper, that his wrongs should be known throughout the world. I +have another reason for bringing this matter before the British public, +and it is this: slavery is a system of wrong, so blinding to all +around, so hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the morals, so +deleterious to religion, so sapping to all the principles of justice in +its immediate vicinity, that the community surrounding it lack the +moral stamina necessary to its removal. It is a system of such gigantic +evil, so strong, so overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is +equal to its removal. It requires the humanity of Christianity, the +morality of the world to remove it. Hence, I call upon the people of +Britain to look at this matter, and to exert the influence I am about +to show they possess, for the removal of slavery from America. I can +appeal to them, as strongly by their regard for the slaveholder as for +the slave, to labor in this cause. I am here, because you have an +influence on America that no other nation can have. You have been drawn +together by the power of steam to a marvelous extent; the distance +between London and Boston is now reduced to some twelve or fourteen +days, so that the denunciations against slavery, uttered in London this +week, may be heard in a fortnight in the streets of Boston, and +reverberating amidst the hills of Massachusetts. There is nothing said +here against slavery that will not be recorded in the United States. I +am here, also, because the slaveholders do not want me to be here; they +would rather that I were not here. I have adopted a maxim laid down by +Napoleon, never to occupy ground which the enemy would like me to +occupy. The slaveholders would much rather have me, if I will denounce +slavery, denounce it in the northern states, where their friends and +supporters are, who will stand by and mob me for denouncing it. They +feel something as the man felt, when he uttered his prayer, in which he +made out a most horrible case for himself, and one of his neighbors +touched him and said, “My friend, I always had the opinion of you that +you have now expressed for yourself—that you are a very great sinner.” +Coming from himself, it was all very well, but coming from a stranger +it was rather cutting. The slaveholders felt that when slavery was +denounced among themselves, it was not so bad; but let one of the +slaves get loose, let him summon the people of Britain, and make known +to them the conduct of the slaveholders toward their slaves, and it +cuts them to the quick, and produces a sensation such as would be +produced by nothing else. The power I exert now is something like the +power that is exerted by the man at the end of the lever; my influence +now is just in proportion to the distance that I am from the United +States. My exposure of slavery abroad will tell more upon the hearts +and consciences of slaveholders, than if I was attacking them in +America; for almost every paper that I now receive from the United +States, comes teeming with statements about this fugitive Negro, +calling him a “glib-tongued scoundrel,” and saying that he is running +out against the institutions and people of America. I deny the charge +that I am saying a word against the institutions of America, or the +people, as such. What I have to say is against slavery and +slaveholders. I feel at liberty to speak on this subject. I have on my +back the marks of the lash; I have four sisters and one brother now +under the galling chain. I feel it my duty to cry aloud and spare not. +I am not averse to having the good opinion of my fellow creatures. I am +not averse to being kindly regarded by all men; but I am bound, even at +the hazard of making a large class of religionists in this country hate +me, oppose me, and malign me as they have done—I am bound by the +prayers, and tears, and entreaties of three millions of kneeling +bondsmen, to have no compromise with men who are in any shape or form +connected with the slaveholders of America. I expose slavery in this +country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those +monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. Expose +slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is +to the root of a tree; it must die under it. All the slaveholder asks +of me is silence. He does not ask me to go abroad and preach _in favor_ +of slavery; he does not ask any one to do that. He would not say that +slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances. The +slaveholders want total darkness on the subject. They want the hatchway +shut down, that the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing +human hopes and happiness, destroying the bondman at will, and having +no one to reprove or rebuke him. Slavery shrinks from the light; it +hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds should be +reproved. To tear off the mask from this abominable system, to expose +it to the light of heaven, aye, to the heat of the sun, that it may +burn and wither it out of existence, is my object in coming to this +country. I want the slaveholder surrounded, as by a wall of +anti-slavery fire, so that he may see the condemnation of himself and +his system glaring down in letters of light. I want him to feel that he +has no sympathy in England, Scotland, or Ireland; that he has none in +Canada, none in Mexico, none among the poor wild Indians; that the +voice of the civilized, aye, and savage world is against him. I would +have condemnation blaze down upon him in every direction, till, stunned +and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is compelled to let go the +grasp he holds upon the persons of his victims, and restore them to +their long-lost rights. + + + + +Dr. Campbell’s Reply + + +From Rev. Dr. Campbell’s brilliant reply we extract the following: +FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “the beast of burden,” the portion of “goods and +chattels,” the representative of three millions of men, has been raised +up! Shall I say the _man?_ If there is a man on earth, he is a man. My +blood boiled within me when I heard his address tonight, and thought +that he had left behind him three millions of such men. + +We must see more of this man; we must have more of this man. One would +have taken a voyage round the globe some forty years back—especially +since the introduction of steam—to have heard such an exposure of +slavery from the lips of a slave. It will be an era in the individual +history of the present assembly. Our children—our boys and girls—I have +tonight seen the delightful sympathy of their hearts evinced by their +heaving breasts, while their eyes sparkled with wonder and admiration, +that this black man—this slave—had so much logic, so much wit, so much +fancy, so much eloquence. He was something more than a man, according +to their little notions. Then, I say, we must hear him again. We have +got a purpose to accomplish. He has appealed to the pulpit of England. +The English pulpit is with him. He has appealed to the press of +England; the press of England is conducted by English hearts, and that +press will do him justice. About ten days hence, and his second master, +who may well prize “such a piece of goods,” will have the pleasure of +reading his burning words, and his first master will bless himself that +he has got quit of him. We have to create public opinion, or rather, +not to create it, for it is created already; but we have to foster it; +and when tonight I heard those magnificent words—the words of Curran, +by which my heart, from boyhood, has ofttimes been deeply moved—I +rejoice to think that they embody an instinct of an Englishman’s +nature. I heard, with inexpressible delight, how they told on this +mighty mass of the citizens of the metropolis. + +Britain has now no slaves; we can therefore talk to the other nations +now, as we could not have talked a dozen years ago. I want the whole of +the London ministry to meet Douglass. For as his appeal is to England, +and throughout England, I should rejoice in the idea of churchmen and +dissenters merging all sectional distinctions in this cause. Let us +have a public breakfast. Let the ministers meet him; let them hear him; +let them grasp his hand; and let him enlist their sympathies on behalf +of the slave. Let him inspire them with abhorrence of the +man-stealer—the slaveholder. No slaveholding American shall ever my +cross my door. No slaveholding or slavery-supporting minister shall +ever pollute my pulpit. While I have a tongue to speak, or a hand to +write, I will, to the utmost of my power, oppose these slaveholding +men. We must have Douglass amongst us to aid in fostering public +opinion. + +The great conflict with slavery must now take place in America; and +while they are adding other slave states to the Union, our business is +to step forward and help the abolitionists there. It is a pleasing +circumstance that such a body of men has risen in America, and whilst +we hurl our thunders against her slavers, let us make a distinction +between those who advocate slavery and those who oppose it. George +Thompson has been there. This man, Frederick Douglass, has been there, +and has been compelled to flee. I wish, when he first set foot on our +shores, he had made a solemn vow, and said, “Now that I am free, and in +the sanctuary of freedom, I will never return till I have seen the +emancipation of my country completed.” He wants to surround these men, +the slaveholders, as by a wall of fire; and he himself may do much +toward kindling it. Let him travel over the island—east, west, north, +and south—everywhere diffusing knowledge and awakening principle, till +the whole nation become a body of petitioners to America. He will, he +must, do it. He must for a season make England his home. He must send +for his wife. He must send for his children. I want to see the sons and +daughters of such a sire. We, too, must do something for him and them +worthy of the English name. I do not like the idea of a man of such +mental dimensions, such moral courage, and all but incomparable talent, +having his own small wants, and the wants of a distant wife and +children, supplied by the poor profits of his publication, the sketch +of his life. Let the pamphlet be bought by tens of thousands. But we +will do something more for him, shall we not? + +It only remains that we pass a resolution of thanks to Frederick +Douglass, the slave that was, the man that is! He that was covered with +chains, and that is now being covered with glory, and whom we will send +back a gentleman. + + + + +LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. 11. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld + + +SIR—The long and intimate, though by no means friendly, relation which +unhappily subsisted between you and myself, leads me to hope that you +will easily account for the great liberty which I now take in +addressing you in this open and public manner. The same fact may remove +any disagreeable surprise which you may experience on again finding +your name coupled with mine, in any other way than in an advertisement, +accurately describing my person, and offering a large sum for my +arrest. In thus dragging you again before the public, I am aware that I +shall subject myself to no inconsiderable amount of censure. I shall +probably be charged with an unwarrantable, if not a wanton and reckless +disregard of the rights and properties of private life. There are those +north as well as south who entertain a much higher respect for rights +which are merely conventional, than they do for rights which are +personal and essential. Not a few there are in our country, who, while +they have no scruples against robbing the laborer of the hard earned +results of his patient industry, will be shocked by the extremely +indelicate manner of bringing your name before the public. Believing +this to be the case, and wishing to meet every reasonable or plausible +objection to my conduct, I will frankly state the ground upon which I +justfy(sic) myself in this instance, as well as on former occasions +when I have thought proper to mention your name in public. All will +agree that a man guilty of theft, robbery, or murder, has forfeited the +right to concealment and private life; that the community have a right +to subject such persons to the most complete exposure. However much +they may desire retirement, and aim to conceal themselves and their +movements from the popular gaze, the public have a right to ferret them +out, and bring their conduct before the proper tribunals of the country +for investigation. Sir, you will undoubtedly make the proper +application of these generally admitted principles, and will easily see +the light in which you are regarded by me; I will not therefore +manifest ill temper, by calling you hard names. I know you to be a man +of some intelligence, and can readily determine the precise estimate +which I entertain of your character. I may therefore indulge in +language which may seem to others indirect and ambiguous, and yet be +quite well understood by yourself. + +I have selected this day on which to address you, because it is the +anniversary of my emancipation; and knowing no better way, I am led to +this as the best mode of celebrating that truly important events. Just +ten years ago this beautiful September morning, yon bright sun beheld +me a slave—a poor degraded chattel—trembling at the sound of your +voice, lamenting that I was a man, and wishing myself a brute. The +hopes which I had treasured up for weeks of a safe and successful +escape from your grasp, were powerfully confronted at this last hour by +dark clouds of doubt and fear, making my person shake and my bosom to +heave with the heavy contest between hope and fear. I have no words to +describe to you the deep agony of soul which I experienced on that +never-to-be-forgotten morning—for I left by daylight. I was making a +leap in the dark. The probabilities, so far as I could by reason +determine them, were stoutly against the undertaking. The preliminaries +and precautions I had adopted previously, all worked badly. I was like +one going to war without weapons—ten chances of defeat to one of +victory. One in whom I had confided, and one who had promised me +assistance, appalled by fear at the trial hour, deserted me, thus +leaving the responsibility of success or failure solely with myself. +You, sir, can never know my feelings. As I look back to them, I can +scarcely realize that I have passed through a scene so trying. Trying, +however, as they were, and gloomy as was the prospect, thanks be to the +Most High, who is ever the God of the oppressed, at the moment which +was to determine my whole earthly career, His grace was sufficient; my +mind was made up. I embraced the golden opportunity, took the morning +tide at the flood, and a free man, young, active, and strong, is the +result. + +I have often thought I should like to explain to you the grounds upon +which I have justified myself in running away from you. I am almost +ashamed to do so now, for by this time you may have discovered them +yourself. I will, however, glance at them. When yet but a child about +six years old, I imbibed the determination to run away. The very first +mental effort that I now remember on my part, was an attempt to solve +the mystery—why am I a slave? and with this question my youthful mind +was troubled for many days, pressing upon me more heavily at times than +others. When I saw the slave-driver whip a slave-woman, cut the blood +out of her neck, and heard her piteous cries, I went away into the +corner of the fence, wept and pondered over the mystery. I had, through +some medium, I know not what, got some idea of God, the Creator of all +mankind, the black and the white, and that he had made the blacks to +serve the whites as slaves. How he could do this and be _good_, I could +not tell. I was not satisfied with this theory, which made God +responsible for slavery, for it pained me greatly, and I have wept over +it long and often. At one time, your first wife, Mrs. Lucretia, heard +me sighing and saw me shedding tears, and asked of me the matter, but I +was afraid to tell her. I was puzzled with this question, till one +night while sitting in the kitchen, I heard some of the old slaves +talking of their parents having been stolen from Africa by white men, +and were sold here as slaves. The whole mystery was solved at once. +Very soon after this, my Aunt Jinny and Uncle Noah ran away, and the +great noise made about it by your father-in-law, made me for the first +time acquainted with the fact, that there were free states as well as +slave states. From that time, I resolved that I would some day run +away. The morality of the act I dispose of as follows: I am myself; you +are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons. What you are, +I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, and made us +separate beings. I am not by nature bond to you, or you to me. Nature +does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine to depend upon +yours. I cannot walk upon your legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe +for you, or you for me; I must breathe for myself, and you for +yourself. We are distinct persons, and are each equally provided with +faculties necessary to our individual existence. In leaving you, I took +nothing but what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for +obtaining an _honest_ living. Your faculties remained yours, and mine +became useful to their rightful owner. I therefore see no wrong in any +part of the transaction. It is true, I went off secretly; but that was +more your fault than mine. Had I let you into the secret, you would +have defeated the enterprise entirely; but for this, I should have been +really glad to have made you acquainted with my intentions to leave. + +You may perhaps want to know how I like my present condition. I am free +to say, I greatly prefer it to that which I occupied in Maryland. I am, +however, by no means prejudiced against the state as such. Its +geography, climate, fertility, and products, are such as to make it a +very desirable abode for any man; and but for the existence of slavery +there, it is not impossible that I might again take up my abode in that +state. It is not that I love Maryland less, but freedom more. You will +be surprised to learn that people at the north labor under the strange +delusion that if the slaves were emancipated at the south, they would +flock to the north. So far from this being the case, in that event, you +would see many old and familiar faces back again to the south. The fact +is, there are few here who would not return to the south in the event +of emancipation. We want to live in the land of our birth, and to lay +our bones by the side of our fathers; and nothing short of an intense +love of personal freedom keeps us from the south. For the sake of this, +most of us would live on a crust of bread and a cup of cold water. + +Since I left you, I have had a rich experience. I have occupied +stations which I never dreamed of when a slave. Three out of the ten +years since I left you, I spent as a common laborer on the wharves of +New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was there I earned my first free dollar. +It was mine. I could spend it as I pleased. I could buy hams or herring +with it, without asking any odds of anybody. That was a precious dollar +to me. You remember when I used to make seven, or eight, or even nine +dollars a week in Baltimore, you would take every cent of it from me +every Saturday night, saying that I belonged to you, and my earnings +also. I never liked this conduct on your part—to say the best, I +thought it a little mean. I would not have served you so. But let that +pass. I was a little awkward about counting money in New England +fashion when I first landed in New Bedford. I came near betraying +myself several times. I caught myself saying phip, for fourpence; and +at one time a man actually charged me with being a runaway, whereupon I +was silly enough to become one by running away from him, for I was +greatly afraid he might adopt measures to get me again into slavery, a +condition I then dreaded more than death. + +I soon learned, however, to count money, as well as to make it, and got +on swimmingly. I married soon after leaving you; in fact, I was engaged +to be married before I left you; and instead of finding my companion a +burden, she was truly a helpmate. She went to live at service, and I to +work on the wharf, and though we toiled hard the first winter, we never +lived more happily. After remaining in New Bedford for three years, I +met with William Lloyd Garrison, a person of whom you have _possibly_ +heard, as he is pretty generally known among slaveholders. He put it +into my head that I might make myself serviceable to the cause of the +slave, by devoting a portion of my time to telling my own sorrows, and +those of other slaves, which had come under my observation. This was +the commencement of a higher state of existence than any to which I had +ever aspired. I was thrown into society the most pure, enlightened, and +benevolent, that the country affords. Among these I have never +forgotten you, but have invariably made you the topic of +conversation—thus giving you all the notoriety I could do. I need not +tell you that the opinion formed of you in these circles is far from +being favorable. They have little respect for your honesty, and less +for your religion. + +But I was going on to relate to you something of my interesting +experience. I had not long enjoyed the excellent society to which I +have referred, before the light of its excellence exerted a beneficial +influence on my mind and heart. Much of my early dislike of white +persons was removed, and their manners, habits, and customs, so +entirely unlike what I had been used to in the kitchen-quarters on the +plantations of the south, fairly charmed me, and gave me a strong +disrelish for the coarse and degrading customs of my former condition. +I therefore made an effort so to improve my mind and deportment, as to +be somewhat fitted to the station to which I seemed almost +providentially called. The transition from degradation to +respectability was indeed great, and to get from one to the other +without carrying some marks of one’s former condition, is truly a +difficult matter. I would not have you think that I am now entirely +clear of all plantation peculiarities, but my friends here, while they +entertain the strongest dislike to them, regard me with that charity to +which my past life somewhat entitles me, so that my condition in this +respect is exceedingly pleasant. So far as my domestic affairs are +concerned, I can boast of as comfortable a dwelling as your own. I have +an industrious and neat companion, and four dear children—the oldest a +girl of nine years, and three fine boys, the oldest eight, the next +six, and the youngest four years old. The three oldest are now going +regularly to school—two can read and write, and the other can spell, +with tolerable correctness, words of two syllables. Dear fellows! they +are all in comfortable beds, and are sound asleep, perfectly secure +under my own roof. There are no slaveholders here to rend my heart by +snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother’s dearest hopes by +tearing them from her bosom. These dear children are ours—not to work +up into rice, sugar, and tobacco, but to watch over, regard, and +protect, and to rear them up in the nurture and admonition of the +gospel—to train them up in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and, as far +as we can, to make them useful to the world and to themselves. Oh! sir, +a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as +when I think of and look upon my dear children. It is then that my +feelings rise above my control. I meant to have said more with respect +to my own prosperity and happiness, but thoughts and feelings which +this recital has quickened, unfit me to proceed further in that +direction. The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly terror +before me; the wails of millions pierce my heart and chill my blood. I +remember the chain, the gag, the bloody whip; the death-like gloom +overshadowing the broken spirit of the fettered bondman; the appalling +liability of his being torn away from wife and children, and sold like +a beast in the market. Say not that this is a picture of fancy. You +well know that I wear stripes on my back, inflicted by your direction; +and that you, while we were brothers in the same church, caused this +right hand, with which I am now penning this letter, to be closely tied +to my left, and my person dragged, at the pistol’s mouth, fifteen +miles, from the Bay Side to Easton, to be sold like a beast in the +market, for the alleged crime of intending to escape from your +possession. All this, and more, you remember, and know to be perfectly +true, not only of yourself, but of nearly all of the slaveholders +around you. + +At this moment, you are probably the guilty holder of at least three of +my own dear sisters, and my only brother, in bondage. These you regard +as your property. They are recorded on your ledger, or perhaps have +been sold to human flesh-mongers, with a view to filling our own +ever-hungry purse. Sir, I desire to know how and where these dear +sisters are. Have you sold them? or are they still in your possession? +What has become of them? are they living or dead? And my dear old +grandmother, whom you turned out like an old horse to die in the +woods—is she still alive? Write and let me know all about them. If my +grandmother be still alive, she is of no service to you, for by this +time she must be nearly eighty years old—too old to be cared for by one +to whom she has ceased to be of service; send her to me at Rochester, +or bring her to Philadelphia, and it shall be the crowning happiness of +my life to take care of her in her old age. Oh! she was to me a mother +and a father, so far as hard toil for my comfort could make her such. +Send me my grandmother! that I may watch over and take care of her in +her old age. And my sisters—let me know all about them. I would write +to them, and learn all I want to know of them, without disturbing you +in any way, but that, through your unrighteous conduct, they have been +entirely deprived of the power to read and write. You have kept them in +utter ignorance, and have therefore robbed them of the sweet enjoyments +of writing or receiving letters from absent friends and relatives. Your +wickedness and cruelty, committed in this respect on your +fellow-creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon +my back or theirs. It is an outrage upon the soul, a war upon the +immortal spirit, and one for which you must give account at the bar of +our common Father and Creator. + +The responsibility which you have assumed in this regard is truly +awful, and how you could stagger under it these many years is +marvelous. Your mind must have become darkened, your heart hardened, +your conscience seared and petrified, or you would have long since +thrown off the accursed load, and sought relief at the hands of a +sin-forgiving God. How, let me ask, would you look upon me, were I, +some dark night, in company with a band of hardened villains, to enter +the precincts of your elegant dwelling, and seize the person of your +own lovely daughter, Amanda, and carry her off from your family, +friends, and all the loved ones of her youth—make her my slave—compel +her to work, and I take her wages—place her name on my ledger as +property—disregard her personal rights—fetter the powers of her +immortal soul by denying her the right and privilege of learning to +read and write—feed her coarsely—clothe her scantily, and whip her on +the naked back occasionally; more, and still more horrible, leave her +unprotected—a degraded victim to the brutal lust of fiendish overseers, +who would pollute, blight, and blast her fair soul—rob her of all +dignity—destroy her virtue, and annihilate in her person all the graces +that adorn the character of virtuous womanhood? I ask, how would you +regard me, if such were my conduct? Oh! the vocabulary of the damned +would not afford a word sufficiently infernal to express your idea of +my God-provoking wickedness. Yet, sir, your treatment of my beloved +sisters is in all essential points precisely like the case I have now +supposed. Damning as would be such a deed on my part, it would be no +more so than that which you have committed against me and my sisters. + +I will now bring this letter to a close; you shall hear from me again +unless you let me hear from you. I intend to make use of you as a +weapon with which to assail the system of slavery—as a means of +concentrating public attention on the system, and deepening the horror +of trafficking in the souls and bodies of men. I shall make use of you +as a means of exposing the character of the American church and +clergy—and as a means of bringing this guilty nation, with yourself, to +repentance. In doing this, I entertain no malice toward you personally. +There is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and +there is nothing in my house which you might need for your comfort, +which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege +to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other. + +I am your fellow-man, but not your slave. + + + + +THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + + +December 1, 1850 + +More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery. +My childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities of the slave +system. I grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra headed +monster—not as a master—not as an idle spectator—not as the guest of +the slaveholder—but as A SLAVE, eating the bread and drinking the cup +of slavery with the most degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing +with them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot. In +consideration of these facts, I feel that I have a right to speak, and +to speak _strongly_. Yet, my friends, I feel bound to speak truly. + +Goading as have been the cruelties to which I have been +subjected—bitter as have been the trials through which I have +passed—exasperating as have been, and still are, the indignities +offered to my manhood—I find in them no excuse for the slightest +departure from truth in dealing with any branch of this subject. + +First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and social +relation of master and slave. A master is one—to speak in the +vocabulary of the southern states—who claims and exercises a right of +property in the person of a fellow-man. This he does with the force of +the law and the sanction of southern religion. The law gives the master +absolute power over the slave. He may work him, flog him, hire him out, +sell him, and, in certain contingencies, _kill_ him, with perfect +impunity. The slave is a human being, divested of all rights—reduced to +the level of a brute—a mere “chattel” in the eye of the law—placed +beyond the circle of human brotherhood—cut off from his kind—his name, +which the “recording angel” may have enrolled in heaven, among the +blest, is impiously inserted in a _master’s ledger_, with horses, +sheep, and swine. In law, the slave has no wife, no children, no +country, and no home. He can own nothing, possess nothing, acquire +nothing, but what must belong to another. To eat the fruit of his own +toil, to clothe his person with the work of his own hands, is +considered stealing. He toils that another may reap the fruit; he is +industrious that another may live in idleness; he eats unbolted meal +that another may eat the bread of fine flour; he labors in chains at +home, under a burning sun and biting lash, that another may ride in +ease and splendor abroad; he lives in ignorance that another may be +educated; he is abused that another may be exalted; he rests his +toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp ground that another may repose on the +softest pillow; he is clad in coarse and tattered raiment that another +may be arrayed in purple and fine linen; he is sheltered only by the +wretched hovel that a master may dwell in a magnificent mansion; and to +this condition he is bound down as by an arm of iron. + +From this monstrous relation there springs an unceasing stream of most +revolting cruelties. The very accompaniments of the slave system stamp +it as the offspring of hell itself. To ensure good behavior, the +slaveholder relies on the whip; to induce proper humility, he relies on +the whip; to rebuke what he is pleased to term insolence, he relies on +the whip; to supply the place of wages as an incentive to toil, he +relies on the whip; to bind down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute +and destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip, the chain, the gag, the +thumb-screw, the pillory, the bowie knife the pistol, and the +blood-hound. These are the necessary and unvarying accompaniments of +the system. Wherever slavery is found, these horrid instruments are +also found. Whether on the coast of Africa, among the savage tribes, or +in South Carolina, among the refined and civilized, slavery is the +same, and its accompaniments one and the same. It makes no difference +whether the slaveholder worships the God of the Christians, or is a +follower of Mahomet, he is the minister of the same cruelty, and the +author of the same misery. _Slavery_ is always _slavery;_ always the +same foul, haggard, and damning scourge, whether found in the eastern +or in the western hemisphere. + +There is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. The physical +cruelties are indeed sufficiently harassing and revolting; but they are +as a few grains of sand on the sea shore, or a few drops of water in +the great ocean, compared with the stupendous wrongs which it inflicts +upon the mental, moral, and religious nature of its hapless victims. It +is only when we contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual +being, that we can adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of +slavery, and the intense criminality of the slaveholder. I have said +that the slave was a man. “What a piece of work is man! How noble in +reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and +admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God! +The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!” + +The slave is a man, “the image of God,” but “a little lower than the +angels;” possessing a soul, eternal and indestructible; capable of +endless happiness, or immeasurable woe; a creature of hopes and fears, +of affections and passions, of joys and sorrows, and he is endowed with +those mysterious powers by which man soars above the things of time and +sense, and grasps, with undying tenacity, the elevating and sublimely +glorious idea of a God. It is _such_ a being that is smitten and +blasted. The first work of slavery is to mar and deface those +characteristics of its victims which distinguish _men_ from _things_, +and _persons_ from _property_. Its first aim is to destroy all sense of +high moral and religious responsibility. It reduces man to a mere +machine. It cuts him off from his Maker, it hides from him the laws of +God, and leaves him to grope his way from time to eternity in the dark, +under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, depraved, and +sinful fellow-man. As the serpent-charmer of India is compelled to +extract the deadly teeth of his venomous prey before he is able to +handle him with impunity, so the slaveholder must strike down the +conscience of the slave before he can obtain the entire mastery over +his victim. + +It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, +deaden, and destroy the central principle of human responsibility. +Conscience is, to the individual soul, and to society, what the law of +gravitation is to the universe. It holds society together; it is the +basis of all trust and confidence; it is the pillar of all moral +rectitude. Without it, suspicion would take the place of trust; vice +would be more than a match for virtue; men would prey upon each other, +like the wild beasts of the desert; and earth would become a _hell_. + +Nor is slavery more adverse to the conscience than it is to the mind. +This is shown by the fact, that in every state of the American Union, +where slavery exists, except the state of Kentucky, there are laws +absolutely prohibitory of education among the slaves. The crime of +teaching a slave to read is punishable with severe fines and +imprisonment, and, in some instances, with _death itself_. + +Nor are the laws respecting this matter a dead letter. Cases may occur +in which they are disregarded, and a few instances may be found where +slaves may have learned to read; but such are isolated cases, and only +prove the rule. The great mass of slaveholders look upon education +among the slaves as utterly subversive of the slave system. I well +remember when my mistress first announced to my master that she had +discovered that I could read. His face colored at once with surprise +and chagrin. He said that “I was ruined, and my value as a slave +destroyed; that a slave should know nothing but to obey his master; +that to give a negro an inch would lead him to take an ell; that having +learned how to read, I would soon want to know how to write; and that +by-and-by I would be running away.” I think my audience will bear +witness to the correctness of this philosophy, and to the literal +fulfillment of this prophecy. + +It is perfectly well understood at the south, that to educate a slave +is to make him discontened(sic) with slavery, and to invest him with a +power which shall open to him the treasures of freedom; and since the +object of the slaveholder is to maintain complete authority over his +slave, his constant vigilance is exercised to prevent everything which +militates against, or endangers, the stability of his authority. +Education being among the menacing influences, and, perhaps, the most +dangerous, is, therefore, the most cautiously guarded against. + +It is true that we do not often hear of the enforcement of the law, +punishing as a crime the teaching of slaves to read, but this is not +because of a want of disposition to enforce it. The true reason or +explanation of the matter is this: there is the greatest unanimity of +opinion among the white population in the south in favor of the policy +of keeping the slave in ignorance. There is, perhaps, another reason +why the law against education is so seldom violated. The slave is too +poor to be able to offer a temptation sufficiently strong to induce a +white man to violate it; and it is not to be supposed that in a +community where the moral and religious sentiment is in favor of +slavery, many martyrs will be found sacrificing their liberty and lives +by violating those prohibitory enactments. + +As a general rule, then, darkness reigns over the abodes of the +enslaved, and “how great is that darkness!” + +We are sometimes told of the contentment of the slaves, and are +entertained with vivid pictures of their happiness. We are told that +they often dance and sing; that their masters frequently give them +wherewith to make merry; in fine, that they have little of which to +complain. I admit that the slave does sometimes sing, dance, and appear +to be merry. But what does this prove? It only proves to my mind, that +though slavery is armed with a thousand stings, it is not able entirely +to kill the elastic spirit of the bondman. That spirit will rise and +walk abroad, despite of whips and chains, and extract from the cup of +nature occasional drops of joy and gladness. No thanks to the +slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the vivacious captive may sometimes +dance in his chains; his very mirth in such circumstances stands before +God as an accusing angel against his enslaver. + +It is often said, by the opponents of the anti-slavery cause, that the +condition of the people of Ireland is more deplorable than that of the +American slaves. Far be it from me to underrate the sufferings of the +Irish people. They have been long oppressed; and the same heart that +prompts me to plead the cause of the American bondman, makes it +impossible for me not to sympathize with the oppressed of all lands. +Yet I must say that there is no analogy between the two cases. The +Irishman is poor, but he is not a slave. He may be in rags, but he is +not a slave. He is still the master of his own body, and can say with +the poet, “The hand of Douglass is his own.” “The world is all before +him, where to choose;” and poor as may be my opinion of the British +parliament, I cannot believe that it will ever sink to such a depth of +infamy as to pass a law for the recapture of fugitive Irishmen! The +shame and scandal of kidnapping will long remain wholly monopolized by +the American congress. The Irishman has not only the liberty to +emigrate from his country, but he has liberty at home. He can write, +and speak, and cooperate for the attainment of his rights and the +redress of his wrongs. + +The multitude can assemble upon all the green hills and fertile plains +of the Emerald Isle; they can pour out their grievances, and proclaim +their wants without molestation; and the press, that “swift-winged +messenger,” can bear the tidings of their doings to the extreme bounds +of the civilized world. They have their “Conciliation Hall,” on the +banks of the Liffey, their reform clubs, and their newspapers; they +pass resolutions, send forth addresses, and enjoy the right of +petition. But how is it with the American slave? Where may he assemble? +Where is his Conciliation Hall? Where are his newspapers? Where is his +right of petition? Where is his freedom of speech? his liberty of the +press? and his right of locomotion? He is said to be happy; happy men +can speak. But ask the slave what is his condition—what his state of +mind—what he thinks of enslavement? and you had as well address your +inquiries to the _silent dead_. There comes no _voice_ from the +enslaved. We are left to gather his feelings by imagining what ours +would be, were our souls in his soul’s stead. + +If there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the slave +is dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave system as a +grand aggregation of human horrors. + +Most who are present, will have observed that leading men in this +country have been putting forth their skill to secure quiet to the +nation. A system of measures to promote this object was adopted a few +months ago in congress. The result of those measures is known. Instead +of quiet, they have produced alarm; instead of peace, they have brought +us war; and so it must ever be. + +While this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions of +innocent men and women, it is as idle to think of having a sound and +lasting peace, as it is to think there is no God to take cognizance of +the affairs of men. There can be no peace to the wicked while slavery +continues in the land. It will be condemned; and while it is condemned +there will be agitation. Nature must cease to be nature; men must +become monsters; humanity must be transformed; Christianity must be +exterminated; all ideas of justice and the laws of eternal goodness +must be utterly blotted out from the human soul—ere a system so foul +and infernal can escape condemnation, or this guilty republic can have +a sound, enduring peace. + + + + +INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, + + +December 8, 1850 + +The relation of master and slave has been called patriarchal, and only +second in benignity and tenderness to that of the parent and child. +This representation is doubtless believed by many northern people; and +this may account, in part, for the lack of interest which we find among +persons whom we are bound to believe to be honest and humane. What, +then, are the facts? Here I will not quote my own experience in +slavery; for this you might call one-sided testimony. I will not cite +the declarations of abolitionists; for these you might pronounce +exaggerations. I will not rely upon advertisements cut from newspapers; +for these you might call isolated cases. But I will refer you to the +laws adopted by the legislatures of the slave states. I give you such +evidence, because it cannot be invalidated nor denied. I hold in my +hand sundry extracts from the slave codes of our country, from which I +will quote. * * * + +Now, if the foregoing be an indication of kindness, _what is cruelty_? +If this be parental affection, _what is bitter malignity_? A more +atrocious and blood-thirsty string of laws could not well be conceived +of. And yet I am bound to say that they fall short of indicating the +horrible cruelties constantly practiced in the slave states. + +I admit that there are individual slaveholders less cruel and barbarous +than is allowed by law; but these form the exception. The majority of +slaveholders find it necessary, to insure obedience, at times, to avail +themselves of the utmost extent of the law, and many go beyond it. If +kindness were the rule, we should not see advertisements filling the +columns of almost every southern newspaper, offering large rewards for +fugitive slaves, and describing them as being branded with irons, +loaded with chains, and scarred by the whip. One of the most telling +testimonies against the pretended kindness of slaveholders, is the fact +that uncounted numbers of fugitives are now inhabiting the Dismal +Swamp, preferring the untamed wilderness to their cultivated +homes—choosing rather to encounter hunger and thirst, and to roam with +the wild beasts of the forest, running the hazard of being hunted and +shot down, than to submit to the authority of _kind_ masters. + +I tell you, my friends, humanity is never driven to such an unnatural +course of life, without great wrong. The slave finds more of the milk +of human kindness in the bosom of the savage Indian, than in the heart +of his _Christian_ master. He leaves the man of the _bible_, and takes +refuge with the man of the _tomahawk_. He rushes from the praying +slaveholder into the paws of the bear. He quits the homes of men for +the haunts of wolves. He prefers to encounter a life of trial, however +bitter, or death, however terrible, to dragging out his existence under +the dominion of these _kind_ masters. + +The apologists for slavery often speak of the abuses of slavery; and +they tell us that they are as much opposed to those abuses as we are; +and that they would go as far to correct those abuses and to ameliorate +the condition of the slave as anybody. The answer to that view is, that +slavery is itself an abuse; that it lives by abuse; and dies by the +absence of abuse. Grant that slavery is right; grant that the relations +of master and slave may innocently exist; and there is not a single +outrage which was ever committed against the slave but what finds an +apology in the very necessity of the case. As we said by a slaveholder +(the Rev. A. G. Few) to the Methodist conference, “If the relation be +right, the means to maintain it are also right;” for without those +means slavery could not exist. Remove the dreadful scourge—the plaited +thong—the galling fetter—the accursed chain—and let the slaveholder +rely solely upon moral and religious power, by which to secure +obedience to his orders, and how long do you suppose a slave would +remain on his plantation? The case only needs to be stated; it carries +its own refutation with it. + +Absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man over +the body and soul of another man, without brutal chastisement and +enormous cruelty. + +To talk of _kindness_ entering into a relation in which one party is +robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of friends, +of society, of knowledge, and of all that makes this life desirable, is +most absurd, wicked, and preposterous. + +I have shown that slavery is wicked—wicked, in that it violates the +great law of liberty, written on every human heart—wicked, in that it +violates the first command of the decalogue—wicked, in that it fosters +the most disgusting licentiousness—wicked, in that it mars and defaces +the image of God by cruel and barbarous inflictions—wicked, in that it +contravenes the laws of eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all +the humane and heavenly precepts of the New Testament. + +The evils resulting from this huge system of iniquity are not confined +to the states south of Mason and Dixon’s line. Its noxious influence +can easily be traced throughout our northern borders. It comes even as +far north as the state of New York. Traces of it may be seen even in +Rochester; and travelers have told me it casts its gloomy shadows +across the lake, approaching the very shores of Queen Victoria’s +dominions. + +The presence of slavery may be explained by—as it is the explanation +of—the mobocratic violence which lately disgraced New York, and which +still more recently disgraced the city of Boston. These violent +demonstrations, these outrageous invasions of human rights, faintly +indicate the presence and power of slavery here. It is a significant +fact, that while meetings for almost any purpose under heaven may be +held unmolested in the city of Boston, that in the same city, a meeting +cannot be peaceably held for the purpose of preaching the doctrine of +the American Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created +equal.” The pestiferous breath of slavery taints the whole moral +atmosphere of the north, and enervates the moral energies of the whole +people. + +The moment a foreigner ventures upon our soil, and utters a natural +repugnance to oppression, that moment he is made to feel that there is +little sympathy in this land for him. If he were greeted with smiles +before, he meets with frowns now; and it shall go well with him if he +be not subjected to that peculiarly fining method of showing fealty to +slavery, the assaults of a mob. + +Now, will any man tell me that such a state of things is natural, and +that such conduct on the part of the people of the north, springs from +a consciousness of rectitude? No! every fibre of the human heart unites +in detestation of tyranny, and it is only when the human mind has +become familiarized with slavery, is accustomed to its injustice, and +corrupted by its selfishness, that it fails to record its abhorrence of +slavery, and does not exult in the triumphs of liberty. + +The northern people have been long connected with slavery; they have +been linked to a decaying corpse, which has destroyed the moral health. +The union of the government; the union of the north and south, in the +political parties; the union in the religious organizations of the +land, have all served to deaden the moral sense of the northern people, +and to impregnate them with sentiments and ideas forever in conflict +with what as a nation we call _genius of American institutions_. +Rightly viewed, this is an alarming fact, and ought to rally all that +is pure, just, and holy in one determined effort to crush the monster +of corruption, and to scatter “its guilty profits” to the winds. In a +high moral sense, as well as in a national sense, the whole American +people are responsible for slavery, and must share, in its guilt and +shame, with the most obdurate men-stealers of the south. + +While slavery exists, and the union of these states endures, every +American citizen must bear the chagrin of hearing his country branded +before the world as a nation of liars and hypocrites; and behold his +cherished flag pointed at with the utmost scorn and derision. Even now +an American _abroad_ is pointed out in the crowd, as coming from a land +where men gain their fortunes by “the blood of souls,” from a land of +slave markets, of blood-hounds, and slave-hunters; and, in some +circles, such a man is shunned altogether, as a moral pest. Is it not +time, then, for every American to awake, and inquire into his duty with +respect to this subject? + +Wendell Phillips—the eloquent New England orator—on his return from +Europe, in 1842, said, “As I stood upon the shores of Genoa, and saw +floating on the placid waters of the Mediterranean, the beautiful +American war ship Ohio, with her masts tapering proportionately aloft, +and an eastern sun reflecting her noble form upon the sparkling waters, +attracting the gaze of the multitude, my first impulse was of pride, to +think myself an American; but when I thought that the first time that +gallant ship would gird on her gorgeous apparel, and wake from beneath +her sides her dormant thunders, it would be in defense of the African +slave trade, I blushed in utter _shame_ for my country.” + +Let me say again, _slavery is alike the sin and the shame of the +American people;_ it is a blot upon the American name, and the only +national reproach which need make an American hang his head in shame, +in the presence of monarchical governments. + +With this gigantic evil in the land, we are constantly told to look _at +home;_ if we say ought against crowned heads, we are pointed to our +enslaved millions; if we talk of sending missionaries and bibles +abroad, we are pointed to three millions now lying in worse than +heathen darkness; if we express a word of sympathy for Kossuth and his +Hungarian fugitive brethren, we are pointed to that horrible and +hell-black enactment, “the fugitive slave bill.” + +Slavery blunts the edge of all our rebukes of tyranny abroad—the +criticisms that we make upon other nations, only call forth ridicule, +contempt, and scorn. In a word, we are made a reproach and a by-word to +a mocking earth, and we must continue to be so made, so long as slavery +continues to pollute our soil. + +We have heard much of late of the virtue of patriotism, the love of +country, &c., and this sentiment, so natural and so strong, has been +impiously appealed to, by all the powers of human selfishness, to +cherish the viper which is stinging our national life away. In its +name, we have been called upon to deepen our infamy before the world, +to rivet the fetter more firmly on the limbs of the enslaved, and to +become utterly insensible to the voice of human woe that is wafted to +us on every southern gale. We have been called upon, in its name, to +desecrate our whole land by the footprints of slave-hunters, and even +to engage ourselves in the horrible business of kidnapping. + +I, too, would invoke the spirit of patriotism; not in a narrow and +restricted sense, but, I trust, with a broad and manly signification; +not to cover up our national sins, but to inspire us with sincere +repentance; not to hide our shame from the the(sic) world’s gaze, but +utterly to abolish the cause of that shame; not to explain away our +gross inconsistencies as a nation, but to remove the hateful, jarring, +and incongruous elements from the land; not to sustain an egregious +wrong, but to unite all our energies in the grand effort to remedy that +wrong. + +I would invoke the spirit of patriotism, in the name of the law of the +living God, natural and revealed, and in the full belief that +“righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any +people.” “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that +despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from the +holding of bribes, he shall dwell on high, his place of defense shall +be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, his water shall be +sure.” + +We have not only heard much lately of patriotism, and of its aid being +invoked on the side of slavery and injustice, but the very prosperity +of this people has been called in to deafen them to the voice of duty, +and to lead them onward in the pathway of sin. Thus has the blessing of +God been converted into a curse. In the spirit of genuine patriotism, I +warn the American people, by all that is just and honorable, to BEWARE! + +I warn them that, strong, proud, and prosperous though we be, there is +a power above us that can “bring down high looks; at the breath of +whose mouth our wealth may take wings; and before whom every knee shall +bow;” and who can tell how soon the avenging angel may pass over our +land, and the sable bondmen now in chains, may become the instruments +of our nation’s chastisement! Without appealing to any higher feeling, +I would warn the American people, and the American government, to be +wise in their day and generation. I exhort them to remember the history +of other nations; and I remind them that America cannot always sit “as +a queen,” in peace and repose; that prouder and stronger governments +than this have been shattered by the bolts of a just God; that the time +may come when those they now despise and hate, may be needed; when +those whom they now compel by oppression to be enemies, may be wanted +as friends. What has been, may be again. There is a point beyond which +human endurance cannot go. The crushed worm may yet turn under the heel +of the oppressor. I warn them, then, with all solemnity, and in the +name of retributive justice, _to look to their ways;_ for in an evil +hour, those sable arms that have, for the last two centuries, been +engaged in cultivating and adorning the fair fields of our country, may +yet become the instruments of terror, desolation, and death, throughout +our borders. + +It was the sage of the Old Dominion that said—while speaking of the +possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the slaveholders—“God +has no attribute that could take sides with the oppressor in such a +contest. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God _is just_, +and that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Such is the warning voice +of Thomas Jefferson; and every day’s experience since its utterance +until now, confirms its wisdom, and commends its truth. + + + + +WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at + + +Rochester, July 5, 1852 + +Fellow-Citizens—Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to +speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your +national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom +and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, +extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble +offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and +express devout gratitude for the blessings, resulting from your +independence to us? + +Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer +could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be +light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that +a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the +claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such +priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his +voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains +of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case +like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as +an hart.” + +But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of +the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this +glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the +immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day +rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, +liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is +shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to +you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is +_yours_, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in +fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him +to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious +irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? +If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it +is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up +to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that +nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament +of a peeled and woe-smitten people. + +“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we +remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst +thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a +song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one +of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange +land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her +cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of +my mouth.” + +Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the +mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, +are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach +them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding +children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and +may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass +lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, +would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a +reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, +is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular +characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing there, +identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not +hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct +of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. +Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions +of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and +revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and +solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and +the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of +humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, +in the name of the constitution and the bible, which are disregarded +and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all +the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate +slavery—the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I +will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and +yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not +blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not +confess to be right and just. + +But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this +circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a +favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and +denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause +would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain +there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed +would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of +this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a +man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders +themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their +government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the +part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the state of +Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he +be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these +same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is +this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual, +and responsible being. The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is +admitted in the fact that southern statute books are covered with +enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching +of the slave to read or write. When you can point to any such laws, in +reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the +manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of +the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and +the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from +a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man! + +For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro +race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and +reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, +constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, +copper, silver, and gold; that, while we are reading, writing, and +cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among +us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and +teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises +common to other men—digging gold in California, capturing the whale in +the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, +acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and +children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian’s +God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave—we +are called upon to prove that we are men! + +Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the +rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I +argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans? +Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a +matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of +the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look +to-day in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a +discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking +of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do +so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your +understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that +does not know that slavery is wrong for _him_. + +What! am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of +their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of +their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay +their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them +with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock +out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and +submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system, thus marked +with blood and stained with pollution, is wrong? No; I will not. I have +better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would +imply. + +What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; +that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are +mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman +cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a proposition! They that can, +may! I cannot. The time for such argument is past. + +At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is +needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I +would to-day pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting +reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that +is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need +the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation +must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the +propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation +must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed +and denounced. + +What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that +reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross +injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your +celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your +national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty +and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; +your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and +hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade +and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and +hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation +of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more +shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at +this very hour. + +Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the +monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South +America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay +your facts by the side of the every-day practices of this nation, and +you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless +hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. + + + + +THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July + + +5, 1852 + +Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers, is +especially prosperous just now. Ex-senator Benton tells us that the +price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to show +that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of the peculiarities of +American institutions. It is carried on in all the large towns and +cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every +year by dealers in this horrid traffic. In several states this trade is +a chief source of wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the +foreign slave trade) _“the internal slave trade_.” It is, probably, +called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the +foreign slave trade is contemplated. That trade has long since been +denounced by this government as piracy. It has been denounced with +burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable +traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a +squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere in this +country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave trade as a most +inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. The duty +to extirpate and destroy it is admitted even by our _doctors of +divinity_. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have +consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave +this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa. +It is, however, a notable fact, that, while so much execration is +poured out by Americans, upon those engaged in the foreign slave trade, +the men engaged in the slave trade between the states pass without +condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable. + +Behold the practical operation of this internal slave trade—the +American slave trade sustained by American politics and American +religion! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the +market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. +They inhabit all our southern states. They perambulate the country, and +crowd the highways of the nation with droves of human stock. You will +see one of these human-flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and +bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, +from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched +people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are +food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad +procession as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives +them. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries +on his affrighted captives. There, see the old man, with locks thinned +and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose +shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the +brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, +yes, weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn. +The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their +strength. Suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a +rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your +ears are saluted with a scream that seems to have torn its way to the +center of your soul. The crack you heard was the sound of the slave +whip; the scream you heard was from the woman you saw with the babe. +Her speed had faltered under the weight of her child and her chains; +that gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to +New Orleans. Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the +forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of +American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and +never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered +multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun, can you witness a +spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the +American slave trade, as it exists at this moment, in the ruling part +of the United States. + +I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave trade +is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a +sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot street, Fell’s Point, +Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves the slave ships in the +basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, +waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. There +was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt street, +by Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town and county in +Maryland, announcing their arrival through the papers, and on flaming +hand-bills, headed, “cash for negroes.” These men were generally well +dressed, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to drink, to +treat, and to gamble. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the +turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms +of its mothers by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness. + +The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, +chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient number +have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of +conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile or to New Orleans. From the +slave-prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness of +night; for since the anti-slavery agitation a certain caution is +observed. + +In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by +the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the chained gangs +that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I +was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to +hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear +the rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to +find one who sympathized with me in my horror. + +Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is to-day in active operation +in this boasted republic. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of +dust raised on the highways of the south; I see the bleeding footsteps; +I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave +markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and +swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. There I see the tenderest +ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice, and rapacity of +the buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight. + +Is this the land your fathers loved? + The freedom which they toiled to win? +Is this the earth whereon they moved? + Are these the graves they slumber in? + + +But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things +remains to be presented. By an act of the American congress, not yet +two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and +revolting form. By that act, Mason and Dixon’s line has been +obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, +hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves, remains no longer a +mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United +States. The power is coextensive with the star-spangled banner and +American christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless +slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for the +sportsman’s gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, +the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Your broad +republican domain is a hunting-ground for _men_. Not for thieves and +robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. +Your law-makers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this +hellish sport. Your president, your secretary of state, your lords, +nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce as a duty you owe to your free and +glorious country and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Not +fewer than forty Americans have within the past two years been hunted +down, and without a moment’s warning, hurried away in chains, and +consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had +wives and children dependent on them for bread; but of this no account +was made. The right of the hunter to his prey, stands superior to the +right of marriage, and to _all_ rights in this republic, the rights of +God included! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, +nor religion. The fugitive slave law makes MERCY TO THEM A CRIME; and +bribes the judge who tries them. An American judge GETS TEN DOLLARS FOR +EVERY VICTIM HE CONSIGNS to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. +The oath of an(sic) two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black +enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the +remorseless jaws of slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring +no witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound by +the law to hear but _one side_, and that side is the side of the +oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be +thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king hating, +people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are +filled with judges, who hold their office under an open and palpable +_bribe_, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a man’s liberty, _to +hear only his accusers!_ + +In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of +administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, +and in diabolical intent, this fugitive slave law stands alone in the +annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if there be another nation on +the globe having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the +statute-book. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in +this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly +confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. + + + + +THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S. + + +Society, in New York, May, 1853. + +Sir, it is evident that there is in this country a purely slavery +party—a party which exists for no other earthly purpose but to promote +the interests of slavery. The presence of this party is felt everywhere +in the republic. It is known by no particular name, and has assumed no +definite shape; but its branches reach far and wide in the church and +in the state. This shapeless and nameless party is not intangible in +other and more important respects. That party, sir, has determined upon +a fixed, definite, and comprehensive policy toward the whole colored +population of the United States. What that policy is, it becomes us as +abolitionists, and especially does it become the colored people +themselves, to consider and to understand fully. We ought to know who +our enemies are, where they are, and what are their objects and +measures. Well, sir, here is my version of it—not original with me—but +mine because I hold it to be true. + +I understand this policy to comprehend five cardinal objects. They are +these: 1st. The complete suppression of all anti-slavery discussion. +2d. The expatriation of the entire free people of color from the United +States. 3d. The unending perpetuation of slavery in this republic. 4th. +The nationalization of slavery to the extent of making slavery +respected in every state of the Union. 5th. The extension of slavery +over Mexico and the entire South American states. + +Sir, these objects are forcibly presented to us in the stern logic of +passing events; in the facts which are and have been passing around us +during the last three years. The country has been and is now dividing +on these grand issues. In their magnitude, these issues cast all others +into the shade, depriving them of all life and vitality. Old party ties +are broken. Like is finding its like on either side of these great +issues, and the great battle is at hand. For the present, the best +representative of the slavery party in politics is the democratic +party. Its great head for the present is President Pierce, whose boast +it was, before his election, that his whole life had been consistent +with the interests of slavery, that he is above reproach on that score. +In his inaugural address, he reassures the south on this point. Well, +the head of the slave power being in power, it is natural that the pro +slavery elements should cluster around the administration, and this is +rapidly being done. A fraternization is going on. The stringent +protectionists and the free-traders strike hands. The supporters of +Fillmore are becoming the supporters of Pierce. The silver-gray whig +shakes hands with the hunker democrat; the former only differing from +the latter in name. They are of one heart, one mind, and the union is +natural and perhaps inevitable. Both hate Negroes; both hate progress; +both hate the “higher law;” both hate William H. Seward; both hate the +free democratic party; and upon this hateful basis they are forming a +union of hatred. “Pilate and Herod are thus made friends.” Even the +central organ of the whig party is extending its beggar hand for a +morsel from the table of slavery democracy, and when spurned from the +feast by the more deserving, it pockets the insult; when kicked on one +side it turns the other, and preseveres in its importunities. The fact +is, that paper comprehends the demands of the times; it understands the +age and its issues; it wisely sees that slavery and freedom are the +great antagonistic forces in the country, and it goes to its own side. +Silver grays and hunkers all understand this. They are, therefore, +rapidly sinking all other questions to nothing, compared with the +increasing demands of slavery. They are collecting, arranging, and +consolidating their forces for the accomplishment of their appointed +work. + +The keystone to the arch of this grand union of the slavery party of +the United States, is the compromise of 1850. In that compromise we +have all the objects of our slaveholding policy specified. It is, sir, +favorable to this view of the designs of the slave power, that both the +whig and the democratic party bent lower, sunk deeper, and strained +harder, in their conventions, preparatory to the late presidential +election, to meet the demands of the slavery party than at any previous +time in their history. Never did parties come before the northern +people with propositions of such undisguised contempt for the moral +sentiment and the religious ideas of that people. They virtually asked +them to unite in a war upon free speech, and upon conscience, and to +drive the Almighty presence from the councils of the nation. Resting +their platforms upon the fugitive slave bill, they boldly asked the +people for political power to execute the horrible and hell-black +provisions of that bill. The history of that election reveals, with +great clearness, the extent to which slavery has shot its leprous +distillment through the life-blood of the nation. The party most +thoroughly opposed to the cause of justice and humanity, triumphed; +while the party suspected of a leaning toward liberty, was +overwhelmingly defeated, some say annihilated. + +But here is a still more important fact, illustrating the designs of +the slave power. It is a fact full of meaning, that no sooner did the +democratic slavery party come into power, than a system of legislation +was presented to the legislatures of the northern states, designed to +put the states in harmony with the fugitive slave law, and the +malignant bearing of the national government toward the colored +inhabitants of the country. This whole movement on the part of the +states, bears the evidence of having one origin, emanating from one +head, and urged forward by one power. It was simultaneous, uniform, and +general, and looked to one end. It was intended to put thorns under +feet already bleeding; to crush a people already bowed down; to enslave +a people already but half free; in a word, it was intended to +discourage, dishearten, and drive the free colored people out of the +country. In looking at the recent black law of Illinois, one is struck +dumb with its enormity. It would seem that the men who enacted that +law, had not only banished from their minds all sense of justice, but +all sense of shame. It coolly proposes to sell the bodies and souls of +the blacks to increase the intelligence and refinement of the whites; +to rob every black stranger who ventures among them, to increase their +literary fund. + +While this is going on in the states, a pro-slavery, political board of +health is established at Washington. Senators Hale, Chase, and Sumner +are robbed of a part of their senatorial dignity and consequence as +representing sovereign states, because they have refused to be +inoculated with the slavery virus. Among the services which a senator +is expected by his state to perform, are many that can only be done +efficiently on committees; and, in saying to these honorable senators, +you shall not serve on the committees of this body, the slavery party +took the responsibility of robbing and insulting the states that sent +them. It is an attempt at Washington to decide for the states who shall +be sent to the senate. Sir, it strikes me that this aggression on the +part of the slave power did not meet at the hands of the proscribed +senators the rebuke which we had a right to expect would be +administered. It seems to me that an opportunity was lost, that the +great principle of senatorial equality was left undefended, at a time +when its vindication was sternly demanded. But it is not to the purpose +of my present statement to criticise the conduct of our friends. I am +persuaded that much ought to be left to the discretion of anti slavery +men in congress, and charges of recreancy should never be made but on +the most sufficient grounds. For, of all the places in the world where +an anti-slavery man needs the confidence and encouragement of friends, +I take Washington to be that place. + +Let me now call attention to the social influences which are operating +and cooperating with the slavery party of the country, designed to +contribute to one or all of the grand objects aimed at by that party. +We see here the black man attacked in his vital interests; prejudice +and hate are excited against him; enmity is stirred up between him and +other laborers. The Irish people, warm-hearted, generous, and +sympathizing with the oppressed everywhere, when they stand upon their +own green island, are instantly taught, on arriving in this Christian +country, to hate and despise the colored people. They are taught to +believe that we eat the bread which of right belongs to them. The cruel +lie is told the Irish, that our adversity is essential to their +prosperity. Sir, the Irish-American will find out his mistake one day. +He will find that in assuming our avocation he also has assumed our +degradation. But for the present we are sufferers. The old employments +by which we have heretofore gained our livelihood, are gradually, and +it may be inevitably, passing into other hands. Every hour sees us +elbowed out of some employment to make room perhaps for some +newly-arrived emigrants, whose hunger and color are thought to give +them a title to especial favor. White men are becoming house-servants, +cooks, and stewards, common laborers, and flunkeys to our gentry, and, +for aught I see, they adjust themselves to their stations with all +becoming obsequiousness. This fact proves that if we cannot rise to the +whites, the whites can fall to us. Now, sir, look once more. While the +colored people are thus elbowed out of employment; while the enmity of +emigrants is being excited against us; while state after state enacts +laws against us; while we are hunted down, like wild game, and +oppressed with a general feeling of insecurity—the American +colonization society—that old offender against the best interests and +slanderer of the colored people—awakens to new life, and vigorously +presses its scheme upon the consideration of the people and the +government. New papers are started—some for the north and some for the +south—and each in its tone adapting itself to its latitude. Government, +state and national, is called upon for appropriations to enable the +society to send us out of the country by steam! They want steamers to +carry letters and Negroes to Africa. Evidently, this society looks upon +our “extremity as its opportunity,” and we may expect that it will use +the occasion well. They do not deplore, but glory, in our misfortunes. + +But, sir, I must hasten. I have thus briefly given my view of one +aspect of the present condition and future prospects of the colored +people of the United States. And what I have said is far from +encouraging to my afflicted people. I have seen the cloud gather upon +the sable brows of some who hear me. I confess the case looks black +enough. Sir, I am not a hopeful man. I think I am apt even to +undercalculate the benefits of the future. Yet, sir, in this seemingly +desperate case, I do not despair for my people. There is a bright side +to almost every picture of this kind; and ours is no exception to the +general rule. If the influences against us are strong, those for us are +also strong. To the inquiry, will our enemies prevail in the execution +of their designs. In my God and in my soul, I believe they _will not_. +Let us look at the first object sought for by the slavery party of the +country, viz: the suppression of anti slavery discussion. They desire +to suppress discussion on this subject, with a view to the peace of the +slaveholder and the security of slavery. Now, sir, neither the +principle nor the subordinate objects here declared, can be at all +gained by the slave power, and for this reason: It involves the +proposition to padlock the lips of the whites, in order to secure the +fetters on the limbs of the blacks. The right of speech, precious and +priceless, _cannot, will not_, be surrendered to slavery. Its +suppression is asked for, as I have said, to give peace and security to +slaveholders. Sir, that thing cannot be done. God has interposed an +insuperable obstacle to any such result. “There can be _no peace_, +saith my God, to the wicked.” Suppose it were possible to put down this +discussion, what would it avail the guilty slaveholder, pillowed as he +is upon heaving bosoms of ruined souls? He could not have a peaceful +spirit. If every anti-slavery tongue in the nation were silent—every +anti-slavery organization dissolved—every anti-slavery press +demolished—every anti slavery periodical, paper, book, pamphlet, or +what not, were searched out, gathered, deliberately burned to ashes, +and their ashes given to the four winds of heaven, still, still the +slaveholder could have _“no peace_.” In every pulsation of his heart, +in every throb of his life, in every glance of his eye, in the breeze +that soothes, and in the thunder that startles, would be waked up an +accuser, whose cause is, “Thou art, verily, guilty concerning thy +brother.” + + + + +THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various + + +Anti-Slavery Bodies, in the Winter of 1855. + +A grand movement on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for any +purpose, moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit and proper to +be studied. It is such, not only for those who eagerly participate in +it, but also for those who stand aloof from it—even for those by whom +it is opposed. I take the anti-slavery movement to be such an one, and +a movement as sublime and glorious in its character, as it is holy and +beneficent in the ends it aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it +safe to say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than +any other subject now before the American people. The late John C. +Calhoun—one of the mightiest men that ever stood up in the American +senate—did not deem it beneath him; and he probably studied it as +deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or William Lloyd +Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with the subject; and the +greatest efforts of his last years in the senate had direct reference +to this movement. His eagle eye watched every new development connected +with it; and he was ever prompt to inform the south of every important +step in its progress. He never allowed himself to make light of it; but +always spoke of it and treated it as a matter of grave import; and in +this he showed himself a master of the mental, moral, and religious +constitution of human society. Daniel Webster, too, in the better days +of his life, before he gave his assent to the fugitive slave bill, and +trampled upon all his earlier and better convictions—when his eye was +yet single—he clearly comprehended the nature of the elements involved +in this movement; and in his own majestic eloquence, warned the south, +and the country, to have a care how they attempted to put it down. He +is an illustration that it is easier to give, than to take, good +advice. To these two men—the greatest men to whom the nation has yet +given birth—may be traced the two great facts of the present—the south +triumphant, and the north humbled. Their names may stand thus—Calhoun +and domination—Webster and degradation. Yet again. If to the enemies of +liberty this subject is one of engrossing interest, vastly more so +should it be such to freedom’s friends. The latter, it leads to the +gates of all valuable knowledge—philanthropic, ethical, and religious; +for it brings them to the study of man, wonderfully and fearfully +made—the proper study of man through all time—the open book, in which +are the records of time and eternity. + +Of the existence and power of the anti-slavery movement, as a fact, you +need no evidence. The nation has seen its face, and felt the +controlling pressure of its hand. You have seen it moving in all +directions, and in all weathers, and in all places, appearing most +where desired least, and pressing hardest where most resisted. No place +is exempt. The quiet prayer meeting, and the stormy halls of national +debate, share its presence alike. It is a common intruder, and of +course has the name of being ungentlemanly. Brethren who had long sung, +in the most affectionate fervor, and with the greatest sense of +security, + +Together let us sweetly live—together let us die, + + +have been suddenly and violently separated by it, and ranged in hostile +attitude toward each other. The Methodist, one of the most powerful +religious organizations of this country, has been rent asunder, and its +strongest bolts of denominational brotherhood started at a single +surge. It has changed the tone of the northern pulpit, and modified +that of the press. A celebrated divine, who, four years ago, was for +flinging his own mother, or brother, into the remorseless jaws of the +monster slavery, lest he should swallow up the Union, now recognizes +anti-slavery as a characteristic of future civilization. Signs and +wonders follow this movement; and the fact just stated is one of them. +Party ties are loosened by it; and men are compelled to take sides for +or against it, whether they will or not. Come from where he may, or +come for what he may, he is compelled to show his hand. What is this +mighty force? What is its history? and what is its destiny? Is it +ancient or modern, transient or permanent? Has it turned aside, like a +stranger and a sojourner, to tarry for a night? or has it come to rest +with us forever? Excellent chances are here for speculation; and some +of them are quite profound. We might, for instance, proceed to inquire +not only into the philosophy of the anti-slavery movement, but into the +philosophy of the law, in obedience to which that movement started into +existence. We might demand to know what is that law or power, which, at +different times, disposes the minds of men to this or that particular +object—now for peace, and now for war—now for freedom, and now for +slavery; but this profound question I leave to the abolitionists of the +superior class to answer. The speculations which must precede such +answer, would afford, perhaps, about the same satisfaction as the +learned theories which have rained down upon the world, from time to +time, as to the origin of evil. I shall, therefore, avoid water in +which I cannot swim, and deal with anti-slavery as a fact, like any +other fact in the history of mankind, capable of being described and +understood, both as to its internal forces, and its external phases and +relations. + +[After an eloquent, a full, and highly interesting exposition of the +nature, character, and history of the anti-slavery movement, from the +insertion of which want of space precludes us, he concluded in the +following happy manner.] + +Present organizations may perish, but the cause will go on. That cause +has a life, distinct and independent of the organizations patched up +from time to time to carry it forward. Looked at, apart from the bones +and sinews and body, it is a thing immortal. It is the very essence of +justice, liberty, and love. The moral life of human society, it cannot +die while conscience, honor, and humanity remain. If but one be filled +with it, the cause lives. Its incarnation in any one individual man, +leaves the whole world a priesthood, occupying the highest moral +eminence even that of disinterested benevolence. Whoso has ascended his +height, and has the grace to stand there, has the world at his feet, +and is the world’s teacher, as of divine right. He may set in judgment +on the age, upon the civilization of the age, and upon the religion of +the age; for he has a test, a sure and certain test, by which to try +all institutions, and to measure all men. I say, he may do this, but +this is not the chief business for which he is qualified. The great +work to which he is called is not that of judgment. Like the Prince of +Peace, he may say, if I judge, I judge righteous judgment; still +mainly, like him, he may say, this is not his work. The man who has +thoroughly embraced the principles of justice, love, and liberty, like +the true preacher of Christianity, is less anxious to reproach the +world of its sins, than to win it to repentance. His great work on +earth is to exemplify, and to illustrate, and to ingraft those +principles upon the living and practical understandings of all men +within the reach of his influence. This is his work; long or short his +years, many or few his adherents, powerful or weak his +instrumentalities, through good report, or through bad report, this is +his work. It is to snatch from the bosom of nature the latent facts of +each individual man’s experience, and with steady hand to hold them up +fresh and glowing, enforcing, with all his power, their acknowledgment +and practical adoption. If there be but _one_ such man in the land, no +matter what becomes of abolition societies and parties, there will be +an anti-slavery cause, and an anti-slavery movement. Fortunately for +that cause, and fortunately for him by whom it is espoused, it requires +no extraordinary amount of talent to preach it or to receive it when +preached. The grand secret of its power is, that each of its principles +is easily rendered appreciable to the faculty of reason in man, and +that the most unenlightened conscience has no difficulty in deciding on +which side to register its testimony. It can call its preachers from +among the fishermen, and raise them to power. In every human breast, it +has an advocate which can be silent only when the heart is dead. It +comes home to every man’s understanding, and appeals directly to every +man’s conscience. A man that does not recognize and approve for himself +the rights and privileges contended for, in behalf of the American +slave, has not yet been found. In whatever else men may differ, they +are alike in the apprehension of their natural and personal rights. The +difference between abolitionists and those by whom they are opposed, is +not as to principles. All are agreed in respect to these. The manner of +applying them is the point of difference. + +The slaveholder himself, the daily robber of his equal brother, +discourses eloquently as to the excellency of justice, and the man who +employs a brutal driver to flay the flesh of his negroes, is not +offended when kindness and humanity are commended. Every time the +abolitionist speaks of justice, the anti-abolitionist assents says, +yes, I wish the world were filled with a disposition to render to every +man what is rightfully due him; I should then get what is due me. +That’s right; let us have justice. By all means, let us have justice. +Every time the abolitionist speaks in honor of human liberty, he +touches a chord in the heart of the anti-abolitionist, which responds +in harmonious vibrations. Liberty—yes, that is evidently my right, and +let him beware who attempts to invade or abridge that right. Every time +he speaks of love, of human brotherhood, and the reciprocal duties of +man and man, the anti-abolitionist assents—says, yes, all right—all +true—we cannot have such ideas too often, or too fully expressed. So he +says, and so he feels, and only shows thereby that he is a man as well +as an anti-abolitionist. You have only to keep out of sight the manner +of applying your principles, to get them endorsed every time. +Contemplating himself, he sees truth with absolute clearness and +distinctness. He only blunders when asked to lose sight of himself. In +his own cause he can beat a Boston lawyer, but he is dumb when asked to +plead the cause of others. He knows very well whatsoever he would have +done unto himself, but is quite in doubt as to having the same thing +done unto others. It is just here, that lions spring up in the path of +duty, and the battle once fought in heaven is refought on the earth. So +it is, so hath it ever been, and so must it ever be, when the claims of +justice and mercy make their demand at the door of human selfishness. +Nevertheless, there is that within which ever pleads for the right and +the just. + +In conclusion, I have taken a sober view of the present anti-slavery +movement. I am sober, but not hopeless. There is no denying, for it is +everywhere admitted, that the anti-slavery question is the great moral +and social question now before the American people. A state of things +has gradually been developed, by which that question has become the +first thing in order. It must be met. Herein is my hope. The great idea +of impartial liberty is now fairly before the American people. +Anti-slavery is no longer a thing to be prevented. The time for +prevention is past. This is great gain. When the movement was younger +and weaker—when it wrought in a Boston garret to human apprehension, it +might have been silently put out of the way. Things are different now. +It has grown too large—its friends are too numerous—its facilities too +abundant—its ramifications too extended—its power too omnipotent, to be +snuffed out by the contingencies of infancy. A thousand strong men +might be struck down, and its ranks still be invincible. One flash from +the heart-supplied intellect of Harriet Beecher Stowe could light a +million camp fires in front of the embattled host of slavery, which not +all the waters of the Mississippi, mingled as they are with blood, +could extinguish. The present will be looked to by after coming +generations, as the age of anti-slavery literature—when supply on the +gallop could not keep pace with the ever growing demand—when a picture +of a Negro on the cover was a help to the sale of a book—when +conservative lyceums and other American literary associations began +first to select their orators for distinguished occasions from the +ranks of the previously despised abolitionists. If the anti-slavery +movement shall fail now, it will not be from outward opposition, but +from inward decay. Its auxiliaries are everywhere. Scholars, authors, +orators, poets, and statesmen give it their aid. The most brilliant of +American poets volunteer in its service. Whittier speaks in burning +verse to more than thirty thousand, in the National Era. Your own +Longfellow whispers, in every hour of trial and disappointment, “labor +and wait.” James Russell Lowell is reminding us that “men are more than +institutions.” Pierpont cheers the heart of the pilgrim in search of +liberty, by singing the praises of “the north star.” Bryant, too, is +with us; and though chained to the car of party, and dragged on amidst +a whirl of political excitement, he snatches a moment for letting drop +a smiling verse of sympathy for the man in chains. The poets are with +us. It would seem almost absurd to say it, considering the use that has +been made of them, that we have allies in the Ethiopian songs; those +songs that constitute our national music, and without which we have no +national music. They are heart songs, and the finest feelings of human +nature are expressed in them. “Lucy Neal,” “Old Kentucky Home,” and +“Uncle Ned,” can make the heart sad as well as merry, and can call +forth a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the sympathies for the +slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and flourish. +In addition to authors, poets, and scholars at home, the moral sense of +the civilized world is with us. England, France, and Germany, the three +great lights of modern civilization, are with us, and every American +traveler learns to regret the existence of slavery in his country. The +growth of intelligence, the influence of commerce, steam, wind, and +lightning are our allies. It would be easy to amplify this summary, and +to swell the vast conglomeration of our material forces; but there is a +deeper and truer method of measuring the power of our cause, and of +comprehending its vitality. This is to be found in its accordance with +the best elements of human nature. It is beyond the power of slavery to +annihilate affinities recognized and established by the Almighty. The +slave is bound to mankind by the powerful and inextricable net-work of +human brotherhood. His voice is the voice of a man, and his cry is the +cry of a man in distress, and man must cease to be man before he can +become insensible to that cry. It is the righteous of the cause—the +humanity of the cause—which constitutes its potency. As one genuine +bankbill is worth more than a thousand counterfeits, so is one man, +with right on his side, worth more than a thousand in the wrong. “One +may chase a thousand, and put ten thousand to flight.” It is, +therefore, upon the goodness of our cause, more than upon all other +auxiliaries, that we depend for its final triumph. + +Another source of congratulations is the fact that, amid all the +efforts made by the church, the government, and the people at large, to +stay the onward progress of this movement, its course has been onward, +steady, straight, unshaken, and unchecked from the beginning. Slavery +has gained victories large and numerous; but never as against this +movement—against a temporizing policy, and against northern timidity, +the slave power has been victorious; but against the spread and +prevalence in the country, of a spirit of resistance to its aggression, +and of sentiments favorable to its entire overthrow, it has yet +accomplished nothing. Every measure, yet devised and executed, having +for its object the suppression of anti-slavery, has been as idle and +fruitless as pouring oil to extinguish fire. A general rejoicing took +place on the passage of “the compromise measures” of 1850. Those +measures were called peace measures, and were afterward termed by both +the great parties of the country, as well as by leading statesmen, a +final settlement of the whole question of slavery; but experience has +laughed to scorn the wisdom of pro-slavery statesmen; and their final +settlement of agitation seems to be the final revival, on a broader and +grander scale than ever before, of the question which they vainly +attempted to suppress forever. The fugitive slave bill has especially +been of positive service to the anti-slavery movement. It has +illustrated before all the people the horrible character of slavery +toward the slave, in hunting him down in a free state, and tearing him +away from wife and children, thus setting its claims higher than +marriage or parental claims. It has revealed the arrogant and +overbearing spirit of the slave states toward the free states; +despising their principles—shocking their feelings of humanity, not +only by bringing before them the abominations of slavery, but by +attempting to make them parties to the crime. It has called into +exercise among the colored people, the hunted ones, a spirit of manly +resistance well calculated to surround them with a bulwark of sympathy +and respect hitherto unknown. For men are always disposed to respect +and defend rights, when the victims of oppression stand up manfully for +themselves. + +There is another element of power added to the anti-slavery movement, +of great importance; it is the conviction, becoming every day more +general and universal, that slavery must be abolished at the south, or +it will demoralize and destroy liberty at the north. It is the nature +of slavery to beget a state of things all around it favorable to its +own continuance. This fact, connected with the system of bondage, is +beginning to be more fully realized. The slave-holder is not satisfied +to associate with men in the church or in the state, unless he can +thereby stain them with the blood of his slaves. To be a slave-holder +is to be a propagandist from necessity; for slavery can only live by +keeping down the under-growth morality which nature supplies. Every +new-born white babe comes armed from the Eternal presence, to make war +on slavery. The heart of pity, which would melt in due time over the +brutal chastisements it sees inflicted on the helpless, must be +hardened. And this work goes on every day in the year, and every hour +in the day. + +What is done at home is being done also abroad here in the north. And +even now the question may be asked, have we at this moment a single +free state in the Union? The alarm at this point will become more +general. The slave power must go on in its career of exactions. Give, +give, will be its cry, till the timidity which concedes shall give +place to courage, which shall resist. Such is the voice of experience, +such has been the past, such is the present, and such will be that +future, which, so sure as man is man, will come. Here I leave the +subject; and I leave off where I began, consoling myself and +congratulating the friends of freedom upon the fact that the +anti-slavery cause is not a new thing under the sun; not some moral +delusion which a few years’ experience may dispel. It has appeared +among men in all ages, and summoned its advocates from all ranks. Its +foundations are laid in the deepest and holiest convictions, and from +whatever soul the demon, selfishness, is expelled, there will this +cause take up its abode. Old as the everlasting hills; immovable as the +throne of God; and certain as the purposes of eternal power, against +all hinderances, and against all delays, and despite all the mutations +of human instrumentalities, it is the faith of my soul, that this +anti-slavery cause will triumph. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +1 (return) [ Letter, Introduction to _Life of Frederick Douglass_, +Boston, 1841.] + +2 (return) [ One of these ladies, impelled by the same noble spirit +which carried Miss Nightingale to Scutari, has devoted her time, her +untiring energies, to a great extent her means, and her high literary +abilities, to the advancement and support of Frederick Douglass’ Paper, +the only organ of the downtrodden, edited and published by one of +themselves, in the United States.] + +3 (return) [ Mr. Stephen Myers, of Albany, deserves mention as one of +the most persevering among the colored editorial fraternity.] + +4 (return) [ The German physiologists have even discovered vegetable +matter—starch—in the human body. See _Med. Chirurgical Rev_., Oct., +1854, p. 339.] + +5 (return) [ Mr. Wm. H. Topp, of Albany.] + +6 (return) [ This is the same man who gave me the roots to prevent my +being whipped by Mr. Covey. He was “a clever soul.” We used frequently +to talk about the fight with Covey, and as often as we did so, he would +claim my success as the result of the roots which he gave me. This +superstition is very common among the more ignorant slaves. A slave +seldom dies, but that his death is attributed to trickery.] + +7 (return) [ He was a whole-souled man, fully imbued with a love of his +afflicted and hunted people, and took pleasure in being to me, as was +his wont, “Eyes to the blind, and legs to the lame.” This brave and +devoted man suffered much from the persecutions common to all who have +been prominent benefactors. He at last became blind, and needed a +friend to guide him, even as he had been a guide to others. Even in his +blindness, he exhibited his manly character. In search of health, he +became a physician. When hope of gaining is(sic) own was gone, he had +hope for others. Believing in hydropathy, he established, at +Northampton, Massachusetts, a large _“Water Cure,”_ and became one of +the most successful of all engaged in that mode of treatment.] + +8 (return) [ The following is a copy of these curious papers, both of +my transfer from Thomas to Hugh Auld, and from Hugh to myself: + +“Know all men by these Presents, That I, Thomas Auld, of Talbot county, +and state of Maryland, for and in consideration of the sum of one +hundred dollars, current money, to me paid by Hugh Auld, of the city of +Baltimore, in the said state, at and before the sealing and delivery of +these presents, the receipt whereof, I, the said Thomas Auld, do hereby +acknowledge, have granted, bargained, and sold, and by these presents +do grant, bargain, and sell unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, +administrators, and assigns, ONE NEGRO MAN, by the name of FREDERICK +BAILY, or DOUGLASS, as he callls(sic) himself—he is now about +twenty-eight years of age—to have and to hold the said negro man for +life. And I, the said Thomas Auld, for myself my heirs, executors, and +administrators, all and singular, the said FREDERICK BAILY _alias_ +DOUGLASS, unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, administrators, and +assigns against me, the said Thomas Auld, my executors, and +administrators, and against ali and every other person or persons +whatsoever, shall and will warrant and forever defend by these +presents. In witness whereof, I set my hand and seal, this thirteenth +day of November, eighteen hundred and forty-six. + +THOMAS AULD + +“Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of Wrightson Jones. + +“JOHN C. LEAS. + +The authenticity of this bill of sale is attested by N. Harrington, a +justice of the peace of the state of Maryland, and for the county of +Talbot, dated same day as above. + +“To all whom it may concern: Be it known, that I, Hugh Auld, of the +city of Baltimore, in Baltimore county, in the state of Maryland, for +divers good causes and considerations, me thereunto moving, have +released from slavery, liberated, manumitted, and set free, and by +these presents do hereby release from slavery, liberate, manumit, and +set free, MY NEGRO MAN, named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called +DOUGLASS, being of the age of twenty-eight years, or thereabouts, and +able to work and gain a sufficient livelihood and maintenance; and him +the said negro man named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called FREDERICK +DOUGLASS, I do declare to be henceforth free, manumitted, and +discharged from all manner of servitude to me, my executors, and +administrators forever. + +“In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Auld, have hereunto set my hand +and seal the fifth of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred +and forty-six. + +Hugh Auld + +“Sealed and delivered in presence of T. Hanson Belt. + +“JAMES N. S. T. WRIGHT”] + +9 (return) [ See Appendix to this volume, page 317.] + +10 (return) [ Mr. Douglass’ published speeches alone, would fill two +volumes of the size of this. Our space will only permit the insertion +of the extracts which follow; and which, for originality of thought, +beauty and force of expression, and for impassioned, indignatory +eloquence, have seldom been equaled.] + +11 (return) [ It is not often that chattels address their owners. The +following letter is unique; and probably the only specimen of the kind +extant. It was written while in England.] + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: My Bondage and My Freedom</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Frederick Douglass</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January, 1995 [eBook #202]<br /> +[Most recently updated: June 12, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Mike Lough and David Widger</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM ***</div> + +<h1>MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">By Frederick Douglass</h2> + +<p> +By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally differenced +from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, necessarily excludes the idea +of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING. —COLERIDGE +</p> + +<p> +Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick Douglass in the +Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York +</p> + +<p class="center"> +TO<br/> +HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH,<br/> +AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF<br/> +ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER,<br/> +ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE,<br/> +AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND<br/> +GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP,<br/> +AND AS<br/> +A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of<br/> +HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES<br/> +OF AN<br/> +AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE,<br/> +BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER,<br/> +AND BY<br/> +DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE,<br/> +This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated,<br/> +BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND,<br/> +<br/> +FREDERICK DOUGLAS.<br/> +ROCHESTER, N.Y. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"><b>MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0002">EDITOR’S PREFACE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_INTR">INTRODUCTION</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0001">CHAPTER I. <i>Childhood</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0002">CHAPTER II. <i>Removed from My First Home</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0003">CHAPTER III. <i>Parentage</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0004">CHAPTER IV. <i>A General Survey of the Slave Plantation</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0005">CHAPTER V. <i>Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0006">CHAPTER VI. <i>Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0007">CHAPTER VII. <i>Life in the Great House</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0008">CHAPTER VIII. <i>A Chapter of Horrors</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0009">CHAPTER IX. <i>Personal Treatment</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0010">CHAPTER X. <i>Life in Baltimore</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0011">CHAPTER XI. <i>“A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream”</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0012">CHAPTER XII. <i>Religious Nature Awakened</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0013">CHAPTER XIII. <i>The Vicissitudes of Slave Life</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0014">CHAPTER XIV. <i>Experience in St. Michael’s</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0015">CHAPTER XV. <i>Covey, the Negro Breaker</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0016">CHAPTER XVI. <i>Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0017">CHAPTER XVII. <i>The Last Flogging</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0018">CHAPTER XVIII. <i>New Relations and Duties</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0019">CHAPTER XIX. <i>The Run-Away Plot</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0020">CHAPTER XX. <i>Apprenticeship Life</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0021">CHAPTER XXI. <i>My Escape from Slavery</i></a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0025"><b>LIFE as a FREEMAN</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0022">CHAPTER XXII. <i>Liberty Attained</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0023">CHAPTER XXIII. <i>Introduced to the Abolitionists</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0024">CHAPTER XXIV. <i>Twenty-One Months in Great Britain</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2HCH0025">CHAPTER XXV. <i>Various Incidents</i></a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0030">RECEPTION SPEECH [10]. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12,</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0031">Dr. Campbell’s Reply</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0032">LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. [11]. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0033">THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0034">INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0035">WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0036">THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0037">THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_4_0038">THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various</a><br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#link2H_FOOT">FOOTNOTES</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"></a> +MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"></a> +EDITOR’S PREFACE</h2> + +<p> +If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of ART, the history +of its misfortune might be written in two very simple words—TOO LATE. The +nature and character of slavery have been subjects of an almost endless variety +of artistic representation; and after the brilliant achievements in that field, +and while those achievements are yet fresh in the memory of the million, he who +would add another to the legion, must possess the charm of transcendent +excellence, or apologize for something worse than rashness. The reader is, +therefore, assured, with all due promptitude, that his attention is not invited +to a work of ART, but to a work of FACTS—Facts, terrible and almost +incredible, it may be yet FACTS, nevertheless. +</p> + +<p> +I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor place in the +whole volume; but that names and places are literally given, and that every +transaction therein described actually transpired. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps the best Preface to this volume is furnished in the following letter of +Mr. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent solicitation for such a work: +</p> + +<p class="right"> +ROCHESTER, N. Y. <i>July</i> 2, 1855. +</p> + +<p> +DEAR FRIEND: I have long entertained, as you very well know, a somewhat +positive repugnance to writing or speaking anything for the public, which +could, with any degree of plausibilty, make me liable to the imputation of +seeking personal notoriety, for its own sake. Entertaining that feeling very +sincerely, and permitting its control, perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have +often refused to narrate my personal experience in public anti-slavery +meetings, and in sympathizing circles, when urged to do so by friends, with +whose views and wishes, ordinarily, it were a pleasure to comply. In my letters +and speeches, I have generally aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in the +light of fundamental principles, and upon facts, notorious and open to all; +making, I trust, no more of the fact of my own former enslavement, than +circumstances seemed absolutely to require. I have never placed my opposition +to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather upon the +indestructible and unchangeable laws of human nature, every one of which is +perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system. I have also felt that +it was best for those having histories worth the writing—or supposed to +be so—to commit such work to hands other than their own. To write of +one’s self, in such a manner as not to incur the imputation of weakness, +vanity, and egotism, is a work within the ability of but few; and I have little +reason to believe that I belong to that fortunate few. +</p> + +<p> +These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly urged me to +prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave, and my life as a +freeman. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless, I see, with you, many reasons for regarding my autobiography as +exceptional in its character, and as being, in some sense, naturally beyond the +reach of those reproaches which honorable and sensitive minds dislike to incur. +It is not to illustrate any heroic achievements of a man, but to vindicate a +just and beneficent principle, in its application to the whole human family, by +letting in the light of truth upon a system, esteemed by some as a blessing, +and by others as a curse and a crime. I agree with you, that this system is now +at the bar of public opinion—not only of this country, but of the whole +civilized world—for judgment. Its friends have made for it the usual +plea—“not guilty;” the case must, therefore, proceed. Any +facts, either from slaves, slaveholders, or by-standers, calculated to +enlighten the public mind, by revealing the true nature, character, and +tendency of the slave system, are in order, and can scarcely be innocently +withheld. +</p> + +<p> +I see, too, that there are special reasons why I should write my own biography, +in preference to employing another to do it. Not only is slavery on trial, but +unfortunately, the enslaved people are also on trial. It is alleged, that they +are, naturally, inferior; that they are <i>so low</i> in the scale of humanity, +and so utterly stupid, that they are unconscious of their wrongs, and do not +apprehend their rights. Looking, then, at your request, from this stand-point, +and wishing everything of which you think me capable to go to the benefit of my +afflicted people, I part with my doubts and hesitation, and proceed to furnish +you the desired manuscript; hoping that you may be able to make such +arrangements for its publication as shall be best adapted to accomplish that +good which you so enthusiastically anticipate. +</p> + +<p> +FREDERICK DOUGLASS +</p> + +<p> +There was little necessity for doubt and hesitation on the part of Mr. +Douglass, as to the propriety of his giving to the world a full account of +himself. A man who was born and brought up in slavery, a living witness of its +horrors; who often himself experienced its cruelties; and who, despite the +depressing influences surrounding his birth, youth and manhood, has risen, from +a dark and almost absolute obscurity, to the distinguished position which he +now occupies, might very well assume the existence of a commendable curiosity, +on the part of the public, to know the facts of his remarkable history. +</p> + +<p> +EDITOR +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"></a> +INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<p> +When a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society to the highest, +mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration; when he accomplishes this +elevation by native energy, guided by prudence and wisdom, their admiration is +increased; but when his course, onward and upward, excellent in itself, +furthermore proves a possible, what had hitherto been regarded as an +impossible, reform, then he becomes a burning and a shining light, on which the +aged may look with gladness, the young with hope, and the down-trodden, as a +representative of what they may themselves become. To such a man, dear reader, +it is my privilege to introduce you. +</p> + +<p> +The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow, is not +merely an example of self-elevation under the most adverse circumstances; it +is, moreover, a noble vindication of the highest aims of the American +anti-slavery movement. The real object of that movement is not only to +disenthrall, it is, also, to bestow upon the Negro the exercise of all those +rights, from the possession of which he has been so long debarred. +</p> + +<p> +But this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and the entire +admission of the same to the full privileges, political, religious and social, +of manhood, requires powerful effort on the part of the enthralled, as well as +on the part of those who would disenthrall them. The people at large must feel +the conviction, as well as admit the abstract logic, of human equality; the +Negro, for the first time in the world’s history, brought in full contact +with high civilization, must prove his title first to all that is demanded for +him; in the teeth of unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to the mass +of those who oppress him—therefore, absolutely superior to his apparent +fate, and to their relative ability. And it is most cheering to the friends of +freedom, today, that evidence of this equality is rapidly accumulating, not +from the ranks of the half-freed colored people of the free states, but from +the very depths of slavery itself; the indestructible equality of man to man is +demonstrated by the ease with which black men, scarce one remove from +barbarism—if slavery can be honored with such a distinction—vault +into the high places of the most advanced and painfully acquired civilization. +Ward and Garnett, Wells Brown and Pennington, Loguen and Douglass, are banners +on the outer wall, under which abolition is fighting its most successful +battles, because they are living exemplars of the practicability of the most +radical abolitionism; for, they were all of them born to the doom of slavery, +some of them remained slaves until adult age, yet they all have not only won +equality to their white fellow citizens, in civil, religious, political and +social rank, but they have also illustrated and adorned our common country by +their genius, learning and eloquence. +</p> + +<p> +The characteristics whereby Mr. Douglass has won first rank among these +remarkable men, and is still rising toward highest rank among living Americans, +are abundantly laid bare in the book before us. Like the autobiography of Hugh +Miller, it carries us so far back into early childhood, as to throw light upon +the question, “when positive and persistent memory begins in the human +being.” And, like Hugh Miller, he must have been a shy old-fashioned +child, occasionally oppressed by what he could not well account for, peering +and poking about among the layers of right and wrong, of tyrant and thrall, and +the wonderfulness of that hopeless tide of things which brought power to one +race, and unrequited toil to another, until, finally, he stumbled upon his +“first-found Ammonite,” hidden away down in the depths of his own +nature, and which revealed to him the fact that liberty and right, for all men, +were anterior to slavery and wrong. When his knowledge of the world was bounded +by the visible horizon on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, and while every thing +around him bore a fixed, iron stamp, as if it had always been so, this was, for +one so young, a notable discovery. +</p> + +<p> +To his uncommon memory, then, we must add a keen and accurate insight into men +and things; an original breadth of common sense which enabled him to see, and +weigh, and compare whatever passed before him, and which kindled a desire to +search out and define their relations to other things not so patent, but which +never succumbed to the marvelous nor the supernatural; a sacred thirst for +liberty and for learning, first as a means of attaining liberty, then as an end +in itself most desirable; a will; an unfaltering energy and determination to +obtain what his soul pronounced desirable; a majestic self-hood; determined +courage; a deep and agonizing sympathy with his embruted, crushed and bleeding +fellow slaves, and an extraordinary depth of passion, together with that rare +alliance between passion and intellect, which enables the former, when deeply +roused, to excite, develop and sustain the latter. +</p> + +<p> +With these original gifts in view, let us look at his schooling; the fearful +discipline through which it pleased God to prepare him for the high calling on +which he has since entered—the advocacy of emancipation by the people who +are not slaves. And for this special mission, his plantation education was +better than any he could have acquired in any lettered school. What he needed, +was facts and experiences, welded to acutely wrought up sympathies, and these +he could not elsewhere have obtained, in a manner so peculiarly adapted to his +nature. His physical being was well trained, also, running wild until advanced +into boyhood; hard work and light diet, thereafter, and a skill in handicraft +in youth. +</p> + +<p> +For his special mission, then, this was, considered in connection with his +natural gifts, a good schooling; and, for his special mission, he doubtless +“left school” just at the proper moment. Had he remained longer in +slavery—had he fretted under bonds until the ripening of manhood and its +passions, until the drear agony of slave-wife and slave-children had been piled +upon his already bitter experiences—then, not only would his own history +have had another termination, but the drama of American slavery would have been +essentially varied; for I cannot resist the belief, that the boy who learned to +read and write as he did, who taught his fellow slaves these precious +acquirements as he did, who plotted for their mutual escape as he did, would, +when a man at bay, strike a blow which would make slavery reel and stagger. +Furthermore, blows and insults he bore, at the moment, without resentment; deep +but suppressed emotion rendered him insensible to their sting; but it was +afterward, when the memory of them went seething through his brain, breeding a +fiery indignation at his injured self-hood, that the resolve came to resist, +and the time fixed when to resist, and the plot laid, how to resist; and he +always kept his self-pledged word. In what he undertook, in this line, he +looked fate in the face, and had a cool, keen look at the relation of means to +ends. Henry Bibb, to avoid chastisement, strewed his master’s bed with +charmed leaves and <i>was whipped</i>. Frederick Douglass quietly pocketed a +like <i>fetiche</i>, compared his muscles with those of Covey—and +<i>whipped him</i>. +</p> + +<p> +In the history of his life in bondage, we find, well developed, that inherent +and continuous energy of character which will ever render him distinguished. +What his hand found to do, he did with his might; even while conscious that he +was wronged out of his daily earnings, he worked, and worked hard. At his daily +labor he went with a will; with keen, well set eye, brawny chest, lithe figure, +and fair sweep of arm, he would have been king among calkers, had that been his +mission. +</p> + +<p> +It must not be overlooked, in this glance at his education, that Mr. Douglass +lacked one aid to which so many men of mark have been deeply indebted—he +had neither a mother’s care, nor a mother’s culture, save that +which slavery grudgingly meted out to him. Bitter nurse! may not even her +features relax with human feeling, when she gazes at such offspring! How +susceptible he was to the kindly influences of mother-culture, may be gathered +from his own words, on page 57: “It has been a life-long standing grief +to me, that I know so little of my mother, and that I was so early separated +from her. The counsels of her love must have been beneficial to me. The side +view of her face is imaged on my memory, and I take few steps in life, without +feeling her presence; but the image is mute, and I have no striking words of +hers treasured up.” +</p> + +<p> +From the depths of chattel slavery in Maryland, our author escaped into the +caste-slavery of the north, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Here he found +oppression assuming another, and hardly less bitter, form; of that very +handicraft which the greed of slavery had taught him, his half-freedom denied +him the exercise for an honest living; he found himself one of a +class—free colored men—whose position he has described in the +following words: +</p> + +<p> +“Aliens are we in our native land. The fundamental principles of the +republic, to which the humblest white man, whether born here or elsewhere, may +appeal with confidence, in the hope of awakening a favorable response, are held +to be inapplicable to us. The glorious doctrines of your revolutionary fathers, +and the more glorious teachings of the Son of God, are construed and applied +against us. We are literally scourged beyond the beneficent range of both +authorities, human and divine. * * * * American humanity hates us, scorns us, +disowns and denies, in a thousand ways, our very personality. The outspread +wing of American christianity, apparently broad enough to give shelter to a +perishing world, refuses to cover us. To us, its bones are brass, and its +features iron. In running thither for shelter and succor, we have only fled +from the hungry blood-hound to the devouring wolf—from a corrupt and +selfish world, to a hollow and hypocritical church.”—<i>Speech +before American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, May</i>, 1854. +</p> + +<p> +Four years or more, from 1837 to 1841, he struggled on, in New Bedford, sawing +wood, rolling casks, or doing what labor he might, to support himself and young +family; four years he brooded over the scars which slavery and semi-slavery had +inflicted upon his body and soul; and then, with his wounds yet unhealed, he +fell among the Garrisonians—a glorious waif to those most ardent +reformers. It happened one day, at Nantucket, that he, diffidently and +reluctantly, was led to address an anti-slavery meeting. He was about the age +when the younger Pitt entered the House of Commons; like Pitt, too, he stood up +a born orator. +</p> + +<p> +William Lloyd Garrison, who was happily present, writes thus of Mr. +Douglass’ maiden effort; “I shall never forget his first speech at +the convention—the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own +mind—the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, +completely taken by surprise. * * * I think I never hated slavery so intensely +as at that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which is +inflicted by it on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more +clear than ever. There stood one in physical proportions and stature commanding +and exact—in intellect richly endowed—in natural eloquence a +prodigy.” <a href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +It is of interest to compare Mr. Douglass’s account of this meeting with +Mr. Garrison’s. Of the two, I think the latter the most correct. It must +have been a grand burst of eloquence! The pent up agony, indignation and pathos +of an abused and harrowed boyhood and youth, bursting out in all their +freshness and overwhelming earnestness! +</p> + +<p> +This unique introduction to its great leader, led immediately to the employment +of Mr. Douglass as an agent by the American Anti-Slavery Society. So far as his +self-relying and independent character would permit, he became, after the +strictest sect, a Garrisonian. It is not too much to say, that he formed a +complement which they needed, and they were a complement equally necessary to +his “make-up.” With his deep and keen sensitiveness to wrong, and +his wonderful memory, he came from the land of bondage full of its woes and its +evils, and painting them in characters of living light; and, on his part, he +found, told out in sound Saxon phrase, all those principles of justice and +right and liberty, which had dimly brooded over the dreams of his youth, +seeking definite forms and verbal expression. It must have been an electric +flashing of thought, and a knitting of soul, granted to but few in this life, +and will be a life-long memory to those who participated in it. In the society, +moreover, of Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, William Lloyd Garrison, and other +men of earnest faith and refined culture, Mr. Douglass enjoyed the high +advantage of their assistance and counsel in the labor of self-culture, to +which he now addressed himself with wonted energy. Yet, these gentlemen, +although proud of Frederick Douglass, failed to fathom, and bring out to the +light of day, the highest qualities of his mind; the force of their own +education stood in their own way: they did not delve into the mind of a colored +man for capacities which the pride of race led them to believe to be restricted +to their own Saxon blood. Bitter and vindictive sarcasm, irresistible mimicry, +and a pathetic narrative of his own experiences of slavery, were the +intellectual manifestations which they encouraged him to exhibit on the +platform or in the lecture desk. +</p> + +<p> +A visit to England, in 1845, threw Mr. Douglass among men and women of earnest +souls and high culture, and who, moreover, had never drank of the bitter waters +of American caste. For the first time in his life, he breathed an atmosphere +congenial to the longings of his spirit, and felt his manhood free and +unrestricted. The cordial and manly greetings of the British and Irish +audiences in public, and the refinement and elegance of the social circles in +which he mingled, not only as an equal, but as a recognized man of genius, +were, doubtless, genial and pleasant resting places in his hitherto thorny and +troubled journey through life. There are joys on the earth, and, to the +wayfaring fugitive from American slavery or American caste, this is one of +them. +</p> + +<p> +But his sojourn in England was more than a joy to Mr. Douglass. Like the +platform at Nantucket, it awakened him to the consciousness of new powers that +lay in him. From the pupilage of Garrisonism he rose to the dignity of a +teacher and a thinker; his opinions on the broader aspects of the great +American question were earnestly and incessantly sought, from various points of +view, and he must, perforce, bestir himself to give suitable answer. With that +prompt and truthful perception which has led their sisters in all ages of the +world to gather at the feet and support the hands of reformers, the gentlewomen +of England <a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> were +foremost to encourage and strengthen him to carve out for himself a path fitted +to his powers and energies, in the life-battle against slavery and caste to +which he was pledged. And one stirring thought, inseparable from the British +idea of the evangel of freedom, must have smote his ear from every side— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Hereditary bondmen! know ye not<br/> +Who would be free, themselves mast strike the blow? +</p> + +<p> +The result of this visit was, that on his return to the United States, he +established a newspaper. This proceeding was sorely against the wishes and the +advice of the leaders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, but our author had +fully grown up to the conviction of a truth which they had once promulged, but +now forgotten, to wit: that in their own +elevation—self-elevation—colored men have a blow to strike +“on their own hook,” against slavery and caste. Differing from his +Boston friends in this matter, diffident in his own abilities, reluctant at +their dissuadings, how beautiful is the loyalty with which he still clung to +their principles in all things else, and even in this. +</p> + +<p> +Now came the trial hour. Without cordial support from any large body of men or +party on this side the Atlantic, and too far distant in space and immediate +interest to expect much more, after the much already done, on the other side, +he stood up, almost alone, to the arduous labor and heavy expenditure of editor +and lecturer. The Garrison party, to which he still adhered, did not want a +<i>colored</i> newspaper—there was an odor of <i>caste</i> about it; the +Liberty party could hardly be expected to give warm support to a man who smote +their principles as with a hammer; and the wide gulf which separated the free +colored people from the Garrisonians, also separated them from their brother, +Frederick Douglass. +</p> + +<p> +The arduous nature of his labors, from the date of the establishment of his +paper, may be estimated by the fact, that anti-slavery papers in the United +States, even while organs of, and when supported by, anti-slavery parties, +have, with a single exception, failed to pay expenses. Mr. Douglass has +maintained, and does maintain, his paper without the support of any party, and +even in the teeth of the opposition of those from whom he had reason to expect +counsel and encouragement. He has been compelled, at one and the same time, and +almost constantly, during the past seven years, to contribute matter to its +columns as editor, and to raise funds for its support as lecturer. It is within +bounds to say, that he has expended twelve thousand dollars of his own hard +earned money, in publishing this paper, a larger sum than has been contributed +by any one individual for the general advancement of the colored people. There +had been many other papers published and edited by colored men, beginning as +far back as 1827, when the Rev. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russworm (a +graduate of Bowdoin college, and afterward Governor of Cape Palmas) published +the <i>Freedom’s Journal</i>, in New York City; probably not less than +one hundred newspaper enterprises have been started in the United States, by +free colored men, born free, and some of them of liberal education and fair +talents for this work; but, one after another, they have fallen through, +although, in several instances, anti-slavery friends contributed to their +support. <a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a> It had +almost been given up, as an impracticable thing, to maintain a colored +newspaper, when Mr. Douglass, with fewest early advantages of all his +competitors, essayed, and has proved the thing perfectly practicable, and, +moreover, of great public benefit. This paper, in addition to its power in +holding up the hands of those to whom it is especially devoted, also affords +irrefutable evidence of the justice, safety and practicability of Immediate +Emancipation; it further proves the immense loss which slavery inflicts on the +land while it dooms such energies as his to the hereditary degradation of +slavery. +</p> + +<p> +It has been said in this Introduction, that Mr. Douglass had raised himself by +his own efforts to the highest position in society. As a successful editor, in +our land, he occupies this position. Our editors rule the land, and he is one +of them. As an orator and thinker, his position is equally high, in the opinion +of his countrymen. If a stranger in the United States would seek its most +distinguished men—the movers of public opinion—he will find their +names mentioned, and their movements chronicled, under the head of “BY +MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH,” in the daily papers. The keen caterers for the +public attention, set down, in this column, such men only as have won high mark +in the public esteem. During the past winter—1854-5—very frequent +mention of Frederick Douglass was made under this head in the daily papers; his +name glided as often—this week from Chicago, next week from +Boston—over the lightning wires, as the name of any other man, of +whatever note. To no man did the people more widely nor more earnestly say, +<i>“Tell me thy thought!”</i> And, somehow or other, revolution +seemed to follow in his wake. His were not the mere words of eloquence which +Kossuth speaks of, that delight the ear and then pass away. No! They were +<i>work</i>-able, <i>do</i>-able words, that brought forth fruits in the +revolution in Illinois, and in the passage of the franchise resolutions by the +Assembly of New York. +</p> + +<p> +And the secret of his power, what is it? He is a Representative American +man—a type of his countrymen. Naturalists tell us that a full grown man +is a resultant or representative of all animated nature on this globe; +beginning with the early embryo state, then representing the lowest forms of +organic life, <a href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a> +and passing through every subordinate grade or type, until he reaches the last +and highest—manhood. In like manner, and to the fullest extent, has +Frederick Douglass passed through every gradation of rank comprised in our +national make-up, and bears upon his person and upon his soul every thing that +is American. And he has not only full sympathy with every thing American; his +proclivity or bent, to active toil and visible progress, are in the strictly +national direction, delighting to outstrip “all creation.” +</p> + +<p> +Nor have the natural gifts, already named as his, lost anything by his severe +training. When unexcited, his mental processes are probably slow, but +singularly clear in perception, and wide in vision, the unfailing memory +bringing up all the facts in their every aspect; incongruities he lays hold of +incontinently, and holds up on the edge of his keen and telling wit. But this +wit never descends to frivolity; it is rigidly in the keeping of his truthful +common sense, and always used in illustration or proof of some point which +could not so readily be reached any other way. “Beware of a Yankee when +he is feeding,” is a shaft that strikes home in a matter never so laid +bare by satire before. “The Garrisonian views of disunion, if carried to +a successful issue, would only place the people of the north in the same +relation to American slavery which they now bear to the slavery of Cuba or the +Brazils,” is a statement, in a few words, which contains the result and +the evidence of an argument which might cover pages, but could not carry +stronger conviction, nor be stated in less pregnable form. In proof of this, I +may say, that having been submitted to the attention of the Garrisonians in +print, in March, it was repeated before them at their business meeting in +May—the platform, <i>par excellence</i>, on which they invite free fight, +<i>a l’outrance</i>, to all comers. It was given out in the clear, +ringing tones, wherewith the hall of shields was wont to resound of old, yet +neither Garrison, nor Phillips, nor May, nor Remond, nor Foster, nor Burleigh, +with his subtle steel of “the ice brook’s temper,” ventured +to break a lance upon it! The doctrine of the dissolution of the Union, as a +means for the abolition of American slavery, was silenced upon the lips that +gave it birth, and in the presence of an array of defenders who compose the +keenest intellects in the land. +</p> + +<p> +<i>“The man who is right is a majority”</i> is an aphorism struck +out by Mr. Douglass in that great gathering of the friends of freedom, at +Pittsburgh, in 1852, where he towered among the highest, because, with +abilities inferior to none, and moved more deeply than any, there was neither +policy nor party to trammel the outpourings of his soul. Thus we find, opposed +to all disadvantages which a black man in the United States labors and +struggles under, is this one vantage ground—when the chance comes, and +the audience where he may have a say, he stands forth the freest, most deeply +moved and most earnest of all men. +</p> + +<p> +It has been said of Mr. Douglass, that his descriptive and declamatory powers, +admitted to be of the very highest order, take precedence of his logical force. +Whilst the schools might have trained him to the exhibition of the formulas of +deductive logic, nature and circumstances forced him into the exercise of the +higher faculties required by induction. The first ninety pages of this +“Life in Bondage,” afford specimens of observing, comparing, and +careful classifying, of such superior character, that it is difficult to +believe them the results of a child’s thinking; he questions the earth, +and the children and the slaves around him again and again, and finally looks +to <i>“God in the sky”</i> for the why and the wherefore of the +unnatural thing, slavery. <i>“Yes, if indeed thou art, wherefore dost +thou suffer us to be slain?”</i> is the only prayer and worship of the +God-forsaken Dodos in the heart of Africa. Almost the same was his prayer. One +of his earliest observations was that white children should know their ages, +while the colored children were ignorant of theirs; and the songs of the slaves +grated on his inmost soul, because a something told him that harmony in sound, +and music of the spirit, could not consociate with miserable degradation. +</p> + +<p> +To such a mind, the ordinary processes of logical deduction are like proving +that two and two make four. Mastering the intermediate steps by an intuitive +glance, or recurring to them as Ferguson resorted to geometry, it goes down to +the deeper relation of things, and brings out what may seem, to some, mere +statements, but which are new and brilliant generalizations, each resting on a +broad and stable basis. Thus, Chief Justice Marshall gave his decisions, and +then told Brother Story to look up the authorities—and they never +differed from him. Thus, also, in his “Lecture on the Anti-Slavery +Movement,” delivered before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery +Society, Mr. Douglass presents a mass of thought, which, without any showy +display of logic on his part, requires an exercise of the reasoning faculties +of the reader to keep pace with him. And his “Claims of the Negro +Ethnologically Considered,” is full of new and fresh thoughts on the +dawning science of race-history. +</p> + +<p> +If, as has been stated, his intellection is slow, when unexcited, it is most +prompt and rapid when he is thoroughly aroused. Memory, logic, wit, sarcasm, +invective pathos and bold imagery of rare structural beauty, well up as from a +copious fountain, yet each in its proper place, and contributing to form a +whole, grand in itself, yet complete in the minutest proportions. It is most +difficult to hedge him in a corner, for his positions are taken so +deliberately, that it is rare to find a point in them undefended aforethought. +Professor Reason tells me the following: “On a recent visit of a public +nature, to Philadelphia, and in a meeting composed mostly of his colored +brethren, Mr. Douglass proposed a comparison of views in the matters of the +relations and duties of ‘our people;’ he holding that prejudice was +the result of condition, and could be conquered by the efforts of the degraded +themselves. A gentleman present, distinguished for logical acumen and subtlety, +and who had devoted no small portion of the last twenty-five years to the study +and elucidation of this very question, held the opposite view, that prejudice +is innate and unconquerable. He terminated a series of well dove-tailed, +Socratic questions to Mr. Douglass, with the following: ‘If the +legislature at Harrisburgh should awaken, to-morrow morning, and find each +man’s skin turned black and his hair woolly, what could they do to remove +prejudice?’ ‘Immediately pass laws entitling black men to all +civil, political and social privileges,’ was the instant reply—and +the questioning ceased.” +</p> + +<p> +The most remarkable mental phenomenon in Mr. Douglass, is his style in writing +and speaking. In March, 1855, he delivered an address in the assembly chamber +before the members of the legislature of the state of New York. An eye witness +<a href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a> describes the +crowded and most intelligent audience, and their rapt attention to the speaker, +as the grandest scene he ever witnessed in the capitol. Among those whose eyes +were riveted on the speaker full two hours and a half, were Thurlow Weed and +Lieutenant Governor Raymond; the latter, at the conclusion of the address, +exclaimed to a friend, “I would give twenty thousand dollars, if I could +deliver that address in that manner.” Mr. Raymond is a first class +graduate of Dartmouth, a rising politician, ranking foremost in the +legislature; of course, his ideal of oratory must be of the most polished and +finished description. +</p> + +<p> +The style of Mr. Douglass in writing, is to me an intellectual puzzle. The +strength, affluence and terseness may easily be accounted for, because the +style of a man is the man; but how are we to account for that rare polish in +his style of writing, which, most critically examined, seems the result of +careful early culture among the best classics of our language; it equals if it +does not surpass the style of Hugh Miller, which was the wonder of the British +literary public, until he unraveled the mystery in the most interesting of +autobiographies. But Frederick Douglass was still calking the seams of +Baltimore clippers, and had only written a “pass,” at the age when +Miller’s style was already formed. +</p> + +<p> +I asked William Whipper, of Pennsylvania, the gentleman alluded to above, +whether he thought Mr. Douglass’s power inherited from the Negroid, or +from what is called the Caucasian side of his make up? After some reflection, +he frankly answered, “I must admit, although sorry to do so, that the +Caucasian predominates.” At that time, I almost agreed with him; but, +facts narrated in the first part of this work, throw a different light on this +interesting question. +</p> + +<p> +We are left in the dark as to who was the paternal ancestor of our author; a +fact which generally holds good of the Romuluses and Remuses who are to +inaugurate the new birth of our republic. In the absence of testimony from the +Caucasian side, we must see what evidence is given on the other side of the +house. +</p> + +<p> +“My grandmother, though advanced in years, * * * was yet a woman of power +and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, elastic and +muscular.” (p. 46.) +</p> + +<p> +After describing her skill in constructing nets, her perseverance in using +them, and her wide-spread fame in the agricultural way he adds, “It +happened to her—as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person +residing in an ignorant and improvident neighborhood—to enjoy the +reputation of being born to good luck.” And his grandmother was a black +woman. +</p> + +<p> +“My mother was tall, and finely proportioned; of deep black, glossy +complexion; had regular features; and among other slaves was remarkably sedate +in her manners.” “Being a field hand, she was obliged to walk +twelve miles and return, between nightfall and daybreak, to see her +children” (p. 54.) “I shall never forget the indescribable +expression of her countenance when I told her that I had had no food since +morning. * * * There was pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation at +Aunt Katy at the same time; * * * * she read Aunt Katy a lecture which she +never forgot.” (p. 56.) “I learned after my mother’s death, +that she could read, and that she was the <i>only</i> one of all the slaves and +colored people in Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired this +knowledge, I know not, for Tuckahoe is the last place in the world where she +would be apt to find facilities for learning.” (p. 57.) “There is, +in <i>Prichard’s Natural History of Man</i>, the head of a +figure—on page 157—the features of which so resemble those of my +mother, that I often recur to it with something of the feeling which I suppose +others experience when looking upon the pictures of dear departed ones.” +(p. 52.) +</p> + +<p> +The head alluded to is copied from the statue of Ramses the Great, an Egyptian +king of the nineteenth dynasty. The authors of the <i>Types of Mankind</i> give +a side view of the same on page 148, remarking that the profile, “like +Napoleon’s, is superbly European!” The nearness of its resemblance +to Mr. Douglass’ mother rests upon the evidence of his memory, and +judging from his almost marvelous feats of recollection of forms and outlines +recorded in this book, this testimony may be admitted. +</p> + +<p> +These facts show that for his energy, perseverance, eloquence, invective, +sagacity, and wide sympathy, he is indebted to his Negro blood. The very marvel +of his style would seem to be a development of that other marvel—how his +mother learned to read. The versatility of talent which he wields, in common +with Dumas, Ira Aldridge, and Miss Greenfield, would seem to be the result of +the grafting of the Anglo-Saxon on good, original, Negro stock. If the friends +of “Caucasus” choose to claim, for that region, what remains after +this analysis—to wit: combination—they are welcome to it. They will +forgive me for reminding them that the term “Caucasian” is dropped +by recent writers on Ethnology; for the people about Mount Caucasus, are, and +have ever been, Mongols. The great “white race” now seek paternity, +according to Dr. Pickering, in Arabia—“Arida Nutrix” of the +best breed of horses &c. Keep on, gentlemen; you will find yourselves in +Africa, by-and-by. The Egyptians, like the Americans, were a <i>mixed race</i>, +with some Negro blood circling around the throne, as well as in the mud hovels. +</p> + +<p> +This is the proper place to remark of our author, that the same strong +self-hood, which led him to measure strength with Mr. Covey, and to wrench +himself from the embrace of the Garrisonians, and which has borne him through +many resistances to the personal indignities offered him as a colored man, +sometimes becomes a hyper-sensitiveness to such assaults as men of his mark +will meet with, on paper. Keen and unscrupulous opponents have sought, and not +unsuccessfully, to pierce him in this direction; for well they know, that if +assailed, he will smite back. +</p> + +<p> +It is not without a feeling of pride, dear reader, that I present you with this +book. The son of a self-emancipated bond-woman, I feel joy in introducing to +you my brother, who has rent his own bonds, and who, in his every +relation—as a public man, as a husband and as a father—is such as +does honor to the land which gave him birth. I shall place this book in the +hands of the only child spared me, bidding him to strive and emulate its noble +example. You may do likewise. It is an American book, for Americans, in the +fullest sense of the idea. It shows that the worst of our institutions, in its +worst aspect, cannot keep down energy, truthfulness, and earnest struggle for +the right. It proves the justice and practicability of Immediate Emancipation. +It shows that any man in our land, “no matter in what battle his liberty +may have been cloven down, * * * * no matter what complexion an Indian or an +African sun may have burned upon him,” not only may “stand forth +redeemed and disenthralled,” but may also stand up a candidate for the +highest suffrage of a great people—the tribute of their honest, hearty +admiration. Reader, <i>Vale! New York</i> +</p> + +<p> +JAMES M’CUNE SMITH +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"></a> +CHAPTER I. <i>Childhood</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +PLACE OF BIRTH—CHARACTER OF THE DISTRICT—TUCKAHOE—ORIGIN OF +THE NAME—CHOPTANK RIVER—TIME OF BIRTH—GENEALOGICAL +TREES—MODE OF COUNTING TIME—NAMES OF GRANDPARENTS—THEIR +POSITION—GRANDMOTHER ESPECIALLY ESTEEMED—“BORN TO GOOD +LUCK”—SWEET POTATOES—SUPERSTITION—THE LOG +CABIN—ITS CHARMS—SEPARATING CHILDREN—MY AUNTS—THEIR +NAMES—FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF BEING A SLAVE—OLD MASTER—GRIEFS AND +JOYS OF CHILDHOOD—COMPARATIVE HAPPINESS OF THE SLAVE-BOY AND THE SON OF A +SLAVEHOLDER. +</p> + +<p> +In Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the county town of that +county, there is a small district of country, thinly populated, and remarkable +for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, sandy, desert-like +appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of its farms and fences, the +indigent and spiritless character of its inhabitants, and the prevalence of +ague and fever. +</p> + +<p> +The name of this singularly unpromising and truly famine stricken district is +Tuckahoe, a name well known to all Marylanders, black and white. It was given +to this section of country probably, at the first, merely in derision; or it +may possibly have been applied to it, as I have heard, because some one of its +earlier inhabitants had been guilty of the petty meanness of stealing a +hoe—or taking a hoe that did not belong to him. Eastern Shore men usually +pronounce the word <i>took</i>, as <i>tuck; Took-a-hoe</i>, therefore, is, in +Maryland parlance, <i>Tuckahoe</i>. But, whatever may have been its +origin—and about this I will not be positive—that name has stuck to +the district in question; and it is seldom mentioned but with contempt and +derision, on account of the barrenness of its soil, and the ignorance, +indolence, and poverty of its people. Decay and ruin are everywhere visible, +and the thin population of the place would have quitted it long ago, but for +the Choptank river, which runs through it, from which they take abundance of +shad and herring, and plenty of ague and fever. +</p> + +<p> +It was in this dull, flat, and unthrifty district, or neighborhood, surrounded +by a white population of the lowest order, indolent and drunken to a proverb, +and among slaves, who seemed to ask, <i>“Oh! what’s the +use?”</i> every time they lifted a hoe, that I—without any fault of +mine was born, and spent the first years of my childhood. +</p> + +<p> +The reader will pardon so much about the place of my birth, on the score that +it is always a fact of some importance to know where a man is born, if, indeed, +it be important to know anything about him. In regard to the <i>time</i> of my +birth, I cannot be as definite as I have been respecting the <i>place</i>. Nor, +indeed, can I impart much knowledge concerning my parents. Genealogical trees +do not flourish among slaves. A person of some consequence here in the north, +sometimes designated <i>father</i>, is literally abolished in slave law and +slave practice. It is only once in a while that an exception is found to this +statement. I never met with a slave who could tell me how old he was. Few +slave-mothers know anything of the months of the year, nor of the days of the +month. They keep no family records, with marriages, births, and deaths. They +measure the ages of their children by spring time, winter time, harvest time, +planting time, and the like; but these soon become undistinguishable and +forgotten. Like other slaves, I cannot tell how old I am. This destitution was +among my earliest troubles. I learned when I grew up, that my master—and +this is the case with masters generally—allowed no questions to be put to +him, by which a slave might learn his age. Such questions deemed evidence of +impatience, and even of impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, the +dates of which I have since learned, I suppose myself to have been born about +the year 1817. +</p> + +<p> +The first experience of life with me that I now remember—and I remember +it but hazily—began in the family of my grandmother and grandfather. +Betsey and Isaac Baily. They were quite advanced in life, and had long lived on +the spot where they then resided. They were considered old settlers in the +neighborhood, and, from certain circumstances, I infer that my grandmother, +especially, was held in high esteem, far higher than is the lot of most colored +persons in the slave states. She was a good nurse, and a capital hand at making +nets for catching shad and herring; and these nets were in great demand, not +only in Tuckahoe, but at Denton and Hillsboro, neighboring villages. She was +not only good at making the nets, but was also somewhat famous for her good +fortune in taking the fishes referred to. I have known her to be in the water +half the day. Grandmother was likewise more provident than most of her +neighbors in the preservation of seedling sweet potatoes, and it happened to +her—as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person residing in an +ignorant and improvident community—to enjoy the reputation of having been +born to “good luck.” Her “good luck” was owing to the +exceeding care which she took in preventing the succulent root from getting +bruised in the digging, and in placing it beyond the reach of frost, by +actually burying it under the hearth of her cabin during the winter months. In +the time of planting sweet potatoes, “Grandmother Betty,” as she +was familiarly called, was sent for in all directions, simply to place the +seedling potatoes in the hills; for superstition had it, that if +“Grandmamma Betty but touches them at planting, they will be sure to grow +and flourish.” This high reputation was full of advantage to her, and to +the children around her. Though Tuckahoe had but few of the good things of +life, yet of such as it did possess grandmother got a full share, in the way of +presents. If good potato crops came after her planting, she was not forgotten +by those for whom she planted; and as she was remembered by others, so she +remembered the hungry little ones around her. +</p> + +<p> +The dwelling of my grandmother and grandfather had few pretensions. It was a +log hut, or cabin, built of clay, wood, and straw. At a distance it +resembled—though it was smaller, less commodious and less +substantial—the cabins erected in the western states by the first +settlers. To my child’s eye, however, it was a noble structure, admirably +adapted to promote the comforts and conveniences of its inmates. A few rough, +Virginia fence-rails, flung loosely over the rafters above, answered the triple +purpose of floors, ceilings, and bedsteads. To be sure, this upper apartment +was reached only by a ladder—but what in the world for climbing could be +better than a ladder? To me, this ladder was really a high invention, and +possessed a sort of charm as I played with delight upon the rounds of it. In +this little hut there was a large family of children: I dare not say how many. +My grandmother—whether because too old for field service, or because she +had so faithfully discharged the duties of her station in early life, I know +not—enjoyed the high privilege of living in a cabin, separate from the +quarter, with no other burden than her own support, and the necessary care of +the little children, imposed. She evidently esteemed it a great fortune to live +so. The children were not her own, but her grandchildren—the children of +her daughters. She took delight in having them around her, and in attending to +their few wants. The practice of separating children from their mother, and +hiring the latter out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, except +at long intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the +slave system. But it is in harmony with the grand aim of slavery, which, always +and everywhere, is to reduce man to a level with the brute. It is a successful +method of obliterating from the mind and heart of the slave, all just ideas of +the sacredness of <i>the family</i>, as an institution. +</p> + +<p> +Most of the children, however, in this instance, being the children of my +grandmother’s daughters, the notions of family, and the reciprocal duties +and benefits of the relation, had a better chance of being understood than +where children are placed—as they often are in the hands of strangers, +who have no care for them, apart from the wishes of their masters. The +daughters of my grandmother were five in number. Their names were JENNY, +ESTHER, MILLY, PRISCILLA, and HARRIET. The daughter last named was my mother, +of whom the reader shall learn more by-and-by. +</p> + +<p> +Living here, with my dear old grandmother and grandfather, it was a long time +before I knew myself to be <i>a slave</i>. I knew many other things before I +knew that. Grandmother and grandfather were the greatest people in the world to +me; and being with them so snugly in their own little cabin—I supposed it +be their own—knowing no higher authority over me or the other children +than the authority of grandmamma, for a time there was nothing to disturb me; +but, as I grew larger and older, I learned by degrees the sad fact, that the +“little hut,” and the lot on which it stood, belonged not to my +dear old grandparents, but to some person who lived a great distance off, and +who was called, by grandmother, “OLD MASTER.” I further learned the +sadder fact, that not only the house and lot, but that grandmother herself, +(grandfather was free,) and all the little children around her, belonged to +this mysterious personage, called by grandmother, with every mark of reverence, +“Old Master.” Thus early did clouds and shadows begin to fall upon +my path. Once on the track—troubles never come singly—I was not +long in finding out another fact, still more grievous to my childish heart. I +was told that this “old master,” whose name seemed ever to be +mentioned with fear and shuddering, only allowed the children to live with +grandmother for a limited time, and that in fact as soon as they were big +enough, they were promptly taken away, to live with the said “old +master.” These were distressing revelations indeed; and though I was +quite too young to comprehend the full import of the intelligence, and mostly +spent my childhood days in gleesome sports with the other children, a shade of +disquiet rested upon me. +</p> + +<p> +The absolute power of this distant “old master” had touched my +young spirit with but the point of its cold, cruel iron, and left me something +to brood over after the play and in moments of repose. Grandmammy was, indeed, +at that time, all the world to me; and the thought of being separated from her, +in any considerable time, was more than an unwelcome intruder. It was +intolerable. +</p> + +<p> +Children have their sorrows as well as men and women; and it would be well to +remember this in our dealings with them. SLAVE-children <i>are</i> children, +and prove no exceptions to the general rule. The liability to be separated from +my grandmother, seldom or never to see her again, haunted me. I dreaded the +thought of going to live with that mysterious “old master,” whose +name I never heard mentioned with affection, but always with fear. I look back +to this as among the heaviest of my childhood’s sorrows. My grandmother! +my grandmother! and the little hut, and the joyous circle under her care, but +especially <i>she</i>, who made us sorry when she left us but for an hour, and +glad on her return,—how could I leave her and the good old home? +</p> + +<p> +But the sorrows of childhood, like the pleasures of after life, are transient. +It is not even within the power of slavery to write <i>indelible</i> sorrow, at +a single dash, over the heart of a child. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +The tear down childhood’s cheek that flows,<br/> +Is like the dew-drop on the rose—<br/> +When next the summer breeze comes by,<br/> +And waves the bush—the flower is dry. +</p> + +<p> +There is, after all, but little difference in the measure of contentment felt +by the slave-child neglected and the slaveholder’s child cared for and +petted. The spirit of the All Just mercifully holds the balance for the young. +</p> + +<p> +The slaveholder, having nothing to fear from impotent childhood, easily affords +to refrain from cruel inflictions; and if cold and hunger do not pierce the +tender frame, the first seven or eight years of the slave-boy’s life are +about as full of sweet content as those of the most favored and petted +<i>white</i> children of the slaveholder. The slave-boy escapes many troubles +which befall and vex his white brother. He seldom has to listen to lectures on +propriety of behavior, or on anything else. He is never chided for handling his +little knife and fork improperly or awkwardly, for he uses none. He is never +reprimanded for soiling the table-cloth, for he takes his meals on the clay +floor. He never has the misfortune, in his games or sports, of soiling or +tearing his clothes, for he has almost none to soil or tear. He is never +expected to act like a nice little gentleman, for he is only a rude little +slave. Thus, freed from all restraint, the slave-boy can be, in his life and +conduct, a genuine boy, doing whatever his boyish nature suggests; enacting, by +turns, all the strange antics and freaks of horses, dogs, pigs, and barn-door +fowls, without in any manner compromising his dignity, or incurring reproach of +any sort. He literally runs wild; has no pretty little verses to learn in the +nursery; no nice little speeches to make for aunts, uncles, or cousins, to show +how smart he is; and, if he can only manage to keep out of the way of the heavy +feet and fists of the older slave boys, he may trot on, in his joyous and +roguish tricks, as happy as any little heathen under the palm trees of Africa. +To be sure, he is occasionally reminded, when he stumbles in the path of his +master—and this he early learns to avoid—that he is eating his +<i>“white bread,”</i> and that he will be made to <i>“see +sights”</i> by-and-by. The threat is soon forgotten; the shadow soon +passes, and our sable boy continues to roll in the dust, or play in the mud, as +bests suits him, and in the veriest freedom. If he feels uncomfortable, from +mud or from dust, the coast is clear; he can plunge into the river or the pond, +without the ceremony of undressing, or the fear of wetting his clothes; his +little tow-linen shirt—for that is all he has on—is easily dried; +and it needed ablution as much as did his skin. His food is of the coarsest +kind, consisting for the most part of cornmeal mush, which often finds it way +from the wooden tray to his mouth in an oyster shell. His days, when the +weather is warm, are spent in the pure, open air, and in the bright sunshine. +He always sleeps in airy apartments; he seldom has to take powders, or to be +paid to swallow pretty little sugar-coated pills, to cleanse his blood, or to +quicken his appetite. He eats no candies; gets no lumps of loaf sugar; always +relishes his food; cries but little, for nobody cares for his crying; learns to +esteem his bruises but slight, because others so esteem them. In a word, he is, +for the most part of the first eight years of his life, a spirited, joyous, +uproarious, and happy boy, upon whom troubles fall only like water on a +duck’s back. And such a boy, so far as I can now remember, was the boy +whose life in slavery I am now narrating. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"></a> +CHAPTER II. <i>Removed from My First Home</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +THE NAME “OLD MASTER” A TERROR—COLONEL LLOYD’S +PLANTATION—WYE RIVER—WHENCE ITS NAME—POSITION OF THE +LLOYDS—HOME ATTRACTION—MEET OFFERING—JOURNEY FROM TUCKAHOE TO +WYE RIVER—SCENE ON REACHING OLD MASTER’S—DEPARTURE OF +GRANDMOTHER—STRANGE MEETING OF SISTERS AND BROTHERS—REFUSAL TO BE +COMFORTED—SWEET SLEEP. +</p> + +<p> +That mysterious individual referred to in the first chapter as an object of +terror among the inhabitants of our little cabin, under the ominous title of +“old master,” was really a man of some consequence. He owned +several farms in Tuckahoe; was the chief clerk and butler on the home +plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd; had overseers on his own farms; and gave +directions to overseers on the farms belonging to Col. Lloyd. This plantation +is situated on Wye river—the river receiving its name, doubtless, from +Wales, where the Lloyds originated. They (the Lloyds) are an old and honored +family in Maryland, exceedingly wealthy. The home plantation, where they have +resided, perhaps for a century or more, is one of the largest, most fertile, +and best appointed, in the state. +</p> + +<p> +About this plantation, and about that queer old master—who must be +something more than a man, and something worse than an angel—the reader +will easily imagine that I was not only curious, but eager, to know all that +could be known. Unhappily for me, however, all the information I could get +concerning him increased my great dread of being carried thither—of being +separated from and deprived of the protection of my grandmother and +grandfather. It was, evidently, a great thing to go to Col. Lloyd’s; and +I was not without a little curiosity to see the place; but no amount of coaxing +could induce in me the wish to remain there. The fact is, such was my dread of +leaving the little cabin, that I wished to remain little forever, for I knew +the taller I grew the shorter my stay. The old cabin, with its rail floor and +rail bedsteads upstairs, and its clay floor downstairs, and its dirt chimney, +and windowless sides, and that most curious piece of workmanship dug in front +of the fireplace, beneath which grandmammy placed the sweet potatoes to keep +them from the frost, was MY HOME—the only home I ever had; and I loved +it, and all connected with it. The old fences around it, and the stumps in the +edge of the woods near it, and the squirrels that ran, skipped, and played upon +them, were objects of interest and affection. There, too, right at the side of +the hut, stood the old well, with its stately and skyward-pointing beam, so +aptly placed between the limbs of what had once been a tree, and so nicely +balanced that I could move it up and down with only one hand, and could get a +drink myself without calling for help. Where else in the world could such a +well be found, and where could such another home be met with? Nor were these +all the attractions of the place. Down in a little valley, not far from +grandmammy’s cabin, stood Mr. Lee’s mill, where the people came +often in large numbers to get their corn ground. It was a watermill; and I +never shall be able to tell the many things thought and felt, while I sat on +the bank and watched that mill, and the turning of that ponderous wheel. The +mill-pond, too, had its charms; and with my pinhook, and thread line, I could +get <i>nibbles</i>, if I could catch no fish. But, in all my sports and plays, +and in spite of them, there would, occasionally, come the painful foreboding +that I was not long to remain there, and that I must soon be called away to the +home of old master. +</p> + +<p> +I was A SLAVE—born a slave and though the fact was incomprehensible to +me, it conveyed to my mind a sense of my entire dependence on the will of +<i>somebody</i> I had never seen; and, from some cause or other, I had been +made to fear this somebody above all else on earth. Born for another’s +benefit, as the <i>firstling</i> of the cabin flock I was soon to be selected +as a meet offering to the fearful and inexorable <i>demigod</i>, whose huge +image on so many occasions haunted my childhood’s imagination. When the +time of my departure was decided upon, my grandmother, knowing my fears, and in +pity for them, kindly kept me ignorant of the dreaded event about to transpire. +Up to the morning (a beautiful summer morning) when we were to start, and, +indeed, during the whole journey—a journey which, child as I was, I +remember as well as if it were yesterday—she kept the sad fact hidden +from me. This reserve was necessary; for, could I have known all, I should have +given grandmother some trouble in getting me started. As it was, I was +helpless, and she—dear woman!—led me along by the hand, resisting, +with the reserve and solemnity of a priestess, all my inquiring looks to the +last. +</p> + +<p> +The distance from Tuckahoe to Wye river—where my old master +lived—was full twelve miles, and the walk was quite a severe test of the +endurance of my young legs. The journey would have proved too severe for me, +but that my dear old grandmother—blessings on her memory!—afforded +occasional relief by “toting” me (as Marylanders have it) on her +shoulder. My grandmother, though advanced in years—as was evident from +more than one gray hair, which peeped from between the ample and graceful folds +of her newly-ironed bandana turban—was yet a woman of power and spirit. +She was marvelously straight in figure, elastic, and muscular. I seemed hardly +to be a burden to her. She would have “toted” me farther, but that +I felt myself too much of a man to allow it, and insisted on walking. Releasing +dear grandmamma from carrying me, did not make me altogether independent of +her, when we happened to pass through portions of the somber woods which lay +between Tuckahoe and Wye river. She often found me increasing the energy of my +grip, and holding her clothing, lest something should come out of the woods and +eat me up. Several old logs and stumps imposed upon me, and got themselves +taken for wild beasts. I could see their legs, eyes, and ears, or I could see +something like eyes, legs, and ears, till I got close enough to them to see +that the eyes were knots, washed white with rain, and the legs were broken +limbs, and the ears, only ears owing to the point from which they were seen. +Thus early I learned that the point from which a thing is viewed is of some +importance. +</p> + +<p> +As the day advanced the heat increased; and it was not until the afternoon that +we reached the much dreaded end of the journey. I found myself in the midst of +a group of children of many colors; black, brown, copper colored, and nearly +white. I had not seen so many children before. Great houses loomed up in +different directions, and a great many men and women were at work in the +fields. All this hurry, noise, and singing was very different from the +stillness of Tuckahoe. As a new comer, I was an object of special interest; +and, after laughing and yelling around me, and playing all sorts of wild +tricks, they (the children) asked me to go out and play with them. This I +refused to do, preferring to stay with grandmamma. I could not help feeling +that our being there boded no good to me. Grandmamma looked sad. She was soon +to lose another object of affection, as she had lost many before. I knew she +was unhappy, and the shadow fell from her brow on me, though I knew not the +cause. +</p> + +<p> +All suspense, however, must have an end; and the end of mine, in this instance, +was at hand. Affectionately patting me on the head, and exhorting me to be a +good boy, grandmamma told me to go and play with the little children. +“They are kin to you,” said she; “go and play with +them.” Among a number of cousins were Phil, Tom, Steve, and Jerry, Nance +and Betty. +</p> + +<p> +Grandmother pointed out my brother PERRY, my sister SARAH, and my sister ELIZA, +who stood in the group. I had never seen my brother nor my sisters before; and, +though I had sometimes heard of them, and felt a curious interest in them, I +really did not understand what they were to me, or I to them. We were brothers +and sisters, but what of that? Why should they be attached to me, or I to them? +Brothers and sisters we were by blood; but <i>slavery</i> had made us +strangers. I heard the words brother and sisters, and knew they must mean +something; but slavery had robbed these terms of their true meaning. The +experience through which I was passing, they had passed through before. They +had already been initiated into the mysteries of old master’s domicile, +and they seemed to look upon me with a certain degree of compassion; but my +heart clave to my grandmother. Think it not strange, dear reader, that so +little sympathy of feeling existed between us. The conditions of brotherly and +sisterly feeling were wanting—we had never nestled and played together. +My poor mother, like many other slave-women, had many <i>children</i>, but NO +FAMILY! The domestic hearth, with its holy lessons and precious endearments, is +abolished in the case of a slave-mother and her children. “Little +children, love one another,” are words seldom heard in a slave cabin. +</p> + +<p> +I really wanted to play with my brother and sisters, but they were strangers to +me, and I was full of fear that grandmother might leave without taking me with +her. Entreated to do so, however, and that, too, by my dear grandmother, I went +to the back part of the house, to play with them and the other children. +<i>Play</i>, however, I did not, but stood with my back against the wall, +witnessing the playing of the others. At last, while standing there, one of the +children, who had been in the kitchen, ran up to me, in a sort of roguish glee, +exclaiming, “Fed, Fed! grandmammy gone! grandmammy gone!” I could +not believe it; yet, fearing the worst, I ran into the kitchen, to see for +myself, and found it even so. Grandmammy had indeed gone, and was now far away, +“clean” out of sight. I need not tell all that happened now. Almost +heart-broken at the discovery, I fell upon the ground, and wept a boy’s +bitter tears, refusing to be comforted. My brother and sisters came around me, +and said, “Don’t cry,” and gave me peaches and pears, but I +flung them away, and refused all their kindly advances. I had never been +deceived before; and I felt not only grieved at parting—as I supposed +forever—with my grandmother, but indignant that a trick had been played +upon me in a matter so serious. +</p> + +<p> +It was now late in the afternoon. The day had been an exciting and wearisome +one, and I knew not how or where, but I suppose I sobbed myself to sleep. There +is a healing in the angel wing of sleep, even for the slave-boy; and its balm +was never more welcome to any wounded soul than it was to mine, the first night +I spent at the domicile of old master. The reader may be surprised that I +narrate so minutely an incident apparently so trivial, and which must have +occurred when I was not more than seven years old; but as I wish to give a +faithful history of my experience in slavery, I cannot withhold a circumstance +which, at the time, affected me so deeply. Besides, this was, in fact, my first +introduction to the realities of slavery. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"></a> +CHAPTER III. <i>Parentage</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +MY FATHER SHROUDED IN MYSTERY—MY MOTHER—HER PERSONAL +APPEARANCE—INTERFERENCE OF SLAVERY WITH THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS OF MOTHER +AND CHILDREN—SITUATION OF MY MOTHER—HER NIGHTLY VISITS TO HER +BOY—STRIKING INCIDENT—HER DEATH—HER PLACE OF BURIAL. +</p> + +<p> +If the reader will now be kind enough to allow me time to grow bigger, and +afford me an opportunity for my experience to become greater, I will tell him +something, by-and-by, of slave life, as I saw, felt, and heard it, on Col. +Edward Lloyd’s plantation, and at the house of old master, where I had +now, despite of myself, most suddenly, but not unexpectedly, been dropped. +Meanwhile, I will redeem my promise to say something more of my dear mother. +</p> + +<p> +I say nothing of <i>father</i>, for he is shrouded in a mystery I have never +been able to penetrate. Slavery does away with fathers, as it does away with +families. Slavery has no use for either fathers or families, and its laws do +not recognize their existence in the social arrangements of the plantation. +When they <i>do</i> exist, they are not the outgrowths of slavery, but are +antagonistic to that system. The order of civilization is reversed here. The +name of the child is not expected to be that of its father, and his condition +does not necessarily affect that of the child. He may be the slave of Mr. +Tilgman; and his child, when born, may be the slave of Mr. Gross. He may be a +<i>freeman;</i> and yet his child may be a <i>chattel</i>. He may be white, +glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood; and his child may be ranked +with the blackest slaves. Indeed, he <i>may</i> be, and often <i>is</i>, master +and father to the same child. He can be father without being a husband, and may +sell his child without incurring reproach, if the child be by a woman in whose +veins courses one thirty-second part of African blood. My father was a white +man, or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master was my father. +</p> + +<p> +But to return, or rather, to begin. My knowledge of my mother is very scanty, +but very distinct. Her personal appearance and bearing are ineffaceably stamped +upon my memory. She was tall, and finely proportioned; of deep black, glossy +complexion; had regular features, and, among the other slaves, was remarkably +sedate in her manners. There is in <i>Prichard’s Natural History of +Man</i>, the head of a figure—on page 157—the features of which so +resemble those of my mother, that I often recur to it with something of the +feeling which I suppose others experience when looking upon the pictures of +dear departed ones. +</p> + +<p> +Yet I cannot say that I was very deeply attached to my mother; certainly not so +deeply as I should have been had our relations in childhood been different. We +were separated, according to the common custom, when I was but an infant, and, +of course, before I knew my mother from any one else. +</p> + +<p> +The germs of affection with which the Almighty, in his wisdom and mercy, arms +the hopeless infant against the ills and vicissitudes of his lot, had been +directed in their growth toward that loving old grandmother, whose gentle hand +and kind deportment it was in the first effort of my infantile understanding to +comprehend and appreciate. Accordingly, the tenderest affection which a +beneficent Father allows, as a partial compensation to the mother for the pains +and lacerations of her heart, incident to the maternal relation, was, in my +case, diverted from its true and natural object, by the envious, greedy, and +treacherous hand of slavery. The slave-mother can be spared long enough from +the field to endure all the bitterness of a mother’s anguish, when it +adds another name to a master’s ledger, but <i>not</i> long enough to +receive the joyous reward afforded by the intelligent smiles of her child. I +never think of this terrible interference of slavery with my infantile +affections, and its diverting them from their natural course, without feelings +to which I can give no adequate expression. +</p> + +<p> +I do not remember to have seen my mother at my grandmother’s at any time. +I remember her only in her visits to me at Col. Lloyd’s plantation, and +in the kitchen of my old master. Her visits to me there were few in number, +brief in duration, and mostly made in the night. The pains she took, and the +toil she endured, to see me, tells me that a true mother’s heart was +hers, and that slavery had difficulty in paralyzing it with unmotherly +indifference. +</p> + +<p> +My mother was hired out to a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from old +master’s, and, being a field hand, she seldom had leisure, by day, for +the performance of the journey. The nights and the distance were both obstacles +to her visits. She was obliged to walk, unless chance flung into her way an +opportunity to ride; and the latter was sometimes her good luck. But she always +had to walk one way or the other. It was a greater luxury than slavery could +afford, to allow a black slave-mother a horse or a mule, upon which to travel +twenty-four miles, when she could walk the distance. Besides, it is deemed a +foolish whim for a slave-mother to manifest concern to see her children, and, +in one point of view, the case is made out—she can do nothing for them. +She has no control over them; the master is even more than the mother, in all +matters touching the fate of her child. Why, then, should she give herself any +concern? She has no responsibility. Such is the reasoning, and such the +practice. The iron rule of the plantation, always passionately and violently +enforced in that neighborhood, makes flogging the penalty of failing to be in +the field before sunrise in the morning, unless special permission be given to +the absenting slave. “I went to see my child,” is no excuse to the +ear or heart of the overseer. +</p> + +<p> +One of the visits of my mother to me, while at Col. Lloyd’s, I remember +very vividly, as affording a bright gleam of a mother’s love, and the +earnestness of a mother’s care. +</p> + +<p> +“I had on that day offended “Aunt Katy,” (called +“Aunt” by way of respect,) the cook of old master’s +establishment. I do not now remember the nature of my offense in this instance, +for my offenses were numerous in that quarter, greatly depending, however, upon +the mood of Aunt Katy, as to their heinousness; but she had adopted, that day, +her favorite mode of punishing me, namely, making me go without food all +day—that is, from after breakfast. The first hour or two after dinner, I +succeeded pretty well in keeping up my spirits; but though I made an excellent +stand against the foe, and fought bravely during the afternoon, I knew I must +be conquered at last, unless I got the accustomed reenforcement of a slice of +corn bread, at sundown. Sundown came, but <i>no bread</i>, and, in its stead, +their came the threat, with a scowl well suited to its terrible import, that +she “meant to <i>starve the life out of me!”</i> Brandishing her +knife, she chopped off the heavy slices for the other children, and put the +loaf away, muttering, all the while, her savage designs upon myself. Against +this disappointment, for I was expecting that her heart would relent at last, I +made an extra effort to maintain my dignity; but when I saw all the other +children around me with merry and satisfied faces, I could stand it no longer. +I went out behind the house, and cried like a fine fellow! When tired of this, +I returned to the kitchen, sat by the fire, and brooded over my hard lot. I was +too hungry to sleep. While I sat in the corner, I caught sight of an ear of +Indian corn on an upper shelf of the kitchen. I watched my chance, and got it, +and, shelling off a few grains, I put it back again. The grains in my hand, I +quickly put in some ashes, and covered them with embers, to roast them. All +this I did at the risk of getting a brutual thumping, for Aunt Katy could beat, +as well as starve me. My corn was not long in roasting, and, with my keen +appetite, it did not matter even if the grains were not exactly done. I eagerly +pulled them out, and placed them on my stool, in a clever little pile. Just as +I began to help myself to my very dry meal, in came my dear mother. And now, +dear reader, a scene occurred which was altogether worth beholding, and to me +it was instructive as well as interesting. The friendless and hungry boy, in +his extremest need—and when he did not dare to look for +succor—found himself in the strong, protecting arms of a mother; a mother +who was, at the moment (being endowed with high powers of manner as well as +matter) more than a match for all his enemies. I shall never forget the +indescribable expression of her countenance, when I told her that I had had no +food since morning; and that Aunt Katy said she “meant to starve the life +out of me.” There was pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation +at Aunt Katy at the same time; and, while she took the corn from me, and gave +me a large ginger cake, in its stead, she read Aunt Katy a lecture which she +never forgot. My mother threatened her with complaining to old master in my +behalf; for the latter, though harsh and cruel himself, at times, did not +sanction the meanness, injustice, partiality and oppressions enacted by Aunt +Katy in the kitchen. That night I learned the fact, that I was, not only a +child, but <i>somebody’s</i> child. The “sweet cake” my +mother gave me was in the shape of a heart, with a rich, dark ring glazed upon +the edge of it. I was victorious, and well off for the moment; prouder, on my +mother’s knee, than a king upon his throne. But my triumph was short. I +dropped off to sleep, and waked in the morning only to find my mother gone, and +myself left at the mercy of the sable virago, dominant in my old master’s +kitchen, whose fiery wrath was my constant dread. +</p> + +<p> +I do not remember to have seen my mother after this occurrence. Death soon +ended the little communication that had existed between us; and with it, I +believe, a life judging from her weary, sad, down-cast countenance and mute +demeanor—full of heartfelt sorrow. I was not allowed to visit her during +any part of her long illness; nor did I see her for a long time before she was +taken ill and died. The heartless and ghastly form of <i>slavery</i> rises +between mother and child, even at the bed of death. The mother, at the verge of +the grave, may not gather her children, to impart to them her holy admonitions, +and invoke for them her dying benediction. The bond-woman lives as a slave, and +is left to die as a beast; often with fewer attentions than are paid to a +favorite horse. Scenes of sacred tenderness, around the death-bed, never +forgotten, and which often arrest the vicious and confirm the virtuous during +life, must be looked for among the free, though they sometimes occur among the +slaves. It has been a life-long, standing grief to me, that I knew so little of +my mother; and that I was so early separated from her. The counsels of her love +must have been beneficial to me. The side view of her face is imaged on my +memory, and I take few steps in life, without feeling her presence; but the +image is mute, and I have no striking words of her’s treasured up. +</p> + +<p> +I learned, after my mother’s death, that she could read, and that she was +the <i>only</i> one of all the slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who +enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired this knowledge, I know not, for +Tuckahoe is the last place in the world where she would be apt to find +facilities for learning. I can, therefore, fondly and proudly ascribe to her an +earnest love of knowledge. That a “field hand” should learn to +read, in any slave state, is remarkable; but the achievement of my mother, +considering the place, was very extraordinary; and, in view of that fact, I am +quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any love of letters I possess, and +for which I have got—despite of prejudices only too much credit, +<i>not</i> to my admitted Anglo-Saxon paternity, but to the native genius of my +sable, unprotected, and uncultivated <i>mother</i>—a woman, who belonged +to a race whose mental endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in +disparagement and contempt. +</p> + +<p> +Summoned away to her account, with the impassable gulf of slavery between us +during her entire illness, my mother died without leaving me a single +intimation of <i>who</i> my father was. There was a whisper, that my master was +my father; yet it was only a whisper, and I cannot say that I ever gave it +credence. Indeed, I now have reason to think he was not; nevertheless, the fact +remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that, by the laws of slavery, children, +in all cases, are reduced to the condition of their mothers. This arrangement +admits of the greatest license to brutal slaveholders, and their profligate +sons, brothers, relations and friends, and gives to the pleasure of sin, the +additional attraction of profit. A whole volume might be written on this single +feature of slavery, as I have observed it. +</p> + +<p> +One might imagine, that the children of such connections, would fare better, in +the hands of their masters, than other slaves. The rule is quite the other way; +and a very little reflection will satisfy the reader that such is the case. A +man who will enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for +magnanimity. Men do not love those who remind them of their sins unless they +have a mind to repent—and the mulatto child’s face is a standing +accusation against him who is master and father to the child. What is still +worse, perhaps, such a child is a constant offense to the wife. She hates its +very presence, and when a slaveholding woman hates, she wants not means to give +that hate telling effect. Women—white women, I mean—are IDOLS at +the south, not WIVES, for the slave women are preferred in many instances; and +if these <i>idols</i> but nod, or lift a finger, woe to the poor victim: kicks, +cuffs and stripes are sure to follow. Masters are frequently compelled to sell +this class of their slaves, out of deference to the feelings of their white +wives; and shocking and scandalous as it may seem for a man to sell his own +blood to the traffickers in human flesh, it is often an act of humanity toward +the slave-child to be thus removed from his merciless tormentors. +</p> + +<p> +It is not within the scope of the design of my simple story, to comment upon +every phase of slavery not within my experience as a slave. +</p> + +<p> +But, I may remark, that, if the lineal descendants of Ham are only to be +enslaved, according to the scriptures, slavery in this country will soon become +an unscriptural institution; for thousands are ushered into the world, +annually, who—like myself—owe their existence to white fathers, +and, most frequently, to their masters, and master’s sons. The +slave-woman is at the mercy of the fathers, sons or brothers of her master. The +thoughtful know the rest. +</p> + +<p> +After what I have now said of the circumstances of my mother, and my relations +to her, the reader will not be surprised, nor be disposed to censure me, when I +tell but the simple truth, viz: that I received the tidings of her death with +no strong emotions of sorrow for her, and with very little regret for myself on +account of her loss. I had to learn the value of my mother long after her +death, and by witnessing the devotion of other mothers to their children. +</p> + +<p> +There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so destructive as +slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters strangers to me; it converted the +mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded my father in mystery, and left me +without an intelligible beginning in the world. +</p> + +<p> +My mother died when I could not have been more than eight or nine years old, on +one of old master’s farms in Tuckahoe, in the neighborhood of +Hillsborough. Her grave is, as the grave of the dead at sea, unmarked, and +without stone or stake. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"></a> +CHAPTER IV. <i>A General Survey of the Slave Plantation</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +ISOLATION OF LLOYD S PLANTATION—PUBLIC OPINION THERE NO PROTECTION TO THE +SLAVE—ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE OVERSEER—NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CHARMS +OF THE PLACE—ITS BUSINESS-LIKE APPEARANCE—SUPERSTITION ABOUT THE +BURIAL GROUND—GREAT IDEAS OF COL. LLOYD—ETIQUETTE AMONG +SLAVES—THE COMIC SLAVE DOCTOR—PRAYING AND FLOGGING—OLD MASTER +LOSING ITS TERRORS—HIS BUSINESS—CHARACTER OF AUNT +KATY—SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER—OLD MASTER’S HOME—JARGON OF +THE PLANTATION—GUINEA SLAVES—MASTER DANIEL—FAMILY OF COL. +LLOYD—FAMILY OF CAPT. ANTHONY—HIS SOCIAL POSITION—NOTIONS OF +RANK AND STATION. +</p> + +<p> +It is generally supposed that slavery, in the state of Maryland, exists in its +mildest form, and that it is totally divested of those harsh and terrible +peculiarities, which mark and characterize the slave system, in the southern +and south-western states of the American union. The argument in favor of this +opinion, is the contiguity of the free states, and the exposed condition of +slavery in Maryland to the moral, religious and humane sentiment of the free +states. +</p> + +<p> +I am not about to refute this argument, so far as it relates to slavery in that +state, generally; on the contrary, I am willing to admit that, to this general +point, the arguments is well grounded. Public opinion is, indeed, an unfailing +restraint upon the cruelty and barbarity of masters, overseers, and +slave-drivers, whenever and wherever it can reach them; but there are certain +secluded and out-of-the-way places, even in the state of Maryland, seldom +visited by a single ray of healthy public sentiment—where slavery, wrapt +in its own congenial, midnight darkness, <i>can</i>, and <i>does</i>, develop +all its malign and shocking characteristics; where it can be indecent without +shame, cruel without shuddering, and murderous without apprehension or fear of +exposure. +</p> + +<p> +Just such a secluded, dark, and out-of-the-way place, is the “home +plantation” of Col. Edward Lloyd, on the Eastern Shore, Maryland. It is +far away from all the great thoroughfares, and is proximate to no town or +village. There is neither school-house, nor town-house in its neighborhood. The +school-house is unnecessary, for there are no children to go to school. The +children and grand-children of Col. Lloyd were taught in the house, by a +private tutor—a Mr. Page a tall, gaunt sapling of a man, who did not +speak a dozen words to a slave in a whole year. The overseers’ children +go off somewhere to school; and they, therefore, bring no foreign or dangerous +influence from abroad, to embarrass the natural operation of the slave system +of the place. Not even the mechanics—through whom there is an occasional +out-burst of honest and telling indignation, at cruelty and wrong on other +plantations—are white men, on this plantation. Its whole public is made +up of, and divided into, three classes—SLAVEHOLDERS, SLAVES and +OVERSEERS. Its blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shoemakers, weavers, and coopers, are +slaves. Not even commerce, selfish and iron-hearted at it is, and ready, as it +ever is, to side with the strong against the weak—the rich against the +poor—is trusted or permitted within its secluded precincts. Whether with +a view of guarding against the escape of its secrets, I know not, but it is a +fact, the every leaf and grain of the produce of this plantation, and those of +the neighboring farms belonging to Col. Lloyd, are transported to Baltimore in +Col. Lloyd’s own vessels; every man and boy on board of +which—except the captain—are owned by him. In return, everything +brought to the plantation, comes through the same channel. Thus, even the +glimmering and unsteady light of trade, which sometimes exerts a civilizing +influence, is excluded from this “tabooed” spot. +</p> + +<p> +Nearly all the plantations or farms in the vicinity of the “home +plantation” of Col. Lloyd, belong to him; and those which do not, are +owned by personal friends of his, as deeply interested in maintaining the slave +system, in all its rigor, as Col. Lloyd himself. Some of his neighbors are said +to be even more stringent than he. The Skinners, the Peakers, the Tilgmans, the +Lockermans, and the Gipsons, are in the same boat; being slaveholding +neighbors, they may have strengthened each other in their iron rule. They are +on intimate terms, and their interests and tastes are identical. +</p> + +<p> +Public opinion in such a quarter, the reader will see, is not likely to very +efficient in protecting the slave from cruelty. On the contrary, it must +increase and intensify his wrongs. Public opinion seldom differs very widely +from public practice. To be a restraint upon cruelty and vice, public opinion +must emanate from a humane and virtuous community. To no such humane and +virtuous community, is Col. Lloyd’s plantation exposed. That plantation +is a little nation of its own, having its own language, its own rules, +regulations and customs. The laws and institutions of the state, apparently +touch it nowhere. The troubles arising here, are not settled by the civil power +of the state. The overseer is generally accuser, judge, jury, advocate and +executioner. The criminal is always dumb. The overseer attends to all sides of +a case. +</p> + +<p> +There are no conflicting rights of property, for all the people are owned by +one man; and they can themselves own no property. Religion and politics are +alike excluded. One class of the population is too high to be reached by the +preacher; and the other class is too low to be cared for by the preacher. The +poor have the gospel preached to them, in this neighborhood, only when they are +able to pay for it. The slaves, having no money, get no gospel. The politician +keeps away, because the people have no votes, and the preacher keeps away, +because the people have no money. The rich planter can afford to learn politics +in the parlor, and to dispense with religion altogether. +</p> + +<p> +In its isolation, seclusion, and self-reliant independence, Col. Lloyd’s +plantation resembles what the baronial domains were during the middle ages in +Europe. Grim, cold, and unapproachable by all genial influences from +communities without, <i>there it stands;</i> full three hundred years behind +the age, in all that relates to humanity and morals. +</p> + +<p> +This, however, is not the only view that the place presents. Civilization is +shut out, but nature cannot be. Though separated from the rest of the world; +though public opinion, as I have said, seldom gets a chance to penetrate its +dark domain; though the whole place is stamped with its own peculiar, ironlike +individuality; and though crimes, high-handed and atrocious, may there be +committed, with almost as much impunity as upon the deck of a pirate +ship—it is, nevertheless, altogether, to outward seeming, a most +strikingly interesting place, full of life, activity, and spirit; and presents +a very favorable contrast to the indolent monotony and languor of Tuckahoe. +Keen as was my regret and great as was my sorrow at leaving the latter, I was +not long in adapting myself to this, my new home. A man’s troubles are +always half disposed of, when he finds endurance his only remedy. I found +myself here; there was no getting away; and what remained for me, but to make +the best of it? Here were plenty of children to play with, and plenty of places +of pleasant resort for boys of my age, and boys older. The little tendrils of +affection, so rudely and treacherously broken from around the darling objects +of my grandmother’s hut, gradually began to extend, and to entwine about +the new objects by which I now found myself surrounded. +</p> + +<p> +There was a windmill (always a commanding object to a child’s eye) on +Long Point—a tract of land dividing Miles river from the Wye a mile or +more from my old master’s house. There was a creek to swim in, at the +bottom of an open flat space, of twenty acres or more, called “the Long +Green”—a very beautiful play-ground for the children. +</p> + +<p> +In the river, a short distance from the shore, lying quietly at anchor, with +her small boat dancing at her stern, was a large sloop—the Sally Lloyd; +called by that name in honor of a favorite daughter of the colonel. The sloop +and the mill were wondrous things, full of thoughts and ideas. A child cannot +well look at such objects without <i>thinking</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the mysteries of +life at every stage of it. There was the little red house, up the road, +occupied by Mr. Sevier, the overseer. A little nearer to my old master’s, +stood a very long, rough, low building, literally alive with slaves, of all +ages, conditions and sizes. This was called “the Longe Quarter.” +Perched upon a hill, across the Long Green, was a very tall, dilapidated, old +brick building—the architectural dimensions of which proclaimed its +erection for a different purpose—now occupied by slaves, in a similar +manner to the Long Quarter. Besides these, there were numerous other slave +houses and huts, scattered around in the neighborhood, every nook and corner of +which was completely occupied. Old master’s house, a long, brick +building, plain, but substantial, stood in the center of the plantation life, +and constituted one independent establishment on the premises of Col. Lloyd. +</p> + +<p> +Besides these dwellings, there were barns, stables, store-houses, and +tobacco-houses; blacksmiths’ shops, wheelwrights’ shops, +coopers’ shops—all objects of interest; but, above all, there stood +the grandest building my eyes had then ever beheld, called, by every one on the +plantation, the “Great House.” This was occupied by Col. Lloyd and +his family. They occupied it; <i>I</i> enjoyed it. The great house was +surrounded by numerous and variously shaped out-buildings. There were kitchens, +wash-houses, dairies, summer-house, green-houses, hen-houses, turkey-houses, +pigeon-houses, and arbors, of many sizes and devices, all neatly painted, and +altogether interspersed with grand old trees, ornamental and primitive, which +afforded delightful shade in summer, and imparted to the scene a high degree of +stately beauty. The great house itself was a large, white, wooden building, +with wings on three sides of it. In front, a large portico, extending the +entire length of the building, and supported by a long range of columns, gave +to the whole establishment an air of solemn grandeur. It was a treat to my +young and gradually opening mind, to behold this elaborate exhibition of +wealth, power, and vanity. The carriage entrance to the house was a large gate, +more than a quarter of a mile distant from it; the intermediate space was a +beautiful lawn, very neatly trimmed, and watched with the greatest care. It was +dotted thickly over with delightful trees, shrubbery, and flowers. The road, or +lane, from the gate to the great house, was richly paved with white pebbles +from the beach, and, in its course, formed a complete circle around the +beautiful lawn. Carriages going in and retiring from the great house, made the +circuit of the lawn, and their passengers were permitted to behold a scene of +almost Eden-like beauty. Outside this select inclosure, were parks, where as +about the residences of the English nobility—rabbits, deer, and other +wild game, might be seen, peering and playing about, with none to molest them +or make them afraid. The tops of the stately poplars were often covered with +the red-winged black-birds, making all nature vocal with the joyous life and +beauty of their wild, warbling notes. These all belonged to me, as well as to +Col. Edward Lloyd, and for a time I greatly enjoyed them. +</p> + +<p> +A short distance from the great house, were the stately mansions of the dead, a +place of somber aspect. Vast tombs, embowered beneath the weeping willow and +the fir tree, told of the antiquities of the Lloyd family, as well as of their +wealth. Superstition was rife among the slaves about this family burying +ground. Strange sights had been seen there by some of the older slaves. +Shrouded ghosts, riding on great black horses, had been seen to enter; balls of +fire had been seen to fly there at midnight, and horrid sounds had been +repeatedly heard. Slaves know enough of the rudiments of theology to believe +that those go to hell who die slaveholders; and they often fancy such persons +wishing themselves back again, to wield the lash. Tales of sights and sounds, +strange and terrible, connected with the huge black tombs, were a very great +security to the grounds about them, for few of the slaves felt like approaching +them even in the day time. It was a dark, gloomy and forbidding place, and it +was difficult to feel that the spirits of the sleeping dust there deposited, +reigned with the blest in the realms of eternal peace. +</p> + +<p> +The business of twenty or thirty farms was transacted at this, called, by way +of eminence, “great house farm.” These farms all belonged to Col. +Lloyd, as did, also, the slaves upon them. Each farm was under the management +of an overseer. As I have said of the overseer of the home plantation, so I may +say of the overseers on the smaller ones; they stand between the slave and all +civil constitutions—their word is law, and is implicitly obeyed. +</p> + +<p> +The colonel, at this time, was reputed to be, and he apparently was, very rich. +His slaves, alone, were an immense fortune. These, small and great, could not +have been fewer than one thousand in number, and though scarcely a month passed +without the sale of one or more lots to the Georgia traders, there was no +apparent diminution in the number of his human stock: the home plantation +merely groaned at a removal of the young increase, or human crop, then +proceeded as lively as ever. Horse-shoeing, cart-mending, plow-repairing, +coopering, grinding, and weaving, for all the neighboring farms, were performed +here, and slaves were employed in all these branches. “Uncle Tony” +was the blacksmith; “Uncle Harry” was the cartwright; “Uncle +Abel” was the shoemaker; and all these had hands to assist them in their +several departments. +</p> + +<p> +These mechanics were called “uncles” by all the younger slaves, not +because they really sustained that relationship to any, but according to +plantation <i>etiquette</i>, as a mark of respect, due from the younger to the +older slaves. Strange, and even ridiculous as it may seem, among a people so +uncultivated, and with so many stern trials to look in the face, there is not +to be found, among any people, a more rigid enforcement of the law of respect +to elders, than they maintain. I set this down as partly constitutional with my +race, and partly conventional. There is no better material in the world for +making a gentleman, than is furnished in the African. He shows to others, and +exacts for himself, all the tokens of respect which he is compelled to manifest +toward his master. A young slave must approach the company of the older with +hat in hand, and woe betide him, if he fails to acknowledge a favor, of any +sort, with the accustomed <i>“tank’ee,”</i> &c. So +uniformly are good manners enforced among slaves, I can easily detect a +“bogus” fugitive by his manners. +</p> + +<p> +Among other slave notabilities of the plantation, was one called by everybody +Uncle Isaac Copper. It is seldom that a slave gets a surname from anybody in +Maryland; and so completely has the south shaped the manners of the north, in +this respect, that even abolitionists make very little of the surname of a +Negro. The only improvement on the “Bills,” “Jacks,” +“Jims,” and “Neds” of the south, observable here is, +that “William,” “John,” “James,” +“Edward,” are substituted. It goes against the grain to treat and +address a Negro precisely as they would treat and address a white man. But, +once in a while, in slavery as in the free states, by some extraordinary +circumstance, the Negro has a surname fastened to him, and holds it against all +conventionalities. This was the case with Uncle Isaac Copper. When the +“uncle” was dropped, he generally had the prefix +“doctor,” in its stead. He was our doctor of medicine, and doctor +of divinity as well. Where he took his degree I am unable to say, for he was +not very communicative to inferiors, and I was emphatically such, being but a +boy seven or eight years old. He was too well established in his profession to +permit questions as to his native skill, or his attainments. One qualification +he undoubtedly had—he was a confirmed <i>cripple;</i> and he could +neither work, nor would he bring anything if offered for sale in the market. +The old man, though lame, was no sluggard. He was a man that made his crutches +do him good service. He was always on the alert, looking up the sick, and all +such as were supposed to need his counsel. His remedial prescriptions embraced +four articles. For diseases of the body, <i>Epsom salts and castor oil;</i> for +those of the soul, <i>the Lord’s Prayer</i>, and <i>hickory switches</i>! +</p> + +<p> +I was not long at Col. Lloyd’s before I was placed under the care of +Doctor Issac Copper. I was sent to him with twenty or thirty other children, to +learn the “Lord’s Prayer.” I found the old gentleman seated +on a huge three-legged oaken stool, armed with several large hickory switches; +and, from his position, he could reach—lame as he was—any boy in +the room. After standing awhile to learn what was expected of us, the old +gentleman, in any other than a devotional tone, commanded us to kneel down. +This done, he commenced telling us to say everything he said. “Our +Father”—this was repeated after him with promptness and uniformity; +“Who art in heaven”—was less promptly and uniformly repeated; +and the old gentleman paused in the prayer, to give us a short lecture upon the +consequences of inattention, both immediate and future, and especially those +more immediate. About these he was absolutely certain, for he held in his right +hand the means of bringing all his predictions and warnings to pass. On he +proceeded with the prayer; and we with our thick tongues and unskilled ears, +followed him to the best of our ability. This, however, was not sufficient to +please the old gentleman. Everybody, in the south, wants the privilege of +whipping somebody else. Uncle Isaac shared the common passion of his country, +and, therefore, seldom found any means of keeping his disciples in order short +of flogging. “Say everything I say;” and bang would come the switch +on some poor boy’s undevotional head. <i>“What you looking at +there”—“Stop that pushing”</i>—and down again +would come the lash. +</p> + +<p> +The whip is all in all. It is supposed to secure obedience to the slaveholder, +and is held as a sovereign remedy among the slaves themselves, for every form +of disobedience, temporal or spiritual. Slaves, as well as slaveholders, use it +with an unsparing hand. Our devotions at Uncle Isaac’s combined too much +of the tragic and comic, to make them very salutary in a spiritual point of +view; and it is due to truth to say, I was often a truant when the time for +attending the praying and flogging of Doctor Isaac Copper came on. +</p> + +<p> +The windmill under the care of Mr. Kinney, a kind hearted old Englishman, was +to me a source of infinite interest and pleasure. The old man always seemed +pleased when he saw a troop of darkey little urchins, with their tow-linen +shirts fluttering in the breeze, approaching to view and admire the whirling +wings of his wondrous machine. From the mill we could see other objects of deep +interest. These were, the vessels from St. Michael’s, on their way to +Baltimore. It was a source of much amusement to view the flowing sails and +complicated rigging, as the little crafts dashed by, and to speculate upon +Baltimore, as to the kind and quality of the place. With so many sources of +interest around me, the reader may be prepared to learn that I began to think +very highly of Col. L.‘s plantation. It was just a place to my boyish +taste. There were fish to be caught in the creek, if one only had a hook and +line; and crabs, clams and oysters were to be caught by wading, digging and +raking for them. Here was a field for industry and enterprise, strongly +inviting; and the reader may be assured that I entered upon it with spirit. +</p> + +<p> +Even the much dreaded old master, whose merciless fiat had brought me from +Tuckahoe, gradually, to my mind, parted with his terrors. Strange enough, his +reverence seemed to take no particular notice of me, nor of my coming. Instead +of leaping out and devouring me, he scarcely seemed conscious of my presence. +The fact is, he was occupied with matters more weighty and important than +either looking after or vexing me. He probably thought as little of my advent, +as he would have thought of the addition of a single pig to his stock! +</p> + +<p> +As the chief butler on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, his duties were numerous +and perplexing. In almost all important matters he answered in Col. +Lloyd’s stead. The overseers of all the farms were in some sort under +him, and received the law from his mouth. The colonel himself seldom addressed +an overseer, or allowed an overseer to address him. Old master carried the keys +of all store houses; measured out the allowance for each slave at the end of +every month; superintended the storing of all goods brought to the plantation; +dealt out the raw material to all the handicraftsmen; shipped the grain, +tobacco, and all saleable produce of the plantation to market, and had the +general oversight of the coopers’ shop, wheelwrights’ shop, +blacksmiths’ shop, and shoemakers’ shop. Besides the care of these, +he often had business for the plantation which required him to be absent two +and three days. +</p> + +<p> +Thus largely employed, he had little time, and perhaps as little disposition, +to interfere with the children individually. What he was to Col. Lloyd, he made +Aunt Katy to him. When he had anything to say or do about us, it was said or +done in a wholesale manner; disposing of us in classes or sizes, leaving all +minor details to Aunt Katy, a person of whom the reader has already received no +very favorable impression. Aunt Katy was a woman who never allowed herself to +act greatly within the margin of power granted to her, no matter how broad that +authority might be. Ambitious, ill-tempered and cruel, she found in her present +position an ample field for the exercise of her ill-omened qualities. She had a +strong hold on old master she was considered a first rate cook, and she really +was very industrious. She was, therefore, greatly favored by old master, and as +one mark of his favor, she was the only mother who was permitted to retain her +children around her. Even to these children she was often fiendish in her +brutality. She pursued her son Phil, one day, in my presence, with a huge +butcher knife, and dealt a blow with its edge which left a shocking gash on his +arm, near the wrist. For this, old master did sharply rebuke her, and +threatened that if she ever should do the like again, he would take the skin +off her back. Cruel, however, as Aunt Katy was to her own children, at times +she was not destitute of maternal feeling, as I often had occasion to know, in +the bitter pinches of hunger I had to endure. Differing from the practice of +Col. Lloyd, old master, instead of allowing so much for each slave, committed +the allowance for all to the care of Aunt Katy, to be divided after cooking it, +amongst us. The allowance, consisting of coarse corn-meal, was not very +abundant—indeed, it was very slender; and in passing through Aunt +Katy’s hands, it was made more slender still, for some of us. William, +Phil and Jerry were her children, and it is not to accuse her too severely, to +allege that she was often guilty of starving myself and the other children, +while she was literally cramming her own. Want of food was my chief trouble the +first summer at my old master’s. Oysters and clams would do very well, +with an occasional supply of bread, but they soon failed in the absence of +bread. I speak but the simple truth, when I say, I have often been so pinched +with hunger, that I have fought with the dog—“Old +Nep”—for the smallest crumbs that fell from the kitchen table, and +have been glad when I won a single crumb in the combat. Many times have I +followed, with eager step, the waiting-girl when she went out to shake the +table cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats. The +water, in which meat had been boiled, was as eagerly sought for by me. It was a +great thing to get the privilege of dipping a piece of bread in such water; and +the skin taken from rusty bacon, was a positive luxury. Nevertheless, I +sometimes got full meals and kind words from sympathizing old slaves, who knew +my sufferings, and received the comforting assurance that I should be a man +some day. “Never mind, honey—better day comin’,” was +even then a solace, a cheering consolation to me in my troubles. Nor were all +the kind words I received from slaves. I had a friend in the parlor, as well, +and one to whom I shall be glad to do justice, before I have finished this part +of my story. +</p> + +<p> +I was not long at old master’s, before I learned that his surname was +Anthony, and that he was generally called “Captain Anthony”—a +title which he probably acquired by sailing a craft in the Chesapeake Bay. Col. +Lloyd’s slaves never called Capt. Anthony “old master,” but +always Capt. Anthony; and <i>me</i> they called “Captain Anthony +Fred.” There is not, probably, in the whole south, a plantation where the +English language is more imperfectly spoken than on Col. Lloyd’s. It is a +mixture of Guinea and everything else you please. At the time of which I am now +writing, there were slaves there who had been brought from the coast of Africa. +They never used the “s” in indication of the possessive case. +“Cap’n Ant’ney Tom,” “Lloyd Bill,” +“Aunt Rose Harry,” means “Captain Anthony’s Tom,” +“Lloyd’s Bill,” &c. <i>“Oo you dem long +to?”</i> means, “Whom do you belong to?” <i>“Oo dem got +any peachy?”</i> means, “Have you got any peaches?” I could +scarcely understand them when I first went among them, so broken was their +speech; and I am persuaded that I could not have been dropped anywhere on the +globe, where I could reap less, in the way of knowledge, from my immediate +associates, than on this plantation. Even “MAS’ DANIEL,” by +his association with his father’s slaves, had measurably adopted their +dialect and their ideas, so far as they had ideas to be adopted. The equality +of nature is strongly asserted in childhood, and childhood requires children +for associates. <i>Color</i> makes no difference with a child. Are you a child +with wants, tastes and pursuits common to children, not put on, but natural? +then, were you black as ebony you would be welcome to the child of alabaster +whiteness. The law of compensation holds here, as well as elsewhere. Mas’ +Daniel could not associate with ignorance without sharing its shade; and he +could not give his black playmates his company, without giving them his +intelligence, as well. Without knowing this, or caring about it, at the time, +I, for some cause or other, spent much of my time with Mas’ Daniel, in +preference to spending it with most of the other boys. +</p> + +<p> +Mas’ Daniel was the youngest son of Col. Lloyd; his older brothers were +Edward and Murray—both grown up, and fine looking men. Edward was +especially esteemed by the children, and by me among the rest; not that he ever +said anything to us or for us, which could be called especially kind; it was +enough for us, that he never looked nor acted scornfully toward us. There were +also three sisters, all married; one to Edward Winder; a second to Edward +Nicholson; a third to Mr. Lownes. +</p> + +<p> +The family of old master consisted of two sons, Andrew and Richard; his +daughter, Lucretia, and her newly married husband, Capt. Auld. This was the +house family. The kitchen family consisted of Aunt Katy, Aunt Esther, and ten +or a dozen children, most of them older than myself. Capt. Anthony was not +considered a rich slaveholder, but was pretty well off in the world. He owned +about thirty <i>“head”</i> of slaves, and three farms in Tuckahoe. +The most valuable part of his property was his slaves, of whom he could afford +to sell one every year. This crop, therefore, brought him seven or eight +hundred dollars a year, besides his yearly salary, and other revenue from his +farms. +</p> + +<p> +The idea of rank and station was rigidly maintained on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. Our family never visited the great house, and the Lloyds never came +to our home. Equal non-intercourse was observed between Capt. Anthony’s +family and that of Mr. Sevier, the overseer. +</p> + +<p> +Such, kind reader, was the community, and such the place, in which my earliest +and most lasting impressions of slavery, and of slave-life, were received; of +which impressions you will learn more in the coming chapters of this book. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"></a> +CHAPTER V. <i>Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +GROWING ACQUAINTANCE WITH OLD MASTER—HIS CHARACTER—EVILS OF +UNRESTRAINED PASSION—APPARENT TENDERNESS—OLD MASTER A MAN OF +TROUBLE—CUSTOM OF MUTTERING TO HIMSELF—NECESSITY OF BEING AWARE OF +HIS WORDS—THE SUPPOSED OBTUSENESS OF SLAVE-CHILDREN—BRUTAL +OUTRAGE—DRUNKEN OVERSEER—SLAVEHOLDER’S +IMPATIENCE—WISDOM OF APPEALING TO SUPERIORS—THE SLAVEHOLDER S WRATH +BAD AS THAT OF THE OVERSEER—A BASE AND SELFISH ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP A +COURTSHIP—A HARROWING SCENE. +</p> + +<p> +Although my old master—Capt. Anthony—gave me at first, (as the +reader will have already seen) very little attention, and although that little +was of a remarkably mild and gentle description, a few months only were +sufficient to convince me that mildness and gentleness were not the prevailing +or governing traits of his character. These excellent qualities were displayed +only occasionally. He could, when it suited him, appear to be literally +insensible to the claims of humanity, when appealed to by the helpless against +an aggressor, and he could himself commit outrages, deep, dark and nameless. +Yet he was not by nature worse than other men. Had he been brought up in a free +state, surrounded by the just restraints of free society—restraints which +are necessary to the freedom of all its members, alike and equally—Capt. +Anthony might have been as humane a man, and every way as respectable, as many +who now oppose the slave system; certainly as humane and respectable as are +members of society generally. The slaveholder, as well as the slave, is the +victim of the slave system. A man’s character greatly takes its hue and +shape from the form and color of things about him. Under the whole heavens +there is no relation more unfavorable to the development of honorable +character, than that sustained by the slaveholder to the slave. Reason is +imprisoned here, and passions run wild. Like the fires of the prairie, once +lighted, they are at the mercy of every wind, and must burn, till they have +consumed all that is combustible within their remorseless grasp. Capt. Anthony +could be kind, and, at times, he even showed an affectionate disposition. Could +the reader have seen him gently leading me by the hand—as he sometimes +did—patting me on the head, speaking to me in soft, caressing tones and +calling me his “little Indian boy,” he would have deemed him a kind +old man, and really, almost fatherly. But the pleasant moods of a slaveholder +are remarkably brittle; they are easily snapped; they neither come often, nor +remain long. His temper is subjected to perpetual trials; but, since these +trials are never borne patiently, they add nothing to his natural stock of +patience. +</p> + +<p> +Old master very early impressed me with the idea that he was an unhappy man. +Even to my child’s eye, he wore a troubled, and at times, a haggard +aspect. His strange movements excited my curiosity, and awakened my compassion. +He seldom walked alone without muttering to himself; and he occasionally +stormed about, as if defying an army of invisible foes. “He would do +this, that, and the other; he’d be d—d if he did +not,”—was the usual form of his threats. Most of his leisure was +spent in walking, cursing and gesticulating, like one possessed by a demon. +Most evidently, he was a wretched man, at war with his own soul, and with all +the world around him. To be overheard by the children, disturbed him very +little. He made no more of our presence, than of that of the ducks and geese +which he met on the green. He little thought that the little black urchins +around him, could see, through those vocal crevices, the very secrets of his +heart. Slaveholders ever underrate the intelligence with which they have to +grapple. I really understood the old man’s mutterings, attitudes and +gestures, about as well as he did himself. But slaveholders never encourage +that kind of communication, with the slaves, by which they might learn to +measure the depths of his knowledge. Ignorance is a high virtue in a human +chattel; and as the master studies to keep the slave ignorant, the slave is +cunning enough to make the master think he succeeds. The slave fully +appreciates the saying, “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be +wise.” When old master’s gestures were violent, ending with a +threatening shake of the head, and a sharp snap of his middle finger and thumb, +I deemed it wise to keep at a respectable distance from him; for, at such +times, trifling faults stood, in his eyes, as momentous offenses; and, having +both the power and the disposition, the victim had only to be near him to catch +the punishment, deserved or undeserved. +</p> + +<p> +One of the first circumstances that opened my eyes to the cruelty and +wickedness of slavery, and the heartlessness of my old master, was the refusal +of the latter to interpose his authority, to protect and shield a young woman, +who had been most cruelly abused and beaten by his overseer in Tuckahoe. This +overseer—a Mr. Plummer—was a man like most of his class, little +better than a human brute; and, in addition to his general profligacy and +repulsive coarseness, the creature was a miserable drunkard. He was, probably, +employed by my old master, less on account of the excellence of his services, +than for the cheap rate at which they could be obtained. He was not fit to have +the management of a drove of mules. In a fit of drunken madness, he committed +the outrage which brought the young woman in question down to my old +master’s for protection. This young woman was the daughter of Milly, an +own aunt of mine. The poor girl, on arriving at our house, presented a pitiable +appearance. She had left in haste, and without preparation; and, probably, +without the knowledge of Mr. Plummer. She had traveled twelve miles, +bare-footed, bare-necked and bare-headed. Her neck and shoulders were covered +with scars, newly made; and not content with marring her neck and shoulders, +with the cowhide, the cowardly brute had dealt her a blow on the head with a +hickory club, which cut a horrible gash, and left her face literally covered +with blood. In this condition, the poor young woman came down, to implore +protection at the hands of my old master. I expected to see him boil over with +rage at the revolting deed, and to hear him fill the air with curses upon the +brutual Plummer; but I was disappointed. He sternly told her, in an angry tone, +he “believed she deserved every bit of it,” and, if she did not go +home instantly, he would himself take the remaining skin from her neck and +back. Thus was the poor girl compelled to return, without redress, and perhaps +to receive an additional flogging for daring to appeal to old master against +the overseer. +</p> + +<p> +Old master seemed furious at the thought of being troubled by such complaints. +I did not, at that time, understand the philosophy of his treatment of my +cousin. It was stern, unnatural, violent. Had the man no bowels of compassion? +Was he dead to all sense of humanity? No. I think I now understand it. This +treatment is a part of the system, rather than a part of the man. Were +slaveholders to listen to complaints of this sort against the overseers, the +luxury of owning large numbers of slaves, would be impossible. It would do away +with the office of overseer, entirely; or, in other words, it would convert the +master himself into an overseer. It would occasion great loss of time and +labor, leaving the overseer in fetters, and without the necessary power to +secure obedience to his orders. A privilege so dangerous as that of appeal, is, +therefore, strictly prohibited; and any one exercising it, runs a fearful +hazard. Nevertheless, when a slave has nerve enough to exercise it, and boldly +approaches his master, with a well-founded complaint against an overseer, +though he may be repulsed, and may even have that of which he complains +repeated at the time, and, though he may be beaten by his master, as well as by +the overseer, for his temerity, in the end the policy of complaining is, +generally, vindicated by the relaxed rigor of the overseer’s treatment. +The latter becomes more careful, and less disposed to use the lash upon such +slaves thereafter. It is with this final result in view, rather than with any +expectation of immediate good, that the outraged slave is induced to meet his +master with a complaint. The overseer very naturally dislikes to have the ear +of the master disturbed by complaints; and, either upon this consideration, or +upon advice and warning privately given him by his employers, he generally +modifies the rigor of his rule, after an outbreak of the kind to which I have +been referring. +</p> + +<p> +Howsoever the slaveholder may allow himself to act toward his slave, and, +whatever cruelty he may deem it wise, for example’s sake, or for the +gratification of his humor, to inflict, he cannot, in the absence of all +provocation, look with pleasure upon the bleeding wounds of a defenseless +slave-woman. When he drives her from his presence without redress, or the hope +of redress, he acts, generally, from motives of policy, rather than from a +hardened nature, or from innate brutality. Yet, let but his own temper be +stirred, his own passions get loose, and the slave-owner will go <i>far +beyond</i> the overseer in cruelty. He will convince the slave that his wrath +is far more terrible and boundless, and vastly more to be dreaded, than that of +the underling overseer. What may have been mechanically and heartlessly done by +the overseer, is now done with a will. The man who now wields the lash is +irresponsible. He may, if he pleases, cripple or kill, without fear of +consequences; except in so far as it may concern profit or loss. To a man of +violent temper—as my old master was—this was but a very slender and +inefficient restraint. I have seen him in a tempest of passion, such as I have +just described—a passion into which entered all the bitter ingredients of +pride, hatred, envy, jealousy, and the thrist(sic) for revenge. +</p> + +<p> +The circumstances which I am about to narrate, and which gave rise to this +fearful tempest of passion, are not singular nor isolated in slave life, but +are common in every slaveholding community in which I have lived. They are +incidental to the relation of master and slave, and exist in all sections of +slave-holding countries. +</p> + +<p> +The reader will have noticed that, in enumerating the names of the slaves who +lived with my old master, <i>Esther</i> is mentioned. This was a young woman +who possessed that which is ever a curse to the slave-girl; +namely—personal beauty. She was tall, well formed, and made a fine +appearance. The daughters of Col. Lloyd could scarcely surpass her in personal +charms. Esther was courted by Ned Roberts, and he was as fine looking a young +man, as she was a woman. He was the son of a favorite slave of Col. Lloyd. Some +slaveholders would have been glad to promote the marriage of two such persons; +but, for some reason or other, my old master took it upon him to break up the +growing intimacy between Esther and Edward. He strictly ordered her to quit the +company of said Roberts, telling her that he would punish her severely if he +ever found her again in Edward’s company. This unnatural and heartless +order was, of course, broken. A woman’s love is not to be annihilated by +the peremptory command of any one, whose breath is in his nostrils. It was +impossible to keep Edward and Esther apart. Meet they would, and meet they did. +Had old master been a man of honor and purity, his motives, in this matter, +might have been viewed more favorably. As it was, his motives were as +abhorrent, as his methods were foolish and contemptible. It was too evident +that he was not concerned for the girl’s welfare. It is one of the +damning characteristics of the slave system, that it robs its victims of every +earthly incentive to a holy life. The fear of God, and the hope of heaven, are +found sufficient to sustain many slave-women, amidst the snares and dangers of +their strange lot; but, this side of God and heaven, a slave-woman is at the +mercy of the power, caprice and passion of her owner. Slavery provides no means +for the honorable continuance of the race. Marriage as imposing obligations on +the parties to it—has no existence here, except in such hearts as are +purer and higher than the standard morality around them. It is one of the +consolations of my life, that I know of many honorable instances of persons who +maintained their honor, where all around was corrupt. +</p> + +<p> +Esther was evidently much attached to Edward, and abhorred—as she had +reason to do—the tyrannical and base behavior of old master. Edward was +young, and fine looking, and he loved and courted her. He might have been her +husband, in the high sense just alluded to; but WHO and <i>what</i> was this +old master? His attentions were plainly brutal and selfish, and it was as +natural that Esther should loathe him, as that she should love Edward. Abhorred +and circumvented as he was, old master, having the power, very easily took +revenge. I happened to see this exhibition of his rage and cruelty toward +Esther. The time selected was singular. It was early in the morning, when all +besides was still, and before any of the family, in the house or kitchen, had +left their beds. I saw but few of the shocking preliminaries, for the cruel +work had begun before I awoke. I was probably awakened by the shrieks and +piteous cries of poor Esther. My sleeping place was on the floor of a little, +rough closet, which opened into the kitchen; and through the cracks of its +unplaned boards, I could distinctly see and hear what was going on, without +being seen by old master. Esther’s wrists were firmly tied, and the +twisted rope was fastened to a strong staple in a heavy wooden joist above, +near the fireplace. Here she stood, on a bench, her arms tightly drawn over her +breast. Her back and shoulders were bare to the waist. Behind her stood old +master, with cowskin in hand, preparing his barbarous work with all manner of +harsh, coarse, and tantalizing epithets. The screams of his victim were most +piercing. He was cruelly deliberate, and protracted the torture, as one who was +delighted with the scene. Again and again he drew the hateful whip through his +hand, adjusting it with a view of dealing the most pain-giving blow. Poor +Esther had never yet been severely whipped, and her shoulders were plump and +tender. Each blow, vigorously laid on, brought screams as well as blood. +<i>“Have mercy; Oh! have mercy”</i> she cried; “<i>I +won’t do so no more;”</i> but her piercing cries seemed only to +increase his fury. His answers to them are too coarse and blasphemous to be +produced here. The whole scene, with all its attendants, was revolting and +shocking, to the last degree; and when the motives of this brutal castigation +are considered,—language has no power to convey a just sense of its awful +criminality. After laying on some thirty or forty stripes, old master untied +his suffering victim, and let her get down. She could scarcely stand, when +untied. From my heart I pitied her, and—child though I was—the +outrage kindled in me a feeling far from peaceful; but I was hushed, terrified, +stunned, and could do nothing, and the fate of Esther might be mine next. The +scene here described was often repeated in the case of poor Esther, and her +life, as I knew it, was one of wretchedness. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"></a> +CHAPTER VI. <i>Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY—PRESENTIMENT OF ONE DAY BEING A +FREEMAN—COMBAT BETWEEN AN OVERSEER AND A SLAVEWOMAN—THE ADVANTAGES +OF RESISTANCE—ALLOWANCE DAY ON THE HOME PLANTATION—THE SINGING OF +SLAVES—AN EXPLANATION—THE SLAVES FOOD AND CLOTHING—NAKED +CHILDREN—LIFE IN THE QUARTER—DEPRIVATION OF SLEEP—NURSING +CHILDREN CARRIED TO THE FIELD—DESCRIPTION OF THE COWSKIN—THE +ASH-CAKE—MANNER OF MAKING IT—THE DINNER HOUR—THE CONTRAST. +</p> + +<p> +The heart-rending incidents, related in the foregoing chapter, led me, thus +early, to inquire into the nature and history of slavery. <i>Why am I a slave? +Why are some people slaves, and others masters? Was there ever a time this was +not so? How did the relation commence?</i> These were the perplexing questions +which began now to claim my thoughts, and to exercise the weak powers of my +mind, for I was still but a child, and knew less than children of the same age +in the free states. As my questions concerning these things were only put to +children a little older, and little better informed than myself, I was not +rapid in reaching a solid footing. By some means I learned from these inquiries +that <i>“God, up in the sky,”</i> made every body; and that he made +<i>white</i> people to be masters and mistresses, and <i>black</i> people to be +slaves. This did not satisfy me, nor lessen my interest in the subject. I was +told, too, that God was good, and that He knew what was best for me, and best +for everybody. This was less satisfactory than the first statement; because it +came, point blank, against all my notions of goodness. It was not good to let +old master cut the flesh off Esther, and make her cry so. Besides, how did +people know that God made black people to be slaves? Did they go up in the sky +and learn it? or, did He come down and tell them so? All was dark here. It was +some relief to my hard notions of the goodness of God, that, although he made +white men to be slaveholders, he did not make them to be <i>bad</i> +slaveholders, and that, in due time, he would punish the bad slaveholders; that +he would, when they died, send them to the bad place, where they would be +“burnt up.” Nevertheless, I could not reconcile the relation of +slavery with my crude notions of goodness. +</p> + +<p> +Then, too, I found that there were puzzling exceptions to this theory of +slavery on both sides, and in the middle. I knew of blacks who were <i>not</i> +slaves; I knew of whites who were <i>not</i> slaveholders; and I knew of +persons who were <i>nearly</i> white, who were slaves. <i>Color</i>, therefore, +was a very unsatisfactory basis for slavery. +</p> + +<p> +Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in finding out the +true solution of the matter. It was not <i>color</i>, but <i>crime</i>, not +<i>God</i>, but <i>man</i>, that afforded the true explanation of the existence +of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important truth, viz: what +man can make, man can unmake. The appalling darkness faded away, and I was +master of the subject. There were slaves here, direct from Guinea; and there +were many who could say that their fathers and mothers were stolen from +Africa—forced from their homes, and compelled to serve as slaves. This, +to me, was knowledge; but it was a kind of knowledge which filled me with a +burning hatred of slavery, increased my suffering, and left me without the +means of breaking away from my bondage. Yet it was knowledge quite worth +possessing. I could not have been more than seven or eight years old, when I +began to make this subject my study. It was with me in the woods and fields; +along the shore of the river, and wherever my boyish wanderings led me; and +though I was, at that time, quite ignorant of the existence of the free states, +I distinctly remember being, <i>even then</i>, most strongly impressed with the +idea of being a freeman some day. This cheering assurance was an inborn dream +of my human nature a constant menace to slavery—and one which all the +powers of slavery were unable to silence or extinguish. +</p> + +<p> +Up to the time of the brutal flogging of my Aunt Esther—for she was my +own aunt—and the horrid plight in which I had seen my cousin from +Tuckahoe, who had been so badly beaten by the cruel Mr. Plummer, my attention +had not been called, especially, to the gross features of slavery. I had, of +course, heard of whippings and of savage <i>rencontres</i> between overseers +and slaves, but I had always been out of the way at the times and places of +their occurrence. My plays and sports, most of the time, took me from the corn +and tobacco fields, where the great body of the hands were at work, and where +scenes of cruelty were enacted and witnessed. But, after the whipping of Aunt +Esther, I saw many cases of the same shocking nature, not only in my +master’s house, but on Col. Lloyd’s plantation. One of the first +which I saw, and which greatly agitated me, was the whipping of a woman +belonging to Col. Lloyd, named Nelly. The offense alleged against Nelly, was +one of the commonest and most indefinite in the whole catalogue of offenses +usually laid to the charge of slaves, viz: “impudence.” This may +mean almost anything, or nothing at all, just according to the caprice of the +master or overseer, at the moment. But, whatever it is, or is not, if it gets +the name of “impudence,” the party charged with it is sure of a +flogging. This offense may be committed in various ways; in the tone of an +answer; in answering at all; in not answering; in the expression of +countenance; in the motion of the head; in the gait, manner and bearing of the +slave. In the case under consideration, I can easily believe that, according to +all slaveholding standards, here was a genuine instance of impudence. In Nelly +there were all the necessary conditions for committing the offense. She was a +bright mulatto, the recognized wife of a favorite “hand” on board +Col. Lloyd’s sloop, and the mother of five sprightly children. She was a +vigorous and spirited woman, and one of the most likely, on the plantation, to +be guilty of impudence. My attention was called to the scene, by the noise, +curses and screams that proceeded from it; and, on going a little in that +direction, I came upon the parties engaged in the skirmish. Mr. Siever, the +overseer, had hold of Nelly, when I caught sight of them; he was endeavoring to +drag her toward a tree, which endeavor Nelly was sternly resisting; but to no +purpose, except to retard the progress of the overseer’s plans. +Nelly—as I have said—was the mother of five children; three of them +were present, and though quite small (from seven to ten years old, I should +think) they gallantly came to their mother’s defense, and gave the +overseer an excellent pelting with stones. One of the little fellows ran up, +seized the overseer by the leg and bit him; but the monster was too busily +engaged with Nelly, to pay any attention to the assaults of the children. There +were numerous bloody marks on Mr. Sevier’s face, when I first saw him, +and they increased as the struggle went on. The imprints of Nelly’s +fingers were visible, and I was glad to see them. Amidst the wild screams of +the children—“<i>Let my mammy go”—“let my mammy +go</i>”—there escaped, from between the teeth of the bullet-headed +overseer, a few bitter curses, mingled with threats, that “he would teach +the d—d b—h how to give a white man impudence.” There is no +doubt that Nelly felt herself superior, in some respects, to the slaves around +her. She was a wife and a mother; her husband was a valued and favorite slave. +Besides, he was one of the first hands on board of the sloop, and the sloop +hands—since they had to represent the plantation abroad—were +generally treated tenderly. The overseer never was allowed to whip Harry; why +then should he be allowed to whip Harry’s wife? Thoughts of this kind, no +doubt, influenced her; but, for whatever reason, she nobly resisted, and, +unlike most of the slaves, seemed determined to make her whipping cost Mr. +Sevier as much as possible. The blood on his (and her) face, attested her +skill, as well as her courage and dexterity in using her nails. Maddened by her +resistance, I expected to see Mr. Sevier level her to the ground by a stunning +blow; but no; like a savage bull-dog—which he resembled both in temper +and appearance—he maintained his grip, and steadily dragged his victim +toward the tree, disregarding alike her blows, and the cries of the children +for their mother’s release. He would, doubtless, have knocked her down +with his hickory stick, but that such act might have cost him his place. It is +often deemed advisable to knock a <i>man</i> slave down, in order to tie him, +but it is considered cowardly and inexcusable, in an overseer, thus to deal +with a <i>woman</i>. He is expected to tie her up, and to give her what is +called, in southern parlance, a “genteel flogging,” without any +very great outlay of strength or skill. I watched, with palpitating interest, +the course of the preliminary struggle, and was saddened by every new advantage +gained over her by the ruffian. There were times when she seemed likely to get +the better of the brute, but he finally overpowered her, and succeeded in +getting his rope around her arms, and in firmly tying her to the tree, at which +he had been aiming. This done, and Nelly was at the mercy of his merciless +lash; and now, what followed, I have no heart to describe. The cowardly +creature made good his every threat; and wielded the lash with all the hot zest +of furious revenge. The cries of the woman, while undergoing the terrible +infliction, were mingled with those of the children, sounds which I hope the +reader may never be called upon to hear. When Nelly was untied, her back was +covered with blood. The red stripes were all over her shoulders. She was +whipped—severely whipped; but she was not subdued, for she continued to +denounce the overseer, and to call him every vile name. He had bruised her +flesh, but had left her invincible spirit undaunted. Such floggings are seldom +repeated by the same overseer. They prefer to whip those who are most easily +whipped. The old doctrine that submission is the very best cure for outrage and +wrong, does not hold good on the slave plantation. He is whipped oftenest, who +is whipped easiest; and that slave who has the courage to stand up for himself +against the overseer, although he may have many hard stripes at the first, +becomes, in the end, a freeman, even though he sustain the formal relation of a +slave. “You can shoot me but you can’t whip me,” said a slave +to Rigby Hopkins; and the result was that he was neither whipped nor shot. If +the latter had been his fate, it would have been less deplorable than the +living and lingering death to which cowardly and slavish souls are subjected. I +do not know that Mr. Sevier ever undertook to whip Nelly again. He probably +never did, for it was not long after his attempt to subdue her, that he was +taken sick, and died. The wretched man died as he had lived, unrepentant; and +it was said—with how much truth I know not—that in the very last +hours of his life, his ruling passion showed itself, and that when wrestling +with death, he was uttering horrid oaths, and flourishing the cowskin, as +though he was tearing the flesh off some helpless slave. One thing is certain, +that when he was in health, it was enough to chill the blood, and to stiffen +the hair of an ordinary man, to hear Mr. Sevier talk. Nature, or his cruel +habits, had given to his face an expression of unusual savageness, even for a +slave-driver. Tobacco and rage had worn his teeth short, and nearly every +sentence that escaped their compressed grating, was commenced or concluded with +some outburst of profanity. His presence made the field alike the field of +blood, and of blasphemy. Hated for his cruelty, despised for his cowardice, his +death was deplored by no one outside his own house—if indeed it was +deplored there; it was regarded by the slaves as a merciful interposition of +Providence. Never went there a man to the grave loaded with heavier curses. Mr. +Sevier’s place was promptly taken by a Mr. Hopkins, and the change was +quite a relief, he being a very different man. He was, in all respects, a +better man than his predecessor; as good as any man can be, and yet be an +overseer. His course was characterized by no extraordinary cruelty; and when he +whipped a slave, as he sometimes did, he seemed to take no especial pleasure in +it, but, on the contrary, acted as though he felt it to be a mean business. Mr. +Hopkins stayed but a short time; his place much to the regret of the slaves +generally—was taken by a Mr. Gore, of whom more will be said hereafter. +It is enough, for the present, to say, that he was no improvement on Mr. +Sevier, except that he was less noisy and less profane. +</p> + +<p> +I have already referred to the business-like aspect of Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. This business-like appearance was much increased on the two days at +the end of each month, when the slaves from the different farms came to get +their monthly allowance of meal and meat. These were gala days for the slaves, +and there was much rivalry among them as to <i>who</i> should be elected to go +up to the great house farm for the allowance, and, indeed, to attend to any +business at this (for them) the capital. The beauty and grandeur of the place, +its numerous slave population, and the fact that Harry, Peter and Jake the +sailors of the sloop—almost always kept, privately, little trinkets which +they bought at Baltimore, to sell, made it a privilege to come to the great +house farm. Being selected, too, for this office, was deemed a high honor. It +was taken as a proof of confidence and favor; but, probably, the chief motive +of the competitors for the place, was, a desire to break the dull monotony of +the field, and to get beyond the overseer’s eye and lash. Once on the +road with an ox team, and seated on the tongue of his cart, with no overseer to +look after him, the slave was comparatively free; and, if thoughtful, he had +time to think. Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work. A +silent slave is not liked by masters or overseers. <i>“Make a +noise,” “make a noise,”</i> and <i>“bear a +hand,”</i> are the words usually addressed to the slaves when there is +silence amongst them. This may account for the almost constant singing heard in +the southern states. There was, generally, more or less singing among the +teamsters, as it was one means of letting the overseer know where they were, +and that they were moving on with the work. But, on allowance day, those who +visited the great house farm were peculiarly excited and noisy. While on their +way, they would make the dense old woods, for miles around, reverberate with +their wild notes. These were not always merry because they were wild. On the +contrary, they were mostly of a plaintive cast, and told a tale of grief and +sorrow. In the most boisterous outbursts of rapturous sentiment, there was ever +a tinge of deep melancholy. I have never heard any songs like those anywhere +since I left slavery, except when in Ireland. There I heard the same <i>wailing +notes</i>, and was much affected by them. It was during the famine of 1845-6. +In all the songs of the slaves, there was ever some expression in praise of the +great house farm; something which would flatter the pride of the owner, and, +possibly, draw a favorable glance from him. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +I am going away to the great house farm,<br/> +O yea! O yea! O yea!<br/> +My old master is a good old master,<br/> +O yea! O yea! O yea! +</p> + +<p> +This they would sing, with other words of their own improvising—jargon to +others, but full of meaning to themselves. I have sometimes thought, that the +mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress truly spiritual-minded men +and women with the soul-crushing and death-dealing character of slavery, than +the reading of whole volumes of its mere physical cruelties. They speak to the +heart and to the soul of the thoughtful. I cannot better express my sense of +them now, than ten years ago, when, in sketching my life, I thus spoke of this +feature of my plantation experience: +</p> + +<p> +I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meanings of those rude, and +apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle, so that I neither +saw or heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale which was +then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones, loud, long and +deep, breathing the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the +bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to +God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always +depressed my spirits, and filled my heart with ineffable sadness. The mere +recurrence, even now, afflicts my spirit, and while I am writing these lines, +my tears are falling. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conceptions of +the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. +Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my +sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with a +sense of the soul-killing power of slavery, let him go to Col. Lloyd’s +plantation, and, on allowance day, place himself in the deep, pine woods, and +there let him, in silence, thoughtfully analyze the sounds that shall pass +through the chambers of his soul, and if he is not thus impressed, it will only +be because “there is no flesh in his obdurate heart.” +</p> + +<p> +The remark is not unfrequently made, that slaves are the most contended and +happy laborers in the world. They dance and sing, and make all manner of joyful +noises—so they do; but it is a great mistake to suppose them happy +because they sing. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows, rather than +the joys, of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is +relieved by its tears. Such is the constitution of the human mind, that, when +pressed to extremes, it often avails itself of the most opposite methods. +Extremes meet in mind as in matter. When the slaves on board of the +“Pearl” were overtaken, arrested, and carried to prison—their +hopes for freedom blasted—as they marched in chains they sang, and found +(as Emily Edmunson tells us) a melancholy relief in singing. The singing of a +man cast away on a desolate island, might be as appropriately considered an +evidence of his contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave. Sorrow +and desolation have their songs, as well as joy and peace. Slaves sing more to +<i>make</i> themselves happy, than to express their happiness. +</p> + +<p> +It is the boast of slaveholders, that their slaves enjoy more of the physical +comforts of life than the peasantry of any country in the world. My experience +contradicts this. The men and the women slaves on Col. Lloyd’s farm, +received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pickled pork, or +their equivalent in fish. The pork was often tainted, and the fish was of the +poorest quality—herrings, which would bring very little if offered for +sale in any northern market. With their pork or fish, they had one bushel of +Indian meal—unbolted—of which quite fifteen per cent was fit only +to feed pigs. With this, one pint of salt was given; and this was the entire +monthly allowance of a full grown slave, working constantly in the open field, +from morning until night, every day in the month except Sunday, and living on a +fraction more than a quarter of a pound of meat per day, and less than a peck +of corn-meal per week. There is no kind of work that a man can do which +requires a better supply of food to prevent physical exhaustion, than the +field-work of a slave. So much for the slave’s allowance of food; now for +his raiment. The yearly allowance of clothing for the slaves on this +plantation, consisted of two tow-linen shirts—such linen as the coarsest +crash towels are made of; one pair of trowsers of the same material, for +summer, and a pair of trowsers and a jacket of woolen, most slazily put +together, for winter; one pair of yarn stockings, and one pair of shoes of the +coarsest description. The slave’s entire apparel could not have cost more +than eight dollars per year. The allowance of food and clothing for the little +children, was committed to their mothers, or to the older slavewomen having the +care of them. Children who were unable to work in the field, had neither shoes, +stockings, jackets nor trowsers given them. Their clothing consisted of two +coarse tow-linen shirts—already described—per year; and when these +failed them, as they often did, they went naked until the next allowance day. +Flocks of little children from five to ten years old, might be seen on Col. +Lloyd’s plantation, as destitute of clothing as any little heathen on the +west coast of Africa; and this, not merely during the summer months, but during +the frosty weather of March. The little girls were no better off than the boys; +all were nearly in a state of nudity. +</p> + +<p> +As to beds to sleep on, they were known to none of the field hands; nothing but +a coarse blanket—not so good as those used in the north to cover +horses—was given them, and this only to the men and women. The children +stuck themselves in holes and corners, about the quarters; often in the corner +of the huge chimneys, with their feet in the ashes to keep them warm. The want +of beds, however, was not considered a very great privation. Time to sleep was +of far greater importance, for, when the day’s work is done, most of the +slaves have their washing, mending and cooking to do; and, having few or none +of the ordinary facilities for doing such things, very many of their sleeping +hours are consumed in necessary preparations for the duties of the coming day. +</p> + +<p> +The sleeping apartments—if they may be called such—have little +regard to comfort or decency. Old and young, male and female, married and +single, drop down upon the common clay floor, each covering up with his or her +blanket,—the only protection they have from cold or exposure. The night, +however, is shortened at both ends. The slaves work often as long as they can +see, and are late in cooking and mending for the coming day; and, at the first +gray streak of morning, they are summoned to the field by the driver’s +horn. +</p> + +<p> +More slaves are whipped for oversleeping than for any other fault. Neither age +nor sex finds any favor. The overseer stands at the quarter door, armed with +stick and cowskin, ready to whip any who may be a few minutes behind time. When +the horn is blown, there is a rush for the door, and the hindermost one is sure +to get a blow from the overseer. Young mothers who worked in the field, were +allowed an hour, about ten o’clock in the morning, to go home to nurse +their children. Sometimes they were compelled to take their children with them, +and to leave them in the corner of the fences, to prevent loss of time in +nursing them. The overseer generally rides about the field on horseback. A +cowskin and a hickory stick are his constant companions. The cowskin is a kind +of whip seldom seen in the northern states. It is made entirely of untanned, +but dried, ox hide, and is about as hard as a piece of well-seasoned live oak. +It is made of various sizes, but the usual length is about three feet. The part +held in the hand is nearly an inch in thickness; and, from the extreme end of +the butt or handle, the cowskin tapers its whole length to a point. This makes +it quite elastic and springy. A blow with it, on the hardest back, will gash +the flesh, and make the blood start. Cowskins are painted red, blue and green, +and are the favorite slave whip. I think this whip worse than the +“cat-o’nine-tails.” It condenses the whole strength of the +arm to a single point, and comes with a spring that makes the air whistle. It +is a terrible instrument, and is so handy, that the overseer can always have it +on his person, and ready for use. The temptation to use it is ever strong; and +an overseer can, if disposed, always have cause for using it. With him, it is +literally a word and a blow, and, in most cases, the blow comes first. +</p> + +<p> +As a general rule, slaves do not come to the quarters for either breakfast or +dinner, but take their “ash cake” with them, and eat it in the +field. This was so on the home plantation; probably, because the distance from +the quarter to the field, was sometimes two, and even three miles. +</p> + +<p> +The dinner of the slaves consisted of a huge piece of ash cake, and a small +piece of pork, or two salt herrings. Not having ovens, nor any suitable cooking +utensils, the slaves mixed their meal with a little water, to such thickness +that a spoon would stand erect in it; and, after the wood had burned away to +coals and ashes, they would place the dough between oak leaves and lay it +carefully in the ashes, completely covering it; hence, the bread is called ash +cake. The surface of this peculiar bread is covered with ashes, to the depth of +a sixteenth part of an inch, and the ashes, certainly, do not make it very +grateful to the teeth, nor render it very palatable. The bran, or coarse part +of the meal, is baked with the fine, and bright scales run through the bread. +This bread, with its ashes and bran, would disgust and choke a northern man, +but it is quite liked by the slaves. They eat it with avidity, and are more +concerned about the quantity than about the quality. They are far too scantily +provided for, and are worked too steadily, to be much concerned for the quality +of their food. The few minutes allowed them at dinner time, after partaking of +their coarse repast, are variously spent. Some lie down on the “turning +row,” and go to sleep; others draw together, and talk; and others are at +work with needle and thread, mending their tattered garments. Sometimes you may +hear a wild, hoarse laugh arise from a circle, and often a song. Soon, however, +the overseer comes dashing through the field. <i>“Tumble up! Tumble +up</i>, and to <i>work, work,”</i> is the cry; and, now, from twelve +o’clock (mid-day) till dark, the human cattle are in motion, wielding +their clumsy hoes; hurried on by no hope of reward, no sense of gratitude, no +love of children, no prospect of bettering their condition; nothing, save the +dread and terror of the slave-driver’s lash. So goes one day, and so +comes and goes another. +</p> + +<p> +But, let us now leave the rough usage of the field, where vulgar coarseness and +brutal cruelty spread themselves and flourish, rank as weeds in the tropics; +where a vile wretch, in the shape of a man, rides, walks, or struts about, +dealing blows, and leaving gashes on broken-spirited men and helpless women, +for thirty dollars per month—a business so horrible, hardening and +disgraceful, that, rather, than engage in it, a decent man would blow his own +brains out—and let the reader view with me the equally wicked, but less +repulsive aspects of slave life; where pride and pomp roll luxuriously at ease; +where the toil of a thousand men supports a single family in easy idleness and +sin. This is the great house; it is the home of the LLOYDS! Some idea of its +splendor has already been given—and, it is here that we shall find that +height of luxury which is the opposite of that depth of poverty and physical +wretchedness that we have just now been contemplating. But, there is this +difference in the two extremes; viz: that in the case of the slave, the +miseries and hardships of his lot are imposed by others, and, in the +master’s case, they are imposed by himself. The slave is a subject, +subjected by others; the slaveholder is a subject, but he is the author of his +own subjection. There is more truth in the saying, that slavery is a greater +evil to the master than to the slave, than many, who utter it, suppose. The +self-executing laws of eternal justice follow close on the heels of the +evil-doer here, as well as elsewhere; making escape from all its penalties +impossible. But, let others philosophize; it is my province here to relate and +describe; only allowing myself a word or two, occasionally, to assist the +reader in the proper understanding of the facts narrated. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"></a> +CHAPTER VII. <i>Life in the Great House</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +COMFORTS AND LUXURIES—ELABORATE EXPENDITURE—HOUSE +SERVANTS—MEN SERVANTS AND MAID SERVANTS—APPEARANCES—SLAVE +ARISTOCRACY—STABLE AND CARRIAGE HOUSE—BOUNDLESS +HOSPITALITY—FRAGRANCE OF RICH DISHES—THE DECEPTIVE CHARACTER OF +SLAVERY—SLAVES SEEM HAPPY—SLAVES AND SLAVEHOLDERS ALIKE +WRETCHED—FRETFUL DISCONTENT OF SLAVEHOLDERS—FAULT-FINDING—OLD +BARNEY—HIS PROFESSION—WHIPPING—HUMILIATING +SPECTACLE—CASE EXCEPTIONAL—WILLIAM WILKS—SUPPOSED SON OF COL. +LLOYD—CURIOUS INCIDENT—SLAVES PREFER RICH MASTERS TO POOR ONES. +</p> + +<p> +The close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse corn-meal and +tainted meat; that clothed him in crashy tow-linen, and hurried him to toil +through the field, in all weathers, with wind and rain beating through his +tattered garments; that scarcely gave even the young slave-mother time to nurse +her hungry infant in the fence corner; wholly vanishes on approaching the +sacred precincts of the great house, the home of the Lloyds. There the +scriptural phrase finds an exact illustration; the highly favored inmates of +this mansion are literally arrayed “in purple and fine linen,” and +fare sumptuously every day! The table groans under the heavy and blood-bought +luxuries gathered with painstaking care, at home and abroad. Fields, forests, +rivers and seas, are made tributary here. Immense wealth, and its lavish +expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt +the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great <i>desideratum</i>. Fish, +flesh and fowl, are here in profusion. Chickens, of all breeds; ducks, of all +kinds, wild and tame, the common, and the huge Muscovite; Guinea fowls, +turkeys, geese, and pea fowls, are in their several pens, fat and fatting for +the destined vortex. The graceful swan, the mongrels, the black-necked wild +goose; partridges, quails, pheasants and pigeons; choice water fowl, with all +their strange varieties, are caught in this huge family net. Beef, veal, mutton +and venison, of the most select kinds and quality, roll bounteously to this +grand consumer. The teeming riches of the Chesapeake bay, its rock, perch, +drums, crocus, trout, oysters, crabs, and terrapin, are drawn hither to adorn +the glittering table of the great house. The dairy, too, probably the finest on +the Eastern Shore of Maryland—supplied by cattle of the best English +stock, imported for the purpose, pours its rich donations of fragant cheese, +golden butter, and delicious cream, to heighten the attraction of the gorgeous, +unending round of feasting. Nor are the fruits of the earth forgotten or +neglected. The fertile garden, many acres in size, constituting a separate +establishment, distinct from the common farm—with its scientific +gardener, imported from Scotland (a Mr. McDermott) with four men under his +direction, was not behind, either in the abundance or in the delicacy of its +contributions to the same full board. The tender asparagus, the succulent +celery, and the delicate cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, +peas, and French beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes, melons of all +kinds; the fruits and flowers of all climes and of all descriptions, from the +hardy apple of the north, to the lemon and orange of the south, culminated at +this point. Baltimore gathered figs, raisins, almonds and juicy grapes from +Spain. Wines and brandies from France; teas of various flavor, from China; and +rich, aromatic coffee from Java, all conspired to swell the tide of high life, +where pride and indolence rolled and lounged in magnificence and satiety. +</p> + +<p> +Behind the tall-backed and elaborately wrought chairs, stand the servants, men +and maidens—fifteen in number—discriminately selected, not only +with a view to their industry and faithfulness, but with special regard to +their personal appearance, their graceful agility and captivating address. Some +of these are armed with fans, and are fanning reviving breezes toward the +over-heated brows of the alabaster ladies; others watch with eager eye, and +with fawn-like step anticipate and supply wants before they are sufficiently +formed to be announced by word or sign. +</p> + +<p> +These servants constituted a sort of black aristocracy on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. They resembled the field hands in nothing, except in color, and in +this they held the advantage of a velvet-like glossiness, rich and beautiful. +The hair, too, showed the same advantage. The delicate colored maid rustled in +the scarcely worn silk of her young mistress, while the servant men were +equally well attired from the over-flowing wardrobe of their young masters; so +that, in dress, as well as in form and feature, in manner and speech, in tastes +and habits, the distance between these favored few, and the sorrow and +hunger-smitten multitudes of the quarter and the field, was immense; and this +is seldom passed over. +</p> + +<p> +Let us now glance at the stables and the carriage house, and we shall find the +same evidences of pride and luxurious extravagance. Here are three splendid +coaches, soft within and lustrous without. Here, too, are gigs, phaetons, +barouches, sulkeys and sleighs. Here are saddles and +harnesses—beautifully wrought and silver mounted—kept with every +care. In the stable you will find, kept only for pleasure, full thirty-five +horses, of the most approved blood for speed and beauty. There are two men here +constantly employed in taking care of these horses. One of these men must be +always in the stable, to answer every call from the great house. Over the way +from the stable, is a house built expressly for the hounds—a pack of +twenty-five or thirty—whose fare would have made glad the heart of a +dozen slaves. Horses and hounds are not the only consumers of the slave’s +toil. There was practiced, at the Lloyd’s, a hospitality which would have +astonished and charmed any health-seeking northern divine or merchant, who +might have chanced to share it. Viewed from his own table, and <i>not</i> from +the field, the colonel was a model of generous hospitality. His house was, +literally, a hotel, for weeks during the summer months. At these times, +especially, the air was freighted with the rich fumes of baking, boiling, +roasting and broiling. The odors I shared with the winds; but the meats were +under a more stringent monopoly except that, occasionally, I got a cake from +Mas’ Daniel. In Mas’ Daniel I had a friend at court, from whom I +learned many things which my eager curiosity was excited to know. I always knew +when company was expected, and who they were, although I was an outsider, being +the property, not of Col. Lloyd, but of a servant of the wealthy colonel. On +these occasions, all that pride, taste and money could do, to dazzle and charm, +was done. +</p> + +<p> +Who could say that the servants of Col. Lloyd were not well clad and cared for, +after witnessing one of his magnificent entertainments? Who could say that they +did not seem to glory in being the slaves of such a master? Who, but a fanatic, +could get up any sympathy for persons whose every movement was agile, easy and +graceful, and who evinced a consciousness of high superiority? And who would +ever venture to suspect that Col. Lloyd was subject to the troubles of ordinary +mortals? Master and slave seem alike in their glory here? Can it all be +seeming? Alas! it may only be a sham at last! This immense wealth; this gilded +splendor; this profusion of luxury; this exemption from toil; this life of +ease; this sea of plenty; aye, what of it all? Are the pearly gates of +happiness and sweet content flung open to such suitors? <i>far from it!</i> The +poor slave, on his hard, pine plank, but scantily covered with his thin +blanket, sleeps more soundly than the feverish voluptuary who reclines upon his +feather bed and downy pillow. Food, to the indolent lounger, is poison, not +sustenance. Lurking beneath all their dishes, are invisible spirits of evil, +ready to feed the self-deluded gormandizers which aches, pains, fierce temper, +uncontrolled passions, dyspepsia, rheumatism, lumbago and gout; and of these +the Lloyds got their full share. To the pampered love of ease, there is no +resting place. What is pleasant today, is repulsive tomorrow; what is soft now, +is hard at another time; what is sweet in the morning, is bitter in the +evening. Neither to the wicked, nor to the idler, is there any solid peace: +<i>“Troubled, like the restless sea.”</i> +</p> + +<p> +I had excellent opportunities of witnessing the restless discontent and the +capricious irritation of the Lloyds. My fondness for horses—not peculiar +to me more than to other boys attracted me, much of the time, to the stables. +This establishment was especially under the care of “old” and +“young” Barney—father and son. Old Barney was a fine looking +old man, of a brownish complexion, who was quite portly, and wore a dignified +aspect for a slave. He was, evidently, much devoted to his profession, and held +his office an honorable one. He was a farrier as well as an ostler; he could +bleed, remove lampers from the mouths of the horses, and was well instructed in +horse medicines. No one on the farm knew, so well as Old Barney, what to do +with a sick horse. But his gifts and acquirements were of little advantage to +him. His office was by no means an enviable one. He often got presents, but he +got stripes as well; for in nothing was Col. Lloyd more unreasonable and +exacting, than in respect to the management of his pleasure horses. Any +supposed inattention to these animals were sure to be visited with degrading +punishment. His horses and dogs fared better than his men. Their beds must be +softer and cleaner than those of his human cattle. No excuse could shield Old +Barney, if the colonel only suspected something wrong about his horses; and, +consequently, he was often punished when faultless. It was absolutely painful +to listen to the many unreasonable and fretful scoldings, poured out at the +stable, by Col. Lloyd, his sons and sons-in-law. Of the latter, he had +three—Messrs. Nicholson, Winder and Lownes. These all lived at the great +house a portion of the year, and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the servants +when they pleased, which was by no means unfrequently. A horse was seldom +brought out of the stable to which no objection could be raised. “There +was dust in his hair;” “there was a twist in his reins;” +“his mane did not lie straight;” “he had not been properly +grained;” “his head did not look well;” “his fore-top +was not combed out;” “his fetlocks had not been properly +trimmed;” something was always wrong. Listening to complaints, however +groundless, Barney must stand, hat in hand, lips sealed, never answering a +word. He must make no reply, no explanation; the judgment of the master must be +deemed infallible, for his power is absolute and irresponsible. In a free +state, a master, thus complaining without cause, of his ostler, might be +told—“Sir, I am sorry I cannot please you, but, since I have done +the best I can, your remedy is to dismiss me.” Here, however, the ostler +must stand, listen and tremble. One of the most heart-saddening and humiliating +scenes I ever witnessed, was the whipping of Old Barney, by Col. Lloyd himself. +Here were two men, both advanced in years; there were the silvery locks of Col. +L., and there was the bald and toil-worn brow of Old Barney; master and slave; +superior and inferior here, but <i>equals</i> at the bar of God; and, in the +common course of events, they must both soon meet in another world, in a world +where all distinctions, except those based on obedience and disobedience, are +blotted out forever. “Uncover your head!” said the imperious +master; he was obeyed. “Take off your jacket, you old rascal!” and +off came Barney’s jacket. “Down on your knees!” down knelt +the old man, his shoulders bare, his bald head glistening in the sun, and his +aged knees on the cold, damp ground. In his humble and debasing attitude, the +master—that master to whom he had given the best years and the best +strength of his life—came forward, and laid on thirty lashes, with his +horse whip. The old man bore it patiently, to the last, answering each blow +with a slight shrug of the shoulders, and a groan. I cannot think that Col. +Lloyd succeeded in marring the flesh of Old Barney very seriously, for the whip +was a light, riding whip; but the spectacle of an aged man—a husband and +a father—humbly kneeling before a worm of the dust, surprised and shocked +me at the time; and since I have grown old enough to think on the wickedness of +slavery, few facts have been of more value to me than this, to which I was a +witness. It reveals slavery in its true color, and in its maturity of repulsive +hatefulness. I owe it to truth, however, to say, that this was the first and +the last time I ever saw Old Barney, or any other slave, compelled to kneel to +receive a whipping. +</p> + +<p> +I saw, at the stable, another incident, which I will relate, as it is +illustrative of a phase of slavery to which I have already referred in another +connection. Besides two other coachmen, Col. Lloyd owned one named William, +who, strangely enough, was often called by his surname, Wilks, by white and +colored people on the home plantation. Wilks was a very fine looking man. He +was about as white as anybody on the plantation; and in manliness of form, and +comeliness of features, he bore a very striking resemblance to Mr. Murray +Lloyd. It was whispered, and pretty generally admitted as a fact, that William +Wilks was a son of Col. Lloyd, by a highly favored slave-woman, who was still +on the plantation. There were many reasons for believing this whisper, not only +in William’s appearance, but in the undeniable freedom which he enjoyed +over all others, and his apparent consciousness of being something more than a +slave to his master. It was notorious, too, that William had a deadly enemy in +Murray Lloyd, whom he so much resembled, and that the latter greatly worried +his father with importunities to sell William. Indeed, he gave his father no +rest until he did sell him, to Austin Woldfolk, the great slave-trader at that +time. Before selling him, however, Mr. L. tried what giving William a whipping +would do, toward making things smooth; but this was a failure. It was a +compromise, and defeated itself; for, immediately after the infliction, the +heart-sickened colonel atoned to William for the abuse, by giving him a gold +watch and chain. Another fact, somewhat curious, is, that though sold to the +remorseless <i>Woldfolk</i>, taken in irons to Baltimore and cast into prison, +with a view to being driven to the south, William, by <i>some</i> +means—always a mystery to me—outbid all his purchasers, paid for +himself, <i>and now resides in Baltimore, a</i> FREEMAN. Is there not room to +suspect, that, as the gold watch was presented to atone for the whipping, a +purse of gold was given him by the same hand, with which to effect his +purchase, as an atonement for the indignity involved in selling his own flesh +and blood. All the circumstances of William, on the great house farm, show him +to have occupied a different position from the other slaves, and, certainly, +there is nothing in the supposed hostility of slaveholders to amalgamation, to +forbid the supposition that William Wilks was the son of Edward Lloyd. +<i>Practical</i> amalgamation is common in every neighborhood where I have been +in slavery. +</p> + +<p> +Col. Lloyd was not in the way of knowing much of the real opinions and feelings +of his slaves respecting him. The distance between him and them was far too +great to admit of such knowledge. His slaves were so numerous, that he did not +know them when he saw them. Nor, indeed, did all his slaves know him. In this +respect, he was inconveniently rich. It is reported of him, that, while riding +along the road one day, he met a colored man, and addressed him in the usual +way of speaking to colored people on the public highways of the south: +“Well, boy, who do you belong to?” “To Col. Lloyd,” +replied the slave. “Well, does the colonel treat you well?” +“No, sir,” was the ready reply. “What? does he work you too +hard?” “Yes, sir.” “Well, don’t he give enough to +eat?” “Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it is.” The +colonel, after ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the slave also +went on about his business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his +master. He thought, said and heard nothing more of the matter, until two or +three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then informed by his overseer, that, +for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia +trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a +moment’s warning he was snatched away, and forever sundered from his +family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than that of death. <i>This</i> +is the penalty of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain +questions. It is partly in consequence of such facts, that slaves, when +inquired of as to their condition and the character of their masters, almost +invariably say they are contented, and that their masters are kind. +Slaveholders have been known to send spies among their slaves, to ascertain, if +possible, their views and feelings in regard to their condition. The frequency +of this had the effect to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still +tongue makes a wise head. They suppress the truth rather than take the +consequence of telling it, and, in so doing, they prove themselves a part of +the human family. If they have anything to say of their master, it is, +generally, something in his favor, especially when speaking to strangers. I was +frequently asked, while a slave, if I had a kind master, and I do not remember +ever to have given a negative reply. Nor did I, when pursuing this course, +consider myself as uttering what was utterly false; for I always measured the +kindness of my master by the standard of kindness set up by slaveholders around +us. However, slaves are like other people, and imbibe similar prejudices. They +are apt to think <i>their condition</i> better than that of others. Many, under +the influence of this prejudice, think their own masters are better than the +masters of other slaves; and this, too, in some cases, when the very reverse is +true. Indeed, it is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among +themselves about the relative kindness of their masters, contending for the +superior goodness of his own over that of others. At the very same time, they +mutually execrate their masters, when viewed separately. It was so on our +plantation. When Col. Lloyd’s slaves met those of Jacob Jepson, they +seldom parted without a quarrel about their masters; Col. Lloyd’s slaves +contending that he was the richest, and Mr. Jepson’s slaves that he was +the smartest, man of the two. Col. Lloyd’s slaves would boost his ability +to buy and sell Jacob Jepson; Mr. Jepson’s slaves would boast his ability +to whip Col. Lloyd. These quarrels would almost always end in a fight between +the parties; those that beat were supposed to have gained the point at issue. +They seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to +themselves. To be a SLAVE, was thought to be bad enough; but to be a <i>poor +man’s</i> slave, was deemed a disgrace, indeed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"></a> +CHAPTER VIII. <i>A Chapter of Horrors</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +AUSTIN GORE—A SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER—OVERSEERS AS A +CLASS—THEIR PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS—THE MARKED INDIVIDUALITY OF +AUSTIN GORE—HIS SENSE OF DUTY—HOW HE WHIPPED—MURDER OF POOR +DENBY—HOW IT OCCURRED—SENSATION—HOW GORE MADE PEACE WITH COL. +LLOYD—THE MURDER UNPUNISHED—ANOTHER DREADFUL MURDER +NARRATED—NO LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF SLAVES CAN BE ENFORCED IN THE +SOUTHERN STATES. +</p> + +<p> +As I have already intimated elsewhere, the slaves on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation, whose hard lot, under Mr. Sevier, the reader has already noticed +and deplored, were not permitted to enjoy the comparatively moderate rule of +Mr. Hopkins. The latter was succeeded by a very different man. The name of the +new overseer was Austin Gore. Upon this individual I would fix particular +attention; for under his rule there was more suffering from violence and +bloodshed than had—according to the older slaves ever been experienced +before on this plantation. I confess, I hardly know how to bring this man fitly +before the reader. He was, it is true, an overseer, and possessed, to a large +extent, the peculiar characteristics of his class; yet, to call him merely an +overseer, would not give the reader a fair notion of the man. I speak of +overseers as a class. They are such. They are as distinct from the slaveholding +gentry of the south, as are the fishwomen of Paris, and the coal-heavers of +London, distinct from other members of society. They constitute a separate +fraternity at the south, not less marked than is the fraternity of Park Lane +bullies in New York. They have been arranged and classified by that great law +of attraction, which determines the spheres and affinities of men; which +ordains, that men, whose malign and brutal propensities predominate over their +moral and intellectual endowments, shall, naturally, fall into those +employments which promise the largest gratification to those predominating +instincts or propensities. The office of overseer takes this raw material of +vulgarity and brutality, and stamps it as a distinct class of southern society. +But, in this class, as in all other classes, there are characters of marked +individuality, even while they bear a general resemblance to the mass. Mr. Gore +was one of those, to whom a general characterization would do no manner of +justice. He was an overseer; but he was something more. With the malign and +tyrannical qualities of an overseer, he combined something of the lawful +master. He had the artfulness and the mean ambition of his class; but he was +wholly free from the disgusting swagger and noisy bravado of his fraternity. +There was an easy air of independence about him; a calm self-possession, and a +sternness of glance, which might well daunt hearts less timid than those of +poor slaves, accustomed from childhood and through life to cower before a +driver’s lash. The home plantation of Col. Lloyd afforded an ample field +for the exercise of the qualifications for overseership, which he possessed in +such an eminent degree. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gore was one of those overseers, who could torture the slightest word or +look into impudence; he had the nerve, not only to resent, but to punish, +promptly and severely. He never allowed himself to be answered back, by a +slave. In this, he was as lordly and as imperious as Col. Edward Lloyd, +himself; acting always up to the maxim, practically maintained by slaveholders, +that it is better that a dozen slaves suffer under the lash, without fault, +than that the master or the overseer should <i>seem</i> to have been wrong in +the presence of the slave. <i>Everything must be absolute here</i>. Guilty or +not guilty, it is enough to be accused, to be sure of a flogging. The very +presence of this man Gore was painful, and I shunned him as I would have +shunned a rattlesnake. His piercing, black eyes, and sharp, shrill voice, ever +awakened sensations of terror among the slaves. For so young a man (I describe +him as he was, twenty-five or thirty years ago) Mr. Gore was singularly +reserved and grave in the presence of slaves. He indulged in no jokes, said no +funny things, and kept his own counsels. Other overseers, how brutal soever +they might be, were, at times, inclined to gain favor with the slaves, by +indulging a little pleasantry; but Gore was never known to be guilty of any +such weakness. He was always the cold, distant, unapproachable <i>overseer</i> +of Col. Edward Lloyd’s plantation, and needed no higher pleasure than was +involved in a faithful discharge of the duties of his office. When he whipped, +he seemed to do so from a sense of duty, and feared no consequences. What +Hopkins did reluctantly, Gore did with alacrity. There was a stern will, an +iron-like reality, about this Gore, which would have easily made him the chief +of a band of pirates, had his environments been favorable to such a course of +life. All the coolness, savage barbarity and freedom from moral restraint, +which are necessary in the character of a pirate-chief, centered, I think, in +this man Gore. Among many other deeds of shocking cruelty which he perpetrated, +while I was at Mr. Lloyd’s, was the murder of a young colored man, named +Denby. He was sometimes called Bill Denby, or Demby; (I write from sound, and +the sounds on Lloyd’s plantation are not very certain.) I knew him well. +He was a powerful young man, full of animal spirits, and, so far as I know, he +was among the most valuable of Col. Lloyd’s slaves. In something—I +know not what—he offended this Mr. Austin Gore, and, in accordance with +the custom of the latter, he under took to flog him. He gave Denby but few +stripes; the latter broke away from him and plunged into the creek, and, +standing there to the depth of his neck in water, he refused to come out at the +order of the overseer; whereupon, for this refusal, <i>Gore shot him dead!</i> +It is said that Gore gave Denby three calls, telling him that if he did not +obey the last call, he would shoot him. When the third call was given, Denby +stood his ground firmly; and this raised the question, in the minds of the +by-standing slaves—“Will he dare to shoot?” Mr. Gore, without +further parley, and without making any further effort to induce Denby to come +out of the water, raised his gun deliberately to his face, took deadly aim at +his standing victim, and, in an instant, poor Denby was numbered with the dead. +His mangled body sank out of sight, and only his warm, red blood marked the +place where he had stood. +</p> + +<p> +This devilish outrage, this fiendish murder, produced, as it was well +calculated to do, a tremendous sensation. A thrill of horror flashed through +every soul on the plantation, if I may except the guilty wretch who had +committed the hell-black deed. While the slaves generally were panic-struck, +and howling with alarm, the murderer himself was calm and collected, and +appeared as though nothing unusual had happened. The atrocity roused my old +master, and he spoke out, in reprobation of it; but the whole thing proved to +be less than a nine days’ wonder. Both Col. Lloyd and my old master +arraigned Gore for his cruelty in the matter, but this amounted to nothing. His +reply, or explanation—as I remember to have heard it at the time was, +that the extraordinary expedient was demanded by necessity; that Denby had +become unmanageable; that he had set a dangerous example to the other slaves; +and that, without some such prompt measure as that to which he had resorted, +were adopted, there would be an end to all rule and order on the plantation. +That very convenient covert for all manner of cruelty and outrage that cowardly +alarm-cry, that the slaves would <i>“take the place,”</i> was +pleaded, in extenuation of this revolting crime, just as it had been cited in +defense of a thousand similar ones. He argued, that if one slave refused to be +corrected, and was allowed to escape with his life, when he had been told that +he should lose it if he persisted in his course, the other slaves would soon +copy his example; the result of which would be, the freedom of the slaves, and +the enslavement of the whites. I have every reason to believe that Mr. +Gore’s defense, or explanation, was deemed satisfactory—at least to +Col. Lloyd. He was continued in his office on the plantation. His fame as an +overseer went abroad, and his horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial +investigation. The murder was committed in the presence of slaves, and they, of +course, could neither institute a suit, nor testify against the murderer. His +bare word would go further in a court of law, than the united testimony of ten +thousand black witnesses. +</p> + +<p> +All that Mr. Gore had to do, was to make his peace with Col. Lloyd. This done, +and the guilty perpetrator of one of the most foul murders goes unwhipped of +justice, and uncensured by the community in which he lives. Mr. Gore lived in +St. Michael’s, Talbot county, when I left Maryland; if he is still alive +he probably yet resides there; and I have no reason to doubt that he is now as +highly esteemed, and as greatly respected, as though his guilty soul had never +been stained with innocent blood. I am well aware that what I have now written +will by some be branded as false and malicious. It will be denied, not only +that such a thing ever did transpire, as I have now narrated, but that such a +thing could happen in <i>Maryland</i>. I can only say—believe it or +not—that I have said nothing but the literal truth, gainsay it who may. +</p> + +<p> +I speak advisedly when I say this,—that killing a slave, or any colored +person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the +courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, ship carpenter, of St. +Michael’s, killed two slaves, one of whom he butchered with a hatchet, by +knocking his brains out. He used to boast of the commission of the awful and +bloody deed. I have heard him do so, laughingly, saying, among other things, +that he was the only benefactor of his country in the company, and that when +“others would do as much as he had done, we should be relieved of the +d—d niggers.” +</p> + +<p> +As an evidence of the reckless disregard of human life where the life is that +of a slave I may state the notorious fact, that the wife of Mr. Giles Hicks, +who lived but a short distance from Col. Lloyd’s, with her own hands +murdered my wife’s cousin, a young girl between fifteen and sixteen years +of age—mutilating her person in a most shocking manner. The atrocious +woman, in the paroxysm of her wrath, not content with murdering her victim, +literally mangled her face, and broke her breast bone. Wild, however, and +infuriated as she was, she took the precaution to cause the slave-girl to be +buried; but the facts of the case coming abroad, very speedily led to the +disinterment of the remains of the murdered slave-girl. A coroner’s jury +was assembled, who decided that the girl had come to her death by severe +beating. It was ascertained that the offense for which this girl was thus +hurried out of the world, was this: she had been set that night, and several +preceding nights, to mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and having fallen into a +sound sleep, the baby cried, waking Mrs. Hicks, but not the slave-girl. Mrs. +Hicks, becoming infuriated at the girl’s tardiness, after calling several +times, jumped from her bed and seized a piece of fire-wood from the fireplace; +and then, as she lay fast asleep, she deliberately pounded in her skull and +breast-bone, and thus ended her life. I will not say that this most horrid +murder produced no sensation in the community. It <i>did</i> produce a +sensation; but, incredible to tell, the moral sense of the community was +blunted too entirely by the ordinary nature of slavery horrors, to bring the +murderess to punishment. A warrant was issued for her arrest, but, for some +reason or other, that warrant was never served. Thus did Mrs. Hicks not only +escape condign punishment, but even the pain and mortification of being +arraigned before a court of justice. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst I am detailing the bloody deeds that took place during my stay on Col. +Lloyd’s plantation, I will briefly narrate another dark transaction, +which occurred about the same time as the murder of Denby by Mr. Gore. +</p> + +<p> +On the side of the river Wye, opposite from Col. Lloyd’s, there lived a +Mr. Beal Bondley, a wealthy slaveholder. In the direction of his land, and near +the shore, there was an excellent oyster fishing ground, and to this, some of +the slaves of Col. Lloyd occasionally resorted in their little canoes, at +night, with a view to make up the deficiency of their scanty allowance of food, +by the oysters that they could easily get there. This, Mr. Bondley took it into +his head to regard as a trespass, and while an old man belonging to Col. Lloyd +was engaged in catching a few of the many millions of oysters that lined the +bottom of that creek, to satisfy his hunger, the villainous Mr. Bondley, lying +in ambush, without the slightest ceremony, discharged the contents of his +musket into the back and shoulders of the poor old man. As good fortune would +have it, the shot did not prove mortal, and Mr. Bondley came over, the next +day, to see Col. Lloyd—whether to pay him for his property, or to justify +himself for what he had done, I know not; but this I <i>can</i> say, the cruel +and dastardly transaction was speedily hushed up; there was very little said +about it at all, and nothing was publicly done which looked like the +application of the principle of justice to the man whom <i>chance</i>, only, +saved from being an actual murderer. One of the commonest sayings to which my +ears early became accustomed, on Col. Lloyd’s plantation and elsewhere in +Maryland, was, that it was <i>“worth but half a cent to kill a nigger, +and a half a cent to bury him;”</i> and the facts of my experience go far +to justify the practical truth of this strange proverb. Laws for the protection +of the lives of the slaves, are, as they must needs be, utterly incapable of +being enforced, where the very parties who are nominally protected, are not +permitted to give evidence, in courts of law, against the only class of persons +from whom abuse, outrage and murder might be reasonably apprehended. While I +heard of numerous murders committed by slaveholders on the Eastern Shores of +Maryland, I never knew a solitary instance in which a slaveholder was either +hung or imprisoned for having murdered a slave. The usual pretext for killing a +slave is, that the slave has offered resistance. Should a slave, when +assaulted, but raise his hand in self defense, the white assaulting party is +fully justified by southern, or Maryland, public opinion, in shooting the slave +down. Sometimes this is done, simply because it is alleged that the slave has +been saucy. But here I leave this phase of the society of my early childhood, +and will relieve the kind reader of these heart-sickening details. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"></a> +CHAPTER IX. <i>Personal Treatment</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +MISS LUCRETIA—HER KINDNESS—HOW IT WAS +MANIFESTED—“IKE”—A BATTLE WITH HIM—THE +CONSEQUENCES THEREOF—MISS LUCRETIA’S BALSAM—BREAD—HOW I +OBTAINED IT—BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT AMIDST THE GENERAL DARKNESS—SUFFERING +FROM COLD—HOW WE TOOK OUR MEALS—ORDERS TO PREPARE FOR +BALTIMORE—OVERJOYED AT THE THOUGHT OF QUITTING THE +PLANTATION—EXTRAORDINARY CLEANSING—COUSIN TOM’S VERSION OF +BALTIMORE—ARRIVAL THERE—KIND RECEPTION GIVEN ME BY MRS. SOPHIA +AULD—LITTLE TOMMY—MY NEW POSITION—MY NEW DUTIES—A +TURNING POINT IN MY HISTORY. +</p> + +<p> +I have nothing cruel or shocking to relate of my own personal experience, while +I remained on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, at the home of my old master. An +occasional cuff from Aunt Katy, and a regular whipping from old master, such as +any heedless and mischievous boy might get from his father, is all that I can +mention of this sort. I was not old enough to work in the field, and, there +being little else than field work to perform, I had much leisure. The most I +had to do, was, to drive up the cows in the evening, to keep the front yard +clean, and to perform small errands for my young mistress, Lucretia Auld. I +have reasons for thinking this lady was very kindly disposed toward me, and, +although I was not often the object of her attention, I constantly regarded her +as my friend, and was always glad when it was my privilege to do her a service. +In a family where there was so much that was harsh, cold and indifferent, the +slightest word or look of kindness passed, with me, for its full value. Miss +Lucretia—as we all continued to call her long after her +marriage—had bestowed upon me such words and looks as taught me that she +pitied me, if she did not love me. In addition to words and looks, she +sometimes gave me a piece of bread and butter; a thing not set down in the bill +of fare, and which must have been an extra ration, planned aside from either +Aunt Katy or old master, solely out of the tender regard and friendship she had +for me. Then, too, I one day got into the wars with Uncle Able’s son, +“Ike,” and had got sadly worsted; in fact, the little rascal had +struck me directly in the forehead with a sharp piece of cinder, fused with +iron, from the old blacksmith’s forge, which made a cross in my forehead +very plainly to be seen now. The gash bled very freely, and I roared very +loudly and betook myself home. The coldhearted Aunt Katy paid no attention +either to my wound or my roaring, except to tell me it served me right; I had +no business with Ike; it was good for me; I would now keep away <i>“from +dem Lloyd niggers.”</i> Miss Lucretia, in this state of the case, came +forward; and, in quite a different spirit from that manifested by Aunt Katy, +she called me into the parlor (an extra privilege of itself) and, without using +toward me any of the hard-hearted and reproachful epithets of my kitchen +tormentor, she quietly acted the good Samaritan. With her own soft hand she +washed the blood from my head and face, fetched her own balsam bottle, and with +the balsam wetted a nice piece of white linen, and bound up my head. The balsam +was not more healing to the wound in my head, than her kindness was healing to +the wounds in my spirit, made by the unfeeling words of Aunt Katy. After this, +Miss Lucretia was my friend. I felt her to be such; and I have no doubt that +the simple act of binding up my head, did much to awaken in her mind an +interest in my welfare. It is quite true, that this interest was never very +marked, and it seldom showed itself in anything more than in giving me a piece +of bread when I was hungry; but this was a great favor on a slave plantation, +and I was the only one of the children to whom such attention was paid. When +very hungry, I would go into the back yard and play under Miss Lucretia’s +window. When pretty severely pinched by hunger, I had a habit of singing, which +the good lady very soon came to understand as a petition for a piece of bread. +When I sung under Miss Lucretia’s window, I was very apt to get well paid +for my music. The reader will see that I now had two friends, both at important +points—Mas’ Daniel at the great house, and Miss Lucretia at home. +From Mas’ Daniel I got protection from the bigger boys; and from Miss +Lucretia I got bread, by singing when I was hungry, and sympathy when I was +abused by that termagant, who had the reins of government in the kitchen. For +such friendship I felt deeply grateful, and bitter as are my recollections of +slavery, I love to recall any instances of kindness, any sunbeams of humane +treatment, which found way to my soul through the iron grating of my house of +bondage. Such beams seem all the brighter from the general darkness into which +they penetrate, and the impression they make is vividly distinct and beautiful. +</p> + +<p> +As I have before intimated, I was seldom whipped—and never +severely—by my old master. I suffered little from the treatment I +received, except from hunger and cold. These were my two great physical +troubles. I could neither get a sufficiency of food nor of clothing; but I +suffered less from hunger than from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, +I was kept almost in a state of nudity; no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no +trowsers; nothing but coarse sackcloth or tow-linen, made into a sort of shirt, +reaching down to my knees. This I wore night and day, changing it once a week. +In the day time I could protect myself pretty well, by keeping on the sunny +side of the house; and in bad weather, in the corner of the kitchen chimney. +The great difficulty was, to keep warm during the night. I had no bed. The pigs +in the pen had leaves, and the horses in the stable had straw, but the children +had no beds. They lodged anywhere in the ample kitchen. I slept, generally, in +a little closet, without even a blanket to cover me. In very cold weather. I +sometimes got down the bag in which corn-meal was usually carried to the mill, +and crawled into that. Sleeping there, with my head in and feet out, I was +partly protected, though not comfortable. My feet have been so cracked with the +frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes. The +manner of taking our meals at old master’s, indicated but little +refinement. Our corn-meal mush, when sufficiently cooled, was placed in a large +wooden tray, or trough, like those used in making maple sugar here in the +north. This tray was set down, either on the floor of the kitchen, or out of +doors on the ground; and the children were called, like so many pigs; and like +so many pigs they would come, and literally devour the mush—some with +oyster shells, some with pieces of shingles, and none with spoons. He that eat +fastest got most, and he that was strongest got the best place; and few left +the trough really satisfied. I was the most unlucky of any, for Aunt Katy had +no good feeling for me; and if I pushed any of the other children, or if they +told her anything unfavorable of me, she always believed the worst, and was +sure to whip me. +</p> + +<p> +As I grew older and more thoughtful, I was more and more filled with a sense of +my wretchedness. The cruelty of Aunt Katy, the hunger and cold I suffered, and +the terrible reports of wrong and outrage which came to my ear, together with +what I almost daily witnessed, led me, when yet but eight or nine years old, to +wish I had never been born. I used to contrast my condition with the +black-birds, in whose wild and sweet songs I fancied them so happy! Their +apparent joy only deepened the shades of my sorrow. There are thoughtful days +in the lives of children—at least there were in mine when they grapple +with all the great, primary subjects of knowledge, and reach, in a moment, +conclusions which no subsequent experience can shake. I was just as well aware +of the unjust, unnatural and murderous character of slavery, when nine years +old, as I am now. Without any appeal to books, to laws, or to authorities of +any kind, it was enough to accept God as a father, to regard slavery as a +crime. +</p> + +<p> +I was not ten years old when I left Col. Lloyd’s plantation for +Balitmore(sic). I left that plantation with inexpressible joy. I never shall +forget the ecstacy with which I received the intelligence from my friend, Miss +Lucretia, that my old master had determined to let me go to Baltimore to live +with Mr. Hugh Auld, a brother to Mr. Thomas Auld, my old master’s +son-in-law. I received this information about three days before my departure. +They were three of the happiest days of my childhood. I spent the largest part +of these three days in the creek, washing off the plantation scurf, and +preparing for my new home. Mrs. Lucretia took a lively interest in getting me +ready. She told me I must get all the dead skin off my feet and knees, before I +could go to Baltimore, for the people there were very cleanly, and would laugh +at me if I looked dirty; and, besides, she was intending to give me a pair of +trowsers, which I should not put on unless I got all the dirt off. This was a +warning to which I was bound to take heed; for the thought of owning a pair of +trowsers, was great, indeed. It was almost a sufficient motive, not only to +induce me to scrub off the <i>mange</i> (as pig drovers would call it) but the +skin as well. So I went at it in good earnest, working for the first time in +the hope of reward. I was greatly excited, and could hardly consent to sleep, +lest I should be left. The ties that, ordinarily, bind children to their homes, +were all severed, or they never had any existence in my case, at least so far +as the home plantation of Col. L. was concerned. I therefore found no severe +trail at the moment of my departure, such as I had experienced when separated +from my home in Tuckahoe. My home at my old master’s was charmless to me; +it was not home, but a prison to me; on parting from it, I could not feel that +I was leaving anything which I could have enjoyed by staying. My mother was now +long dead; my grandmother was far away, so that I seldom saw her; Aunt Katy was +my unrelenting tormentor; and my two sisters and brothers, owing to our early +separation in life, and the family-destroying power of slavery, were, +comparatively, strangers to me. The fact of our relationship was almost blotted +out. I looked for <i>home</i> elsewhere, and was confident of finding none +which I should relish less than the one I was leaving. If, however, I found in +my new home to which I was going with such blissful +anticipations—hardship, whipping and nakedness, I had the questionable +consolation that I should not have escaped any one of these evils by remaining +under the management of Aunt Katy. Then, too, I thought, since I had endured +much in this line on Lloyd’s plantation, I could endure as much +elsewhere, and especially at Baltimore; for I had something of the feeling +about that city which is expressed in the saying, that being “hanged in +England, is better than dying a natural death in Ireland.” I had the +strongest desire to see Baltimore. My cousin Tom—a boy two or three years +older than I—had been there, and though not fluent (he stuttered +immoderately) in speech, he had inspired me with that desire, by his eloquent +description of the place. Tom was, sometimes, Capt. Auld’s cabin boy; and +when he came from Baltimore, he was always a sort of hero amongst us, at least +till his Baltimore trip was forgotten. I could never tell him of anything, or +point out anything that struck me as beautiful or powerful, but that he had +seen something in Baltimore far surpassing it. Even the great house itself, +with all its pictures within, and pillars without, he had the hardihood to say +“was nothing to Baltimore.” He bought a trumpet (worth six pence) +and brought it home; told what he had seen in the windows of stores; that he +had heard shooting crackers, and seen soldiers; that he had seen a steamboat; +that there were ships in Baltimore that could carry four such sloops as the +“Sally Lloyd.” He said a great deal about the market-house; he +spoke of the bells ringing; and of many other things which roused my curiosity +very much; and, indeed, which heightened my hopes of happiness in my new home. +</p> + +<p> +We sailed out of Miles river for Baltimore early on a Saturday morning. I +remember only the day of the week; for, at that time, I had no knowledge of the +days of the month, nor, indeed, of the months of the year. On setting sail, I +walked aft, and gave to Col. Lloyd’s plantation what I hoped would be the +last look I should ever give to it, or to any place like it. My strong aversion +to the great farm, was not owing to my own personal suffering, but the daily +suffering of others, and to the certainty that I must, sooner or later, be +placed under the barbarous rule of an overseer, such as the accomplished Gore, +or the brutal and drunken Plummer. After taking this last view, I quitted the +quarter deck, made my way to the bow of the sloop, and spent the remainder of +the day in looking ahead; interesting myself in what was in the distance, +rather than what was near by or behind. The vessels, sweeping along the bay, +were very interesting objects. The broad bay opened like a shoreless ocean on +my boyish vision, filling me with wonder and admiration. +</p> + +<p> +Late in the afternoon, we reached Annapolis, the capital of the state, stopping +there not long enough to admit of my going ashore. It was the first large town +I had ever seen; and though it was inferior to many a factory village in New +England, my feelings, on seeing it, were excited to a pitch very little below +that reached by travelers at the first view of Rome. The dome of the state +house was especially imposing, and surpassed in grandeur the appearance of the +great house. The great world was opening upon me very rapidly, and I was +eagerly acquainting myself with its multifarious lessons. +</p> + +<p> +We arrived in Baltimore on Sunday morning, and landed at Smith’s wharf, +not far from Bowly’s wharf. We had on board the sloop a large flock of +sheep, for the Baltimore market; and, after assisting in driving them to the +slaughter house of Mr. Curtis, on Loudon Slater’s Hill, I was speedily +conducted by Rich—one of the hands belonging to the sloop—to my new +home in Alliciana street, near Gardiner’s ship-yard, on Fell’s +Point. Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Auld, my new mistress and master, were both at home, +and met me at the door with their rosy cheeked little son, Thomas, to take care +of whom was to constitute my future occupation. In fact, it was to +“little Tommy,” rather than to his parents, that old master made a +present of me; and though there was no <i>legal</i> form or arrangement entered +into, I have no doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Auld felt that, in due time, I should +be the legal property of their bright-eyed and beloved boy, Tommy. I was struck +with the appearance, especially, of my new mistress. Her face was lighted with +the kindliest emotions; and the reflex influence of her countenance, as well as +the tenderness with which she seemed to regard me, while asking me sundry +little questions, greatly delighted me, and lit up, to my fancy, the pathway of +my future. Miss Lucretia was kind; but my new mistress, “Miss +Sophy,” surpassed her in kindness of manner. Little Thomas was +affectionately told by his mother, that <i>“there was his +Freddy,”</i> and that “Freddy would take care of him;” and I +was told to “be kind to little Tommy”—an injunction I +scarcely needed, for I had already fallen in love with the dear boy; and with +these little ceremonies I was initiated into my new home, and entered upon my +peculiar duties, with not a cloud above the horizon. +</p> + +<p> +I may say here, that I regard my removal from Col. Lloyd’s plantation as +one of the most interesting and fortunate events of my life. Viewing it in the +light of human likelihoods, it is quite probable that, but for the mere +circumstance of being thus removed before the rigors of slavery had fastened +upon me; before my young spirit had been crushed under the iron control of the +slave-driver, instead of being, today, a FREEMAN, I might have been wearing the +galling chains of slavery. I have sometimes felt, however, that there was +something more intelligent than <i>chance</i>, and something more certain than +<i>luck</i>, to be seen in the circumstance. If I have made any progress in +knowledge; if I have cherished any honorable aspirations, or have, in any +manner, worthily discharged the duties of a member of an oppressed people; this +little circumstance must be allowed its due weight in giving my life that +direction. I have ever regarded it as the first plain manifestation of that +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Divinity that shapes our ends,<br/> +Rough hew them as we will. +</p> + +<p> +I was not the only boy on the plantation that might have been sent to live in +Baltimore. There was a wide margin from which to select. There were boys +younger, boys older, and boys of the same age, belonging to my old master some +at his own house, and some at his farm—but the high privilege fell to my +lot. +</p> + +<p> +I may be deemed superstitious and egotistical, in regarding this event as a +special interposition of Divine Providence in my favor; but the thought is a +part of my history, and I should be false to the earliest and most cherished +sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed, or hesitated to avow that opinion, +although it may be characterized as irrational by the wise, and ridiculous by +the scoffer. From my earliest recollections of serious matters, I date the +entertainment of something like an ineffaceable conviction, that slavery would +not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and this conviction, +like a word of living faith, strengthened me through the darkest trials of my +lot. This good spirit was from God; and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"></a> +CHAPTER X. <i>Life in Baltimore</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +CITY ANNOYANCES—PLANTATION REGRETS—MY MISTRESS, MISS +SOPHA—HER HISTORY—HER KINDNESS TO ME—MY MASTER, HUGH +AULD—HIS SOURNESS—MY INCREASED SENSITIVENESS—MY +COMFORTS—MY OCCUPATION—THE BANEFUL EFFECTS OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY +DEAR AND GOOD MISTRESS—HOW SHE COMMENCED TEACHING ME TO READ—WHY +SHE CEASED TEACHING ME—CLOUDS GATHERING OVER MY BRIGHT +PROSPECTS—MASTER AULD’S EXPOSITION OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF +SLAVERY—CITY SLAVES—PLANTATION SLAVES—THE +CONTRAST—EXCEPTIONS—MR. HAMILTON’S TWO SLAVES, HENRIETTA AND +MARY—MRS. HAMILTON’S CRUEL TREATMENT OF THEM—THE PITEOUS +ASPECT THEY PRESENTED—NO POWER MUST COME BETWEEN THE SLAVE AND THE +SLAVEHOLDER. +</p> + +<p> +Once in Baltimore, with hard brick pavements under my feet, which almost raised +blisters, by their very heat, for it was in the height of summer; walled in on +all sides by towering brick buildings; with troops of hostile boys ready to +pounce upon me at every street corner; with new and strange objects glaring +upon me at every step, and with startling sounds reaching my ears from all +directions, I for a time thought that, after all, the home plantation was a +more desirable place of residence than my home on Alliciana street, in +Baltimore. My country eyes and ears were confused and bewildered here; but the +boys were my chief trouble. They chased me, and called me <i>“Eastern +Shore man,”</i> till really I almost wished myself back on the Eastern +Shore. I had to undergo a sort of moral acclimation, and when that was over, I +did much better. My new mistress happily proved to be all she <i>seemed</i> to +be, when, with her husband, she met me at the door, with a most beaming, +benignant countenance. She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, kind, +gentle and cheerful. The supercilious contempt for the rights and feelings of +the slave, and the petulance and bad humor which generally characterize +slaveholding ladies, were all quite absent from kind “Miss” +Sophia’s manner and bearing toward me. She had, in truth, never been a +slaveholder, but had—a thing quite unusual in the south—depended +almost entirely upon her own industry for a living. To this fact the dear lady, +no doubt, owed the excellent preservation of her natural goodness of heart, for +slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an angel into a demon. I hardly +knew how to behave toward “Miss Sopha,” as I used to call Mrs. Hugh +Auld. I had been treated as a <i>pig</i> on the plantation; I was treated as a +<i>child</i> now. I could not even approach her as I had formerly approached +Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang down my head, and speak with bated breath, +when there was no pride to scorn me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to +inspire me with fear? I therefore soon learned to regard her as something more +akin to a mother, than a slaveholding mistress. The crouching servility of a +slave, usually so acceptable a quality to the haughty slaveholder, was not +understood nor desired by this gentle woman. So far from deeming it impudent in +a slave to look her straight in the face, as some slaveholding ladies do, she +seemed ever to say, “look up, child; don’t be afraid; see, I am +full of kindness and good will toward you.” The hands belonging to Col. +Lloyd’s sloop, esteemed it a great privilege to be the bearers of parcels +or messages to my new mistress; for whenever they came, they were sure of a +most kind and pleasant reception. If little Thomas was her son, and her most +dearly beloved child, she, for a time, at least, made me something like his +half-brother in her affections. If dear Tommy was exalted to a place on his +mother’s knee, “Feddy” was honored by a place at his +mother’s side. Nor did he lack the caressing strokes of her gentle hand, +to convince him that, though <i>motherless</i>, he was not <i>friendless</i>. +Mrs. Auld was not only a kind-hearted woman, but she was remarkably pious; +frequent in her attendance of public worship, much given to reading the bible, +and to chanting hymns of praise, when alone. Mr. Hugh Auld was altogether a +different character. He cared very little about religion, knew more of the +world, and was more of the world, than his wife. He set out, doubtless to +be—as the world goes—a respectable man, and to get on by becoming a +successful ship builder, in that city of ship building. This was his ambition, +and it fully occupied him. I was, of course, of very little consequence to him, +compared with what I was to good Mrs. Auld; and, when he smiled upon me, as he +sometimes did, the smile was borrowed from his lovely wife, and, like all +borrowed light, was transient, and vanished with the source whence it was +derived. While I must characterize Master Hugh as being a very sour man, and of +forbidding appearance, it is due to him to acknowledge, that he was never very +cruel to me, according to the notion of cruelty in Maryland. The first year or +two which I spent in his house, he left me almost exclusively to the management +of his wife. She was my law-giver. In hands so tender as hers, and in the +absence of the cruelties of the plantation, I became, both physically and +mentally, much more sensitive to good and ill treatment; and, perhaps, suffered +more from a frown from my mistress, than I formerly did from a cuff at the +hands of Aunt Katy. Instead of the cold, damp floor of my old master’s +kitchen, I found myself on carpets; for the corn bag in winter, I now had a +good straw bed, well furnished with covers; for the coarse corn-meal in the +morning, I now had good bread, and mush occasionally; for my poor tow-lien +shirt, reaching to my knees, I had good, clean clothes. I was really well off. +My employment was to run errands, and to take care of Tommy; to prevent his +getting in the way of carriages, and to keep him out of harm’s way +generally. Tommy, and I, and his mother, got on swimmingly together, for a +time. I say <i>for a time</i>, because the fatal poison of irresponsible power, +and the natural influence of slavery customs, were not long in making a +suitable impression on the gentle and loving disposition of my excellent +mistress. At first, Mrs. Auld evidently regarded me simply as a child, like any +other child; she had not come to regard me as <i>property</i>. This latter +thought was a thing of conventional growth. The first was natural and +spontaneous. A noble nature, like hers, could not, instantly, be wholly +perverted; and it took several years to change the natural sweetness of her +temper into fretful bitterness. In her worst estate, however, there were, +during the first seven years I lived with her, occasional returns of her former +kindly disposition. +</p> + +<p> +The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the bible for she often read aloud +when her husband was absent soon awakened my curiosity in respect to this +<i>mystery</i> of reading, and roused in me the desire to learn. Having no fear +of my kind mistress before my eyes, (she had then given me no reason to fear,) +I frankly asked her to teach me to read; and, without hesitation, the dear +woman began the task, and very soon, by her assistance, I was master of the +alphabet, and could spell words of three or four letters. My mistress seemed +almost as proud of my progress, as if I had been her own child; and, supposing +that her husband would be as well pleased, she made no secret of what she was +doing for me. Indeed, she exultingly told him of the aptness of her pupil, of +her intention to persevere in teaching me, and of the duty which she felt it to +teach me, at least to read <i>the bible</i>. Here arose the first cloud over my +Baltimore prospects, the precursor of drenching rains and chilling blasts. +</p> + +<p> +Master Hugh was amazed at the simplicity of his spouse, and, probably for the +first time, he unfolded to her the true philosophy of slavery, and the peculiar +rules necessary to be observed by masters and mistresses, in the management of +their human chattels. Mr. Auld promptly forbade continuance of her instruction; +telling her, in the first place, that the thing itself was unlawful; that it +was also unsafe, and could only lead to mischief. To use his own words, +further, he said, “if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an +ell;” “he should know nothing but the will of his master, and learn +to obey it.” “if you teach that nigger—speaking of +myself—how to read the bible, there will be no keeping him;” +“it would forever unfit him for the duties of a slave;” and +“as to himself, learning would do him no good, but probably, a great deal +of harm—making him disconsolate and unhappy.” “If you learn +him now to read, he’ll want to know how to write; and, this accomplished, +he’ll be running away with himself.” Such was the tenor of Master +Hugh’s oracular exposition of the true philosophy of training a human +chattel; and it must be confessed that he very clearly comprehended the nature +and the requirements of the relation of master and slave. His discourse was the +first decidedly anti-slavery lecture to which it had been my lot to listen. +Mrs. Auld evidently felt the force of his remarks; and, like an obedient wife, +began to shape her course in the direction indicated by her husband. The effect +of his words, <i>on me</i>, was neither slight nor transitory. His iron +sentences—cold and harsh—sunk deep into my heart, and stirred up +not only my feelings into a sort of rebellion, but awakened within me a +slumbering train of vital thought. It was a new and special revelation, +dispelling a painful mystery, against which my youthful understanding had +struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit: the <i>white</i> man’s power to +perpetuate the enslavement of the <i>black</i> man. “Very well,” +thought I; “knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I +instinctively assented to the proposition; and from that moment I understood +the direct pathway from slavery to freedom. This was just what I needed; and I +got it at a time, and from a source, whence I least expected it. I was saddened +at the thought of losing the assistance of my kind mistress; but the +information, so instantly derived, to some extent compensated me for the loss I +had sustained in this direction. Wise as Mr. Auld was, he evidently underrated +my comprehension, and had little idea of the use to which I was capable of +putting the impressive lesson he was giving to his wife. <i>He</i> wanted me to +be <i>a slave;</i> I had already voted against that on the home plantation of +Col. Lloyd. That which he most loved I most hated; and the very determination +which he expressed to keep me in ignorance, only rendered me the more resolute +in seeking intelligence. In learning to read, therefore, I am not sure that I +do not owe quite as much to the opposition of my master, as to the kindly +assistance of my amiable mistress. I acknowledge the benefit rendered me by the +one, and by the other; believing, that but for my mistress, I might have grown +up in ignorance. +</p> + +<p> +I had resided but a short time in Baltimore, before I observed a marked +difference in the manner of treating slaves, generally, from which I had +witnessed in that isolated and out-of-the-way part of the country where I began +life. A city slave is almost a free citizen, in Baltimore, compared with a +slave on Col. Lloyd’s plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, is +less dejected in his appearance, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to +the whip-driven slave on the plantation. Slavery dislikes a dense population, +in which there is a majority of non-slaveholders. The general sense of decency +that must pervade such a population, does much to check and prevent those +outbreaks of atrocious cruelty, and those dark crimes without a name, almost +openly perpetrated on the plantation. He is a desperate slaveholder who will +shock the humanity of his non-slaveholding neighbors, by the cries of the +lacerated slaves; and very few in the city are willing to incur the odium of +being cruel masters. I found, in Baltimore, that no man was more odious to the +white, as well as to the colored people, than he, who had the reputation of +starving his slaves. Work them, flog them, if need be, but don’t starve +them. These are, however, some painful exceptions to this rule. While it is +quite true that most of the slaveholders in Baltimore feed and clothe their +slaves well, there are others who keep up their country cruelties in the city. +</p> + +<p> +An instance of this sort is furnished in the case of a family who lived +directly opposite to our house, and were named Hamilton. Mrs. Hamilton owned +two slaves. Their names were Henrietta and Mary. They had always been house +slaves. One was aged about twenty-two, and the other about fourteen. They were +a fragile couple by nature, and the treatment they received was enough to break +down the constitution of a horse. Of all the dejected, emaciated, mangled and +excoriated creatures I ever saw, those two girls—in the refined, church +going and Christian city of Baltimore were the most deplorable. Of stone must +that heart be made, that could look upon Henrietta and Mary, without being +sickened to the core with sadness. Especially was Mary a heart-sickening +object. Her head, neck and shoulders, were literally cut to pieces. I have +frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered over with festering +sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do not know that her master +ever whipped her, but I have often been an eye witness of the revolting and +brutal inflictions by Mrs. Hamilton; and what lends a deeper shade to this +woman’s conduct, is the fact, that, almost in the very moments of her +shocking outrages of humanity and decency, she would charm you by the sweetness +of her voice and her seeming piety. She used to sit in a large rocking chair, +near the middle of the room, with a heavy cowskin, such as I have elsewhere +described; and I speak within the truth when I say, that these girls seldom +passed that chair, during the day, without a blow from that cowskin, either +upon their bare arms, or upon their shoulders. As they passed her, she would +draw her cowskin and give them a blow, saying, <i>“move faster, you black +jip!”</i> and, again, <i>“take that, you black jip!”</i> +continuing, <i>“if you don’t move faster, I will give you +more.”</i> Then the lady would go on, singing her sweet hymns, as though +her <i>righteous</i> soul were sighing for the holy realms of paradise. +</p> + +<p> +Added to the cruel lashings to which these poor slave-girls were +subjected—enough in themselves to crush the spirit of men—they +were, really, kept nearly half starved; they seldom knew what it was to eat a +full meal, except when they got it in the kitchens of neighbors, less mean and +stingy than the psalm-singing Mrs. Hamilton. I have seen poor Mary contending +for the offal, with the pigs in the street. So much was the poor girl pinched, +kicked, cut and pecked to pieces, that the boys in the street knew her only by +the name of <i>“pecked,”</i> a name derived from the scars and +blotches on her neck, head and shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +It is some relief to this picture of slavery in Baltimore, to say—what is +but the simple truth—that Mrs. Hamilton’s treatment of her slaves +was generally condemned, as disgraceful and shocking; but while I say this, it +must also be remembered, that the very parties who censured the cruelty of Mrs. +Hamilton, would have condemned and promptly punished any attempt to interfere +with Mrs. Hamilton’s <i>right</i> to cut and slash her slaves to pieces. +There must be no force between the slave and the slaveholder, to restrain the +power of the one, and protect the weakness of the other; and the cruelty of +Mrs. Hamilton is as justly chargeable to the upholders of the slave system, as +drunkenness is chargeable on those who, by precept and example, or by +indifference, uphold the drinking system. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"></a> +CHAPTER XI. <i>“A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My +Dream”</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +HOW I LEARNED TO READ—MY MISTRESS—HER SLAVEHOLDING +DUTIES—THEIR DEPLORABLE EFFECTS UPON HER ORIGINALLY NOBLE +NATURE—THE CONFLICT IN HER MIND—HER FINAL OPPOSITION TO MY LEARNING +TO READ—TOO LATE—SHE HAD GIVEN ME THE INCH, I WAS RESOLVED TO TAKE +THE ELL—HOW I PURSUED MY EDUCATION—MY TUTORS—HOW I +COMPENSATED THEM—WHAT PROGRESS I MADE—SLAVERY—WHAT I HEARD +SAID ABOUT IT—THIRTEEN YEARS OLD—THE <i>Columbian +Orator</i>—A RICH SCENE—A DIALOGUE—SPEECHES OF CHATHAM, +SHERIDAN, PITT AND FOX—KNOWLEDGE EVER INCREASING—MY EYES +OPENED—LIBERTY—HOW I PINED FOR IT—MY SADNESS—THE +DISSATISFACTION OF MY POOR MISTRESS—MY HATRED OF SLAVERY—ONE UPAS +TREE OVERSHADOWED US BOTH. +</p> + +<p> +I lived in the family of Master Hugh, at Baltimore, seven years, during which +time—as the almanac makers say of the weather—my condition was +variable. The most interesting feature of my history here, was my learning to +read and write, under somewhat marked disadvantages. In attaining this +knowledge, I was compelled to resort to indirections by no means congenial to +my nature, and which were really humiliating to me. My mistress—who, as +the reader has already seen, had begun to teach me was suddenly checked in her +benevolent design, by the strong advice of her husband. In faithful compliance +with this advice, the good lady had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, +but had set her face as a flint against my learning to read by any means. It is +due, however, to my mistress to say, that she did not adopt this course in all +its stringency at the first. She either thought it unnecessary, or she lacked +the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness. It was, at +least, necessary for her to have some training, and some hardening, in the +exercise of the slaveholder’s prerogative, to make her equal to +forgetting my human nature and character, and to treating me as a thing +destitute of a moral or an intellectual nature. Mrs. Auld—my +mistress—was, as I have said, a most kind and tender-hearted woman; and, +in the humanity of her heart, and the simplicity of her mind, she set out, when +I first went to live with her, to treat me as she supposed one human being +ought to treat another. +</p> + +<p> +It is easy to see, that, in entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, some +little experience is needed. Nature has done almost nothing to prepare men and +women to be either slaves or slaveholders. Nothing but rigid training, long +persisted in, can perfect the character of the one or the other. One cannot +easily forget to love freedom; and it is as hard to cease to respect that +natural love in our fellow creatures. On entering upon the career of a +slaveholding mistress, Mrs. Auld was singularly deficient; nature, which fits +nobody for such an office, had done less for her than any lady I had known. It +was no easy matter to induce her to think and to feel that the curly-headed +boy, who stood by her side, and even leaned on her lap; who was loved by little +Tommy, and who loved little Tommy in turn; sustained to her only the relation +of a chattel. I was <i>more</i> than that, and she felt me to be more than +that. I could talk and sing; I could laugh and weep; I could reason and +remember; I could love and hate. I was human, and she, dear lady, knew and felt +me to be so. How could she, then, treat me as a brute, without a mighty +struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul. That struggle came, and the +will and power of the husband was victorious. Her noble soul was overthrown; +but, he that overthrew it did not, himself, escape the consequences. He, not +less than the other parties, was injured in his domestic peace by the fall. +</p> + +<p> +When I went into their family, it was the abode of happiness and contentment. +The mistress of the house was a model of affection and tenderness. Her fervent +piety and watchful uprightness made it impossible to see her without thinking +and feeling—“<i>that woman is a Christian</i>.” There was no +sorrow nor suffering for which she had not a tear, and there was no innocent +joy for which she did not a smile. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for +the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery +soon proved its ability to divest her of these excellent qualities, and her +home of its early happiness. Conscience cannot stand much violence. Once +thoroughly broken down, <i>who</i> is he that can repair the damage? It may be +broken toward the slave, on Sunday, and toward the master on Monday. It cannot +endure such shocks. It must stand entire, or it does not stand at all. If my +condition waxed bad, that of the family waxed not better. The first step, in +the wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and to conscience, in +arresting the benevolence that would have enlightened my young mind. In ceasing +to instruct me, she must begin to justify herself <i>to</i> herself; and, once +consenting to take sides in such a debate, she was riveted to her position. One +needs very little knowledge of moral philosophy, to see <i>where</i> my +mistress now landed. She finally became even more violent in her opposition to +my learning to read, than was her husband himself. She was not satisfied with +simply doing as <i>well</i> as her husband had commanded her, but seemed +resolved to better his instruction. Nothing appeared to make my poor +mistress—after her turning toward the downward path—more angry, +than seeing me, seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or a +newspaper. I have had her rush at me, with the utmost fury, and snatch from my +hand such newspaper or book, with something of the wrath and consternation +which a traitor might be supposed to feel on being discovered in a plot by some +dangerous spy. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Auld was an apt woman, and the advice of her husband, and her own +experience, soon demonstrated, to her entire satisfaction, that education and +slavery are incompatible with each other. When this conviction was thoroughly +established, I was most narrowly watched in all my movements. If I remained in +a separate room from the family for any considerable length of time, I was sure +to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called upon to give an +account of myself. All this, however, was entirely <i>too late</i>. The first, +and never to be retraced, step had been taken. In teaching me the alphabet, in +the days of her simplicity and kindness, my mistress had given me the +<i>“inch,”</i> and now, no ordinary precaution could prevent me +from taking the <i>“ell.”</i> +</p> + +<p> +Seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, I hit upon many +expedients to accomplish the desired end. The plea which I mainly adopted, and +the one by which I was most successful, was that of using my young white +playmates, with whom I met in the streets as teachers. I used to carry, almost +constantly, a copy of Webster’s spelling book in my pocket; and, when +sent of errands, or when play time was allowed me, I would step, with my young +friends, aside, and take a lesson in spelling. I generally paid my <i>tuition +fee</i> to the boys, with bread, which I also carried in my pocket. For a +single biscuit, any of my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more +valuable to me than bread. Not every one, however, demanded this consideration, +for there were those who took pleasure in teaching me, whenever I had a chance +to be taught by them. I am strongly tempted to give the names of two or three +of those little boys, as a slight testimonial of the gratitude and affection I +bear them, but prudence forbids; not that it would injure me, but it might, +possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an unpardonable offense to do any +thing, directly or indirectly, to promote a slave’s freedom, in a slave +state. It is enough to say, of my warm-hearted little play fellows, that they +lived on Philpot street, very near Durgin & Bailey’s shipyard. +</p> + +<p> +Although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked about among +grown up people in Maryland, I frequently talked about it—and that very +freely—with the white boys. I would, sometimes, say to them, while seated +on a curb stone or a cellar door, “I wish I could be free, as you will be +when you get to be men.” “You will be free, you know, as soon as +you are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but I am a slave for life. Have +I not as good a right to be free as you have?” Words like these, I +observed, always troubled them; and I had no small satisfaction in wringing +from the boys, occasionally, that fresh and bitter condemnation of slavery, +that springs from nature, unseared and unperverted. Of all consciences let me +have those to deal with which have not been bewildered by the cares of life. I +do not remember ever to have met with a <i>boy</i>, while I was in slavery, who +defended the slave system; but I have often had boys to console me, with the +hope that something would yet occur, by which I might be made free. Over and +over again, they have told me, that “they believed I had as good a right +to be free as <i>they</i> had;” and that “they did not believe God +ever made any one to be a slave.” The reader will easily see, that such +little conversations with my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my love of +liberty, nor to render me contented with my condition as a slave. +</p> + +<p> +When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning to read, +every increase of knowledge, especially respecting the FREE STATES, added +something to the almost intolerable burden of the thought—I AM A SLAVE +FOR LIFE. To my bondage I saw no end. It was a terrible reality, and I shall +never be able to tell how sadly that thought chafed my young spirit. +Fortunately, or unfortunately, about this time in my life, I had made enough +money to buy what was then a very popular school book, viz: the <i>Columbian +Orator</i>. I bought this addition to my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames +street, Fell’s Point, Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents for it. I was +first led to buy this book, by hearing some little boys say they were going to +learn some little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. This volume was, indeed, +a rich treasure, and every opportunity afforded me, for a time, was spent in +diligently perusing it. Among much other interesting matter, that which I had +perused and reperused with unflagging satisfaction, was a short dialogue +between a master and his slave. The slave is represented as having been +recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and the master opens the dialogue +with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave with ingratitude, and demanding +to know what he has to say in his own defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called +upon to reply, the slave rejoins, that he knows how little anything that he can +say will avail, seeing that he is completely in the hands of his owner; and +with noble resolution, calmly says, “I submit to my fate.” Touched +by the slave’s answer, the master insists upon his further speaking, and +recapitulates the many acts of kindness which he has performed toward the +slave, and tells him he is permitted to speak for himself. Thus invited to the +debate, the quondam slave made a spirited defense of himself, and thereafter +the whole argument, for and against slavery, was brought out. The master was +vanquished at every turn in the argument; and seeing himself to be thus +vanquished, he generously and meekly emancipates the slave, with his best +wishes for his prosperity. It is scarcely neccessary(sic) to say, that a +dialogue, with such an origin, and such an ending—read when the fact of +my being a slave was a constant burden of grief—powerfully affected me; +and I could not help feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed +answers made by the slave to the master, in this instance, would find their +counterpart in myself. +</p> + +<p> +This, however, was not all the fanaticism which I found in this <i>Columbian +Orator</i>. I met there one of Sheridan’s mighty speeches, on the subject +of Catholic Emancipation, Lord Chatham’s speech on the American war, and +speeches by the great William Pitt and by Fox. These were all choice documents +to me, and I read them, over and over again, with an interest that was ever +increasing, because it was ever gaining in intelligence; for the more I read +them, the better I understood them. The reading of these speeches added much to +my limited stock of language, and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting +thoughts, which had frequently flashed through my soul, and died away for want +of utterance. The mighty power and heart-searching directness of truth, +penetrating even the heart of a slaveholder, compelling him to yield up his +earthly interests to the claims of eternal justice, were finely illustrated in +the dialogue, just referred to; and from the speeches of Sheridan, I got a bold +and powerful denunciation of oppression, and a most brilliant vindication of +the rights of man. Here was, indeed, a noble acquisition. If I ever wavered +under the consideration, that the Almighty, in some way, ordained slavery, and +willed my enslavement for his own glory, I wavered no longer. I had now +penetrated the secret of all slavery and oppression, and had ascertained their +true foundation to be in the pride, the power and the avarice of man. The +dialogue and the speeches were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and +poured floods of light on the nature and character of slavery. With a book of +this kind in my hand, my own human nature, and the facts of my experience, to +help me, I was equal to a contest with the religious advocates of slavery, +whether among the whites or among the colored people, for blindness, in this +matter, is not confined to the former. I have met many religious colored +people, at the south, who are under the delusion that God requires them to +submit to slavery, and to wear their chains with meekness and humility. I could +entertain no such nonsense as this; and I almost lost my patience when I found +any colored man weak enough to believe such stuff. Nevertheless, the increase +of knowledge was attended with bitter, as well as sweet results. The more I +read, the more I was led to abhor and detest slavery, and my enslavers. +“Slaveholders,” thought I, “are only a band of successful +robbers, who left their homes and went into Africa for the purpose of stealing +and reducing my people to slavery.” I loathed them as the meanest and the +most wicked of men. As I read, behold! the very discontent so graphically +predicted by Master Hugh, had already come upon me. I was no longer the +light-hearted, gleesome boy, full of mirth and play, as when I landed first at +Baltimore. Knowledge had come; light had penetrated the moral dungeon where I +dwelt; and, behold! there lay the bloody whip, for my back, and here was the +iron chain; and my good, <i>kind master</i>, he was the author of my situation. +The revelation haunted me, stung me, and made me gloomy and miserable. As I +writhed under the sting and torment of this knowledge, I almost envied my +fellow slaves their stupid contentment. This knowledge opened my eyes to the +horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the frightful dragon that was ready to +pounce upon me, but it opened no way for my escape. I have often wished myself +a beast, or a bird—anything, rather than a slave. I was wretched and +gloomy, beyond my ability to describe. I was too thoughtful to be happy. It was +this everlasting thinking which distressed and tormented me; and yet there was +no getting rid of the subject of my thoughts. All nature was redolent of it. +Once awakened by the silver trump of knowledge, my spirit was roused to eternal +wakefulness. Liberty! the inestimable birthright of every man, had, for me, +converted every object into an asserter of this great right. It was heard in +every sound, and beheld in every object. It was ever present, to torment me +with a sense of my wretched condition. The more beautiful and charming were the +smiles of nature, the more horrible and desolate was my condition. I saw +nothing without seeing it, and I heard nothing without hearing it. I do not +exaggerate, when I say, that it looked from every star, smiled in every calm, +breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm. +</p> + +<p> +I have no doubt that my state of mind had something to do with the change in +the treatment adopted, by my once kind mistress toward me. I can easily +believe, that my leaden, downcast, and discontented look, was very offensive to +her. Poor lady! She did not know my trouble, and I dared not tell her. Could I +have freely made her acquainted with the real state of my mind, and given her +the reasons therefor, it might have been well for both of us. Her abuse of me +fell upon me like the blows of the false prophet upon his ass; she did not know +that an <i>angel</i> stood in the way; and—such is the relation of master +and slave I could not tell her. Nature had made us <i>friends;</i> slavery made +us <i>enemies</i>. My interests were in a direction opposite to hers, and we +both had our private thoughts and plans. She aimed to keep me ignorant; and I +resolved to know, although knowledge only increased my discontent. My feelings +were not the result of any marked cruelty in the treatment I received; they +sprung from the consideration of my being a slave at all. It was +<i>slavery</i>—not its mere <i>incidents</i>—that I hated. I had +been cheated. I saw through the attempt to keep me in ignorance; I saw that +slaveholders would have gladly made me believe that they were merely acting +under the authority of God, in making a slave of me, and in making slaves of +others; and I treated them as robbers and deceivers. The feeding and clothing +me well, could not atone for taking my liberty from me. The smiles of my +mistress could not remove the deep sorrow that dwelt in my young bosom. Indeed, +these, in time, came only to deepen my sorrow. She had changed; and the reader +will see that I had changed, too. We were both victims to the same +overshadowing evil—<i>she</i>, as mistress, I, as slave. I will not +censure her harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows I speak but the +truth, and have acted in my opposition to slavery, just as she herself would +have acted, in a reverse of circumstances. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"></a> +CHAPTER XII. <i>Religious Nature Awakened</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +ABOLITIONISTS SPOKEN OF—MY EAGERNESS TO KNOW WHAT THIS WORD +MEANT—MY CONSULTATION OF THE DICTIONARY—INCENDIARY +INFORMATION—HOW AND WHERE DERIVED—THE ENIGMA SOLVED—NATHANIEL +TURNER’S INSURRECTION—THE CHOLERA—RELIGION—FIRST +AWAKENED BY A METHODIST MINISTER NAMED HANSON—MY DEAR AND GOOD OLD +COLORED FRIEND, LAWSON—HIS CHARACTER AND OCCUPATION—HIS INFLUENCE +OVER ME—OUR MUTUAL ATTACHMENT—THE COMFORT I DERIVED FROM HIS +TEACHING—NEW HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS—HEAVENLY LIGHT AMIDST EARTHLY +DARKNESS—THE TWO IRISHMEN ON THE WHARF—THEIR CONVERSATION—HOW +I LEARNED TO WRITE—WHAT WERE MY AIMS. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst in the painful state of mind described in the foregoing chapter, almost +regretting my very existence, because doomed to a life of bondage, so goaded +and so wretched, at times, that I was even tempted to destroy my own life, I +was keenly sensitive and eager to know any, and every thing that transpired, +having any relation to the subject of slavery. I was all ears, all eyes, +whenever the words <i>slave, slavery</i>, dropped from the lips of any white +person, and the occasions were not unfrequent when these words became leading +ones, in high, social debate, at our house. Every little while, I could hear +Master Hugh, or some of his company, speaking with much warmth and excitement +about <i>“abolitionists.”</i> Of <i>who</i> or <i>what</i> these +were, I was totally ignorant. I found, however, that whatever they might be, +they were most cordially hated and soundly abused by slaveholders, of every +grade. I very soon discovered, too, that slavery was, in some sort, under +consideration, whenever the abolitionists were alluded to. This made the term a +very interesting one to me. If a slave, for instance, had made good his escape +from slavery, it was generally alleged, that he had been persuaded and assisted +by the abolitionists. If, also, a slave killed his master—as was +sometimes the case—or struck down his overseer, or set fire to his +master’s dwelling, or committed any violence or crime, out of the common +way, it was certain to be said, that such a crime was the legitimate fruits of +the abolition movement. Hearing such charges often repeated, I, naturally +enough, received the impression that abolition—whatever else it might +be—could not be unfriendly to the slave, nor very friendly to the +slaveholder. I therefore set about finding out, if possible, <i>who</i> and +<i>what</i> the abolitionists were, and <i>why</i> they were so obnoxious to +the slaveholders. The dictionary afforded me very little help. It taught me +that abolition was the “act of abolishing;” but it left me in +ignorance at the very point where I most wanted information—and that was, +as to the <i>thing</i> to be abolished. A city newspaper, the <i>Baltimore +American</i>, gave me the incendiary information denied me by the dictionary. +In its columns I found, that, on a certain day, a vast number of petitions and +memorials had been presented to congress, praying for the abolition of slavery +in the District of Columbia, and for the abolition of the slave trade between +the states of the Union. This was enough. The vindictive bitterness, the marked +caution, the studied reverse, and the cumbrous ambiguity, practiced by our +white folks, when alluding to this subject, was now fully explained. Ever, +after that, when I heard the words “abolition,” or “abolition +movement,” mentioned, I felt the matter one of a personal concern; and I +drew near to listen, when I could do so, without seeming too solicitous and +prying. There was HOPE in those words. Ever and anon, too, I could see some +terrible denunciation of slavery, in our papers—copied from abolition +papers at the north—and the injustice of such denunciation commented on. +These I read with avidity. I had a deep satisfaction in the thought, that the +rascality of slaveholders was not concealed from the eyes of the world, and +that I was not alone in abhorring the cruelty and brutality of slavery. A still +deeper train of thought was stirred. I saw that there was <i>fear</i>, as well +as <i>rage</i>, in the manner of speaking of the abolitionists. The latter, +therefore, I was compelled to regard as having some power in the country; and I +felt that they might, possibly, succeed in their designs. When I met with a +slave to whom I deemed it safe to talk on the subject, I would impart to him so +much of the mystery as I had been able to penetrate. Thus, the light of this +grand movement broke in upon my mind, by degrees; and I must say, that, +ignorant as I then was of the philosophy of that movement, I believe in it from +the first—and I believed in it, partly, because I saw that it alarmed the +consciences of slaveholders. The insurrection of Nathaniel Turner had been +quelled, but the alarm and terror had not subsided. The cholera was on its way, +and the thought was present, that God was angry with the white people because +of their slaveholding wickedness, and, therefore, his judgments were abroad in +the land. It was impossible for me not to hope much from the abolition +movement, when I saw it supported by the Almighty, and armed with DEATH! +</p> + +<p> +Previous to my contemplation of the anti-slavery movement, and its probable +results, my mind had been seriously awakened to the subject of religion. I was +not more than thirteen years old, when I felt the need of God, as a father and +protector. My religious nature was awakened by the preaching of a white +Methodist minister, named Hanson. He thought that all men, great and small, +bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God; that they were, by nature, +rebels against His government; and that they must repent of their sins, and be +reconciled to God, through Christ. I cannot say that I had a very distinct +notion of what was required of me; but one thing I knew very well—I was +wretched, and had no means of making myself otherwise. Moreover, I knew that I +could pray for light. I consulted a good colored man, named Charles Johnson; +and, in tones of holy affection, he told me to pray, and what to pray for. I +was, for weeks, a poor, brokenhearted mourner, traveling through the darkness +and misery of doubts and fears. I finally found that change of heart which +comes by “casting all one’s care” upon God, and by having +faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Friend, and Savior of those who +diligently seek Him. +</p> + +<p> +After this, I saw the world in a new light. I seemed to live in a new world, +surrounded by new objects, and to be animated by new hopes and desires. I loved +all mankind—slaveholders not excepted; though I abhorred slavery more +than ever. My great concern was, now, to have the world converted. The desire +for knowledge increased, and especially did I want a thorough acquaintance with +the contents of the bible. I have gathered scattered pages from this holy book, +from the filthy street gutters of Baltimore, and washed and dried them, that in +the moments of my leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them. While +thus religiously seeking knowledge, I became acquainted with a good old colored +man, named Lawson. A more devout man than he, I never saw. He drove a dray for +Mr. James Ramsey, the owner of a rope-walk on Fell’s Point, Baltimore. +This man not only prayed three time a day, but he prayed as he walked through +the streets, at his work—on his dray everywhere. His life was a life of +prayer, and his words (when he spoke to his friends,) were about a better +world. Uncle Lawson lived near Master Hugh’s house; and, becoming deeply +attached to the old man, I went often with him to prayer-meeting, and spent +much of my leisure time with him on Sunday. The old man could read a little, +and I was a great help to him, in making out the hard words, for I was a better +reader than he. I could teach him <i>“the letter,”</i> but he could +teach me <i>“the spirit;”</i> and high, refreshing times we had +together, in singing, praying and glorifying God. These meetings with Uncle +Lawson went on for a long time, without the knowledge of Master Hugh or my +mistress. Both knew, however, that I had become religious, and they seemed to +respect my conscientious piety. My mistress was still a professor of religion, +and belonged to class. Her leader was no less a person than the Rev. Beverly +Waugh, the presiding elder, and now one of the bishops of the Methodist +Episcopal church. Mr. Waugh was then stationed over Wilk street church. I am +careful to state these facts, that the reader may be able to form an idea of +the precise influences which had to do with shaping and directing my mind. +</p> + +<p> +In view of the cares and anxieties incident to the life she was then leading, +and, especially, in view of the separation from religious associations to which +she was subjected, my mistress had, as I have before stated, become lukewarm, +and needed to be looked up by her leader. This brought Mr. Waugh to our house, +and gave me an opportunity to hear him exhort and pray. But my chief +instructor, in matters of religion, was Uncle Lawson. He was my spiritual +father; and I loved him intensely, and was at his house every chance I got. +</p> + +<p> +This pleasure was not long allowed me. Master Hugh became averse to my going to +Father Lawson’s, and threatened to whip me if I ever went there again. I +now felt myself persecuted by a wicked man; and I <i>would</i> go to Father +Lawson’s, notwithstanding the threat. The good old man had told me, that +the “Lord had a great work for me to do;” and I must prepare to do +it; and that he had been shown that I must preach the gospel. His words made a +deep impression on my mind, and I verily felt that some such work was before +me, though I could not see <i>how</i> I should ever engage in its performance. +“The good Lord,” he said, “would bring it to pass in his own +good time,” and that I must go on reading and studying the scriptures. +The advice and the suggestions of Uncle Lawson, were not without their +influence upon my character and destiny. He threw my thoughts into a channel +from which they have never entirely diverged. He fanned my already intense love +of knowledge into a flame, by assuring me that I was to be a useful man in the +world. When I would say to him, “How can these things be and what can +<i>I</i> do?” his simple reply was, <i>“Trust in the +Lord.”</i> When I told him that “I was a slave, and a slave FOR +LIFE,” he said, “the Lord can make you free, my dear. All things +are possible with him, only <i>have faith in God.”</i> “Ask, and it +shall be given.” “If you want liberty,” said the good old +man, “ask the Lord for it, <i>in faith</i>, AND HE WILL GIVE IT TO +YOU.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus assured, and cheered on, under the inspiration of hope, I worked and +prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was under the guidance of a +wisdom higher than my own. With all other blessings sought at the mercy seat, I +always prayed that God would, of His great mercy, and in His own good time, +deliver me from my bondage. +</p> + +<p> +I went, one day, on the wharf of Mr. Waters; and seeing two Irishmen unloading +a large scow of stone, or ballast I went on board, unasked, and helped them. +When we had finished the work, one of the men came to me, aside, and asked me a +number of questions, and among them, if I were a slave. I told him “I was +a slave, and a slave for life.” The good Irishman gave his shoulders a +shrug, and seemed deeply affected by the statement. He said, “it was a +pity so fine a little fellow as myself should be a slave for life.” They +both had much to say about the matter, and expressed the deepest sympathy with +me, and the most decided hatred of slavery. They went so far as to tell me that +I ought to run away, and go to the north; that I should find friends there, and +that I would be as free as anybody. I, however, pretended not to be interested +in what they said, for I feared they might be treacherous. White men have been +known to encourage slaves to escape, and then—to get the +reward—they have kidnapped them, and returned them to their masters. And +while I mainly inclined to the notion that these men were honest and meant me +no ill, I feared it might be otherwise. I nevertheless remembered their words +and their advice, and looked forward to an escape to the north, as a possible +means of gaining the liberty for which my heart panted. It was not my +enslavement, at the then present time, that most affected me; the being a slave +<i>for life</i>, was the saddest thought. I was too young to think of running +away immediately; besides, I wished to learn how to write, before going, as I +might have occasion to write my own pass. I now not only had the hope of +freedom, but a foreshadowing of the means by which I might, some day, gain that +inestimable boon. Meanwhile, I resolved to add to my educational attainments +the art of writing. +</p> + +<p> +After this manner I began to learn to write: I was much in the ship +yard—Master Hugh’s, and that of Durgan & Bailey—and I +observed that the carpenters, after hewing and getting a piece of timber ready +for use, wrote on it the initials of the name of that part of the ship for +which it was intended. When, for instance, a piece of timber was ready for the +starboard side, it was marked with a capital “S.” A piece for the +larboard side was marked “L;” larboard forward, “L. +F.;” larboard aft, was marked “L. A.;” starboard aft, +“S. A.;” and starboard forward “S. F.” I soon learned +these letters, and for what they were placed on the timbers. +</p> + +<p> +My work was now, to keep fire under the steam box, and to watch the ship yard +while the carpenters had gone to dinner. This interval gave me a fine +opportunity for copying the letters named. I soon astonished myself with the +ease with which I made the letters; and the thought was soon present, “if +I can make four, I can make more.” But having made these easily, when I +met boys about Bethel church, or any of our play-grounds, I entered the lists +with them in the art of writing, and would make the letters which I had been so +fortunate as to learn, and ask them to “beat that if they could.” +With playmates for my teachers, fences and pavements for my copy books, and +chalk for my pen and ink, I learned the art of writing. I, however, afterward +adopted various methods of improving my hand. The most successful, was copying +the <i>italics</i> in Webster’s spelling book, until I could make them +all without looking on the book. By this time, my little “Master +Tommy” had grown to be a big boy, and had written over a number of copy +books, and brought them home. They had been shown to the neighbors, had +elicited due praise, and were now laid carefully away. Spending my time between +the ship yard and house, I was as often the lone keeper of the latter as of the +former. When my mistress left me in charge of the house, I had a grand time; I +got Master Tommy’s copy books and a pen and ink, and, in the ample spaces +between the lines, I wrote other lines, as nearly like his as possible. The +process was a tedious one, and I ran the risk of getting a flogging for marring +the highly prized copy books of the oldest son. In addition to those +opportunities, sleeping, as I did, in the kitchen loft—a room seldom +visited by any of the family—I got a flour barrel up there, and a chair; +and upon the head of that barrel I have written (or endeavored to write) +copying from the bible and the Methodist hymn book, and other books which had +accumulated on my hands, till late at night, and when all the family were in +bed and asleep. I was supported in my endeavors by renewed advice, and by holy +promises from the good Father Lawson, with whom I continued to meet, and pray, +and read the scriptures. Although Master Hugh was aware of my going there, I +must say, for his credit, that he never executed his threat to whip me, for +having thus, innocently, employed-my leisure time. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"></a> +CHAPTER XIII. <i>The Vicissitudes of Slave Life</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +DEATH OF OLD MASTER’S SON RICHARD, SPEEDILY FOLLOWED BY THAT OF OLD +MASTER—VALUATION AND DIVISION OF ALL THE PROPERTY, INCLUDING THE +SLAVES—MY PRESENCE REQUIRED AT HILLSBOROUGH TO BE APPRAISED AND ALLOTTED +TO A NEW OWNER—MY SAD PROSPECTS AND GRIEF—PARTING—THE UTTER +POWERLESSNESS OF THE SLAVES TO DECIDE THEIR OWN DESTINY—A GENERAL DREAD +OF MASTER ANDREW—HIS WICKEDNESS AND CRUELTY—MISS LUCRETIA MY NEW +OWNER—MY RETURN TO BALTIMORE—JOY UNDER THE ROOF OF MASTER +HUGH—DEATH OF MRS. LUCRETIA—MY POOR OLD GRANDMOTHER—HER SAD +FATE—THE LONE COT IN THE WOODS—MASTER THOMAS AULD’S SECOND +MARRIAGE—AGAIN REMOVED FROM MASTER HUGH’S—REASONS FOR +REGRETTING THE CHANGE—A PLAN OF ESCAPE ENTERTAINED. +</p> + +<p> +I must now ask the reader to go with me a little back in point of time, in my +humble story, and to notice another circumstance that entered into my slavery +experience, and which, doubtless, has had a share in deepening my horror of +slavery, and increasing my hostility toward those men and measures that +practically uphold the slave system. +</p> + +<p> +It has already been observed, that though I was, after my removal from Col. +Lloyd’s plantation, in <i>form</i> the slave of Master Hugh, I was, in +<i>fact</i>, and in <i>law</i>, the slave of my old master, Capt. Anthony. Very +well. +</p> + +<p> +In a very short time after I went to Baltimore, my old master’s youngest +son, Richard, died; and, in three years and six months after his death, my old +master himself died, leaving only his son, Andrew, and his daughter, Lucretia, +to share his estate. The old man died while on a visit to his daughter, in +Hillsborough, where Capt. Auld and Mrs. Lucretia now lived. The former, having +given up the command of Col. Lloyd’s sloop, was now keeping a store in +that town. +</p> + +<p> +Cut off, thus unexpectedly, Capt. Anthony died intestate; and his property must +now be equally divided between his two children, Andrew and Lucretia. +</p> + +<p> +The valuation and the division of slaves, among contending heirs, is an +important incident in slave life. The character and tendencies of the heirs, +are generally well understood among the slaves who are to be divided, and all +have their aversions and preferences. But, neither their aversions nor their +preferences avail them anything. +</p> + +<p> +On the death of old master, I was immediately sent for, to be valued and +divided with the other property. Personally, my concern was, mainly, about my +possible removal from the home of Master Hugh, which, after that of my +grandmother, was the most endeared to me. But, the whole thing, as a feature of +slavery, shocked me. It furnished me anew insight into the unnatural power to +which I was subjected. My detestation of slavery, already great, rose with this +new conception of its enormity. +</p> + +<p> +That was a sad day for me, a sad day for little Tommy, and a sad day for my +dear Baltimore mistress and teacher, when I left for the Eastern Shore, to be +valued and divided. We, all three, wept bitterly that day; for we might be +parting, and we feared we were parting, forever. No one could tell among which +pile of chattels I should be flung. Thus early, I got a foretaste of that +painful uncertainty which slavery brings to the ordinary lot of mortals. +Sickness, adversity and death may interfere with the plans and purposes of all; +but the slave has the added danger of changing homes, changing hands, and of +having separations unknown to other men. Then, too, there was the intensified +degradation of the spectacle. What an assemblage! Men and women, young and old, +married and single; moral and intellectual beings, in open contempt of their +humanity, level at a blow with horses, sheep, horned cattle and swine! Horses +and men—cattle and women—pigs and children—all holding the +same rank in the scale of social existence; and all subjected to the same +narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in gold and silver—the only +standard of worth applied by slaveholders to slaves! How vividly, at that +moment, did the brutalizing power of slavery flash before me! Personality +swallowed up in the sordid idea of property! Manhood lost in chattelhood! +</p> + +<p> +After the valuation, then came the division. This was an hour of high +excitement and distressing anxiety. Our destiny was now to be <i>fixed for +life</i>, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question, than the +oxen and cows that stood chewing at the haymow. One word from the appraisers, +against all preferences or prayers, was enough to sunder all the ties of +friendship and affection, and even to separate husbands and wives, parents and +children. We were all appalled before that power, which, to human seeming, +could bless or blast us in a moment. Added to the dread of separation, most +painful to the majority of the slaves, we all had a decided horror of the +thought of falling into the hands of Master Andrew. He was distinguished for +cruelty and intemperance. +</p> + +<p> +Slaves generally dread to fall into the hands of drunken owners. Master Andrew +was almost a confirmed sot, and had already, by his reckless mismanagement and +profligate dissipation, wasted a large portion of old master’s property. +To fall into his hands, was, therefore, considered merely as the first step +toward being sold away to the far south. He would spend his fortune in a few +years, and his farms and slaves would be sold, we thought, at public outcry; +and we should be hurried away to the cotton fields, and rice swamps, of the +sunny south. This was the cause of deep consternation. +</p> + +<p> +The people of the north, and free people generally, I think, have less +attachment to the places where they are born and brought up, than have the +slaves. Their freedom to go and come, to be here and there, as they list, +prevents any extravagant attachment to any one particular place, in their case. +On the other hand, the slave is a fixture; he has no choice, no goal, no +destination; but is pegged down to a single spot, and must take root here, or +nowhere. The idea of removal elsewhere, comes, generally, in the shape of a +threat, and in punishment of crime. It is, therefore, attended with fear and +dread. A slave seldom thinks of bettering his condition by being sold, and +hence he looks upon separation from his native place, with none of the +enthusiasm which animates the bosoms of young freemen, when they contemplate a +life in the far west, or in some distant country where they intend to rise to +wealth and distinction. Nor can those from whom they separate, give them up +with that cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield each other up, +when they feel that it is for the good of the departing one that he is removed +from his native place. Then, too, there is correspondence, and there is, at +least, the hope of reunion, because reunion is <i>possible</i>. But, with the +slave, all these mitigating circumstances are wanting. There is no improvement +in his condition <i>probable</i>,—no correspondence +<i>possible</i>,—no reunion attainable. His going out into the world, is +like a living man going into the tomb, who, with open eyes, sees himself buried +out of sight and hearing of wife, children and friends of kindred tie. +</p> + +<p> +In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our circumstances, I +probably suffered more than most of my fellow servants. I had known what it was +to experience kind, and even tender treatment; they had known nothing of the +sort. Life, to them, had been rough and thorny, as well as dark. They +had—most of them—lived on my old master’s farm in Tuckahoe, +and had felt the reign of Mr. Plummer’s rule. The overseer had written +his character on the living parchment of most of their backs, and left them +callous; my back (thanks to my early removal from the plantation to Baltimore) +was yet tender. I had left a kind mistress at Baltimore, who was almost a +mother to me. She was in tears when we parted, and the probabilities of ever +seeing her again, trembling in the balance as they did, could not be viewed +without alarm and agony. The thought of leaving that kind mistress forever, +and, worse still, of being the slave of Andrew Anthony—a man who, but a +few days before the division of the property, had, in my presence, seized my +brother Perry by the throat, dashed him on the ground, and with the heel of his +boot stamped him on the head, until the blood gushed from his nose and +ears—was terrible! This fiendish proceeding had no better apology than +the fact, that Perry had gone to play, when Master Andrew wanted him for some +trifling service. This cruelty, too, was of a piece with his general character. +After inflicting his heavy blows on my brother, on observing me looking at him +with intense astonishment, he said, “<i>That</i> is the way I will serve +you, one of these days;” meaning, no doubt, when I should come into his +possession. This threat, the reader may well suppose, was not very +tranquilizing to my feelings. I could see that he really thirsted to get hold +of me. But I was there only for a few days. I had not received any orders, and +had violated none, and there was, therefore, no excuse for flogging me. +</p> + +<p> +At last, the anxiety and suspense were ended; and they ended, thanks to a kind +Providence, in accordance with my wishes. I fell to the portion of Mrs. +Lucretia—the dear lady who bound up my head, when the savage Aunt Katy +was adding to my sufferings her bitterest maledictions. +</p> + +<p> +Capt. Thomas Auld and Mrs. Lucretia at once decided on my return to Baltimore. +They knew how sincerely and warmly Mrs. Hugh Auld was attached to me, and how +delighted Mr. Hugh’s son would be to have me back; and, withal, having no +immediate use for one so young, they willingly let me off to Baltimore. +</p> + +<p> +I need not stop here to narrate my joy on returning to Baltimore, nor that of +little Tommy; nor the tearful joy of his mother; nor the evident +saticfaction(sic) of Master Hugh. I was just one month absent from Baltimore, +before the matter was decided; and the time really seemed full six months. +</p> + +<p> +One trouble over, and on comes another. The slave’s life is full of +uncertainty. I had returned to Baltimore but a short time, when the tidings +reached me, that my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, who was only second in my regard to +Mrs. Hugh Auld, was dead, leaving her husband and only one child—a +daughter, named Amanda. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, strange to say, Master Andrew died, +leaving his wife and one child. Thus, the whole family of Anthonys was swept +away; only two children remained. All this happened within five years of my +leaving Col. Lloyd’s. +</p> + +<p> +No alteration took place in the condition of the slaves, in consequence of +these deaths, yet I could not help feeling less secure, after the death of my +friend, Mrs. Lucretia, than I had done during her life. While she lived, I felt +that I had a strong friend to plead for me in any emergency. Ten years ago, +while speaking of the state of things in our family, after the events just +named, I used this language: +</p> + +<p> +Now all the property of my old master, slaves included, was in the hands of +strangers—strangers who had nothing to do in accumulating it. Not a slave +was left free. All remained slaves, from youngest to oldest. If any one thing +in my experience, more than another, served to deepen my conviction of the +infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with unutterable loathing of +slaveholders, it was their base ingratitude to my poor old grandmother. She had +served my old master faithfully from youth to old age. She had been the source +of all his wealth; she had peopled his plantation with slaves; she had become a +great-grandmother in his service. She had rocked him in infancy, attended him +in childhood, served him through life, and at his death wiped from his icy brow +the cold death-sweat, and closed his eyes forever. She was nevertheless left a +slave—a slave for life—a slave in the hands of strangers; and in +their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her +great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep, without being gratified with +the small privilege of a single word, as to their or her own destiny. And, to +cap the climax of their base ingratitude and fiendish barbarity, my +grandmother, who was now very old, having outlived my old master and all his +children, having seen the beginning and end of all of them, and her present +owners finding she was of but little value, her frame already racked with the +pains of old age, and complete helplessness fast stealing over her once active +limbs, they took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put up a little +mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of supporting herself +there in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to die! If my poor +old grandmother now lives, she lives to suffer in utter loneliness; she lives +to remember and mourn over the loss of children, the loss of grandchildren, and +the loss of great-grandchildren. They are, in the language of the slave’s +poet, Whittier— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Gone, gone, sold and gone,<br/> +To the rice swamp dank and lone,<br/> +Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,<br/> +Where the noisome insect stings,<br/> +Where the fever-demon strews<br/> +Poison with the falling dews,<br/> +Where the sickly sunbeams glare<br/> +Through the hot and misty air:—<br/> + Gone, gone, sold and gone<br/> + To the rice swamp dank and lone,<br/> + From Virginia hills and waters—<br/> + Woe is me, my stolen daughters! +</p> + +<p> +The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children, who once sang +and danced in her presence, are gone. She gropes her way, in the darkness of +age, for a drink of water. Instead of the voices of her children, she hears by +day the moans of the dove, and by night the screams of the hideous owl. All is +gloom. The grave is at the door. And now, when weighed down by the pains and +aches of old age, when the head inclines to the feet, when the beginning and +ending of human existence meet, and helpless infancy and painful old age +combine together—at this time, this most needful time, the time for the +exercise of that tenderness and affection which children only can exercise +toward a declining parent—my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of +twelve children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim +embers. +</p> + +<p> +Two years after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, Master Thomas married his second +wife. Her name was Rowena Hamilton, the eldest daughter of Mr. William +Hamilton, a rich slaveholder on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, who lived about +five miles from St. Michael’s, the then place of my master’s +residence. +</p> + +<p> +Not long after his marriage, Master Thomas had a misunderstanding with Master +Hugh, and, as a means of punishing his brother, he ordered him to send me home. +</p> + +<p> +As the ground of misunderstanding will serve to illustrate the character of +southern chivalry, and humanity, I will relate it. +</p> + +<p> +Among the children of my Aunt Milly, was a daughter, named Henny. When quite a +child, Henny had fallen into the fire, and burnt her hands so bad that they +were of very little use to her. Her fingers were drawn almost into the palms of +her hands. She could make out to do something, but she was considered hardly +worth the having—of little more value than a horse with a broken leg. +This unprofitable piece of human property, ill shapen, and disfigured, Capt. +Auld sent off to Baltimore, making his brother Hugh welcome to her services. +</p> + +<p> +After giving poor Henny a fair trial, Master Hugh and his wife came to the +conclusion, that they had no use for the crippled servant, and they sent her +back to Master Thomas. Thus, the latter took as an act of ingratitude, on the +part of his brother; and, as a mark of his displeasure, he required him to send +me immediately to St. Michael’s, saying, if he cannot keep +<i>“Hen,”</i> he shall not have <i>“Fred.”</i> +</p> + +<p> +Here was another shock to my nerves, another breaking up of my plans, and +another severance of my religious and social alliances. I was now a big boy. I +had become quite useful to several young colored men, who had made me their +teacher. I had taught some of them to read, and was accustomed to spend many of +my leisure hours with them. Our attachment was strong, and I greatly dreaded +the separation. But regrets, especially in a slave, are unavailing. I was only +a slave; my wishes were nothing, and my happiness was the sport of my masters. +</p> + +<p> +My regrets at now leaving Baltimore, were not for the same reasons as when I +before left that city, to be valued and handed over to my proper owner. My home +was not now the pleasant place it had formerly been. A change had taken place, +both in Master Hugh, and in his once pious and affectionate wife. The influence +of brandy and bad company on him, and the influence of slavery and social +isolation upon her, had wrought disastrously upon the characters of both. +Thomas was no longer “little Tommy,” but was a big boy, and had +learned to assume the airs of his class toward me. My condition, therefore, in +the house of Master Hugh, was not, by any means, so comfortable as in former +years. My attachments were now outside of our family. They were felt to those +to whom I <i>imparted</i> instruction, and to those little white boys from whom +I <i>received</i> instruction. There, too, was my dear old father, the pious +Lawson, who was, in christian graces, the very counterpart of +“Uncle” Tom. The resemblance is so perfect, that he might have been +the original of Mrs. Stowe’s christian hero. The thought of leaving these +dear friends, greatly troubled me, for I was going without the hope of ever +returning to Baltimore again; the feud between Master Hugh and his brother +being bitter and irreconcilable, or, at least, supposed to be so. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to thoughts of friends from whom I was parting, as I supposed, +<i>forever</i>, I had the grief of neglected chances of escape to brood over. I +had put off running away, until now I was to be placed where the opportunities +for escaping were much fewer than in a large city like Baltimore. +</p> + +<p> +On my way from Baltimore to St. Michael’s, down the Chesapeake bay, our +sloop—the “Amanda”—was passed by the steamers plying +between that city and Philadelphia, and I watched the course of those steamers, +and, while going to St. Michael’s, I formed a plan to escape from +slavery; of which plan, and matters connected therewith the kind reader shall +learn more hereafter. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"></a> +CHAPTER XIV. <i>Experience in St. Michael’s</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +THE VILLAGE—ITS INHABITANTS—THEIR OCCUPATION AND LOW PROPENSITIES +CAPTAN(sic) THOMAS AULD—HIS CHARACTER—HIS SECOND WIFE, +ROWENA—WELL MATCHED—SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER—OBLIGED TO TAKE +FOOD—MODE OF ARGUMENT IN VINDICATION THEREOF—NO MORAL CODE OF FREE +SOCIETY CAN APPLY TO SLAVE SOCIETY—SOUTHERN CAMP MEETING—WHAT +MASTER THOMAS DID THERE—HOPES—SUSPICIONS ABOUT HIS +CONVERSION—THE RESULT—FAITH AND WORKS ENTIRELY AT +VARIANCE—HIS RISE AND PROGRESS IN THE CHURCH—POOR COUSIN +“HENNY”—HIS TREATMENT OF HER—THE METHODIST +PREACHERS—THEIR UTTER DISREGARD OF US—ONE EXCELLENT +EXCEPTION—REV. GEORGE COOKMAN—SABBATH SCHOOL—HOW BROKEN UP +AND BY WHOM—A FUNERAL PALL CAST OVER ALL MY PROSPECTS—COVEY THE +NEGRO-BREAKER. +</p> + +<p> +St. Michael’s, the village in which was now my new home, compared +favorably with villages in slave states, generally. There were a few +comfortable dwellings in it, but the place, as a whole, wore a dull, slovenly, +enterprise-forsaken aspect. The mass of the buildings were wood; they had never +enjoyed the artificial adornment of paint, and time and storms had worn off the +bright color of the wood, leaving them almost as black as buildings charred by +a conflagration. +</p> + +<p> +St. Michael’s had, in former years, (previous to 1833, for that was the +year I went to reside there,) enjoyed some reputation as a ship building +community, but that business had almost entirely given place to oyster fishing, +for the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets—a course of life highly +unfavorable to morals, industry, and manners. Miles river was broad, and its +oyster fishing grounds were extensive; and the fishermen were out, often, all +day, and a part of the night, during autumn, winter and spring. This exposure +was an excuse for carrying with them, in considerable quanties(sic), spirituous +liquors, the then supposed best antidote for cold. Each canoe was supplied with +its jug of rum; and tippling, among this class of the citizens of St. +Michael’s, became general. This drinking habit, in an ignorant +population, fostered coarseness, vulgarity and an indolent disregard for the +social improvement of the place, so that it was admitted, by the few sober, +thinking people who remained there, that St. Michael’s had become a very +<i>unsaintly</i>, as well as unsightly place, before I went there to reside. +</p> + +<p> +I left Baltimore for St. Michael’s in the month of March, 1833. I know +the year, because it was the one succeeding the first cholera in Baltimore, and +was the year, also, of that strange phenomenon, when the heavens seemed about +to part with its starry train. I witnessed this gorgeous spectacle, and was +awe-struck. The air seemed filled with bright, descending messengers from the +sky. It was about daybreak when I saw this sublime scene. I was not without the +suggestion, at the moment, that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the +Son of Man; and, in my then state of mind, I was prepared to hail Him as my +friend and deliverer. I had read, that the “stars shall fall from +heaven”; and they were now falling. I was suffering much in my mind. It +did seem that every time the young tendrils of my affection became attached, +they were rudely broken by some unnatural outside power; and I was beginning to +look away to heaven for the rest denied me on earth. +</p> + +<p> +But, to my story. It was now more than seven years since I had lived with +Master Thomas Auld, in the family of my old master, on Col. Lloyd’s +plantation. We were almost entire strangers to each other; for, when I knew him +at the house of my old master, it was not as a <i>master</i>, but simply as +“Captain Auld,” who had married old master’s daughter. All my +lessons concerning his temper and disposition, and the best methods of pleasing +him, were yet to be learnt. Slaveholders, however, are not very ceremonious in +approaching a slave; and my ignorance of the new material in shape of a master +was but transient. Nor was my mistress long in making known her animus. She was +not a “Miss Lucretia,” traces of whom I yet remembered, and the +more especially, as I saw them shining in the face of little Amanda, her +daughter, now living under a step-mother’s government. I had not +forgotten the soft hand, guided by a tender heart, that bound up with healing +balsam the gash made in my head by Ike, the son of Abel. Thomas and Rowena, I +found to be a well-matched pair. <i>He</i> was stingy, and <i>she</i> was +cruel; and—what was quite natural in such cases—she possessed the +ability to make him as cruel as herself, while she could easily descend to the +level of his meanness. In the house of Master Thomas, I was made—for the +first time in seven years to feel the pinchings of hunger, and this was not +very easy to bear. +</p> + +<p> +For, in all the changes of Master Hugh’s family, there was no change in +the bountifulness with which they supplied me with food. Not to give a slave +enough to eat, is meanness intensified, and it is so recognized among +slaveholders generally, in Maryland. The rule is, no matter how coarse the +food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory, and—in the part +of Maryland I came from—the general practice accords with this theory. +Lloyd’s plantation was an exception, as was, also, the house of Master +Thomas Auld. +</p> + +<p> +All know the lightness of Indian corn-meal, as an article of food, and can +easily judge from the following facts whether the statements I have made of the +stinginess of Master Thomas, are borne out. There were four slaves of us in the +kitchen, and four whites in the great house Thomas Auld, Mrs. Auld, Hadaway +Auld (brother of Thomas Auld) and little Amanda. The names of the slaves in the +kitchen, were Eliza, my sister; Priscilla, my aunt; Henny, my cousin; and +myself. There were eight persons in the family. There was, each week, one half +bushel of corn-meal brought from the mill; and in the kitchen, corn-meal was +almost our exclusive food, for very little else was allowed us. Out of this +bushel of corn-meal, the family in the great house had a small loaf every +morning; thus leaving us, in the kitchen, with not quite a half a peck per +week, apiece. This allowance was less than half the allowance of food on +Lloyd’s plantation. It was not enough to subsist upon; and we were, +therefore, reduced to the wretched necessity of living at the expense of our +neighbors. We were compelled either to beg, or to steal, and we did both. I +frankly confess, that while I hated everything like stealing, <i>as such</i>, I +nevertheless did not hesitate to take food, when I was hungry, wherever I could +find it. Nor was this practice the mere result of an unreasoning instinct; it +was, in my case, the result of a clear apprehension of the claims of morality. +I weighed and considered the matter closely, before I ventured to satisfy my +hunger by such means. Considering that my labor and person were the property of +Master Thomas, and that I was by him deprived of the necessaries of life +necessaries obtained by my own labor—it was easy to deduce the right to +supply myself with what was my own. It was simply appropriating what was my own +to the use of my master, since the health and strength derived from such food +were exerted in <i>his</i> service. To be sure, this was stealing, according to +the law and gospel I heard from St. Michael’s pulpit; but I had already +begun to attach less importance to what dropped from that quarter, on that +point, while, as yet, I retained my reverence for religion. It was not always +convenient to steal from master, and the same reason why I might, innocently, +steal from him, did not seem to justify me in stealing from others. In the case +of my master, it was only a question of <i>removal</i>—the taking his +meat out of one tub, and putting it into another; the ownership of the meat was +not affected by the transaction. At first, he owned it in the <i>tub</i>, and +last, he owned it in <i>me</i>. His meat house was not always open. There was a +strict watch kept on that point, and the key was on a large bunch in +Rowena’s pocket. A great many times have we, poor creatures, been +severely pinched with hunger, when meat and bread have been moulding under the +lock, while the key was in the pocket of our mistress. This had been so when +she <i>knew</i> we were nearly half starved; and yet, that mistress, with +saintly air, would kneel with her husband, and pray each morning that a +merciful God would bless them in basket and in store, and save them, at last, +in his kingdom. But I proceed with the argument. +</p> + +<p> +It was necessary that right to steal from <i>others</i> should be established; +and this could only rest upon a wider range of generalization than that which +supposed the right to steal from my master. +</p> + +<p> +It was sometime before I arrived at this clear right. The reader will get some +idea of my train of reasoning, by a brief statement of the case. “I +am,” thought I, “not only the slave of Thomas, but I am the slave +of society at large. Society at large has bound itself, in form and in fact, to +assist Master Thomas in robbing me of my rightful liberty, and of the just +reward of my labor; therefore, whatever rights I have against Master Thomas, I +have, equally, against those confederated with him in robbing me of liberty. As +society has marked me out as privileged plunder, on the principle of +self-preservation I am justified in plundering in turn. Since each slave +belongs to all; all must, therefore, belong to each.” +</p> + +<p> +I shall here make a profession of faith which may shock some, offend others, +and be dissented from by all. It is this: Within the bounds of his just +earnings, I hold that the slave is fully justified in helping himself to the +<i>gold and silver, and the best apparel of his master, or that of any other +slaveholder; and that such taking is not stealing in any just sense of that +word</i>. +</p> + +<p> +The morality of <i>free</i> society can have no application to <i>slave</i> +society. Slaveholders have made it almost impossible for the slave to commit +any crime, known either to the laws of God or to the laws of man. If he steals, +he takes his own; if he kills his master, he imitates only the heroes of the +revolution. Slaveholders I hold to be individually and collectively responsible +for all the evils which grow out of the horrid relation, and I believe they +will be so held at the judgment, in the sight of a just God. Make a man a +slave, and you rob him of moral responsibility. Freedom of choice is the +essence of all accountability. But my kind readers are, probably, less +concerned about my opinions, than about that which more nearly touches my +personal experience; albeit, my opinions have, in some sort, been formed by +that experience. +</p> + +<p> +Bad as slaveholders are, I have seldom met with one so entirely destitute of +every element of character capable of inspiring respect, as was my present +master, Capt. Thomas Auld. +</p> + +<p> +When I lived with him, I thought him incapable of a noble action. The leading +trait in his character was intense selfishness. I think he was fully aware of +this fact himself, and often tried to conceal it. Capt. Auld was not a +<i>born</i> slaveholder—not a birthright member of the slaveholding +oligarchy. He was only a slaveholder by <i>marriage-right;</i> and, of all +slaveholders, these latter are, <i>by far</i>, the most exacting. There was in +him all the love of domination, the pride of mastery, and the swagger of +authority, but his rule lacked the vital element of consistency. He could be +cruel; but his methods of showing it were cowardly, and evinced his meanness +rather than his spirit. His commands were strong, his enforcement weak. +</p> + +<p> +Slaves are not insensible to the whole-souled characteristics of a generous, +dashing slaveholder, who is fearless of consequences; and they prefer a master +of this bold and daring kind—even with the risk of being shot down for +impudence to the fretful, little soul, who never uses the lash but at the +suggestion of a love of gain. +</p> + +<p> +Slaves, too, readily distinguish between the birthright bearing of the original +slaveholder and the assumed attitudes of the accidental slaveholder; and while +they cannot respect either, they certainly despise the latter more than the +former. +</p> + +<p> +The luxury of having slaves wait upon him was something new to Master Thomas; +and for it he was wholly unprepared. He was a slaveholder, without the ability +to hold or manage his slaves. We seldom called him “master,” but +generally addressed him by his “bay craft” +title—“<i>Capt. Auld</i>.” It is easy to see that such +conduct might do much to make him appear awkward, and, consequently, fretful. +His wife was especially solicitous to have us call her husband +“master.” Is your <i>master</i> at the +store?”—“Where is your <i>master</i>?”—“Go +and tell your <i>master”</i>—“I will make your <i>master</i> +acquainted with your conduct”—she would say; but we were inapt +scholars. Especially were I and my sister Eliza inapt in this particular. Aunt +Priscilla was less stubborn and defiant in her spirit than Eliza and myself; +and, I think, her road was less rough than ours. +</p> + +<p> +In the month of August, 1833, when I had almost become desperate under the +treatment of Master Thomas, and when I entertained more strongly than ever the +oft-repeated determination to run away, a circumstance occurred which seemed to +promise brighter and better days for us all. At a Methodist camp-meeting, held +in the Bay Side (a famous place for campmeetings) about eight miles from St. +Michael’s, Master Thomas came out with a profession of religion. He had +long been an object of interest to the church, and to the ministers, as I had +seen by the repeated visits and lengthy exhortations of the latter. He was a +fish quite worth catching, for he had money and standing. In the community of +St. Michael’s he was equal to the best citizen. He was strictly +temperate; <i>perhaps</i>, from principle, but most likely, from interest. +There was very little to do for him, to give him the appearance of piety, and +to make him a pillar in the church. Well, the camp-meeting continued a week; +people gathered from all parts of the county, and two steamboat loads came from +Baltimore. The ground was happily chosen; seats were arranged; a stand erected; +a rude altar fenced in, fronting the preachers’ stand, with straw in it +for the accommodation of mourners. This latter would hold at least one hundred +persons. In front, and on the sides of the preachers’ stand, and outside +the long rows of seats, rose the first class of stately tents, each vieing with +the other in strength, neatness, and capacity for accommodating its inmates. +Behind this first circle of tents was another, less imposing, which reached +round the camp-ground to the speakers’ stand. Outside this second class +of tents were covered wagons, ox carts, and vehicles of every shape and size. +These served as tents to their owners. Outside of these, huge fires were +burning, in all directions, where roasting, and boiling, and frying, were going +on, for the benefit of those who were attending to their own spiritual welfare +within the circle. <i>Behind</i> the preachers’ stand, a narrow space was +marked out for the use of the colored people. There were no seats provided for +this class of persons; the preachers addressed them, <i>“over the +left,”</i> if they addressed them at all. After the preaching was over, +at every service, an invitation was given to mourners to come into the pen; +and, in some cases, ministers went out to persuade men and women to come in. By +one of these ministers, Master Thomas Auld was persuaded to go inside the pen. +I was deeply interested in that matter, and followed; and, though colored +people were not allowed either in the pen or in front of the preachers’ +stand, I ventured to take my stand at a sort of half-way place between the +blacks and whites, where I could distinctly see the movements of mourners, and +especially the progress of Master Thomas. +</p> + +<p> +“If he has got religion,” thought I, “he will emancipate his +slaves; and if he should not do so much as this, he will, at any rate, behave +toward us more kindly, and feed us more generously than he has heretofore +done.” Appealing to my own religious experience, and judging my master by +what was true in my own case, I could not regard him as soundly converted, +unless some such good results followed his profession of religion. +</p> + +<p> +But in my expectations I was doubly disappointed; Master Thomas was <i>Master +Thomas</i> still. The fruits of his righteousness were to show themselves in no +such way as I had anticipated. His conversion was not to change his relation +toward men—at any rate not toward BLACK men—but toward God. My +faith, I confess, was not great. There was something in his appearance that, in +my mind, cast a doubt over his conversion. Standing where I did, I could see +his every movement. I watched narrowly while he remained in the little pen; and +although I saw that his face was extremely red, and his hair disheveled, and +though I heard him groan, and saw a stray tear halting on his cheek, as if +inquiring “which way shall I go?”—I could not wholly confide +in the genuineness of his conversion. The hesitating behavior of that tear-drop +and its loneliness, distressed me, and cast a doubt upon the whole transaction, +of which it was a part. But people said, <i>“Capt. Auld had come +through,”</i> and it was for me to hope for the best. I was bound to do +this, in charity, for I, too, was religious, and had been in the church full +three years, although now I was not more than sixteen years old. Slaveholders +may, sometimes, have confidence in the piety of some of their slaves; but the +slaves seldom have confidence in the piety of their masters. <i>“He cant +go to heaven with our blood in his skirts</i>,” is a settled point in the +creed of every slave; rising superior to all teaching to the contrary, and +standing forever as a fixed fact. The highest evidence the slaveholder can give +the slave of his acceptance with God, is the emancipation of his slaves. This +is proof that he is willing to give up all to God, and for the sake of God. Not +to do this, was, in my estimation, and in the opinion of all the slaves, an +evidence of half-heartedness, and wholly inconsistent with the idea of genuine +conversion. I had read, also, somewhere in the Methodist Discipline, the +following question and answer: +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Question</i>. What shall be done for the extirpation of slavery? +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Answer</i>. We declare that we are much as ever convinced of the +great evil of slavery; therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any +official station in our church.” +</p> + +<p> +These words sounded in my ears for a long time, and encouraged me to hope. But, +as I have before said, I was doomed to disappointment. Master Thomas seemed to +be aware of my hopes and expectations concerning him. I have thought, before +now, that he looked at me in answer to my glances, as much as to say, “I +will teach you, young man, that, though I have parted with my sins, I have not +parted with my sense. I shall hold my slaves, and go to heaven too.” +</p> + +<p> +Possibly, to convince us that we must not presume <i>too much</i> upon his +recent conversion, he became rather more rigid and stringent in his exactions. +There always was a scarcity of good nature about the man; but now his whole +countenance was <i>soured</i> over with the seemings of piety. His religion, +therefore, neither made him emancipate his slaves, nor caused him to treat them +with greater humanity. If religion had any effect on his character at all, it +made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways. The natural wickedness of his +heart had not been removed, but only reinforced, by the profession of religion. +Do I judge him harshly? God forbid. Facts <i>are</i> facts. Capt. Auld made the +greatest profession of piety. His house was, literally, a house of prayer. In +the morning, and in the evening, loud prayers and hymns were heard there, in +which both himself and his wife joined; yet, <i>no more meal</i> was brought +from the mill, <i>no more attention</i> was paid to the moral welfare of the +kitchen; and nothing was done to make us feel that the heart of Master Thomas +was one whit better than it was before he went into the little pen, opposite to +the preachers’ stand, on the camp ground. +</p> + +<p> +Our hopes (founded on the discipline) soon vanished; for the authorities let +him into the church <i>at once</i>, and before he was out of his term of +<i>probation</i>, I heard of his leading class! He distinguished himself +greatly among the brethren, and was soon an exhorter. His progress was almost +as rapid as the growth of the fabled vine of Jack’s bean. No man was more +active than he, in revivals. He would go many miles to assist in carrying them +on, and in getting outsiders interested in religion. His house being one of the +holiest, if not the happiest in St. Michael’s, became the +“preachers’ home.” These preachers evidently liked to share +Master Thomas’s hospitality; for while he <i>starved us</i>, he +<i>stuffed</i> them. Three or four of these ambassadors of the +gospel—according to slavery—have been there at a time; all living +on the fat of the land, while we, in the kitchen, were nearly starving. Not +often did we get a smile of recognition from these holy men. They seemed almost +as unconcerned about our getting to heaven, as they were about our getting out +of slavery. To this general charge there was one exception—the Rev. +GEORGE COOKMAN. Unlike Rev. Messrs. Storks, Ewry, Hickey, Humphrey and Cooper +(all whom were on the St. Michael’s circuit) he kindly took an interest +in our temporal and spiritual welfare. Our souls and our bodies were all alike +sacred in his sight; and he really had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery +feeling mingled with his colonization ideas. There was not a slave in our +neighborhood that did not love, and almost venerate, Mr. Cookman. It was pretty +generally believed that he had been chiefly instrumental in bringing one of the +largest slaveholders—Mr. Samuel Harrison—in that neighborhood, to +emancipate all his slaves, and, indeed, the general impression was, that Mr. +Cookman had labored faithfully with slaveholders, whenever he met them, to +induce them to emancipate their bondmen, and that he did this as a religious +duty. When this good man was at our house, we were all sure to be called in to +prayers in the morning; and he was not slow in making inquiries as to the state +of our minds, nor in giving us a word of exhortation and of encouragement. +Great was the sorrow of all the slaves, when this faithful preacher of the +gospel was removed from the Talbot county circuit. He was an eloquent preacher, +and possessed what few ministers, south of Mason Dixon’s line, possess, +or <i>dare</i> to show, viz: a warm and philanthropic heart. The Mr. Cookman, +of whom I speak, was an Englishman by birth, and perished while on his way to +England, on board the ill-fated “President”. Could the thousands of +slaves in Maryland know the fate of the good man, to whose words of comfort +they were so largely indebted, they would thank me for dropping a tear on this +page, in memory of their favorite preacher, friend and benefactor. +</p> + +<p> +But, let me return to Master Thomas, and to my experience, after his +conversion. In Baltimore, I could, occasionally, get into a Sabbath school, +among the free children, and receive lessons, with the rest; but, having +already learned both to read and to write, I was more of a teacher than a +pupil, even there. When, however, I went back to the Eastern Shore, and was at +the house of Master Thomas, I was neither allowed to teach, nor to be taught. +The whole community—with but a single exception, among the +whites—frowned upon everything like imparting instruction either to +slaves or to free colored persons. That single exception, a pious young man, +named Wilson, asked me, one day, if I would like to assist him in teaching a +little Sabbath school, at the house of a free colored man in St. +Michael’s, named James Mitchell. The idea was to me a delightful one, and +I told him I would gladly devote as much of my Sabbath as I could command, to +that most laudable work. Mr. Wilson soon mustered up a dozen old spelling +books, and a few testaments; and we commenced operations, with some twenty +scholars, in our Sunday school. Here, thought I, is something worth living for; +here is an excellent chance for usefulness; and I shall soon have a company of +young friends, lovers of knowledge, like some of my Baltimore friends, from +whom I now felt parted forever. +</p> + +<p> +Our first Sabbath passed delightfully, and I spent the week after very +joyously. I could not go to Baltimore, but I could make a little Baltimore +here. At our second meeting, I learned that there was some objection to the +existence of the Sabbath school; and, sure enough, we had scarcely got at +work—<i>good work</i>, simply teaching a few colored children how to read +the gospel of the Son of God—when in rushed a mob, headed by Mr. Wright +Fairbanks and Mr. Garrison West—two class-leaders—and Master +Thomas; who, armed with sticks and other missiles, drove us off, and commanded +us never to meet for such a purpose again. One of this pious crew told me, that +as for my part, I wanted to be another Nat Turner; and if I did not look out, I +should get as many balls into me, as Nat did into him. Thus ended the infant +Sabbath school, in the town of St. Michael’s. The reader will not be +surprised when I say, that the breaking up of my Sabbath school, by these +class-leaders, and professedly holy men, did not serve to strengthen my +religious convictions. The cloud over my St. Michael’s home grew heavier +and blacker than ever. +</p> + +<p> +It was not merely the agency of Master Thomas, in breaking up and destroying my +Sabbath school, that shook my confidence in the power of southern religion to +make men wiser or better; but I saw in him all the cruelty and meanness, +<i>after</i> his conversion, which he had exhibited before he made a profession +of religion. His cruelty and meanness were especially displayed in his +treatment of my unfortunate cousin, Henny, whose lameness made her a burden to +him. I have no extraordinary personal hard usage toward myself to complain of, +against him, but I have seen him tie up the lame and maimed woman, and whip her +in a manner most brutal, and shocking; and then, with blood-chilling blasphemy, +he would quote the passage of scripture, “That servant which knew his +lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, +shall be beaten with many stripes.” Master would keep this lacerated +woman tied up by her wrists, to a bolt in the joist, three, four and five hours +at a time. He would tie her up early in the morning, whip her with a cowskin +before breakfast; leave her tied up; go to his store, and, returning to his +dinner, repeat the castigation; laying on the rugged lash, on flesh already +made raw by repeated blows. He seemed desirous to get the poor girl out of +existence, or, at any rate, off his hands. In proof of this, he afterwards gave +her away to his sister Sarah (Mrs. Cline) but, as in the case of Master Hugh, +Henny was soon returned on his hands. Finally, upon a pretense that he could do +nothing with her (I use his own words) he “set her adrift, to take care +of herself.” Here was a recently converted man, holding, with tight +grasp, the well-framed, and able bodied slaves left him by old master—the +persons, who, in freedom, could have taken care of themselves; yet, turning +loose the only cripple among them, virtually to starve and die. +</p> + +<p> +No doubt, had Master Thomas been asked, by some pious northern brother, +<i>why</i> he continued to sustain the relation of a slaveholder, to those whom +he retained, his answer would have been precisely the same as many other +religious slaveholders have returned to that inquiry, viz: “I hold my +slaves for their own good.” +</p> + +<p> +Bad as my condition was when I lived with Master Thomas, I was soon to +experience a life far more goading and bitter. The many differences springing +up between myself and Master Thomas, owing to the clear perception I had of his +character, and the boldness with which I defended myself against his capricious +complaints, led him to declare that I was unsuited to his wants; that my city +life had affected me perniciously; that, in fact, it had almost ruined me for +every good purpose, and had fitted me for everything that was bad. One of my +greatest faults, or offenses, was that of letting his horse get away, and go +down to the farm belonging to his father-in-law. The animal had a liking for +that farm, with which I fully sympathized. Whenever I let it out, it would go +dashing down the road to Mr. Hamilton’s, as if going on a grand frolic. +My horse gone, of course I must go after it. The explanation of our mutual +attachment to the place is the same; the horse found there good pasturage, and +I found there plenty of bread. Mr. Hamilton had his faults, but starving his +slaves was not among them. He gave food, in abundance, and that, too, of an +excellent quality. In Mr. Hamilton’s cook—Aunt Mary—I found a +most generous and considerate friend. She never allowed me to go there without +giving me bread enough to make good the deficiencies of a day or two. Master +Thomas at last resolved to endure my behavior no longer; he could neither keep +me, nor his horse, we liked so well to be at his father-in-law’s farm. I +had now lived with him nearly nine months, and he had given me a number of +severe whippings, without any visible improvement in my character, or my +conduct; and now he was resolved to put me out—as he +said—“<i>to be broken.</i>” +</p> + +<p> +There was, in the Bay Side, very near the camp ground, where my master got his +religious impressions, a man named Edward Covey, who enjoyed the execrated +reputation, of being a first rate hand at breaking young Negroes. This Covey +was a poor man, a farm renter; and this reputation (hateful as it was to the +slaves and to all good men) was, at the same time, of immense advantage to him. +It enabled him to get his farm tilled with very little expense, compared with +what it would have cost him without this most extraordinary reputation. Some +slaveholders thought it an advantage to let Mr. Covey have the government of +their slaves a year or two, almost free of charge, for the sake of the +excellent training such slaves got under his happy management! Like some horse +breakers, noted for their skill, who ride the best horses in the country +without expense, Mr. Covey could have under him, the most fiery bloods of the +neighborhood, for the simple reward of returning them to their owners, <i>well +broken</i>. Added to the natural fitness of Mr. Covey for the duties of his +profession, he was said to “enjoy religion,” and was as strict in +the cultivation of piety, as he was in the cultivation of his farm. I was made +aware of his character by some who had been under his hand; and while I could +not look forward to going to him with any pleasure, I was glad to get away from +St. Michael’s. I was sure of getting enough to eat at Covey’s, even +if I suffered in other respects. <i>This</i>, to a hungry man, is not a +prospect to be regarded with indifference. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"></a> +CHAPTER XV. <i>Covey, the Negro Breaker</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +JOURNEY TO MY NEW MASTER’S—MEDITATIONS BY THE WAY—VIEW OF +COVEY’S RESIDENCE—THE FAMILY—MY AWKWARDNESS AS A FIELD +HAND—A CRUEL BEATING—WHY IT WAS GIVEN—DESCRIPTION OF +COVEY—FIRST ADVENTURE AT OX DRIVING—HAIR BREADTH ESCAPES—OX +AND MAN ALIKE PROPERTY—COVEY’S MANNER OF PROCEEDING TO +WHIP—HARD LABOR BETTER THAN THE WHIP FOR BREAKING DOWN THE +SPIRIT—CUNNING AND TRICKERY OF COVEY—FAMILY WORSHIP—SHOCKING +CONTEMPT FOR CHASTITY—I AM BROKEN DOWN—GREAT MENTAL AGITATION IN +CONTRASTING THE FREEDOM OF THE SHIPS WITH HIS OWN SLAVERY—ANGUISH BEYOND +DESCRIPTION. +</p> + +<p> +The morning of the first of January, 1834, with its chilling wind and pinching +frost, quite in harmony with the winter in my own mind, found me, with my +little bundle of clothing on the end of a stick, swung across my shoulder, on +the main road, bending my way toward Covey’s, whither I had been +imperiously ordered by Master Thomas. The latter had been as good as his word, +and had committed me, without reserve, to the mastery of Mr. Edward Covey. +Eight or ten years had now passed since I had been taken from my +grandmother’s cabin, in Tuckahoe; and these years, for the most part, I +had spent in Baltimore, where—as the reader has already seen—I was +treated with comparative tenderness. I was now about to sound profounder depths +in slave life. The rigors of a field, less tolerable than the field of battle, +awaited me. My new master was notorious for his fierce and savage disposition, +and my only consolation in going to live with him was, the certainty of finding +him precisely as represented by common fame. There was neither joy in my heart, +nor elasticity in my step, as I started in search of the tyrant’s home. +Starvation made me glad to leave Thomas Auld’s, and the cruel lash made +me dread to go to Covey’s. Escape was impossible; so, heavy and sad, I +paced the seven miles, which separated Covey’s house from St. +Michael’s—thinking much by the solitary way—averse to my +condition; but <i>thinking</i> was all I could do. Like a fish in a net, +allowed to play for a time, I was now drawn rapidly to the shore, secured at +all points. “I am,” thought I, “but the sport of a power +which makes no account, either of my welfare or of my happiness. By a law which +I can clearly comprehend, but cannot evade nor resist, I am ruthlessly snatched +from the hearth of a fond grandmother, and hurried away to the home of a +mysterious ‘old master;’ again I am removed from there, to a master +in Baltimore; thence am I snatched away to the Eastern Shore, to be valued with +the beasts of the field, and, with them, divided and set apart for a possessor; +then I am sent back to Baltimore; and by the time I have formed new +attachments, and have begun to hope that no more rude shocks shall touch me, a +difference arises between brothers, and I am again broken up, and sent to St. +Michael’s; and now, from the latter place, I am footing my way to the +home of a new master, where, I am given to understand, that, like a wild young +working animal, I am to be broken to the yoke of a bitter and life-long +bondage.” +</p> + +<p> +With thoughts and reflections like these, I came in sight of a small +wood-colored building, about a mile from the main road, which, from the +description I had received, at starting, I easily recognized as my new home. +The Chesapeake bay—upon the jutting banks of which the little +wood-colored house was standing—white with foam, raised by the heavy +north-west wind; Poplar Island, covered with a thick, black pine forest, +standing out amid this half ocean; and Kent Point, stretching its sandy, +desert-like shores out into the foam-cested bay—were all in sight, and +deepened the wild and desolate aspect of my new home. +</p> + +<p> +The good clothes I had brought with me from Baltimore were now worn thin, and +had not been replaced; for Master Thomas was as little careful to provide us +against cold, as against hunger. Met here by a north wind, sweeping through an +open space of forty miles, I was glad to make any port; and, therefore, I +speedily pressed on to the little wood-colored house. The family consisted of +Mr. and Mrs. Covey; Miss Kemp (a broken-backed woman) a sister of Mrs. Covey; +William Hughes, cousin to Edward Covey; Caroline, the cook; Bill Smith, a hired +man; and myself. Bill Smith, Bill Hughes, and myself, were the working force of +the farm, which consisted of three or four hundred acres. I was now, for the +first time in my life, to be a field hand; and in my new employment I found +myself even more awkward than a green country boy may be supposed to be, upon +his first entrance into the bewildering scenes of city life; and my awkwardness +gave me much trouble. Strange and unnatural as it may seem, I had been at my +new home but three days, before Mr. Covey (my brother in the Methodist church) +gave me a bitter foretaste of what was in reserve for me. I presume he thought, +that since he had but a single year in which to complete his work, the sooner +he began, the better. Perhaps he thought that by coming to blows at once, we +should mutually better understand our relations. But to whatever motive, direct +or indirect, the cause may be referred, I had not been in his possession three +whole days, before he subjected me to a most brutal chastisement. Under his +heavy blows, blood flowed freely, and wales were left on my back as large as my +little finger. The sores on my back, from this flogging, continued for weeks, +for they were kept open by the rough and coarse cloth which I wore for +shirting. The occasion and details of this first chapter of my experience as a +field hand, must be told, that the reader may see how unreasonable, as well as +how cruel, my new master, Covey, was. The whole thing I found to be +characteristic of the man; and I was probably treated no worse by him than +scores of lads who had previously been committed to him, for reasons similar to +those which induced my master to place me with him. But, here are the facts +connected with the affair, precisely as they occurred. +</p> + +<p> +On one of the coldest days of the whole month of January, 1834, I was ordered, +at day break, to get a load of wood, from a forest about two miles from the +house. In order to perform this work, Mr. Covey gave me a pair of unbroken +oxen, for, it seems, his breaking abilities had not been turned in this +direction; and I may remark, in passing, that working animals in the south, are +seldom so well trained as in the north. In due form, and with all proper +ceremony, I was introduced to this huge yoke of unbroken oxen, and was +carefully told which was “Buck,” and which was +“Darby”—which was the “in hand,” and which was +the “off hand” ox. The master of this important ceremony was no +less a person than Mr. Covey, himself; and the introduction was the first of +the kind I had ever had. My life, hitherto, had led me away from horned cattle, +and I had no knowledge of the art of managing them. What was meant by the +“in ox,” as against the “off ox,” when both were +equally fastened to one cart, and under one yoke, I could not very easily +divine; and the difference, implied by the names, and the peculiar duties of +each, were alike <i>Greek</i> to me. Why was not the “off ox” +called the “in ox?” Where and what is the reason for this +distinction in names, when there is none in the things themselves? After +initiating me into the <i>“woa,” “back” +“gee,” “hither”</i>—the entire spoken language +between oxen and driver—Mr. Covey took a rope, about ten feet long and +one inch thick, and placed one end of it around the horns of the “in hand +ox,” and gave the other end to me, telling me that if the oxen started to +run away, as the scamp knew they would, I must hold on to the rope and stop +them. I need not tell any one who is acquainted with either the strength of the +disposition of an untamed ox, that this order was about as unreasonable as a +command to shoulder a mad bull! I had never driven oxen before, and I was as +awkward, as a driver, as it is possible to conceive. It did not answer for me +to plead ignorance, to Mr. Covey; there was something in his manner that quite +forbade that. He was a man to whom a slave seldom felt any disposition to +speak. Cold, distant, morose, with a face wearing all the marks of captious +pride and malicious sternness, he repelled all advances. Covey was not a large +man; he was only about five feet ten inches in height, I should think; short +necked, round shoulders; of quick and wiry motion, of thin and wolfish visage; +with a pair of small, greenish-gray eyes, set well back under a forehead +without dignity, and constantly in motion, and floating his passions, rather +than his thoughts, in sight, but denying them utterance in words. The creature +presented an appearance altogether ferocious and sinister, disagreeable and +forbidding, in the extreme. When he spoke, it was from the corner of his mouth, +and in a sort of light growl, like a dog, when an attempt is made to take a +bone from him. The fellow had already made me believe him even <i>worse</i> +than he had been presented. With his directions, and without stopping to +question, I started for the woods, quite anxious to perform my first exploit in +driving, in a creditable manner. The distance from the house to the woods gate +a full mile, I should think—was passed over with very little difficulty; +for although the animals ran, I was fleet enough, in the open field, to keep +pace with them; especially as they pulled me along at the end of the rope; but, +on reaching the woods, I was speedily thrown into a distressing plight. The +animals took fright, and started off ferociously into the woods, carrying the +cart, full tilt, against trees, over stumps, and dashing from side to side, in +a manner altogether frightful. As I held the rope, I expected every moment to +be crushed between the cart and the huge trees, among which they were so +furiously dashing. After running thus for several minutes, my oxen were, +finally, brought to a stand, by a tree, against which they dashed themselves +with great violence, upsetting the cart, and entangling themselves among sundry +young saplings. By the shock, the body of the cart was flung in one direction, +and the wheels and tongue in another, and all in the greatest confusion. There +I was, all alone, in a thick wood, to which I was a stranger; my cart upset and +shattered; my oxen entangled, wild, and enraged; and I, poor soul! but a green +hand, to set all this disorder right. I knew no more of oxen than the ox driver +is supposed to know of wisdom. After standing a few moments surveying the +damage and disorder, and not without a presentiment that this trouble would +draw after it others, even more distressing, I took one end of the cart body, +and, by an extra outlay of strength, I lifted it toward the axle-tree, from +which it had been violently flung; and after much pulling and straining, I +succeeded in getting the body of the cart in its place. This was an important +step out of the difficulty, and its performance increased my courage for the +work which remained to be done. The cart was provided with an ax, a tool with +which I had become pretty well acquainted in the ship yard at Baltimore. With +this, I cut down the saplings by which my oxen were entangled, and again +pursued my journey, with my heart in my mouth, lest the oxen should again take +it into their senseless heads to cut up a caper. My fears were groundless. +Their spree was over for the present, and the rascals now moved off as soberly +as though their behavior had been natural and exemplary. On reaching the part +of the forest where I had been, the day before, chopping wood, I filled the +cart with a heavy load, as a security against another running away. But, the +neck of an ox is equal in strength to iron. It defies all ordinary burdens, +when excited. Tame and docile to a proverb, when <i>well</i> trained, the ox is +the most sullen and intractable of animals when but half broken to the yoke. +</p> + +<p> +I now saw, in my situation, several points of similarity with that of the oxen. +They were property, so was I; they were to be broken, so was I. Covey was to +break me, I was to break them; break and be broken—such is life. +</p> + +<p> +Half the day already gone, and my face not yet homeward! It required only two +day’s experience and observation to teach me, that such apparent waste of +time would not be lightly overlooked by Covey. I therefore hurried toward home; +but, on reaching the lane gate, I met with the crowning disaster for the day. +This gate was a fair specimen of southern handicraft. There were two huge +posts, eighteen inches in diameter, rough hewed and square, and the heavy gate +was so hung on one of these, that it opened only about half the proper +distance. On arriving here, it was necessary for me to let go the end of the +rope on the horns of the “in hand ox;” and now as soon as the gate +was open, and I let go of it to get the rope, again, off went my +oxen—making nothing of their load—full tilt; and in doing so they +caught the huge gate between the wheel and the cart body, literally crushing it +to splinters, and coming only within a few inches of subjecting me to a similar +crushing, for I was just in advance of the wheel when it struck the left gate +post. With these two hair-breadth escape, I thought I could sucessfully(sic) +explain to Mr. Covey the delay, and avert apprehended punishment. I was not +without a faint hope of being commended for the stern resolution which I had +displayed in accomplishing the difficult task—a task which, I afterwards +learned, even Covey himself would not have undertaken, without first driving +the oxen for some time in the open field, preparatory to their going into the +woods. But, in this I was disappointed. On coming to him, his countenance +assumed an aspect of rigid displeasure, and, as I gave him a history of the +casualties of my trip, his wolfish face, with his greenish eyes, became +intensely ferocious. “Go back to the woods again,” he said, +muttering something else about wasting time. I hastily obeyed; but I had not +gone far on my way, when I saw him coming after me. My oxen now behaved +themselves with singular propriety, opposing their present conduct to my +representation of their former antics. I almost wished, now that Covey was +coming, they would do something in keeping with the character I had given them; +but no, they had already had their spree, and they could afford now to be extra +good, readily obeying my orders, and seeming to understand them quite as well +as I did myself. On reaching the woods, my tormentor—who seemed all the +way to be remarking upon the good behavior of his oxen—came up to me, and +ordered me to stop the cart, accompanying the same with the threat that he +would now teach me how to break gates, and idle away my time, when he sent me +to the woods. Suiting the action to the word, Covey paced off, in his own wiry +fashion, to a large, black gum tree, the young shoots of which are generally +used for ox <i>goads</i>, they being exceedingly tough. Three of these +<i>goads</i>, from four to six feet long, he cut off, and trimmed up, with his +large jack-knife. This done, he ordered me to take off my clothes. To this +unreasonable order I made no reply, but sternly refused to take off my +clothing. “If you will beat me,” thought I, “you shall do so +over my clothes.” After many threats, which made no impression on me, he +rushed at me with something of the savage fierceness of a wolf, tore off the +few and thinly worn clothes I had on, and proceeded to wear out, on my back, +the heavy goads which he had cut from the gum tree. This flogging was the first +of a series of floggings; and though very severe, it was less so than many +which came after it, and these, for offenses far lighter than the gate +breaking. +</p> + +<p> +I remained with Mr. Covey one year (I cannot say I <i>lived</i> with him) and +during the first six months that I was there, I was whipped, either with sticks +or cowskins, every week. Aching bones and a sore back were my constant +companions. Frequent as the lash was used, Mr. Covey thought less of it, as a +means of breaking down my spirit, than that of hard and long continued labor. +He worked me steadily, up to the point of my powers of endurance. From the dawn +of day in the morning, till the darkness was complete in the evening, I was +kept at hard work, in the field or the woods. At certain seasons of the year, +we were all kept in the field till eleven and twelve o’clock at night. At +these times, Covey would attend us in the field, and urge us on with words or +blows, as it seemed best to him. He had, in his life, been an overseer, and he +well understood the business of slave driving. There was no deceiving him. He +knew just what a man or boy could do, and he held both to strict account. When +he pleased, he would work himself, like a very Turk, making everything fly +before him. It was, however, scarcely necessary for Mr. Covey to be really +present in the field, to have his work go on industriously. He had the faculty +of making us feel that he was always present. By a series of adroitly managed +surprises, which he practiced, I was prepared to expect him at any moment. His +plan was, never to approach the spot where his hands were at work, in an open, +manly and direct manner. No thief was ever more artful in his devices than this +man Covey. He would creep and crawl, in ditches and gullies; hide behind stumps +and bushes, and practice so much of the cunning of the serpent, that Bill Smith +and I—between ourselves—never called him by any other name than +<i>“the snake.”</i> We fancied that in his eyes and his gait we +could see a snakish resemblance. One half of his proficiency in the art of +Negro breaking, consisted, I should think, in this species of cunning. We were +never secure. He could see or hear us nearly all the time. He was, to us, +behind every stump, tree, bush and fence on the plantation. He carried this +kind of trickery so far, that he would sometimes mount his horse, and make +believe he was going to St. Michael’s; and, in thirty minutes afterward, +you might find his horse tied in the woods, and the snake-like Covey lying flat +in the ditch, with his head lifted above its edge, or in a fence corner, +watching every movement of the slaves! I have known him walk up to us and give +us special orders, as to our work, in advance, as if he were leaving home with +a view to being absent several days; and before he got half way to the house, +he would avail himself of our inattention to his movements, to turn short on +his heels, conceal himself behind a fence corner or a tree, and watch us until +the going down of the sun. Mean and contemptible as is all this, it is in +keeping with the character which the life of a slaveholder is calculated to +produce. There is no earthly inducement, in the slave’s condition, to +incite him to labor faithfully. The fear of punishment is the sole motive for +any sort of industry, with him. Knowing this fact, as the slaveholder does, and +judging the slave by himself, he naturally concludes the slave will be idle +whenever the cause for this fear is absent. Hence, all sorts of petty +deceptions are practiced, to inspire this fear. +</p> + +<p> +But, with Mr. Covey, trickery was natural. Everything in the shape of learning +or religion, which he possessed, was made to conform to this semi-lying +propensity. He did not seem conscious that the practice had anything unmanly, +base or contemptible about it. It was a part of an important system, with him, +essential to the relation of master and slave. I thought I saw, in his very +religious devotions, this controlling element of his character. A long prayer +at night made up for the short prayer in the morning; and few men could seem +more devotional than he, when he had nothing else to do. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Covey was not content with the cold style of family worship, adopted in +these cold latitudes, which begin and end with a simple prayer. No! the voice +of praise, as well as of prayer, must be heard in his house, night and morning. +At first, I was called upon to bear some part in these exercises; but the +repeated flogging given me by Covey, turned the whole thing into mockery. He +was a poor singer, and mainly relied on me for raising the hymn for the family, +and when I failed to do so, he was thrown into much confusion. I do not think +that he ever abused me on account of these vexations. His religion was a thing +altogether apart from his worldly concerns. He knew nothing of it as a holy +principle, directing and controlling his daily life, making the latter conform +to the requirements of the gospel. One or two facts will illustrate his +character better than a volume of generalties(sic). +</p> + +<p> +I have already said, or implied, that Mr. Edward Covey was a poor man. He was, +in fact, just commencing to lay the foundation of his fortune, as fortune is +regarded in a slave state. The first condition of wealth and respectability +there, being the ownership of human property, every nerve is strained, by the +poor man, to obtain it, and very little regard is had to the manner of +obtaining it. In pursuit of this object, pious as Mr. Covey was, he proved +himself to be as unscrupulous and base as the worst of his neighbors. In the +beginning, he was only able—as he said—“to buy one +slave;” and, scandalous and shocking as is the fact, he boasted that he +bought her simply “<i>as a breeder</i>.” But the worst is not told +in this naked statement. This young woman (Caroline was her name) was virtually +compelled by Mr. Covey to abandon herself to the object for which he had +purchased her; and the result was, the birth of twins at the end of the year. +At this addition to his human stock, both Edward Covey and his wife, Susan, +were ecstatic with joy. No one dreamed of reproaching the woman, or of finding +fault with the hired man—Bill Smith—the father of the children, for +Mr. Covey himself had locked the two up together every night, thus inviting the +result. +</p> + +<p> +But I will pursue this revolting subject no further. No better illustration of +the unchaste and demoralizing character of slavery can be found, than is +furnished in the fact that this professedly Christian slaveholder, amidst all +his prayers and hymns, was shamelessly and boastfully encouraging, and actually +compelling, in his own house, undisguised and unmitigated fornication, as a +means of increasing his human stock. I may remark here, that, while this fact +will be read with disgust and shame at the north, it will be <i>laughed at</i>, +as smart and praiseworthy in Mr. Covey, at the south; for a man is no more +condemned there for buying a woman and devoting her to this life of dishonor, +than for buying a cow, and raising stock from her. The same rules are observed, +with a view to increasing the number and quality of the former, as of the +latter. +</p> + +<p> +I will here reproduce what I said of my own experience in this wretched place, +more than ten years ago: +</p> + +<p> +If at any one time of my life, more than another, I was made to drink the +bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six months of my +stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked all weathers. It was never too hot or too +cold; it could never rain, blow, snow, or hail too hard for us to work in the +field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day than the night. +The longest days were too short for him, and the shortest nights were too long +for him. I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there; but a few months +of his discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in +body, soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; my intellect +languished; the disposition to read departed; the cheerful spark that lingered +about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a +man transformed into a brute! +</p> + +<p> +Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beast-like stupor, +between sleep and wake, under some large tree. At times, I would rise up, a +flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, accompanied with a faint +beam of hope, flickered for a moment, and then vanished. I sank down again, +mourning over my wretched condition. I was sometimes prompted to take my life, +and that of Covey, but was prevented by a combination of hope and fear. My +sufferings on this plantation seem now like a dream rather than a stern +reality. +</p> + +<p> +Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake bay, whose broad bosom was +ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable globe. Those +beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, +were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of +my wretched condition. I have often, in the deep stillness of a summer’s +Sabbath, stood all alone upon the banks of that noble bay, and traced, with +saddened heart and tearful eye, the countless number of sails moving off to the +mighty ocean. The sight of these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts +would compel utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would +pour out my soul’s complaint in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the +moving multitude of ships: +</p> + +<p> +“You are loosed from your moorings, and free; I am fast in my chains, and +am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the +bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly around the +world; I am confined in bands of iron! O, that I were free! O, that I were on +one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting wing! Alas! betwixt me and +you the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I could also go! Could I but +swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute! The +glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell +of unending slavery. O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there +any God? Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught, or +get clear, I’ll try it. I had as well die with ague as with fever. I have +only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing. Only +think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! Try it? Yes! God +helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take +to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. The steamboats +steered in a north-east coast from North Point. I will do the same; and when I +get to the head of the bay, I will turn my canoe adrift, and walk straight +through Delaware into Pennsylvania. When I get there, I shall not be required +to have a pass; I will travel without being disturbed. Let but the first +opportunity offer, and come what will, I am off. Meanwhile, I will try to bear +up under the yoke. I am not the only slave in the world. Why should I fret? I +can bear as much as any of them. Besides, I am but a boy, and all boys are +bound to some one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my +happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming.” +</p> + +<p> +I shall never be able to narrate the mental experience through which it was my +lot to pass during my stay at Covey’s. I was completely wrecked, changed +and bewildered; goaded almost to madness at one time, and at another +reconciling myself to my wretched condition. Everything in the way of kindness, +which I had experienced at Baltimore; all my former hopes and aspirations for +usefulness in the world, and the happy moments spent in the exercises of +religion, contrasted with my then present lot, but increased my anguish. +</p> + +<p> +I suffered bodily as well as mentally. I had neither sufficient time in which +to eat or to sleep, except on Sundays. The overwork, and the brutal +chastisements of which I was the victim, combined with that ever-gnawing and +soul-devouring thought—“<i>I am a slave—a slave for +life—a slave with no rational ground to hope for +freedom</i>”—rendered me a living embodiment of mental and physical +wretchedness. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"></a> +CHAPTER XVI. <i>Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +EXPERIENCE AT COVEY’S SUMMED UP—FIRST SIX MONTHS SEVERER THAN THE +SECOND—PRELIMINARIES TO THE CHANCE—REASONS FOR NARRATING THE +CIRCUMSTANCES—SCENE IN TREADING YARD—TAKEN ILL—UNUSUAL +BRUTALITY OF COVEY—ESCAPE TO ST. MICHAEL’S—THE +PURSUIT—SUFFERING IN THE WOODS—DRIVEN BACK AGAIN TO +COVEY’S—BEARING OF MASTER THOMAS—THE SLAVE IS NEVER +SICK—NATURAL TO EXPECT SLAVES TO FEIGN SICKNESS—LAZINESS OF +SLAVEHOLDERS. +</p> + +<p> +The foregoing chapter, with all its horrid incidents and shocking features, may +be taken as a fair representation of the first six months of my life at +Covey’s. The reader has but to repeat, in his own mind, once a week, the +scene in the woods, where Covey subjected me to his merciless lash, to have a +true idea of my bitter experience there, during the first period of the +breaking process through which Mr. Covey carried me. I have no heart to repeat +each separate transaction, in which I was victim of his violence and brutality. +Such a narration would fill a volume much larger than the present one. I aim +only to give the reader a truthful impression of my slave life, without +unnecessarily affecting him with harrowing details. +</p> + +<p> +As I have elsewhere intimated that my hardships were much greater during the +first six months of my stay at Covey’s, than during the remainder of the +year, and as the change in my condition was owing to causes which may help the +reader to a better understanding of human nature, when subjected to the +terrible extremities of slavery, I will narrate the circumstances of this +change, although I may seem thereby to applaud my own courage. You have, dear +reader, seen me humbled, degraded, broken down, enslaved, and brutalized, and +you understand how it was done; now let us see the converse of all this, and +how it was brought about; and this will take us through the year 1834. +</p> + +<p> +On one of the hottest days of the month of August, of the year just mentioned, +had the reader been passing through Covey’s farm, he might have seen me +at work, in what is there called the “treading yard”—a yard +upon which wheat is trodden out from the straw, by the horses’ feet. I +was there, at work, feeding the “fan,” or rather bringing wheat to +the fan, while Bill Smith was feeding. Our force consisted of Bill Hughes, Bill +Smith, and a slave by the name of Eli; the latter having been hired for this +occasion. The work was simple, and required strength and activity, rather than +any skill or intelligence, and yet, to one entirely unused to such work, it +came very hard. The heat was intense and overpowering, and there was much hurry +to get the wheat, trodden out that day, through the fan; since, if that work +was done an hour before sundown, the hands would have, according to a promise +of Covey, that hour added to their night’s rest. I was not behind any of +them in the wish to complete the day’s work before sundown, and, hence, I +struggled with all my might to get the work forward. The promise of one +hour’s repose on a week day, was sufficient to quicken my pace, and to +spur me on to extra endeavor. Besides, we had all planned to go fishing, and I +certainly wished to have a hand in that. But I was disappointed, and the day +turned out to be one of the bitterest I ever experienced. About three +o’clock, while the sun was pouring down his burning rays, and not a +breeze was stirring, I broke down; my strength failed me; I was seized with a +violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness, and trembling in +every limb. Finding what was coming, and feeling it would never do to stop +work, I nerved myself up, and staggered on until I fell by the side of the +wheat fan, feeling that the earth had fallen upon me. This brought the entire +work to a dead stand. There was work for four; each one had his part to +perform, and each part depended on the other, so that when one stopped, all +were compelled to stop. Covey, who had now become my dread, as well as my +tormentor, was at the house, about a hundred yards from where I was fanning, +and instantly, upon hearing the fan stop, he came down to the treading yard, to +inquire into the cause of our stopping. Bill Smith told him I was sick, and +that I was unable longer to bring wheat to the fan. +</p> + +<p> +I had, by this time, crawled away, under the side of a post-and-rail fence, in +the shade, and was exceeding ill. The intense heat of the sun, the heavy dust +rising from the fan, the stooping, to take up the wheat from the yard, together +with the hurrying, to get through, had caused a rush of blood to my head. In +this condition, Covey finding out where I was, came to me; and, after standing +over me a while, he asked me what the matter was. I told him as well as I +could, for it was with difficulty that I could speak. He then gave me a savage +kick in the side, which jarred my whole frame, and commanded me to get up. The +man had obtained complete control over me; and if he had commanded me to do any +possible thing, I should, in my then state of mind, have endeavored to comply. +I made an effort to rise, but fell back in the attempt, before gaining my feet. +The brute now gave me another heavy kick, and again told me to rise. I again +tried to rise, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but upon stooping to get the +tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and fell to the ground; +and I must have so fallen, had I been sure that a hundred bullets would have +pierced me, as the consequence. While down, in this sad condition, and +perfectly helpless, the merciless Negro breaker took up the hickory slab, with +which Hughes had been striking off the wheat to a level with the sides of the +half bushel measure (a very hard weapon) and with the sharp edge of it, he +dealt me a heavy blow on my head which made a large gash, and caused the blood +to run freely, saying, at the same time, “If <i>you have got the +headache, I’ll cure you</i>.” This done, he ordered me again to +rise, but I made no effort to do so; for I had made up my mind that it was +useless, and that the heartless monster might now do his worst; he could but +kill me, and that might put me out of my misery. Finding me unable to rise, or +rather despairing of my doing so, Covey left me, with a view to getting on with +the work without me. I was bleeding very freely, and my face was soon covered +with my warm blood. Cruel and merciless as was the motive that dealt that blow, +dear reader, the wound was fortunate for me. Bleeding was never more +efficacious. The pain in my head speedily abated, and I was soon able to rise. +Covey had, as I have said, now left me to my fate; and the question was, shall +I return to my work, or shall I find my way to St. Michael’s, and make +Capt. Auld acquainted with the atrocious cruelty of his brother Covey, and +beseech him to get me another master? Remembering the object he had in view, in +placing me under the management of Covey, and further, his cruel treatment of +my poor crippled cousin, Henny, and his meanness in the matter of feeding and +clothing his slaves, there was little ground to hope for a favorable reception +at the hands of Capt. Thomas Auld. Nevertheless, I resolved to go straight to +Capt. Auld, thinking that, if not animated by motives of humanity, he might be +induced to interfere on my behalf from selfish considerations. “He +cannot,” thought I, “allow his property to be thus bruised and +battered, marred and defaced; and I will go to him, and tell him the simple +truth about the matter.” In order to get to St. Michael’s, by the +most favorable and direct road, I must walk seven miles; and this, in my sad +condition, was no easy performance. I had already lost much blood; I was +exhausted by over exertion; my sides were sore from the heavy blows planted +there by the stout boots of Mr. Covey; and I was, in every way, in an +unfavorable plight for the journey. I however watched my chance, while the +cruel and cunning Covey was looking in an opposite direction, and started off, +across the field, for St. Michael’s. This was a daring step; if it +failed, it would only exasperate Covey, and increase the rigors of my bondage, +during the remainder of my term of service under him; but the step was taken, +and I must go forward. I succeeded in getting nearly half way across the broad +field, toward the woods, before Mr. Covey observed me. I was still bleeding, +and the exertion of running had started the blood afresh. <i>“Come back! +Come back!”</i> vociferated Covey, with threats of what he would do if I +did not return instantly. But, disregarding his calls and his threats, I +pressed on toward the woods as fast as my feeble state would allow. Seeing no +signs of my stopping, Covey caused his horse to be brought out and saddled, as +if he intended to pursue me. The race was now to be an unequal one; and, +thinking I might be overhauled by him, if I kept the main road, I walked nearly +the whole distance in the woods, keeping far enough from the road to avoid +detection and pursuit. But, I had not gone far, before my little strength again +failed me, and I laid down. The blood was still oozing from the wound in my +head; and, for a time, I suffered more than I can describe. There I was, in the +deep woods, sick and emaciated, pursued by a wretch whose character for +revolting cruelty beggars all opprobrious speech—bleeding, and almost +bloodless. I was not without the fear of bleeding to death. The thought of +dying in the woods, all alone, and of being torn to pieces by the buzzards, had +not yet been rendered tolerable by my many troubles and hardships, and I was +glad when the shade of the trees, and the cool evening breeze, combined with my +matted hair to stop the flow of blood. After lying there about three quarters +of an hour, brooding over the singular and mournful lot to which I was doomed, +my mind passing over the whole scale or circle of belief and unbelief, from +faith in the overruling providence of God, to the blackest atheism, I again +took up my journey toward St. Michael’s, more weary and sad than in the +morning when I left Thomas Auld’s for the home of Mr. Covey. I was +bare-footed and bare-headed, and in my shirt sleeves. The way was through bogs +and briers, and I tore my feet often during the journey. I was full five hours +in going the seven or eight miles; partly, because of the difficulties of the +way, and partly, because of the feebleness induced by my illness, bruises and +loss of blood. On gaining my master’s store, I presented an appearance of +wretchedness and woe, fitted to move any but a heart of stone. From the crown +of my head to the sole of my feet, there were marks of blood. My hair was all +clotted with dust and blood, and the back of my shirt was literally stiff with +the same. Briers and thorns had scarred and torn my feet and legs, leaving +blood marks there. Had I escaped from a den of tigers, I could not have looked +worse than I did on reaching St. Michael’s. In this unhappy plight, I +appeared before my professedly <i>Christian</i> master, humbly to invoke the +interposition of his power and authority, to protect me from further abuse and +violence. I had begun to hope, during the latter part of my tedious journey +toward St. Michael’s, that Capt. Auld would now show himself in a nobler +light than I had ever before seen him. I was disappointed. I had jumped from a +sinking ship into the sea; I had fled from the tiger to something worse. I told +him all the circumstances, as well as I could; how I was endeavoring to please +Covey; how hard I was at work in the present instance; how unwilling I sunk +down under the heat, toil and pain; the brutal manner in which Covey had kicked +me in the side; the gash cut in my head; my hesitation about troubling him +(Capt. Auld) with complaints; but, that now I felt it would not be best longer +to conceal from him the outrages committed on me from time to time by Covey. At +first, master Thomas seemed somewhat affected by the story of my wrongs, but he +soon repressed his feelings and became cold as iron. It was impossible—as +I stood before him at the first—for him to seem indifferent. I distinctly +saw his human nature asserting its conviction against the slave system, which +made cases like mine <i>possible;</i> but, as I have said, humanity fell before +the systematic tyranny of slavery. He first walked the floor, apparently much +agitated by my story, and the sad spectacle I presented; but, presently, it was +<i>his</i> turn to talk. He began moderately, by finding excuses for Covey, and +ending with a full justification of him, and a passionate condemnation of me. +“He had no doubt I deserved the flogging. He did not believe I was sick; +I was only endeavoring to get rid of work. My dizziness was laziness, and Covey +did right to flog me, as he had done.” After thus fairly annihilating me, +and rousing himself by his own eloquence, he fiercely demanded what I wished +<i>him</i> to do in the case! +</p> + +<p> +With such a complete knock-down to all my hopes, as he had given me, and +feeling, as I did, my entire subjection to his power, I had very little heart +to reply. I must not affirm my innocence of the allegations which he had piled +up against me; for that would be impudence, and would probably call down fresh +violence as well as wrath upon me. The guilt of a slave is always, and +everywhere, presumed; and the innocence of the slaveholder or the slave +employer, is always asserted. The word of the slave, against this presumption, +is generally treated as impudence, worthy of punishment. “Do you +contradict me, you rascal?” is a final silencer of counter statements +from the lips of a slave. +</p> + +<p> +Calming down a little in view of my silence and hesitation, and, perhaps, from +a rapid glance at the picture of misery I presented, he inquired again, +“what I would have him do?” Thus invited a second time, I told +Master Thomas I wished him to allow me to get a new home and to find a new +master; that, as sure as I went back to live with Mr. Covey again, I should be +killed by him; that he would never forgive my coming to him (Capt. Auld) with a +complaint against him (Covey); that, since I had lived with him, he almost +crushed my spirit, and I believed that he would ruin me for future service; +that my life was not safe in his hands. This, Master Thomas <i>(my brother in +the church)</i> regarded as “nonsence(sic).” “There was no +danger of Mr. Covey’s killing me; he was a good man, industrious and +religious, and he would not think of removing me from that home; +besides,” said he and this I found was the most distressing thought of +all to him—“if you should leave Covey now, that your year has but +half expired, I should lose your wages for the entire year. You belong to Mr. +Covey for one year, and you <i>must go back</i> to him, come what will. You +must not trouble me with any more stories about Mr. Covey; and if you do not go +immediately home, I will get hold of you myself.” This was just what I +expected, when I found he had <i>prejudged</i> the case against me. “But, +Sir,” I said, “I am sick and tired, and I cannot get home +to-night.” At this, he again relented, and finally he allowed me to +remain all night at St. Michael’s; but said I must be off early in the +morning, and concluded his directions by making me swallow a huge dose of +<i>epsom salts</i>—about the only medicine ever administered to slaves. +</p> + +<p> +It was quite natural for Master Thomas to presume I was feigning sickness to +escape work, for he probably thought that were <i>he</i> in the place of a +slave with no wages for his work, no praise for well doing, no motive for toil +but the lash—he would try every possible scheme by which to escape labor. +I say I have no doubt of this; the reason is, that there are not, under the +whole heavens, a set of men who cultivate such an intense dread of labor as do +the slaveholders. The charge of laziness against the slave is ever on their +lips, and is the standing apology for every species of cruelty and brutality. +These men literally “bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and lay +them on men’s shoulders; but they, themselves, will not move them with +one of their fingers.” +</p> + +<p> +My kind readers shall have, in the next chapter—what they were led, +perhaps, to expect to find in this—namely: an account of my partial +disenthrallment from the tyranny of Covey, and the marked change which it +brought about. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"></a> +CHAPTER XVII. <i>The Last Flogging</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +A SLEEPLESS NIGHT—RETURN TO COVEY’S—PURSUED BY +COVEY—THE CHASE DEFEATED—VENGEANCE POSTPONED—MUSINGS IN THE +WOODS—THE ALTERNATIVE—DEPLORABLE SPECTACLE—NIGHT IN THE +WOODS—EXPECTED ATTACK—ACCOSTED BY SANDY, A FRIEND, NOT A +HUNTER—SANDY’S HOSPITALITY—THE “ASH CAKE” +SUPPER—THE INTERVIEW WITH SANDY—HIS ADVICE—SANDY A CONJURER +AS WELL AS A CHRISTIAN—THE MAGIC ROOT—STRANGE MEETING WITH +COVEY—HIS MANNER—COVEY’S SUNDAY FACE—MY DEFENSIVE +RESOLVE—THE FIGHT—THE VICTORY, AND ITS RESULTS. +</p> + +<p> +Sleep itself does not always come to the relief of the weary in body, and the +broken in spirit; especially when past troubles only foreshadow coming +disasters. The last hope had been extinguished. My master, who I did not +venture to hope would protect me as <i>a man</i>, had even now refused to +protect me as <i>his property;</i> and had cast me back, covered with +reproaches and bruises, into the hands of a stranger to that mercy which was +the soul of the religion he professed. May the reader never spend such a night +as that allotted to me, previous to the morning which was to herald my return +to the den of horrors from which I had made a temporary escape. +</p> + +<p> +I remained all night—sleep I did not—at St. Michael’s; and in +the morning (Saturday) I started off, according to the order of Master Thomas, +feeling that I had no friend on earth, and doubting if I had one in heaven. I +reached Covey’s about nine o’clock; and just as I stepped into the +field, before I had reached the house, Covey, true to his snakish habits, +darted out at me from a fence corner, in which he had secreted himself, for the +purpose of securing me. He was amply provided with a cowskin and a rope; and he +evidently intended to <i>tie me up</i>, and to wreak his vengeance on me to the +fullest extent. I should have been an easy prey, had he succeeded in getting +his hands upon me, for I had taken no refreshment since noon on Friday; and +this, together with the pelting, excitement, and the loss of blood, had reduced +my strength. I, however, darted back into the woods, before the ferocious hound +could get hold of me, and buried myself in a thicket, where he lost sight of +me. The corn-field afforded me cover, in getting to the woods. But for the tall +corn, Covey would have overtaken me, and made me his captive. He seemed very +much chagrined that he did not catch me, and gave up the chase, very +reluctantly; for I could see his angry movements, toward the house from which +he had sallied, on his foray. +</p> + +<p> +Well, now I am clear of Covey, and of his wrathful lash, for present. I am in +the wood, buried in its somber gloom, and hushed in its solemn silence; hid +from all human eyes; shut in with nature and nature’s God, and absent +from all human contrivances. Here was a good place to pray; to pray for help +for deliverance—a prayer I had often made before. But how could I pray? +Covey could pray—Capt. Auld could pray—I would fain pray; but +doubts (arising partly from my own neglect of the means of grace, and partly +from the sham religion which everywhere prevailed, cast in my mind a doubt upon +all religion, and led me to the conviction that prayers were unavailing and +delusive) prevented my embracing the opportunity, as a religious one. Life, in +itself, had almost become burdensome to me. All my outward relations were +against me; I must stay here and starve (I was already hungry) or go home to +Covey’s, and have my flesh torn to pieces, and my spirit humbled under +the cruel lash of Covey. This was the painful alternative presented to me. The +day was long and irksome. My physical condition was deplorable. I was weak, +from the toils of the previous day, and from the want of food and rest; and had +been so little concerned about my appearance, that I had not yet washed the +blood from my garments. I was an object of horror, even to myself. Life, in +Baltimore, when most oppressive, was a paradise to this. What had I done, what +had my parents done, that such a life as this should be mine? That day, in the +woods, I would have exchanged my manhood for the brutehood of an ox. +</p> + +<p> +Night came. I was still in the woods, unresolved what to do. Hunger had not yet +pinched me to the point of going home, and I laid myself down in the leaves to +rest; for I had been watching for hunters all day, but not being molested +during the day, I expected no disturbance during the night. I had come to the +conclusion that Covey relied upon hunger to drive me home; and in this I was +quite correct—the facts showed that he had made no effort to catch me, +since morning. +</p> + +<p> +During the night, I heard the step of a man in the woods. He was coming toward +the place where I lay. A person lying still has the advantage over one walking +in the woods, in the day time, and this advantage is much greater at night. I +was not able to engage in a physical struggle, and I had recourse to the common +resort of the weak. I hid myself in the leaves to prevent discovery. But, as +the night rambler in the woods drew nearer, I found him to be a <i>friend</i>, +not an enemy; it was a slave of Mr. William Groomes, of Easton, a kind hearted +fellow, named “Sandy.” Sandy lived with Mr. Kemp that year, about +four miles from St. Michael’s. He, like myself had been hired out by the +year; but, unlike myself, had not been hired out to be broken. Sandy was the +husband of a free woman, who lived in the lower part of <i>“Potpie +Neck,”</i> and he was now on his way through the woods, to see her, and +to spend the Sabbath with her. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as I had ascertained that the disturber of my solitude was not an +enemy, but the good-hearted Sandy—a man as famous among the slaves of the +neighborhood for his good nature, as for his good sense I came out from my +hiding place, and made myself known to him. I explained the circumstances of +the past two days, which had driven me to the woods, and he deeply +compassionated my distress. It was a bold thing for him to shelter me, and I +could not ask him to do so; for, had I been found in his hut, he would have +suffered the penalty of thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, if not something +worse. But Sandy was too generous to permit the fear of punishment to prevent +his relieving a brother bondman from hunger and exposure; and, therefore, on +his own motion, I accompanied him to his home, or rather to the home of his +wife—for the house and lot were hers. His wife was called up—for it +was now about midnight—a fire was made, some Indian meal was soon mixed +with salt and water, and an ash cake was baked in a hurry to relieve my hunger. +Sandy’s wife was not behind him in kindness—both seemed to esteem +it a privilege to succor me; for, although I was hated by Covey and by my +master, I was loved by the colored people, because <i>they</i> thought I was +hated for my knowledge, and persecuted because I was feared. I was the +<i>only</i> slave <i>now</i> in that region who could read and write. There had +been one other man, belonging to Mr. Hugh Hamilton, who could read (his name +was “Jim”), but he, poor fellow, had, shortly after my coming into +the neighborhood, been sold off to the far south. I saw Jim ironed, in the +cart, to be carried to Easton for sale—pinioned like a yearling for the +slaughter. My knowledge was now the pride of my brother slaves; and, no doubt, +Sandy felt something of the general interest in me on that account. The supper +was soon ready, and though I have feasted since, with honorables, lord mayors +and aldermen, over the sea, my supper on ash cake and cold water, with Sandy, +was the meal, of all my life, most sweet to my taste, and now most vivid in my +memory. +</p> + +<p> +Supper over, Sandy and I went into a discussion of what was <i>possible</i> for +me, under the perils and hardships which now overshadowed my path. The question +was, must I go back to Covey, or must I now tempt to run away? Upon a careful +survey, the latter was found to be impossible; for I was on a narrow neck of +land, every avenue from which would bring me in sight of pursuers. There was +the Chesapeake bay to the right, and “Pot-pie” river to the left, +and St. Michael’s and its neighborhood occupying the only space through +which there was any retreat. +</p> + +<p> +I found Sandy an old advisor. He was not only a religious man, but he professed +to believe in a system for which I have no name. He was a genuine African, and +had inherited some of the so-called magical powers, said to be possessed by +African and eastern nations. He told me that he could help me; that, in those +very woods, there was an herb, which in the morning might be found, possessing +all the powers required for my protection (I put his thoughts in my own +language); and that, if I would take his advice, he would procure me the root +of the herb of which he spoke. He told me further, that if I would take that +root and wear it on my right side, it would be impossible for Covey to strike +me a blow; that with this root about my person, no white man could whip me. He +said he had carried it for years, and that he had fully tested its virtues. He +had never received a blow from a slaveholder since he carried it; and he never +expected to receive one, for he always meant to carry that root as a +protection. He knew Covey well, for Mrs. Covey was the daughter of Mr. Kemp; +and he (Sandy) had heard of the barbarous treatment to which I was subjected, +and he wanted to do something for me. +</p> + +<p> +Now all this talk about the root, was to me, very absurd and ridiculous, if not +positively sinful. I at first rejected the idea that the simple carrying a root +on my right side (a root, by the way, over which I walked every time I went +into the woods) could possess any such magic power as he ascribed to it, and I +was, therefore, not disposed to cumber my pocket with it. I had a positive +aversion to all pretenders to <i>“divination.”</i> It was beneath +one of my intelligence to countenance such dealings with the devil, as this +power implied. But, with all my learning—it was really precious +little—Sandy was more than a match for me. “My book +learning,” he said, “had not kept Covey off me” (a powerful +argument just then) and he entreated me, with flashing eyes, to try this. If it +did me no good, it could do me no harm, and it would cost me nothing, any way. +Sandy was so earnest, and so confident of the good qualities of this weed, +that, to please him, rather than from any conviction of its excellence, I was +induced to take it. He had been to me the good Samaritan, and had, almost +providentially, found me, and helped me when I could not help myself; how did I +know but that the hand of the Lord was in it? With thoughts of this sort, I +took the roots from Sandy, and put them in my right hand pocket. +</p> + +<p> +This was, of course, Sunday morning. Sandy now urged me to go home, with all +speed, and to walk up bravely to the house, as though nothing had happened. I +saw in Sandy too deep an insight into human nature, with all his superstition, +not to have some respect for his advice; and perhaps, too, a slight gleam or +shadow of his superstition had fallen upon me. At any rate, I started off +toward Covey’s, as directed by Sandy. Having, the previous night, poured +my griefs into Sandy’s ears, and got him enlisted in my behalf, having +made his wife a sharer in my sorrows, and having, also, become well refreshed +by sleep and food, I moved off, quite courageously, toward the much dreaded +Covey’s. Singularly enough, just as I entered his yard gate, I met him +and his wife, dressed in their Sunday best—looking as smiling as +angels—on their way to church. The manner of Covey astonished me. There +was something really benignant in his countenance. He spoke to me as never +before; told me that the pigs had got into the lot, and he wished me to drive +them out; inquired how I was, and seemed an altered man. This extraordinary +conduct of Covey, really made me begin to think that Sandy’s herb had +more virtue in it than I, in my pride, had been willing to allow; and, had the +day been other than Sunday, I should have attributed Covey’s altered +manner solely to the magic power of the root. I suspected, however, that the +<i>Sabbath</i>, and not the <i>root</i>, was the real explanation of +Covey’s manner. His religion hindered him from breaking the Sabbath, but +not from breaking my skin. He had more respect for the <i>day</i> than for the +<i>man</i>, for whom the day was mercifully given; for while he would cut and +slash my body during the week, he would not hesitate, on Sunday, to teach me +the value of my soul, or the way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. +</p> + +<p> +All went well with me till Monday morning; and then, whether the root had lost +its virtue, or whether my tormentor had gone deeper into the black art than +myself (as was sometimes said of him), or whether he had obtained a special +indulgence, for his faithful Sabbath day’s worship, it is not necessary +for me to know, or to inform the reader; but, this I <i>may</i> say—the +pious and benignant smile which graced Covey’s face on <i>Sunday</i>, +wholly disappeared on <i>Monday</i>. Long before daylight, I was called up to +go and feed, rub, and curry the horses. I obeyed the call, and would have so +obeyed it, had it been made at an earilier(sic) hour, for I had brought my mind +to a firm resolve, during that Sunday’s reflection, viz: to obey every +order, however unreasonable, if it were possible, and, if Mr. Covey should then +undertake to beat me, to defend and protect myself to the best of my ability. +My religious views on the subject of resisting my master, had suffered a +serious shock, by the savage persecution to which I had been subjected, and my +hands were no longer tied by my religion. Master Thomas’s indifference +had served the last link. I had now to this extent “backslidden” +from this point in the slave’s religious creed; and I soon had occasion +to make my fallen state known to my Sunday-pious brother, Covey. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst I was obeying his order to feed and get the horses ready for the field, +and when in the act of going up the stable loft for the purpose of throwing +down some blades, Covey sneaked into the stable, in his peculiar snake-like +way, and seizing me suddenly by the leg, he brought me to the stable floor, +giving my newly mended body a fearful jar. I now forgot my roots, and +remembered my pledge to <i>stand up in my own defense</i>. The brute was +endeavoring skillfully to get a slip-knot on my legs, before I could draw up my +feet. As soon as I found what he was up to, I gave a sudden spring (my two +day’s rest had been of much service to me,) and by that means, no doubt, +he was able to bring me to the floor so heavily. He was defeated in his plan of +tying me. While down, he seemed to think he had me very securely in his power. +He little thought he was—as the rowdies say—“in” for a +“rough and tumble” fight; but such was the fact. Whence came the +daring spirit necessary to grapple with a man who, eight-and-forty hours +before, could, with his slightest word have made me tremble like a leaf in a +storm, I do not know; at any rate, <i>I was resolved to fight</i>, and, what +was better still, I was actually hard at it. The fighting madness had come upon +me, and I found my strong fingers firmly attached to the throat of my cowardly +tormentor; as heedless of consequences, at the moment, as though we stood as +equals before the law. The very color of the man was forgotten. I felt as +supple as a cat, and was ready for the snakish creature at every turn. Every +blow of his was parried, though I dealt no blows in turn. I was strictly on the +<i>defensive</i>, preventing him from injuring me, rather than trying to injure +him. I flung him on the ground several times, when he meant to have hurled me +there. I held him so firmly by the throat, that his blood followed my nails. He +held me, and I held him. +</p> + +<p> +All was fair, thus far, and the contest was about equal. My resistance was +entirely unexpected, and Covey was taken all aback by it, for he trembled in +every limb. <i>“Are you going to resist</i>, you scoundrel?” said +he. To which, I returned a polite <i>“Yes sir;”</i> steadily gazing +my interrogator in the eye, to meet the first approach or dawning of the blow, +which I expected my answer would call forth. But, the conflict did not long +remain thus equal. Covey soon cried out lustily for help; not that I was +obtaining any marked advantage over him, or was injuring him, but because he +was gaining none over me, and was not able, single handed, to conquer me. He +called for his cousin Hughs, to come to his assistance, and now the scene was +changed. I was compelled to give blows, as well as to parry them; and, since I +was, in any case, to suffer for resistance, I felt (as the musty proverb goes) +that “I might as well be hanged for an old sheep as a lamb.” I was +still <i>defensive</i> toward Covey, but <i>aggressive</i> toward Hughs; and, +at the first approach of the latter, I dealt a blow, in my desperation, which +fairly sickened my youthful assailant. He went off, bending over with pain, and +manifesting no disposition to come within my reach again. The poor fellow was +in the act of trying to catch and tie my right hand, and while flattering +himself with success, I gave him the kick which sent him staggering away in +pain, at the same time that I held Covey with a firm hand. +</p> + +<p> +Taken completely by surprise, Covey seemed to have lost his usual strength and +coolness. He was frightened, and stood puffing and blowing, seemingly unable to +command words or blows. When he saw that poor Hughes was standing half bent +with pain—his courage quite gone the cowardly tyrant asked if I +“meant to persist in my resistance.” I told him “<i>I did +mean to resist, come what might</i>;” that I had been by him treated like +a <i>brute</i>, during the last six months; and that I should stand it <i>no +longer</i>. With that, he gave me a shake, and attempted to drag me toward a +stick of wood, that was lying just outside the stable door. He meant to knock +me down with it; but, just as he leaned over to get the stick, I seized him +with both hands by the collar, and, with a vigorous and sudden snatch, I +brought my assailant harmlessly, his full length, on the <i>not</i> overclean +ground—for we were now in the cow yard. He had selected the place for the +fight, and it was but right that he should have all the advantges(sic) of his +own selection. +</p> + +<p> +By this time, Bill, the hiredman, came home. He had been to Mr. +Hemsley’s, to spend the Sunday with his nominal wife, and was coming home +on Monday morning, to go to work. Covey and I had been skirmishing from before +daybreak, till now, that the sun was almost shooting his beams over the eastern +woods, and we were still at it. I could not see where the matter was to +terminate. He evidently was afraid to let me go, lest I should again make off +to the woods; otherwise, he would probably have obtained arms from the house, +to frighten me. Holding me, Covey called upon Bill for assistance. The scene +here, had something comic about it. “Bill,” who knew +<i>precisely</i> what Covey wished him to do, affected ignorance, and pretended +he did not know what to do. “What shall I do, Mr. Covey,” said +Bill. “Take hold of him—take hold of him!” said Covey. With a +toss of his head, peculiar to Bill, he said, “indeed, Mr. Covey I want to +go to work.” <i>“This is</i> your work,” said Covey; +“take hold of him.” Bill replied, with spirit, “My master +hired me here, to work, and <i>not</i> to help you whip Frederick.” It +was now my turn to speak. “Bill,” said I, “don’t put +your hands on me.” To which he replied, “My GOD! Frederick, I +ain’t goin’ to tech ye,” and Bill walked off, leaving Covey +and myself to settle our matters as best we might. +</p> + +<p> +But, my present advantage was threatened when I saw Caroline (the slave-woman +of Covey) coming to the cow yard to milk, for she was a powerful woman, and +could have mastered me very easily, exhausted as I now was. As soon as she came +into the yard, Covey attempted to rally her to his aid. Strangely—and, I +may add, fortunately—Caroline was in no humor to take a hand in any such +sport. We were all in open rebellion, that morning. Caroline answered the +command of her master to <i>“take hold of me,”</i> precisely as +Bill had answered, but in <i>her</i>, it was at greater peril so to answer; she +was the slave of Covey, and he could do what he pleased with her. It was +<i>not</i> so with Bill, and Bill knew it. Samuel Harris, to whom Bill +belonged, did not allow his slaves to be beaten, unless they were guilty of +some crime which the law would punish. But, poor Caroline, like myself, was at +the mercy of the merciless Covey; nor did she escape the dire effects of her +refusal. He gave her several sharp blows. +</p> + +<p> +Covey at length (two hours had elapsed) gave up the contest. Letting me go, he +said—puffing and blowing at a great rate—“Now, you scoundrel, +go to your work; I would not have whipped you half so much as I have had you +not resisted.” The fact was, <i>he had not whipped me at all</i>. He had +not, in all the scuffle, drawn a single drop of blood from me. I had drawn +blood from him; and, even without this satisfaction, I should have been +victorious, because my aim had not been to injure him, but to prevent his +injuring me. +</p> + +<p> +During the whole six months that I lived with Covey, after this transaction, he +never laid on me the weight of his finger in anger. He would, occasionally, say +he did not want to have to get hold of me again—a declaration which I had +no difficulty in believing; and I had a secret feeling, which answered, +“You need not wish to get hold of me again, for you will be likely to +come off worse in a second fight than you did in the first.” +</p> + +<p> +Well, my dear reader, this battle with Mr. Covey—undignified as it was, +and as I fear my narration of it is—was the turning point in my +<i>“life as a slave</i>.” It rekindled in my breast the smouldering +embers of liberty; it brought up my Baltimore dreams, and revived a sense of my +own manhood. I was a changed being after that fight. I was <i>nothing</i> +before; I WAS A MAN NOW. It recalled to life my crushed self-respect and my +self-confidence, and inspired me with a renewed determination to be A FREEMAN. +A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. Human +nature is so constituted, that it cannot <i>honor</i> a helpless man, although +it can <i>pity</i> him; and even this it cannot do long, if the signs of power +do not arise. +</p> + +<p> +He can only understand the effect of this combat on my spirit, who has himself +incurred something, hazarded something, in repelling the unjust and cruel +aggressions of a tyrant. Covey was a tyrant, and a cowardly one, withal. After +resisting him, I felt as I had never felt before. It was a resurrection from +the dark and pestiferous tomb of slavery, to the heaven of comparative freedom. +I was no longer a servile coward, trembling under the frown of a brother worm +of the dust, but, my long-cowed spirit was roused to an attitude of manly +independence. I had reached the point, at which I was <i>not afraid to die</i>. +This spirit made me a freeman in <i>fact</i>, while I remained a slave in +<i>form</i>. When a slave cannot be flogged he is more than half free. He has a +domain as broad as his own manly heart to defend, and he is really <i>“a +power on earth</i>.” While slaves prefer their lives, with flogging, to +instant death, they will always find Christians enough, like unto Covey, to +accommodate that preference. From this time, until that of my escape from +slavery, I was never fairly whipped. Several attempts were made to whip me, but +they were always unsuccessful. Bruises I did get, as I shall hereafter inform +the reader; but the case I have been describing, was the end of the +brutification to which slavery had subjected me. +</p> + +<p> +The reader will be glad to know why, after I had so grievously offended Mr. +Covey, he did not have me taken in hand by the authorities; indeed, why the law +of Maryland, which assigns hanging to the slave who resists his master, was not +put in force against me; at any rate, why I was not taken up, as is usual in +such cases, and publicly whipped, for an example to other slaves, and as a +means of deterring me from committing the same offense again. I confess, that +the easy manner in which I got off, for a long time, a surprise to me, and I +cannot, even now, fully explain the cause. +</p> + +<p> +The only explanation I can venture to suggest, is the fact, that Covey was, +probably, ashamed to have it known and confessed that he had been mastered by a +boy of sixteen. Mr. Covey enjoyed the unbounded and very valuable reputation, +of being a first rate overseer and <i>Negro breaker</i>. By means of this +reputation, he was able to procure his hands for <i>very trifling</i> +compensation, and with very great ease. His interest and his pride mutually +suggested the wisdom of passing the matter by, in silence. The story that he +had undertaken to whip a lad, and had been resisted, was, of itself, sufficient +to damage him; for his bearing should, in the estimation of slaveholders, be of +that imperial order that should make such an occurrence <i>impossible</i>. I +judge from these circumstances, that Covey deemed it best to give me the go-by. +It is, perhaps, not altogether creditable to my natural temper, that, after +this conflict with Mr. Covey, I did, at times, purposely aim to provoke him to +an attack, by refusing to keep with the other hands in the field, but I could +never bully him to another battle. I had made up my mind to do him serious +damage, if he ever again attempted to lay violent hands on me. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Hereditary bondmen, know ye not<br/> +Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow? +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"></a> +CHAPTER XVIII. <i>New Relations and Duties</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +CHANGE OF MASTERS—BENEFITS DERIVED BY THE CHANGE—FAME OF THE FIGHT +WITH COVEY—RECKLESS UNCONCERN—MY ABHORRENCE OF +SLAVERY—ABILITY TO READ A CAUSE OF PREJUDICE—THE HOLIDAYS—HOW +SPENT—SHARP HIT AT SLAVERY—EFFECTS OF HOLIDAYS—A DEVICE OF +SLAVERY—DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COVEY AND FREELAND—AN IRRELIGIOUS MASTER +PREFERRED TO A RELIGIOUS ONE—CATALOGUE OF FLOGGABLE OFFENSES—HARD +LIFE AT COVEY’S USEFUL—IMPROVED CONDITION NOT FOLLOWED BY +CONTENTMENT—CONGENIAL SOCIETY AT FREELAND’S—SABBATH SCHOOL +INSTITUTED—SECRECY NECESSARY—AFFECTIONATE RELATIONS OF TUTOR AND +PUPILS—CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP AMONG SLAVES—I DECLINE PUBLISHING +PARTICULARS OF CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FRIENDS—SLAVERY THE INVITER OF +VENGEANCE. +</p> + +<p> +My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas day, 1834. I +gladly left the snakish Covey, although he was now as gentle as a lamb. My home +for the year 1835 was already secured—my next master was already +selected. There is always more or less excitement about the matter of changing +hands, but I had become somewhat reckless. I cared very little into whose hands +I fell—I meant to fight my way. Despite of Covey, too, the report got +abroad, that I was hard to whip; that I was guilty of kicking back; that though +generally a good tempered Negro, I sometimes “<i>got the devil in +me</i>.” These sayings were rife in Talbot county, and they distinguished +me among my servile brethren. Slaves, generally, will fight each other, and die +at each other’s hands; but there are few who are not held in awe by a +white man. Trained from the cradle up, to think and feel that their masters are +superior, and invested with a sort of sacredness, there are few who can outgrow +or rise above the control which that sentiment exercises. I had now got free +from it, and the thing was known. One bad sheep will spoil a whole flock. Among +the slaves, I was a bad sheep. I hated slavery, slaveholders, and all +pertaining to them; and I did not fail to inspire others with the same feeling, +wherever and whenever opportunity was presented. This made me a marked lad +among the slaves, and a suspected one among the slaveholders. A knowledge of my +ability to read and write, got pretty widely spread, which was very much +against me. +</p> + +<p> +The days between Christmas day and New Year’s, are allowed the slaves as +holidays. During these days, all regular work was suspended, and there was +nothing to do but to keep fires, and look after the stock. This time was +regarded as our own, by the grace of our masters, and we, therefore used it, or +abused it, as we pleased. Those who had families at a distance, were now +expected to visit them, and to spend with them the entire week. The younger +slaves, or the unmarried ones, were expected to see to the cattle, and attend +to incidental duties at home. The holidays were variously spent. The sober, +thinking and industrious ones of our number, would employ themselves in +manufacturing corn brooms, mats, horse collars and baskets, and some of these +were very well made. Another class spent their time in hunting opossums, coons, +rabbits, and other game. But the majority spent the holidays in sports, ball +playing, wrestling, boxing, running foot races, dancing, and drinking whisky; +and this latter mode of spending the time was generally most agreeable to their +masters. A slave who would work during the holidays, was thought, by his +master, undeserving of holidays. Such an one had rejected the favor of his +master. There was, in this simple act of continued work, an accusation against +slaves; and a slave could not help thinking, that if he made three dollars +during the holidays, he might make three hundred during the year. Not to be +drunk during the holidays, was disgraceful; and he was esteemed a lazy and +improvident man, who could not afford to drink whisky during Christmas. +</p> + +<p> +The fiddling, dancing and <i>“jubilee beating</i>,” was going on in +all directions. This latter performance is strictly southern. It supplies the +place of a violin, or of other musical instruments, and is played so easily, +that almost every farm has its “Juba” beater. The performer +improvises as he beats, and sings his merry songs, so ordering the words as to +have them fall pat with the movement of his hands. Among a mass of nonsense and +wild frolic, once in a while a sharp hit is given to the meanness of +slaveholders. Take the following, for an example: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<i>We raise de wheat,<br/> +Dey gib us de corn;<br/> +We bake de bread,<br/> +Dey gib us de cruss;<br/> +We sif de meal,<br/> +Dey gib us de huss;<br/> +We peal de meat,<br/> +Dey gib us de skin,<br/> +And dat’s de way<br/> +Dey takes us in.<br/> +We skim de pot,<br/> +Dey gib us the liquor,<br/> +And say dat’s good enough for nigger.<br/> + Walk over! walk over!<br/> +Tom butter and de fat;<br/> + Poor nigger you can’t get over dat;<br/> + Walk over</i>! +</p> + +<p> +This is not a bad summary of the palpable injustice and fraud of slavery, +giving—as it does—to the lazy and idle, the comforts which God +designed should be given solely to the honest laborer. But to the +holiday’s. +</p> + +<p> +Judging from my own observation and experience, I believe these holidays to be +among the most effective means, in the hands of slaveholders, of keeping down +the spirit of insurrection among the slaves. +</p> + +<p> +To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to have their minds +occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of which they are +deprived. A certain degree of attainable good must be kept before them. These +holidays serve the purpose of keeping the minds of the slaves occupied with +prospective pleasure, within the limits of slavery. The young man can go +wooing; the married man can visit his wife; the father and mother can see their +children; the industrious and money loving can make a few dollars; the great +wrestler can win laurels; the young people can meet, and enjoy each +other’s society; the drunken man can get plenty of whisky; and the +religious man can hold prayer meetings, preach, pray and exhort during the +holidays. Before the holidays, these are pleasures in prospect; after the +holidays, they become pleasures of memory, and they serve to keep out thoughts +and wishes of a more dangerous character. Were slaveholders at once to abandon +the practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, periodically, and to +keep them, the year round, closely confined to the narrow circle of their +homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze with insurrections. These +holidays are conductors or safety valves to carry off the explosive elements +inseparable from the human mind, when reduced to the condition of slavery. But +for these, the rigors of bondage would become too severe for endurance, and the +slave would be forced up to dangerous desperation. Woe to the slaveholder when +he undertakes to hinder or to prevent the operation of these electric +conductors. A succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, than the +insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in different parts of +the south, from such interference. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, the holidays, became part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrongs and +inhumanity of slavery. Ostensibly, they are institutions of benevolence, +designed to mitigate the rigors of slave life, but, practically, they are a +fraud, instituted by human selfishness, the better to secure the ends of +injustice and oppression. The slave’s happiness is not the end sought, +but, rather, the master’s safety. It is not from a generous unconcern for +the slave’s labor that this cessation from labor is allowed, but from a +prudent regard to the safety of the slave system. I am strengthened in this +opinion, by the fact, that most slaveholders like to have their slaves spend +the holidays in such a manner as to be of no real benefit to the slaves. It is +plain, that everything like rational enjoyment among the slaves, is frowned +upon; and only those wild and low sports, peculiar to semi-civilized people, +are encouraged. All the license allowed, appears to have no other object than +to disgust the slaves with their temporary freedom, and to make them as glad to +return to their work, as they were to leave it. By plunging them into +exhausting depths of drunkenness and dissipation, this effect is almost certain +to follow. I have known slaveholders resort to cunning tricks, with a view of +getting their slaves deplorably drunk. A usual plan is, to make bets on a +slave, that he can drink more whisky than any other; and so to induce a rivalry +among them, for the mastery in this degradation. The scenes, brought about in +this way, were often scandalous and loathsome in the extreme. Whole multitudes +might be found stretched out in brutal drunkenness, at once helpless and +disgusting. Thus, when the slave asks for a few hours of virtuous freedom, his +cunning master takes advantage of his ignorance, and cheers him with a dose of +vicious and revolting dissipation, artfully labeled with the name of LIBERTY. +We were induced to drink, I among the rest, and when the holidays were over, we +all staggered up from our filth and wallowing, took a long breath, and went +away to our various fields of work; feeling, upon the whole, rather glad to go +from that which our masters artfully deceived us into the belief was freedom, +back again to the arms of slavery. It was not what we had taken it to be, nor +what it might have been, had it not been abused by us. It was about as well to +be a slave to <i>master</i>, as to be a slave to <i>rum</i> and <i>whisky.</i> +</p> + +<p> +I am the more induced to take this view of the holiday system, adopted by +slaveholders, from what I know of their treatment of slaves, in regard to other +things. It is the commonest thing for them to try to disgust their slaves with +what they do not want them to have, or to enjoy. A slave, for instance, likes +molasses; he steals some; to cure him of the taste for it, his master, in many +cases, will go away to town, and buy a large quantity of the <i>poorest</i> +quality, and set it before his slave, and, with whip in hand, compel him to eat +it, until the poor fellow is made to sicken at the very thought of molasses. +The same course is often adopted to cure slaves of the disagreeable and +inconvenient practice of asking for more food, when their allowance has failed +them. The same disgusting process works well, too, in other things, but I need +not cite them. When a slave is drunk, the slaveholder has no fear that he will +plan an insurrection; no fear that he will escape to the north. It is the +sober, thinking slave who is dangerous, and needs the vigilance of his master, +to keep him a slave. But, to proceed with my narrative. +</p> + +<p> +On the first of January, 1835, I proceeded from St. Michael’s to Mr. +William Freeland’s, my new home. Mr. Freeland lived only three miles from +St. Michael’s, on an old worn out farm, which required much labor to +restore it to anything like a self-supporting establishment. +</p> + +<p> +I was not long in finding Mr. Freeland to be a very different man from Mr. +Covey. Though not rich, Mr. Freeland was what may be called a well-bred +southern gentleman, as different from Covey, as a well-trained and hardened +Negro breaker is from the best specimen of the first families of the south. +Though Freeland was a slaveholder, and shared many of the vices of his class, +he seemed alive to the sentiment of honor. He had some sense of justice, and +some feelings of humanity. He was fretful, impulsive and passionate, but I must +do him the justice to say, he was free from the mean and selfish +characteristics which distinguished the creature from which I had now, happily, +escaped. He was open, frank, imperative, and practiced no concealments, +disdaining to play the spy. In all this, he was the opposite of the crafty +Covey. +</p> + +<p> +Among the many advantages gained in my change from Covey’s to +Freeland’s—startling as the statement may be—was the fact +that the latter gentleman made no profession of religion. I assert <i>most +unhesitatingly</i>, that the religion of the south—as I have observed it +and proved it—is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes; the +justifier of the most appalling barbarity; a sanctifier of the most hateful +frauds; and a secure shelter, under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and +most infernal abominations fester and flourish. Were I again to be reduced to +the condition of a slave, <i>next</i> to that calamity, I should regard the +fact of being the slave of a religious slaveholder, the greatest that could +befall me. For all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious +slaveholders are the worst. I have found them, almost invariably, the vilest, +meanest and basest of their class. Exceptions there may be, but this is true of +religious slaveholders, <i>as a class</i>. It is not for me to explain the +fact. Others may do that; I simply state it as a fact, and leave the +theological, and psychological inquiry, which it raises, to be decided by +others more competent than myself. Religious slaveholders, like religious +persecutors, are ever extreme in their malice and violence. Very near my new +home, on an adjoining farm, there lived the Rev. Daniel Weeden, who was both +pious and cruel after the real Covey pattern. Mr. Weeden was a local preacher +of the Protestant Methodist persuasion, and a most zealous supporter of the +ordinances of religion, generally. This Weeden owned a woman called +“Ceal,” who was a standing proof of his mercilessness. Poor +Ceal’s back, always scantily clothed, was kept literally raw, by the lash +of this religious man and gospel minister. The most notoriously wicked +man—so called in distinction from church members—could hire hands +more easily than this brute. When sent out to find a home, a slave would never +enter the gates of the preacher Weeden, while a sinful sinner needed a hand. Be +have ill, or behave well, it was the known maxim of Weeden, that it is the duty +of a master to use the lash. If, for no other reason, he contended that this +was essential to remind a slave of his condition, and of his master’s +authority. The good slave must be whipped, to be <i>kept</i> good, and the bad +slave must be whipped, to be <i>made</i> good. Such was Weeden’s theory, +and such was his practice. The back of his slave-woman will, in the judgment, +be the swiftest witness against him. +</p> + +<p> +While I am stating particular cases, I might as well immortalize another of my +neighbors, by calling him by name, and putting him in print. He did not think +that a “chiel” was near, “taking notes,” and will, +doubtless, feel quite angry at having his character touched off in the ragged +style of a slave’s pen. I beg to introduce the reader to REV. RIGBY +HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins resides between Easton and St. Michael’s, in Talbot +county, Maryland. The severity of this man made him a perfect terror to the +slaves of his neighborhood. The peculiar feature of his government, was, his +system of whipping slaves, as he said, <i>in advance</i> of deserving it. He +always managed to have one or two slaves to whip on Monday morning, so as to +start his hands to their work, under the inspiration of a new assurance on +Monday, that his preaching about kindness, mercy, brotherly love, and the like, +on Sunday, did not interfere with, or prevent him from establishing his +authority, by the cowskin. He seemed to wish to assure them, that his tears +over poor, lost and ruined sinners, and his pity for them, did not reach to the +blacks who tilled his fields. This saintly Hopkins used to boast, that he was +the best hand to manage a Negro in the county. He whipped for the smallest +offenses, by way of preventing the commission of large ones. +</p> + +<p> +The reader might imagine a difficulty in finding faults enough for such +frequent whipping. But this is because you have no idea how easy a matter it is +to offend a man who is on the look-out for offenses. The man, unaccustomed to +slaveholding, would be astonished to observe how many <i>foggable</i> offenses +there are in the slaveholder’s catalogue of crimes; and how easy it is to +commit any one of them, even when the slave least intends it. A slaveholder, +bent on finding fault, will hatch up a dozen a day, if he chooses to do so, and +each one of these shall be of a punishable description. A mere look, word, or +motion, a mistake, accident, or want of power, are all matters for which a +slave may be whipped at any time. Does a slave look dissatisfied with his +condition? It is said, that he has the devil in him, and it must be whipped +out. Does he answer <i>loudly</i>, when spoken to by his master, with an air of +self-consciousness? Then, must he be taken down a button-hole lower, by the +lash, well laid on. Does he forget, and omit to pull off his hat, when +approaching a white person? Then, he must, or may be, whipped for his bad +manners. Does he ever venture to vindicate his conduct, when harshly and +unjustly accused? Then, he is guilty of impudence, one of the greatest crimes +in the social catalogue of southern society. To allow a slave to escape +punishment, who has impudently attempted to exculpate himself from unjust +charges, preferred against him by some white person, is to be guilty of great +dereliction of duty. Does a slave ever venture to suggest a better way of doing +a thing, no matter what? He is, altogether, too officious—wise above what +is written—and he deserves, even if he does not get, a flogging for his +presumption. Does he, while plowing, break a plow, or while hoeing, break a +hoe, or while chopping, break an ax? No matter what were the imperfections of +the implement broken, or the natural liabilities for breaking, the slave can be +whipped for carelessness. The <i>reverend</i> slaveholder could always find +something of this sort, to justify him in using the lash several times during +the week. Hopkins—like Covey and Weeden—were shunned by slaves who +had the privilege (as many had) of finding their own masters at the end of each +year; and yet, there was not a man in all that section of country, who made a +louder profession of religion, than did MR. RIGBY HOPKINS. +</p> + +<p> +But, to continue the thread of my story, through my experience when at Mr. +William Freeland’s. +</p> + +<p> +My poor, weather-beaten bark now reached smoother water, and gentler breezes. +My stormy life at Covey’s had been of service to me. The things that +would have seemed very hard, had I gone direct to Mr. Freeland’s, from +the home of Master Thomas, were now (after the hardships at Covey’s) +“trifles light as air.” I was still a field hand, and had come to +prefer the severe labor of the field, to the enervating duties of a house +servant. I had become large and strong; and had begun to take pride in the +fact, that I could do as much hard work as some of the older men. There is much +rivalry among slaves, at times, as to which can do the most work, and masters +generally seek to promote such rivalry. But some of us were too wise to race +with each other very long. Such racing, we had the sagacity to see, was not +likely to pay. We had our times for measuring each other’s strength, but +we knew too much to keep up the competition so long as to produce an +extraordinary day’s work. We knew that if, by extraordinary exertion, a +large quantity of work was done in one day, the fact, becoming known to the +master, might lead him to require the same amount every day. This thought was +enough to bring us to a dead halt when over so much excited for the race. +</p> + +<p> +At Mr. Freeland’s, my condition was every way improved. I was no longer +the poor scape-goat that I was when at Covey’s, where every wrong thing +done was saddled upon me, and where other slaves were whipped over my +shoulders. Mr. Freeland was too just a man thus to impose upon me, or upon any +one else. +</p> + +<p> +It is quite usual to make one slave the object of especial abuse, and to beat +him often, with a view to its effect upon others, rather than with any +expectation that the slave whipped will be improved by it, but the man with +whom I now was, could descend to no such meanness and wickedness. Every man +here was held individually responsible for his own conduct. +</p> + +<p> +This was a vast improvement on the rule at Covey’s. There, I was the +general pack horse. Bill Smith was protected, by a positive prohibition made by +his rich master, and the command of the rich slaveholder is LAW to the poor +one; Hughes was favored, because of his relationship to Covey; and the hands +hired temporarily, escaped flogging, except as they got it over my poor +shoulders. Of course, this comparison refers to the time when Covey +<i>could</i> whip me. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Freeland, like Mr. Covey, gave his hands enough to eat, but, unlike Mr. +Covey, he gave them time to take their meals; he worked us hard during the day, +but gave us the night for rest—another advantage to be set to the credit +of the sinner, as against that of the saint. We were seldom in the field after +dark in the evening, or before sunrise in the morning. Our implements of +husbandry were of the most improved pattern, and much superior to those used at +Covey’s. +</p> + +<p> +Nothwithstanding the improved condition which was now mine, and the many +advantages I had gained by my new home, and my new master, I was still restless +and discontented. I was about as hard to please by a master, as a master is by +slave. The freedom from bodily torture and unceasing labor, had given my mind +an increased sensibility, and imparted to it greater activity. I was not yet +exactly in right relations. “How be it, that was not first which is +spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is +spiritual.” When entombed at Covey’s, shrouded in darkness and +physical wretchedness, temporal wellbeing was the grand <i>desideratum;</i> +but, temporal wants supplied, the spirit puts in its claims. Beat and cuff your +slave, keep him hungry and spiritless, and he will follow the chain of his +master like a dog; but, feed and clothe him well—work him +moderately—surround him with physical comfort—and dreams of freedom +intrude. Give him a <i>bad</i> master, and he aspires to a <i>good</i> master; +give him a good master, and he wishes to become his <i>own</i> master. Such is +human nature. You may hurl a man so low, beneath the level of his kind, that he +loses all just ideas of his natural position; but elevate him a little, and the +clear conception of rights arises to life and power, and leads him onward. Thus +elevated, a little, at Freeland’s, the dreams called into being by that +good man, Father Lawson, when in Baltimore, began to visit me; and shoots from +the tree of liberty began to put forth tender buds, and dim hopes of the future +began to dawn. +</p> + +<p> +I found myself in congenial society, at Mr. Freeland’s. There were Henry +Harris, John Harris, Handy Caldwell, and Sandy Jenkins. <a href="#linknote-6" +name="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Henry and John were brothers, and belonged to Mr. Freeland. They were both +remarkably bright and intelligent, though neither of them could read. Now for +mischief! I had not been long at Freeland’s before I was up to my old +tricks. I early began to address my companions on the subject of education, and +the advantages of intelligence over ignorance, and, as far as I dared, I tried +to show the agency of ignorance in keeping men in slavery. Webster’s +spelling book and the <i>Columbian Orator</i> were looked into again. As summer +came on, and the long Sabbath days stretched themselves over our idleness, I +became uneasy, and wanted a Sabbath school, in which to exercise my gifts, and +to impart the little knowledge of letters which I possessed, to my brother +slaves. A house was hardly necessary in the summer time; I could hold my school +under the shade of an old oak tree, as well as any where else. The thing was, +to get the scholars, and to have them thoroughly imbued with the desire to +learn. Two such boys were quickly secured, in Henry and John, and from them the +contagion spread. I was not long bringing around me twenty or thirty young men, +who enrolled themselves, gladly, in my Sabbath school, and were willing to meet +me regularly, under the trees or elsewhere, for the purpose of learning to +read. It was surprising with what ease they provided themselves with spelling +books. These were mostly the cast off books of their young masters or +mistresses. I taught, at first, on our own farm. All were impressed with the +necessity of keeping the matter as private as possible, for the fate of the St. +Michael’s attempt was notorious, and fresh in the minds of all. Our pious +masters, at St. Michael’s, must not know that a few of their dusky +brothers were learning to read the word of God, lest they should come down upon +us with the lash and chain. We might have met to drink whisky, to wrestle, +fight, and to do other unseemly things, with no fear of interruption from the +saints or sinners of St. Michael’s. +</p> + +<p> +But, to meet for the purpose of improving the mind and heart, by learning to +read the sacred scriptures, was esteemed a most dangerous nuisance, to be +instantly stopped. The slaveholders of St. Michael’s, like slaveholders +elsewhere, would always prefer to see the slaves engaged in degrading sports, +rather than to see them acting like moral and accountable beings. +</p> + +<p> +Had any one asked a religious white man, in St. Michael’s, twenty years +ago, the names of three men in that town, whose lives were most after the +pattern of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the first three would have been +as follows: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +GARRISON WEST, <i>Class Leader</i>.<br/> +WRIGHT FAIRBANKS, <i>Class Leader</i>.<br/> +THOMAS AULD, <i>Class Leader</i>. +</p> + +<p> +And yet, these were men who ferociously rushed in upon my Sabbath school, at +St. Michael’s, armed with mob-like missiles, and I must say, I thought +him a Christian, until he took part in bloody by the lash. This same Garrison +West was my class leader, and I must say, I thought him a Christian, until he +took part in breaking up my school. He led me no more after that. The plea for +this outrage was then, as it is now and at all times—the danger to good +order. If the slaves learnt to read, they would learn something else, and +something worse. The peace of slavery would be disturbed; slave rule would be +endangered. I leave the reader to characterize a system which is endangered by +such causes. I do not dispute the soundness of the reasoning. It is perfectly +sound; and, if slavery be <i>right</i>, Sabbath schools for teaching slaves to +read the bible are <i>wrong</i>, and ought to be put down. These Christian +class leaders were, to this extent, consistent. They had settled the question, +that slavery is <i>right</i>, and, by that standard, they determined that +Sabbath schools are wrong. To be sure, they were Protestant, and held to the +great Protestant right of every man to <i>“search the +scriptures”</i> for himself; but, then, to all general rules, there are +<i>exceptions</i>. How convenient! What crimes may not be committed under the +doctrine of the last remark. But, my dear, class leading Methodist brethren, +did not condescend to give me a reason for breaking up the Sabbath school at +St. Michael’s; it was enough that they had determined upon its +destruction. I am, however, digressing. +</p> + +<p> +After getting the school cleverly into operation, the second time holding it in +the woods, behind the barn, and in the shade of trees—I succeeded in +inducing a free colored man, who lived several miles from our house, to permit +me to hold my school in a room at his house. He, very kindly, gave me this +liberty; but he incurred much peril in doing so, for the assemblage was an +unlawful one. I shall not mention, here, the name of this man; for it might, +even now, subject him to persecution, although the offenses were committed more +than twenty years ago. I had, at one time, more than forty scholars, all of the +right sort; and many of them succeeded in learning to read. I have met several +slaves from Maryland, who were once my scholars; and who obtained their +freedom, I doubt not, partly in consequence of the ideas imparted to them in +that school. I have had various employments during my short life; but I look +back to <i>none</i> with more satisfaction, than to that afforded by my Sunday +school. An attachment, deep and lasting, sprung up between me and my persecuted +pupils, which made parting from them intensely grievous; and, when I think that +most of these dear souls are yet shut up in this abject thralldom, I am +overwhelmed with grief. +</p> + +<p> +Besides my Sunday school, I devoted three evenings a week to my fellow slaves, +during the winter. Let the reader reflect upon the fact, that, in this +christian country, men and women are hiding from professors of religion, in +barns, in the woods and fields, in order to learn to read the <i>holy +bible</i>. Those dear souls, who came to my Sabbath school, came <i>not</i> +because it was popular or reputable to attend such a place, for they came under +the liability of having forty stripes laid on their naked backs. Every moment +they spend in my school, they were under this terrible liability; and, in this +respect, I was sharer with them. Their minds had been cramped and starved by +their cruel masters; the light of education had been completely excluded; and +their hard earnings had been taken to educate their master’s children. I +felt a delight in circumventing the tyrants, and in blessing the victims of +their curses. +</p> + +<p> +The year at Mr. Freeland’s passed off very smoothly, to outward seeming. +Not a blow was given me during the whole year. To the credit of Mr. +Freeland—irreligious though he was—it must be stated, that he was +the best master I ever had, until I became my own master, and assumed for +myself, as I had a right to do, the responsibility of my own existence and the +exercise of my own powers. For much of the happiness—or absence of +misery—with which I passed this year with Mr. Freeland, I am indebted to +the genial temper and ardent friendship of my brother slaves. They were, every +one of them, manly, generous and brave, yes; I say they were brave, and I will +add, fine looking. It is seldom the lot of mortals to have truer and better +friends than were the slaves on this farm. It is not uncommon to charge slaves +with great treachery toward each other, and to believe them incapable of +confiding in each other; but I must say, that I never loved, esteemed, or +confided in men, more than I did in these. They were as true as steel, and no +band of brothers could have been more loving. There were no mean advantages +taken of each other, as is sometimes the case where slaves are situated as we +were; no tattling; no giving each other bad names to Mr. Freeland; and no +elevating one at the expense of the other. We never undertook to do any thing, +of any importance, which was likely to affect each other, without mutual +consultation. We were generally a unit, and moved together. Thoughts and +sentiments were exchanged between us, which might well be called very +incendiary, by oppressors and tyrants; and perhaps the time has not even now +come, when it is safe to unfold all the flying suggestions which arise in the +minds of intelligent slaves. Several of my friends and brothers, if yet alive, +are still in some part of the house of bondage; and though twenty years have +passed away, the suspicious malice of slavery might punish them for even +listening to my thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +The slaveholder, kind or cruel, is a slaveholder still—the every hour +violator of the just and inalienable rights of man; and he is, therefore, every +hour silently whetting the knife of vengeance for his own throat. He never +lisps a syllable in commendation of the fathers of this republic, nor denounces +any attempted oppression of himself, without inviting the knife to his own +throat, and asserting the rights of rebellion for his own slaves. +</p> + +<p> +The year is ended, and we are now in the midst of the Christmas holidays, which +are kept this year as last, according to the general description previously +given. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"></a> +CHAPTER XIX. <i>The Run-Away Plot</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +NEW YEAR’S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS—AGAIN BOUGHT BY +FREELAND—NO AMBITION TO BE A SLAVE—KINDNESS NO COMPENSATION FOR +SLAVERY—INCIPIENT STEPS TOWARD ESCAPE—CONSIDERATIONS LEADING +THERETO—IRRECONCILABLE HOSTILITY TO SLAVERY—SOLEMN VOW +TAKEN—PLAN DIVULGED TO THE SLAVES—<i>Columbian +Orator—</i>SCHEME GAINS FAVOR, DESPITE PRO-SLAVERY PREACHING—DANGER +OF DISCOVERY—SKILL OF SLAVEHOLDERS IN READING THE MINDS OF THEIR +SLAVES—SUSPICION AND COERCION—HYMNS WITH DOUBLE +MEANING—VALUE, IN DOLLARS, OF OUR COMPANY—PRELIMINARY +CONSULTATION—PASS-WORD—CONFLICTS OF HOPE AND +FEAR—DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME—IGNORANCE OF +GEOGRAPHY—SURVEY OF IMAGINARY DIFFICULTIES—EFFECT ON OUR +MINDS—PATRICK HENRY—SANDY BECOMES A DREAMER—ROUTE TO THE +NORTH LAID OUT—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED—FRAUDS PRACTICED ON +FREEMEN—PASSES WRITTEN—ANXIETIES AS THE TIME DREW NEAR—DREAD +OF FAILURE—APPEALS TO COMRADES—STRANGE +PRESENTIMENT—COINCIDENCE—THE BETRAYAL DISCOVERED—THE MANNER +OF ARRESTING US—RESISTANCE MADE BY HENRY HARRIS—ITS +EFFECT—THE UNIQUE SPEECH OF MRS. FREELAND—OUR SAD PROCESSION TO +PRISON—BRUTAL JEERS BY THE MULTITUDE ALONG THE ROAD—PASSES +EATEN—THE DENIAL—SANDY TOO WELL LOVED TO BE SUSPECTED—DRAGGED +BEHIND HORSES—THE JAIL A RELIEF—A NEW SET OF +TORMENTORS—SLAVE-TRADERS—JOHN, CHARLES AND HENRY +RELEASED—ALONE IN PRISON—I AM TAKEN OUT, AND SENT TO BALTIMORE. +</p> + +<p> +I am now at the beginning of the year 1836, a time favorable for serious +thoughts. The mind naturally occupies itself with the mysteries of life in all +its phases—the ideal, the real and the actual. Sober people look both +ways at the beginning of the year, surveying the errors of the past, and +providing against possible errors of the future. I, too, was thus exercised. I +had little pleasure in retrospect, and the prospect was not very brilliant. +“Notwithstanding,” thought I, “the many resolutions and +prayers I have made, in behalf of freedom, I am, this first day of the year +1836, still a slave, still wandering in the depths of spirit-devouring +thralldom. My faculties and powers of body and soul are not my own, but are the +property of a fellow mortal, in no sense superior to me, except that he has the +physical power to compel me to be owned and controlled by him. By the combined +physical force of the community, I am his slave—a slave for life.” +With thoughts like these, I was perplexed and chafed; they rendered me gloomy +and disconsolate. The anguish of my mind may not be written. +</p> + +<p> +At the close of the year 1835, Mr. Freeland, my temporary master, had bought me +of Capt. Thomas Auld, for the year 1836. His promptness in securing my +services, would have been flattering to my vanity, had I been ambitious to win +the reputation of being a valuable slave. Even as it was, I felt a slight +degree of complacency at the circumstance. It showed he was as well pleased +with me as a slave, as I was with him as a master. I have already intimated my +regard for Mr. Freeland, and I may say here, in addressing northern +readers—where is no selfish motive for speaking in praise of a +slaveholder—that Mr. Freeland was a man of many excellent qualities, and +to me quite preferable to any master I ever had. +</p> + +<p> +But the kindness of the slavemaster only gilds the chain of slavery, and +detracts nothing from its weight or power. The thought that men are made for +other and better uses than slavery, thrives best under the gentle treatment of +a kind master. But the grim visage of slavery can assume no smiles which can +fascinate the partially enlightened slave, into a forgetfulness of his bondage, +nor of the desirableness of liberty. +</p> + +<p> +I was not through the first month of this, my second year with the kind and +gentlemanly Mr. Freeland, before I was earnestly considering and advising plans +for gaining that freedom, which, when I was but a mere child, I had ascertained +to be the natural and inborn right of every member of the human family. The +desire for this freedom had been benumbed, while I was under the brutalizing +dominion of Covey; and it had been postponed, and rendered inoperative, by my +truly pleasant Sunday school engagements with my friends, during the year 1835, +at Mr. Freeland’s. It had, however, never entirely subsided. I hated +slavery, always, and the desire for freedom only needed a favorable breeze, to +fan it into a blaze, at any moment. The thought of only being a creature of the +<i>present</i> and the <i>past</i>, troubled me, and I longed to have a +<i>future</i>—a future with hope in it. To be shut up entirely to the +past and present, is abhorrent to the human mind; it is to the soul—whose +life and happiness is unceasing progress—what the prison is to the body; +a blight and mildew, a hell of horrors. The dawning of this, another year, +awakened me from my temporary slumber, and roused into life my latent, but long +cherished aspirations for freedom. I was now not only ashamed to be contented +in slavery, but ashamed to <i>seem</i> to be contented, and in my present +favorable condition, under the mild rule of Mr. F., I am not sure that some +kind reader will not condemn me for being over ambitious, and greatly wanting +in proper humility, when I say the truth, that I now drove from me all thoughts +of making the best of my lot, and welcomed only such thoughts as led me away +from the house of bondage. The intense desires, now felt, <i>to be free</i>, +quickened by my present favorable circumstances, brought me to the +determination to act, as well as to think and speak. Accordingly, at the +beginning of this year 1836, I took upon me a solemn vow, that the year which +had now dawned upon me should not close, without witnessing an earnest attempt, +on my part, to gain my liberty. This vow only bound me to make my escape +individually; but the year spent with Mr. Freeland had attached me, as with +“hooks of steel,” to my brother slaves. The most affectionate and +confiding friendship existed between us; and I felt it my duty to give them an +opportunity to share in my virtuous determination by frankly disclosing to them +my plans and purposes. Toward Henry and John Harris, I felt a friendship as +strong as one man can feel for another; for I could have died with and for +them. To them, therefore, with a suitable degree of caution, I began to +disclose my sentiments and plans; sounding them, the while on the subject of +running away, provided a good chance should offer. I scarcely need tell the +reader, that I did my <i>very best</i> to imbue the minds of my dear friends +with my own views and feelings. Thoroughly awakened, now, and with a definite +vow upon me, all my little reading, which had any bearing on the subject of +human rights, was rendered available in my communications with my friends. That +(to me) gem of a book, the <i>Columbian Orator</i>, with its eloquent orations +and spicy dialogues, denouncing oppression and slavery—telling of what +had been dared, done and suffered by men, to obtain the inestimable boon of +liberty—was still fresh in my memory, and whirled into the ranks of my +speech with the aptitude of well trained soldiers, going through the drill. The +fact is, I here began my public speaking. I canvassed, with Henry and John, the +subject of slavery, and dashed against it the condemning brand of God’s +eternal justice, which it every hour violates. My fellow servants were neither +indifferent, dull, nor inapt. Our feelings were more alike than our opinions. +All, however, were ready to act, when a feasible plan should be proposed. +“Show us <i>how</i> the thing is to be done,” said they, “and +all is clear.” +</p> + +<p> +We were all, except Sandy, quite free from slaveholding priestcraft. It was in +vain that we had been taught from the pulpit at St. Michael’s, the duty +of obedience to our masters; to recognize God as the author of our enslavement; +to regard running away an offense, alike against God and man; to deem our +enslavement a merciful and beneficial arrangement; to esteem our condition, in +this country, a paradise to that from which we had been snatched in Africa; to +consider our hard hands and dark color as God’s mark of displeasure, and +as pointing us out as the proper subjects of slavery; that the relation of +master and slave was one of reciprocal benefits; that our work was not more +serviceable to our masters, than our master’s thinking was serviceable to +us. I say, it was in vain that the pulpit of St. Michael’s had constantly +inculcated these plausible doctrine. Nature laughed them to scorn. For my own +part, I had now become altogether too big for my chains. Father Lawson’s +solemn words, of what I ought to be, and might be, in the providence of God, +had not fallen dead on my soul. I was fast verging toward manhood, and the +prophecies of my childhood were still unfulfilled. The thought, that year after +year had passed away, and my resolutions to run away had failed and +faded—that I was <i>still a slave</i>, and a slave, too, with chances for +gaining my freedom diminished and still diminishing—was not a matter to +be slept over easily; nor did I easily sleep over it. +</p> + +<p> +But here came a new trouble. Thoughts and purposes so incendiary as those I now +cherished, could not agitate the mind long, without danger of making themselves +manifest to scrutinizing and unfriendly beholders. I had reason to fear that my +sable face might prove altogether too transparent for the safe concealment of +my hazardous enterprise. Plans of greater moment have leaked through stone +walls, and revealed their projectors. But, here was no stone wall to hide my +purpose. I would have given my poor, tell tale face for the immoveable +countenance of an Indian, for it was far from being proof against the daily, +searching glances of those with whom I met. +</p> + +<p> +It is the interest and business of slaveholders to study human nature, with a +view to practical results, and many of them attain astonishing proficiency in +discerning the thoughts and emotions of slaves. They have to deal not with +earth, wood, or stone, but with <i>men;</i> and, by every regard they have for +their safety and prosperity, they must study to know the material on which they +are at work. So much intellect as the slaveholder has around him, requires +watching. Their safety depends upon their vigilance. Conscious of the injustice +and wrong they are every hour perpetrating, and knowing what they themselves +would do if made the victims of such wrongs, they are looking out for the first +signs of the dread retribution of justice. They watch, therefore, with skilled +and practiced eyes, and have learned to read, with great accuracy, the state of +mind and heart of the slaves, through his sable face. These uneasy sinners are +quick to inquire into the matter, where the slave is concerned. Unusual +sobriety, apparent abstraction, sullenness and indifference—indeed, any +mood out of the common way—afford ground for suspicion and inquiry. Often +relying on their superior position and wisdom, they hector and torture the +slave into a confession, by affecting to know the truth of their accusations. +“You have got the devil in you,” say they, “and we will whip +him out of you.” I have often been put thus to the torture, on bare +suspicion. This system has its disadvantages as well as their opposite. The +slave is sometimes whipped into the confession of offenses which he never +committed. The reader will see that the good old rule—“a man is to +be held innocent until proved to be guilty”—does not hold good on +the slave plantation. Suspicion and torture are the approved methods of getting +at the truth, here. It was necessary for me, therefore, to keep a watch over my +deportment, lest the enemy should get the better of me. +</p> + +<p> +But with all our caution and studied reserve, I am not sure that Mr. Freeland +did not suspect that all was not right with us. It <i>did</i> seem that he +watched us more narrowly, after the plan of escape had been conceived and +discussed amongst us. Men seldom see themselves as others see them; and while, +to ourselves, everything connected with our contemplated escape appeared +concealed, Mr. Freeland may have, with the peculiar prescience of a +slaveholder, mastered the huge thought which was disturbing our peace in +slavery. +</p> + +<p> +I am the more inclined to think that he suspected us, because, prudent as we +were, as I now look back, I can see that we did many silly things, very well +calculated to awaken suspicion. We were, at times, remarkably buoyant, singing +hymns and making joyous exclamations, almost as triumphant in their tone as if +we reached a land of freedom and safety. A keen observer might have detected in +our repeated singing of +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<i>O Canaan, sweet Canaan,<br/> +I am bound for the land of Canaan,</i> +</p> + +<p> +something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the +<i>north</i>—and the north was our Canaan. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<i>I thought I heard them say,<br/> +There were lions in the way,<br/> +I don’t expect to Star<br/> + Much longer here.</i><br/> +<br/> +<i>Run to Jesus—shun the danger—<br/> +I don’t expect to stay<br/> + Much longer here</i>. +</p> + +<p> +was a favorite air, and had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it meant the +expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but, in the lips of +<i>our</i> company, it simply meant, a speedy pilgrimage toward a free state, +and deliverance from all the evils and dangers of slavery. +</p> + +<p> +I had succeeded in winning to my (what slaveholders would call wicked) scheme, +a company of five young men, the very flower of the neighborhood, each one of +whom would have commanded one thousand dollars in the home market. At New +Orleans, they would have brought fifteen hundred dollars a piece, and, perhaps, +more. The names of our party were as follows: Henry Harris; John Harris, +brother to Henry; Sandy Jenkins, of root memory; Charles Roberts, and Henry +Bailey. I was the youngest, but one, of the party. I had, however, the +advantage of them all, in experience, and in a knowledge of letters. This gave +me great influence over them. Perhaps not one of them, left to himself, would +have dreamed of escape as a possible thing. Not one of them was self-moved in +the matter. They all wanted to be free; but the serious thought of running +away, had not entered into their minds, until I won them to the undertaking. +They all were tolerably well off—for slaves—and had dim hopes of +being set free, some day, by their masters. If any one is to blame for +disturbing the quiet of the slaves and slave-masters of the neighborhood of St. +Michael’s, <i>I am the man</i>. I claim to be the instigator of the high +crime (as the slaveholders regard it) and I kept life in it, until life could +be kept in it no longer. +</p> + +<p> +Pending the time of our contemplated departure out of our Egypt, we met often +by night, and on every Sunday. At these meetings we talked the matter over; +told our hopes and fears, and the difficulties discovered or imagined; and, +like men of sense, we counted the cost of the enterprise to which we were +committing ourselves. +</p> + +<p> +These meetings must have resembled, on a small scale, the meetings of +revolutionary conspirators, in their primary condition. We were plotting +against our (so called) lawful rulers; with this difference that we sought our +own good, and not the harm of our enemies. We did not seek to overthrow them, +but to escape from them. As for Mr. Freeland, we all liked him, and would have +gladly remained with him, <i>as freeman</i>. LIBERTY was our aim; and we had +now come to think that we had a right to liberty, against every obstacle even +against the lives of our enslavers. +</p> + +<p> +We had several words, expressive of things, important to us, which we +understood, but which, even if distinctly heard by an outsider, would convey no +certain meaning. I have reasons for suppressing these <i>pass-words</i>, which +the reader will easily divine. I hated the secrecy; but where slavery is +powerful, and liberty is weak, the latter is driven to concealment or to +destruction. +</p> + +<p> +The prospect was not always a bright one. At times, we were almost tempted to +abandon the enterprise, and to get back to that comparative peace of mind, +which even a man under the gallows might feel, when all hope of escape had +vanished. Quiet bondage was felt to be better than the doubts, fears and +uncertainties, which now so sadly perplexed and disturbed us. +</p> + +<p> +The infirmities of humanity, generally, were represented in our little band. We +were confident, bold and determined, at times; and, again, doubting, timid and +wavering; whistling, like the boy in the graveyard, to keep away the spirits. +</p> + +<p> +To look at the map, and observe the proximity of Eastern Shore, Maryland, to +Delaware and Pennsylvania, it may seem to the reader quite absurd, to regard +the proposed escape as a formidable undertaking. But to <i>understand</i>, some +one has said a man must <i>stand under</i>. The real distance was great enough, +but the imagined distance was, to our ignorance, even greater. Every +slaveholder seeks to impress his slave with a belief in the boundlessness of +slave territory, and of his own almost illimitable power. We all had vague and +indistinct notions of the geography of the country. +</p> + +<p> +The distance, however, is not the chief trouble. The nearer are the lines of a +slave state and the borders of a free one, the greater the peril. Hired +kidnappers infest these borders. Then, too, we knew that merely reaching a free +state did not free us; that, wherever caught, we could be returned to slavery. +We could see no spot on this side the ocean, where we could be free. We had +heard of Canada, the real Canaan of the American bondmen, simply as a country +to which the wild goose and the swan repaired at the end of winter, to escape +the heat of summer, but not as the home of man. I knew something of theology, +but nothing of geography. I really did not, at that time, know that there was a +state of New York, or a state of Massachusetts. I had heard of Pennsylvania, +Delaware and New Jersey, and all the southern states, but was ignorant of the +free states, generally. New York city was our northern limit, and to go there, +and be forever harassed with the liability of being hunted down and returned to +slavery—with the certainty of being treated ten times worse than we had +ever been treated before was a prospect far from delightful, and it might well +cause some hesitation about engaging in the enterprise. The case, sometimes, to +our excited visions, stood thus: At every gate through which we had to pass, we +saw a watchman; at every ferry, a guard; on every bridge, a sentinel; and in +every wood, a patrol or slave-hunter. We were hemmed in on every side. The good +to be sought, and the evil to be shunned, were flung in the balance, and +weighed against each other. On the one hand, there stood slavery; a stern +reality, glaring frightfully upon us, with the blood of millions in his +polluted skirts—terrible to behold—greedily devouring our hard +earnings and feeding himself upon our flesh. Here was the evil from which to +escape. On the other hand, far away, back in the hazy distance, where all forms +seemed but shadows, under the flickering light of the north star—behind +some craggy hill or snow-covered mountain—stood a doubtful freedom, half +frozen, beckoning us to her icy domain. This was the good to be sought. The +inequality was as great as that between certainty and uncertainty. This, in +itself, was enough to stagger us; but when we came to survey the untrodden +road, and conjecture the many possible difficulties, we were appalled, and at +times, as I have said, were upon the point of giving over the struggle +altogether. +</p> + +<p> +The reader can have little idea of the phantoms of trouble which flit, in such +circumstances, before the uneducated mind of the slave. Upon either side, we +saw grim death assuming a variety of horrid shapes. Now, it was starvation, +causing us, in a strange and friendless land, to eat our own flesh. Now, we +were contending with the waves (for our journey was in part by water) and were +drowned. Now, we were hunted by dogs, and overtaken and torn to pieces by their +merciless fangs. We were stung by scorpions—chased by wild +beasts—bitten by snakes; and, worst of all, after having succeeded in +swimming rivers—encountering wild beasts—sleeping in the +woods—suffering hunger, cold, heat and nakedness—we supposed +ourselves to be overtaken by hired kidnappers, who, in the name of the law, and +for their thrice accursed reward, would, perchance, fire upon us—kill +some, wound others, and capture all. This dark picture, drawn by ignorance and +fear, at times greatly shook our determination, and not unfrequently caused us +to +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Rather bear those ills we had<br/> +Than fly to others which we knew not of. +</p> + +<p> +I am not disposed to magnify this circumstance in my experience, and yet I +think I shall seem to be so disposed, to the reader. No man can tell the +intense agony which is felt by the slave, when wavering on the point of making +his escape. All that he has is at stake; and even that which he has not, is at +stake, also. The life which he has, may be lost, and the liberty which he +seeks, may not be gained. +</p> + +<p> +Patrick Henry, to a listening senate, thrilled by his magic eloquence, and +ready to stand by him in his boldest flights, could say, GIVE ME LIBERTY OR +GIVE ME DEATH, and this saying was a sublime one, even for a freeman; but, +incomparably more sublime, is the same sentiment, when <i>practically</i> +asserted by men accustomed to the lash and chain—men whose sensibilities +must have become more or less deadened by their bondage. With us it was a +<i>doubtful</i> liberty, at best, that we sought; and a certain, lingering +death in the rice swamps and sugar fields, if we failed. Life is not lightly +regarded by men of sane minds. It is precious, alike to the pauper and to the +prince—to the slave, and to his master; and yet, I believe there was not +one among us, who would not rather have been shot down, than pass away life in +hopeless bondage. +</p> + +<p> +In the progress of our preparations, Sandy, the root man, became troubled. He +began to have dreams, and some of them were very distressing. One of these, +which happened on a Friday night, was, to him, of great significance; and I am +quite ready to confess, that I felt somewhat damped by it myself. He said, +“I dreamed, last night, that I was roused from sleep, by strange noises, +like the voices of a swarm of angry birds, that caused a roar as they passed, +which fell upon my ear like a coming gale over the tops of the trees. Looking +up to see what it could mean,” said Sandy, “I saw you, Frederick, +in the claws of a huge bird, surrounded by a large number of birds, of all +colors and sizes. These were all picking at you, while you, with your arms, +seemed to be trying to protect your eyes. Passing over me, the birds flew in a +south-westerly direction, and I watched them until they were clean out of +sight. Now, I saw this as plainly as I now see you; and furder, honey, watch de +Friday night dream; dare is sumpon in it, shose you born; dare is, indeed, +honey.” +</p> + +<p> +I confess I did not like this dream; but I threw off concern about it, by +attributing it to the general excitement and perturbation consequent upon our +contemplated plan of escape. I could not, however, shake off its effect at +once. I felt that it boded me no good. Sandy was unusually emphatic and +oracular, and his manner had much to do with the impression made upon me. +</p> + +<p> +The plan of escape which I recommended, and to which my comrades assented, was +to take a large canoe, owned by Mr. Hamilton, and, on the Saturday night +previous to the Easter holidays, launch out into the Chesapeake bay, and paddle +for its head—a distance of seventy miles with all our might. Our course, +on reaching this point, was, to turn the canoe adrift, and bend our steps +toward the north star, till we reached a free state. +</p> + +<p> +There were several objections to this plan. One was, the danger from gales on +the bay. In rough weather, the waters of the Chesapeake are much agitated, and +there is danger, in a canoe, of being swamped by the waves. Another objection +was, that the canoe would soon be missed; the absent persons would, at once, be +suspected of having taken it; and we should be pursued by some of the fast +sailing bay craft out of St. Michael’s. Then, again, if we reached the +head of the bay, and turned the canoe adrift, she might prove a guide to our +track, and bring the land hunters after us. +</p> + +<p> +These and other objections were set aside, by the stronger ones which could be +urged against every other plan that could then be suggested. On the water, we +had a chance of being regarded as fishermen, in the service of a master. On the +other hand, by taking the land route, through the counties adjoining Delaware, +we should be subjected to all manner of interruptions, and many very +disagreeable questions, which might give us serious trouble. Any white man is +authorized to stop a man of color, on any road, and examine him, and arrest +him, if he so desires. +</p> + +<p> +By this arrangement, many abuses (considered such even by slaveholders) occur. +Cases have been known, where freemen have been called upon to show their free +papers, by a pack of ruffians—and, on the presentation of the papers, the +ruffians have torn them up, and seized their victim, and sold him to a life of +endless bondage. +</p> + +<p> +The week before our intended start, I wrote a pass for each of our party, +giving them permission to visit Baltimore, during the Easter holidays. The pass +ran after this manner: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +This is to certify, that I, the undersigned, have given the bearer, my servant, +John, full liberty to go to Baltimore, to spend the Easter holidays. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +W.H.<br/> +Near St. Michael’s, Talbot county, Maryland +</p> + +<p> +Although we were not going to Baltimore, and were intending to land east of +North Point, in the direction where I had seen the Philadelphia steamers go, +these passes might be made useful to us in the lower part of the bay, while +steering toward Baltimore. These were not, however, to be shown by us, until +all other answers failed to satisfy the inquirer. We were all fully alive to +the importance of being calm and self-possessed, when accosted, if accosted we +should be; and we more times than one rehearsed to each other how we should +behave in the hour of trial. +</p> + +<p> +These were long, tedious days and nights. The suspense was painful, in the +extreme. To balance probabilities, where life and liberty hang on the result, +requires steady nerves. I panted for action, and was glad when the day, at the +close of which we were to start, dawned upon us. Sleeping, the night before, +was out of the question. I probably felt more deeply than any of my companions, +because I was the instigator of the movement. The responsibility of the whole +enterprise rested on my shoulders. The glory of success, and the shame and +confusion of failure, could not be matters of indifference to me. Our food was +prepared; our clothes were packed up; we were all ready to go, and impatient +for Saturday morning—considering that the last morning of our bondage. +</p> + +<p> +I cannot describe the tempest and tumult of my brain, that morning. The reader +will please to bear in mind, that, in a slave state, an unsuccessful runaway is +not only subjected to cruel torture, and sold away to the far south, but he is +frequently execrated by the other slaves. He is charged with making the +condition of the other slaves intolerable, by laying them all under the +suspicion of their masters—subjecting them to greater vigilance, and +imposing greater limitations on their privileges. I dreaded murmurs from this +quarter. It is difficult, too, for a slavemaster to believe that slaves +escaping have not been aided in their flight by some one of their fellow +slaves. When, therefore, a slave is missing, every slave on the place is +closely examined as to his knowledge of the undertaking; and they are sometimes +even tortured, to make them disclose what they are suspected of knowing of such +escape. +</p> + +<p> +Our anxiety grew more and more intense, as the time of our intended departure +for the north drew nigh. It was truly felt to be a matter of life and death +with us; and we fully intended to <i>fight</i> as well as <i>run</i>, if +necessity should occur for that extremity. But the trial hour was not yet to +come. It was easy to resolve, but not so easy to act. I expected there might be +some drawing back, at the last. It was natural that there should be; therefore, +during the intervening time, I lost no opportunity to explain away +difficulties, to remove doubts, to dispel fears, and to inspire all with +firmness. It was too late to look back; and <i>now</i> was the time to go +forward. Like most other men, we had done the talking part of our work, long +and well; and the time had come to <i>act</i> as if we were in earnest, and +meant to be as true in action as in words. I did not forget to appeal to the +pride of my comrades, by telling them that, if after having solemnly promised +to go, as they had done, they now failed to make the attempt, they would, in +effect, brand themselves with cowardice, and might as well sit down, fold their +arms, and acknowledge themselves as fit only to be <i>slaves</i>. This +detestable character, all were unwilling to assume. Every man except Sandy (he, +much to our regret, withdrew) stood firm; and at our last meeting we pledged +ourselves afresh, and in the most solemn manner, that, at the time appointed, +we <i>would</i> certainly start on our long journey for a free country. This +meeting was in the middle of the week, at the end of which we were to start. +</p> + +<p> +Early that morning we went, as usual, to the field, but with hearts that beat +quickly and anxiously. Any one intimately acquainted with us, might have seen +that all was not well with us, and that some monster lingered in our thoughts. +Our work that morning was the same as it had been for several days +past—drawing out and spreading manure. While thus engaged, I had a sudden +presentiment, which flashed upon me like lightning in a dark night, revealing +to the lonely traveler the gulf before, and the enemy behind. I instantly +turned to Sandy Jenkins, who was near me, and said to him, <i>“Sandy, we +are betrayed;</i> something has just told me so.” I felt as sure of it, +as if the officers were there in sight. Sandy said, “Man, dat is strange; +but I feel just as you do.” If my mother—then long in her +grave—had appeared before me, and told me that we were betrayed, I could +not, at that moment, have felt more certain of the fact. +</p> + +<p> +In a few minutes after this, the long, low and distant notes of the horn +summoned us from the field to breakfast. I felt as one may be supposed to feel +before being led forth to be executed for some great offense. I wanted no +breakfast; but I went with the other slaves toward the house, for form’s +sake. My feelings were not disturbed as to the right of running away; on that +point I had no trouble, whatever. My anxiety arose from a sense of the +consequences of failure. +</p> + +<p> +In thirty minutes after that vivid presentiment came the apprehended crash. On +reaching the house, for breakfast, and glancing my eye toward the lane gate, +the worst was at once made known. The lane gate off Mr. Freeland’s house, +is nearly a half mile from the door, and shaded by the heavy wood which +bordered the main road. I was, however, able to descry four white men, and two +colored men, approaching. The white men were on horseback, and the colored men +were walking behind, and seemed to be tied. <i>“It is all over with +us,”</i> thought I, <i>“we are surely betrayed</i>.” I now +became composed, or at least comparatively so, and calmly awaited the result. I +watched the ill-omened company, till I saw them enter the gate. Successful +flight was impossible, and I made up my mind to stand, and meet the evil, +whatever it might be; for I was not without a slight hope that things might +turn differently from what I at first expected. In a few moments, in came Mr. +William Hamilton, riding very rapidly, and evidently much excited. He was in +the habit of riding very slowly, and was seldom known to gallop his horse. This +time, his horse was nearly at full speed, causing the dust to roll thick behind +him. Mr. Hamilton, though one of the most resolute men in the whole +neighborhood, was, nevertheless, a remarkably mild spoken man; and, even when +greatly excited, his language was cool and circumspect. He came to the door, +and inquired if Mr. Freeland was in. I told him that Mr. Freeland was at the +barn. Off the old gentleman rode, toward the barn, with unwonted speed. Mary, +the cook, was at a loss to know what was the matter, and I did not profess any +skill in making her understand. I knew she would have united, as readily as any +one, in cursing me for bringing trouble into the family; so I held my peace, +leaving matters to develop themselves, without my assistance. In a few moments, +Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Freeland came down from the barn to the house; and, just +as they made their appearance in the front yard, three men (who proved to be +constables) came dashing into the lane, on horseback, as if summoned by a sign +requiring quick work. A few seconds brought them into the front yard, where +they hastily dismounted, and tied their horses. This done, they joined Mr. +Freeland and Mr. Hamilton, who were standing a short distance from the kitchen. +A few moments were spent, as if in consulting how to proceed, and then the +whole party walked up to the kitchen door. There was now no one in the kitchen +but myself and John Harris. Henry and Sandy were yet at the barn. Mr. Freeland +came inside the kitchen door, and with an agitated voice, called me by name, +and told me to come forward; that there was some gentlemen who wished to see +me. I stepped toward them, at the door, and asked what they wanted, when the +constables grabbed me, and told me that I had better not resist; that I had +been in a scrape, or was said to have been in one; that they were merely going +to take me where I could be examined; that they were going to carry me to St. +Michael’s, to have me brought before my master. They further said, that, +in case the evidence against me was not true, I should be acquitted. I was now +firmly tied, and completely at the mercy of my captors. Resistance was idle. +They were five in number, armed to the very teeth. When they had secured me, +they next turned to John Harris, and, in a few moments, succeeded in tying him +as firmly as they had already tied me. They next turned toward Henry Harris, +who had now returned from the barn. “Cross your hands,” said the +constables, to Henry. “I won’t” said Henry, in a voice so +firm and clear, and in a manner so determined, as for a moment to arrest all +proceedings. “Won’t you cross your hands?” said Tom Graham, +the constable. “<i>No I won’t</i>,” said Henry, with +increasing emphasis. Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Freeland, and the officers, now came +near to Henry. Two of the constables drew out their shining pistols, and swore +by the name of God, that he should cross his hands, or they would shoot him +down. Each of these hired ruffians now cocked their pistols, and, with fingers +apparently on the triggers, presented their deadly weapons to the breast of the +unarmed slave, saying, at the same time, if he did not cross his hands, they +would “blow his d—d heart out of him.” +</p> + +<p> +<i>“Shoot! shoot me!”</i> said Henry. “<i>You can’t +kill me but once</i>. Shoot!—shoot! and be d—d. <i>I won’t be +tied</i>.” This, the brave fellow said in a voice as defiant and heroic +in its tone, as was the language itself; and, at the moment of saying this, +with the pistols at his very breast, he quickly raised his arms, and dashed +them from the puny hands of his assassins, the weapons flying in opposite +directions. Now came the struggle. All hands was now rushed upon the brave +fellow, and, after beating him for some time, they succeeded in overpowering +and tying him. Henry put me to shame; he fought, and fought bravely. John and I +had made no resistance. The fact is, I never see much use in fighting, unless +there is a reasonable probability of whipping somebody. Yet there was something +almost providential in the resistance made by the gallant Henry. But for that +resistance, every soul of us would have been hurried off to the far south. Just +a moment previous to the trouble with Henry, Mr. Hamilton <i>mildly</i> +said—and this gave me the unmistakable clue to the cause of our +arrest—“Perhaps we had now better make a search for those +protections, which we understand Frederick has written for himself and the +rest.” Had these passes been found, they would have been point blank +proof against us, and would have confirmed all the statements of our betrayer. +Thanks to the resistance of Henry, the excitement produced by the scuffle drew +all attention in that direction, and I succeeded in flinging my pass, +unobserved, into the fire. The confusion attendant upon the scuffle, and the +apprehension of further trouble, perhaps, led our captors to forego, for the +present, any search for <i>“those protections” which Frederick was +said to have written for his companions</i>; so we were not yet convicted of +the purpose to run away; and it was evident that there was some doubt, on the +part of all, whether we had been guilty of such a purpose. +</p> + +<p> +Just as we were all completely tied, and about ready to start toward St. +Michael’s, and thence to jail, Mrs. Betsey Freeland (mother to William, +who was very much attached—after the southern fashion—to Henry and +John, they having been reared from childhood in her house) came to the kitchen +door, with her hands full of biscuits—for we had not had time to take our +breakfast that morning—and divided them between Henry and John. This +done, the lady made the following parting address to me, looking and pointing +her bony finger at me. “You devil! you yellow devil! It was you that put +it into the heads of Henry and John to run away. But for <i>you</i>, you +<i>long legged yellow devil</i>, Henry and John would never have thought of +running away.” I gave the lady a look, which called forth a scream of +mingled wrath and terror, as she slammed the kitchen door, and went in, leaving +me, with the rest, in hands as harsh as her own broken voice. +</p> + +<p> +Could the kind reader have been quietly riding along the main road to or from +Easton, that morning, his eye would have met a painful sight. He would have +seen five young men, guilty of no crime, save that of preferring <i>liberty</i> +to a life of <i>bondage</i>, drawn along the public highway—firmly bound +together—tramping through dust and heat, bare-footed and +bare-headed—fastened to three strong horses, whose riders were armed to +the teeth, with pistols and daggers—on their way to prison, like felons, +and suffering every possible insult from the crowds of idle, vulgar people, who +clustered around, and heartlessly made their failure the occasion for all +manner of ribaldry and sport. As I looked upon this crowd of vile persons, and +saw myself and friends thus assailed and persecuted, I could not help seeing +the fulfillment of Sandy’s dream. I was in the hands of moral vultures, +and firmly held in their sharp talons, and was hurried away toward Easton, in a +south-easterly direction, amid the jeers of new birds of the same feather, +through every neighborhood we passed. It seemed to me (and this shows the good +understanding between the slaveholders and their allies) that every body we met +knew the cause of our arrest, and were out, awaiting our passing by, to feast +their vindictive eyes on our misery and to gloat over our ruin. Some said, <i>I +ought to be hanged</i>, and others, <i>I ought to be burnt</i>, others, I ought +to have the <i>“hide”</i> taken from my back; while no one gave us +a kind word or sympathizing look, except the poor slaves, who were lifting +their heavy hoes, and who cautiously glanced at us through the post-and-rail +fences, behind which they were at work. Our sufferings, that morning, can be +more easily imagined than described. Our hopes were all blasted, at a blow. The +cruel injustice, the victorious crime, and the helplessness of innocence, led +me to ask, in my ignorance and weakness “Where now is the God of justice +and mercy? And why have these wicked men the power thus to trample upon our +rights, and to insult our feelings?” And yet, in the next moment, came +the consoling thought, <i>“The day of oppressor will come at +last.”</i> Of one thing I could be glad—not one of my dear friends, +upon whom I had brought this great calamity, either by word or look, reproached +me for having led them into it. We were a band of brothers, and never dearer to +each other than now. The thought which gave us the most pain, was the probable +separation which would now take place, in case we were sold off to the far +south, as we were likely to be. While the constables were looking forward, +Henry and I, being fastened together, could occasionally exchange a word, +without being observed by the kidnappers who had us in charge. “What +shall I do with my pass?” said Henry. “Eat it with your +biscuit,” said I; “it won’t do to tear it up.” We were +now near St. Michael’s. The direction concerning the passes was passed +around, and executed. <i>“Own nothing!”</i> said I. <i>“Own +nothing!”</i> was passed around and enjoined, and assented to. Our +confidence in each other was unshaken; and we were quite resolved to succeed or +fail together—as much after the calamity which had befallen us, as +before. +</p> + +<p> +On reaching St. Michael’s, we underwent a sort of examination at my +master’s store, and it was evident to my mind, that Master Thomas +suspected the truthfulness of the evidence upon which they had acted in +arresting us; and that he only affected, to some extent, the positiveness with +which he asserted our guilt. There was nothing said by any of our company, +which could, in any manner, prejudice our cause; and there was hope, yet, that +we should be able to return to our homes—if for nothing else, at least to +find out the guilty man or woman who had betrayed us. +</p> + +<p> +To this end, we all denied that we had been guilty of intended flight. Master +Thomas said that the evidence he had of our intention to run away, was strong +enough to hang us, in a case of murder. “But,” said I, “the +cases are not equal. If murder were committed, some one must have committed +it—the thing is done! In our case, nothing has been done! We have not run +away. Where is the evidence against us? We were quietly at our work.” I +talked thus, with unusual freedom, to bring out the evidence against us, for we +all wanted, above all things, to know the guilty wretch who had betrayed us, +that we might have something tangible upon which to pour the execrations. From +something which dropped, in the course of the talk, it appeared that there was +but one witness against us—and that that witness could not be produced. +Master Thomas would not tell us <i>who</i> his informant was; but we suspected, +and suspected <i>one</i> person <i>only</i>. Several circumstances seemed to +point SANDY out, as our betrayer. His entire knowledge of our plans his +participation in them—his withdrawal from us—his dream, and his +simultaneous presentiment that we were betrayed—the taking us, and the +leaving him—were calculated to turn suspicion toward him; and yet, we +could not suspect him. We all loved him too well to think it <i>possible</i> +that he could have betrayed us. So we rolled the guilt on other shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +We were literally dragged, that morning, behind horses, a distance of fifteen +miles, and placed in the Easton jail. We were glad to reach the end of our +journey, for our pathway had been the scene of insult and mortification. Such +is the power of public opinion, that it is hard, even for the innocent, to feel +the happy consolations of innocence, when they fall under the maledictions of +this power. How could we regard ourselves as in the right, when all about us +denounced us as criminals, and had the power and the disposition to treat us as +such. +</p> + +<p> +In jail, we were placed under the care of Mr. Joseph Graham, the sheriff of the +county. Henry, and John, and myself, were placed in one room, and Henry Baily +and Charles Roberts, in another, by themselves. This separation was intended to +deprive us of the advantage of concert, and to prevent trouble in jail. +</p> + +<p> +Once shut up, a new set of tormentors came upon us. A swarm of imps, in human +shape the slave-traders, deputy slave-traders, and agents of +slave-traders—that gather in every country town of the state, watching +for chances to buy human flesh (as buzzards to eat carrion) flocked in upon us, +to ascertain if our masters had placed us in jail to be sold. Such a set of +debased and villainous creatures, I never saw before, and hope never to see +again. I felt myself surrounded as by a pack of <i>fiends</i>, fresh from +<i>perdition</i>. They laughed, leered, and grinned at us; saying, “Ah! +boys, we’ve got you, havn’t we? So you were about to make your +escape? Where were you going to?” After taunting us, and peering at us, +as long as they liked, they one by one subjected us to an examination, with a +view to ascertain our value; feeling our arms and legs, and shaking us by the +shoulders to see if we were sound and healthy; impudently asking us, “how +we would like to have them for masters?” To such questions, we were, very +much to their annoyance, quite dumb, disdaining to answer them. For one, I +detested the whisky-bloated gamblers in human flesh; and I believe I was as +much detested by them in turn. One fellow told me, “if he had me, he +would cut the devil out of me pretty quick.” +</p> + +<p> +These Negro buyers are very offensive to the genteel southern Christian public. +They are looked upon, in respectable Maryland society, as necessary, but +detestable characters. As a class, they are hardened ruffians, made such by +nature and by occupation. Their ears are made quite familiar with the agonizing +cry of outraged and woe-smitted humanity. Their eyes are forever open to human +misery. They walk amid desecrated affections, insulted virtue, and blasted +hopes. They have grown intimate with vice and blood; they gloat over the +wildest illustrations of their soul-damning and earth-polluting business, and +are moral pests. Yes; they are a legitimate fruit of slavery; and it is a +puzzle to make out a case of greater villainy for them, than for the +slaveholders, who make such a class <i>possible</i>. They are mere hucksters of +the surplus slave produce of Maryland and Virginia coarse, cruel, and +swaggering bullies, whose very breathing is of blasphemy and blood. +</p> + +<p> +Aside from these slave-buyers, who infested the prison, from time to time, our +quarters were much more comfortable than we had any right to expect they would +be. Our allowance of food was small and coarse, but our room was the best in +the jail—neat and spacious, and with nothing about it necessarily +reminding us of being in prison, but its heavy locks and bolts and the black, +iron lattice-work at the windows. We were prisoners of state, compared with +most slaves who are put into that Easton jail. But the place was not one of +contentment. Bolts, bars and grated windows are not acceptable to +freedom-loving people of any color. The suspense, too, was painful. Every step +on the stairway was listened to, in the hope that the comer would cast a ray of +light on our fate. We would have given the hair off our heads for half a dozen +words with one of the waiters in Sol. Lowe’s hotel. Such waiters were in +the way of hearing, at the table, the probable course of things. We could see +them flitting about in their white jackets in front of this hotel, but could +speak to none of them. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after the holidays were over, contrary to all our expectations, Messrs. +Hamilton and Freeland came up to Easton; not to make a bargain with the +“Georgia traders,” nor to send us up to Austin Woldfolk, as is +usual in the case of run-away slaves, but to release Charles, Henry Harris, +Henry Baily and John Harris, from prison, and this, too, without the infliction +of a single blow. I was now left entirely alone in prison. The innocent had +been taken, and the guilty left. My friends were separated from me, and +apparently forever. This circumstance caused me more pain than any other +incident connected with our capture and imprisonment. Thirty-nine lashes on my +naked and bleeding back, would have been joyfully borne, in preference to this +separation from these, the friends of my youth. And yet, I could not but feel +that I was the victim of something like justice. Why should these young men, +who were led into this scheme by me, suffer as much as the instigator? I felt +glad that they were leased from prison, and from the dread prospect of a life +(or death I should rather say) in the rice swamps. It is due to the noble +Henry, to say, that he seemed almost as reluctant to leave the prison with me +in it, as he was to be tied and dragged to prison. But he and the rest knew +that we should, in all the likelihoods of the case, be separated, in the event +of being sold; and since we were now completely in the hands of our owners, we +all concluded it would be best to go peaceably home. +</p> + +<p> +Not until this last separation, dear reader, had I touched those profounder +depths of desolation, which it is the lot of slaves often to reach. I was +solitary in the world, and alone within the walls of a stone prison, left to a +fate of life-long misery. I had hoped and expected much, for months before, but +my hopes and expectations were now withered and blasted. The ever dreaded slave +life in Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama—from which escape is next to +impossible now, in my loneliness, stared me in the face. The possibility of +ever becoming anything but an abject slave, a mere machine in the hands of an +owner, had now fled, and it seemed to me it had fled forever. A life of living +death, beset with the innumerable horrors of the cotton field, and the sugar +plantation, seemed to be my doom. The fiends, who rushed into the prison when +we were first put there, continued to visit me, and to ply me with questions +and with their tantalizing remarks. I was insulted, but helpless; keenly alive +to the demands of justice and liberty, but with no means of asserting them. To +talk to those imps about justice and mercy, would have been as absurd as to +reason with bears and tigers. Lead and steel are the only arguments that they +understand. +</p> + +<p> +After remaining in this life of misery and despair about a week, which, by the +way, seemed a month, Master Thomas, very much to my surprise, and greatly to my +relief, came to the prison, and took me out, for the purpose, as he said, of +sending me to Alabama, with a friend of his, who would emancipate me at the end +of eight years. I was glad enough to get out of prison; but I had no faith in +the story that this friend of Capt. Auld would emancipate me, at the end of the +time indicated. Besides, I never had heard of his having a friend in Alabama, +and I took the announcement, simply as an easy and comfortable method of +shipping me off to the far south. There was a little scandal, too, connected +with the idea of one Christian selling another to the Georgia traders, while it +was deemed every way proper for them to sell to others. I thought this friend +in Alabama was an invention, to meet this difficulty, for Master Thomas was +quite jealous of his Christian reputation, however unconcerned he might be +about his real Christian character. In these remarks, however, it is possible +that I do Master Thomas Auld injustice. He certainly did not exhaust his power +upon me, in the case, but acted, upon the whole, very generously, considering +the nature of my offense. He had the power and the provocation to send me, +without reserve, into the very everglades of Florida, beyond the remotest hope +of emancipation; and his refusal to exercise that power, must be set down to +his credit. +</p> + +<p> +After lingering about St. Michael’s a few days, and no friend from +Alabama making his appearance, to take me there, Master Thomas decided to send +me back again to Baltimore, to live with his brother Hugh, with whom he was now +at peace; possibly he became so by his profession of religion, at the +camp-meeting in the Bay Side. Master Thomas told me that he wished me to go to +Baltimore, and learn a trade; and that, if I behaved myself properly, he would +<i>emancipate me at twenty-five!</i> Thanks for this one beam of hope in the +future. The promise had but one fault; it seemed too good to be true. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"></a> +CHAPTER XX. <i>Apprenticeship Life</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +NOTHING LOST BY THE ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY—COMRADES IN THEIR OLD +HOMES—REASONS FOR SENDING ME AWAY—RETURN TO +BALTIMORE—CONTRAST BETWEEN TOMMY AND THAT OF HIS COLORED +COMPANION—TRIALS IN GARDINER’S SHIP YARD—DESPERATE +FIGHT—ITS CAUSES—CONFLICT BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK +LABOR—DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTRAGE—COLORED TESTIMONY +NOTHING—CONDUCT OF MASTER HUGH—SPIRIT OF SLAVERY IN +BALTIMORE—MY CONDITION IMPROVES—NEW +ASSOCIATIONS—SLAVEHOLDER’S RIGHT TO TAKE HIS WAGES—HOW TO +MAKE A CONTENTED SLAVE. +</p> + +<p> +Well! dear reader, I am not, as you may have already inferred, a loser by the +general upstir, described in the foregoing chapter. The little domestic +revolution, notwithstanding the sudden snub it got by the treachery of +somebody—I dare not say or think who—did not, after all, end so +disastrously, as when in the iron cage at Easton, I conceived it would. The +prospect, from that point, did look about as dark as any that ever cast its +gloom over the vision of the anxious, out-looking, human spirit. “All is +well that ends well.” My affectionate comrades, Henry and John Harris, +are still with Mr. William Freeland. Charles Roberts and Henry Baily are safe +at their homes. I have not, therefore, any thing to regret on their account. +Their masters have mercifully forgiven them, probably on the ground suggested +in the spirited little speech of Mrs. Freeland, made to me just before leaving +for the jail—namely: that they had been allured into the wicked scheme of +making their escape, by me; and that, but for me, they would never have dreamed +of a thing so shocking! My friends had nothing to regret, either; for while +they were watched more closely on account of what had happened, they were, +doubtless, treated more kindly than before, and got new assurances that they +would be legally emancipated, some day, provided their behavior should make +them deserving, from that time forward. Not a blow, as I learned, was struck +any one of them. As for Master William Freeland, good, unsuspecting soul, he +did not believe that we were intending to run away at all. Having +given—as he thought—no occasion to his boys to leave him, he could +not think it probable that they had entertained a design so grievous. This, +however, was not the view taken of the matter by “Mas’ +Billy,” as we used to call the soft spoken, but crafty and resolute Mr. +William Hamilton. He had no doubt that the crime had been meditated; and +regarding me as the instigator of it, he frankly told Master Thomas that he +must remove me from that neighborhood, or he would shoot me down. He would not +have one so dangerous as “Frederick” tampering with his slaves. +William Hamilton was not a man whose threat might be safely disregarded. I have +no doubt that he would have proved as good as his word, had the warning given +not been promptly taken. He was furious at the thought of such a piece of +high-handed <i>theft</i>, as we were about to perpetrate the stealing of our +own bodies and souls! The feasibility of the plan, too, could the first steps +have been taken, was marvelously plain. Besides, this was a <i>new</i> idea, +this use of the bay. Slaves escaping, until now, had taken to the woods; they +had never dreamed of profaning and abusing the waters of the noble Chesapeake, +by making them the highway from slavery to freedom. Here was a broad road of +destruction to slavery, which, before, had been looked upon as a wall of +security by slaveholders. But Master Billy could not get Mr. Freeland to see +matters precisely as he did; nor could he get Master Thomas so excited as he +was himself. The latter—I must say it to his credit—showed much +humane feeling in his part of the transaction, and atoned for much that had +been harsh, cruel and unreasonable in his former treatment of me and others. +His clemency was quite unusual and unlooked for. “Cousin Tom” told +me that while I was in jail, Master Thomas was very unhappy; and that the night +before his going up to release me, he had walked the floor nearly all night, +evincing great distress; that very tempting offers had been made to him, by the +Negro-traders, but he had rejected them all, saying that <i>money could not +tempt him to sell me to the far south</i>. All this I can easily believe, for +he seemed quite reluctant to send me away, at all. He told me that he only +consented to do so, because of the very strong prejudice against me in the +neighborhood, and that he feared for my safety if I remained there. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, after three years spent in the country, roughing it in the field, and +experiencing all sorts of hardships, I was again permitted to return to +Baltimore, the very place, of all others, short of a free state, where I most +desired to live. The three years spent in the country, had made some difference +in me, and in the household of Master Hugh. “Little Tommy” was no +longer <i>little</i> Tommy; and I was not the slender lad who had left for the +Eastern Shore just three years before. The loving relations between me and +Mas’ Tommy were broken up. He was no longer dependent on me for +protection, but felt himself a <i>man</i>, with other and more suitable +associates. In childhood, he scarcely considered me inferior to himself +certainly, as good as any other boy with whom he played; but the time had come +when his <i>friend</i> must become his <i>slave</i>. So we were cold, and we +parted. It was a sad thing to me, that, loving each other as we had done, we +must now take different roads. To him, a thousand avenues were open. Education +had made him acquainted with all the treasures of the world, and liberty had +flung open the gates thereunto; but I, who had attended him seven years, and +had watched over him with the care of a big brother, fighting his battles in +the street, and shielding him from harm, to an extent which had induced his +mother to say, “Oh! Tommy is always safe, when he is with Freddy,” +must be confined to a single condition. He could grow, and become a MAN; I +could grow, though I could <i>not</i> become a man, but must remain, all my +life, a minor—a mere boy. Thomas Auld, Junior, obtained a situation on +board the brig “Tweed,” and went to sea. I know not what has become +of him; he certainly has my good wishes for his welfare and prosperity. There +were few persons to whom I was more sincerely attached than to him, and there +are few in the world I would be more pleased to meet. +</p> + +<p> +Very soon after I went to Baltimore to live, Master Hugh succeeded in getting +me hired to Mr. William Gardiner, an extensive ship builder on Fell’s +Point. I was placed here to learn to calk, a trade of which I already had some +knowledge, gained while in Mr. Hugh Auld’s ship-yard, when he was a +master builder. Gardiner’s, however, proved a very unfavorable place for +the accomplishment of that object. Mr. Gardiner was, that season, engaged in +building two large man-of-war vessels, professedly for the Mexican government. +These vessels were to be launched in the month of July, of that year, and, in +failure thereof, Mr. G. would forfeit a very considerable sum of money. So, +when I entered the ship-yard, all was hurry and driving. There were in the yard +about one hundred men; of these about seventy or eighty were regular +carpenters—privileged men. Speaking of my condition here I wrote, years +ago—and I have now no reason to vary the picture as follows: +</p> + +<p> +There was no time to learn any thing. Every man had to do that which he knew +how to do. In entering the ship-yard, my orders from Mr. Gardiner were, to do +whatever the carpenters commanded me to do. This was placing me at the beck and +call of about seventy-five men. I was to regard all these as masters. Their +word was to be my law. My situation was a most trying one. At times I needed a +dozen pair of hands. I was called a dozen ways in the space of a single minute. +Three or four voices would strike my ear at the same moment. It +was—“Fred., come help me to cant this timber here.” +“Fred., come carry this timber yonder.”—“Fred., bring +that roller here.”—“Fred., go get a fresh can of +water.”—“Fred., come help saw off the end of this +timber.”—“Fred., go quick and get the crow +bar.”—“Fred., hold on the end of this +fall.”—“Fred., go to the blacksmith’s shop, and get a +new punch.”— +</p> + +<p> +“Hurra, Fred.! run and bring me a cold chisel.”—“I say, +Fred., bear a hand, and get up a fire as quick as lightning under that +steam-box.”—“Halloo, nigger! come, turn this +grindstone.”—“Come, come! move, move! and <i>bowse</i> this +timber forward.”—“I say, darkey, blast your eyes, why +don’t you heat up some pitch?”—“Halloo! halloo! +halloo!” (Three voices at the same time.) “Come here!—Go +there!—Hold on where you are! D—n you, if you move, I’ll +knock your brains out!” +</p> + +<p> +Such, dear reader, is a glance at the school which was mine, during, the first +eight months of my stay at Baltimore. At the end of the eight months, Master +Hugh refused longer to allow me to remain with Mr. Gardiner. The circumstance +which led to his taking me away, was a brutal outrage, committed upon me by the +white apprentices of the ship-yard. The fight was a desperate one, and I came +out of it most shockingly mangled. I was cut and bruised in sundry places, and +my left eye was nearly knocked out of its socket. The facts, leading to this +barbarous outrage upon me, illustrate a phase of slavery destined to become an +important element in the overthrow of the slave system, and I may, therefore +state them with some minuteness. That phase is this: <i>the conflict of slavery +with the interests of the white mechanics and laborers of the south</i>. In the +country, this conflict is not so apparent; but, in cities, such as Baltimore, +Richmond, New Orleans, Mobile, &c., it is seen pretty clearly. The +slaveholders, with a craftiness peculiar to themselves, by encouraging the +enmity of the poor, laboring white man against the blacks, succeeds in making +the said white man almost as much a slave as the black slave himself. The +difference between the white slave, and the black slave, is this: the latter +belongs to <i>one</i> slaveholder, and the former belongs to <i>all</i> the +slaveholders, collectively. The white slave has taken from him, by indirection, +what the black slave has taken from him, directly, and without ceremony. Both +are plundered, and by the same plunderers. The slave is robbed, by his master, +of all his earnings, above what is required for his bare physical necessities; +and the white man is robbed by the slave system, of the just results of his +labor, because he is flung into competition with a class of laborers who work +without wages. The competition, and its injurious consequences, will, one day, +array the nonslaveholding white people of the slave states, against the slave +system, and make them the most effective workers against the great evil. At +present, the slaveholders blind them to this competition, by keeping alive +their prejudice against the slaves, <i>as men</i>—not against them <i>as +slaves</i>. They appeal to their pride, often denouncing emancipation, as +tending to place the white man, on an equality with Negroes, and, by this +means, they succeed in drawing off the minds of the poor whites from the real +fact, that, by the rich slave-master, they are already regarded as but a single +remove from equality with the slave. The impression is cunningly made, that +slavery is the only power that can prevent the laboring white man from falling +to the level of the slave’s poverty and degradation. To make this enmity +deep and broad, between the slave and the poor white man, the latter is allowed +to abuse and whip the former, without hinderance. But—as I have +suggested—this state of facts prevails <i>mostly</i> in the country. In +the city of Baltimore, there are not unfrequent murmurs, that educating the +slaves to be mechanics may, in the end, give slavemasters power to dispense +with the services of the poor white man altogether. But, with characteristic +dread of offending the slaveholders, these poor, white mechanics in Mr. +Gardiner’s ship-yard—instead of applying the natural, honest remedy +for the apprehended evil, and objecting at once to work there by the side of +slaves—made a cowardly attack upon the free colored mechanics, saying +<i>they</i> were eating the bread which should be eaten by American freemen, +and swearing that they would not work with them. The feeling was, +<i>really</i>, against having their labor brought into competition with that of +the colored people at all; but it was too much to strike directly at the +interest of the slaveholders; and, therefore proving their servility and +cowardice they dealt their blows on the poor, colored freeman, and aimed to +prevent <i>him</i> from serving himself, in the evening of life, with the trade +with which he had served his master, during the more vigorous portion of his +days. Had they succeeded in driving the black freemen out of the ship-yard, +they would have determined also upon the removal of the black slaves. The +feeling was very bitter toward all colored people in Baltimore, about this time +(1836), and they—free and slave suffered all manner of insult and wrong. +</p> + +<p> +Until a very little before I went there, white and black ship carpenters worked +side by side, in the ship yards of Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Walter Price, +and Mr. Robb. Nobody seemed to see any impropriety in it. To outward seeming, +all hands were well satisfied. Some of the blacks were first rate workmen, and +were given jobs requiring highest skill. All at once, however, the white +carpenters knocked off, and swore that they would no longer work on the same +stage with free Negroes. Taking advantage of the heavy contract resting upon +Mr. Gardiner, to have the war vessels for Mexico ready to launch in July, and +of the difficulty of getting other hands at that season of the year, they swore +they would not strike another blow for him, unless he would discharge his free +colored workmen. +</p> + +<p> +Now, although this movement did not extend to me, <i>in form</i>, it did reach +me, <i>in fact</i>. The spirit which it awakened was one of malice and +bitterness, toward colored people <i>generally</i>, and I suffered with the +rest, and suffered severely. My fellow apprentices very soon began to feel it +to be degrading to work with me. They began to put on high looks, and to talk +contemptuously and maliciously of <i>“the Niggers;”</i> saying, +that “they would take the country,” that “they ought to be +killed.” Encouraged by the cowardly workmen, who, knowing me to be a +slave, made no issue with Mr. Gardiner about my being there, these young men +did their utmost to make it impossible for me to stay. They seldom called me to +do any thing, without coupling the call with a curse, and Edward North, the +biggest in every thing, rascality included, ventured to strike me, whereupon I +picked him up, and threw him into the dock. Whenever any of them struck me, I +struck back again, regardless of consequences. I could manage any of them +<i>singly</i>, and, while I could keep them from combining, I succeeded very +well. In the conflict which ended my stay at Mr. Gardiner’s, I was beset +by four of them at once—Ned North, Ned Hays, Bill Stewart, and Tom +Humphreys. Two of them were as large as myself, and they came near killing me, +in broad day light. The attack was made suddenly, and simultaneously. One came +in front, armed with a brick; there was one at each side, and one behind, and +they closed up around me. I was struck on all sides; and, while I was attending +to those in front, I received a blow on my head, from behind, dealt with a +heavy hand-spike. I was completely stunned by the blow, and fell, heavily, on +the ground, among the timbers. Taking advantage of my fall, they rushed upon +me, and began to pound me with their fists. I let them lay on, for a while, +after I came to myself, with a view of gaining strength. They did me little +damage, so far; but, finally, getting tired of that sport, I gave a sudden +surge, and, despite their weight, I rose to my hands and knees. Just as I did +this, one of their number (I know not which) planted a blow with his boot in my +left eye, which, for a time, seemed to have burst my eyeball. When they saw my +eye completely closed, my face covered with blood, and I staggering under the +stunning blows they had given me, they left me. As soon as I gathered +sufficient strength, I picked up the hand-spike, and, madly enough, attempted +to pursue them; but here the carpenters interfered, and compelled me to give up +my frenzied pursuit. It was impossible to stand against so many. +</p> + +<p> +Dear reader, you can hardly believe the statement, but it is true, and, +therefore, I write it down: not fewer than fifty white men stood by, and saw +this brutal and shameless outrage committed, and not a man of them all +interposed a single word of mercy. There were four against one, and that +one’s face was beaten and battered most horribly, and no one said, +“that is enough;” but some cried out, “Kill him—kill +him—kill the d—d nigger! knock his brains out—he struck a +white person.” I mention this inhuman outcry, to show the character of +the men, and the spirit of the times, at Gardiner’s ship yard, and, +indeed, in Baltimore generally, in 1836. As I look back to this period, I am +almost amazed that I was not murdered outright, in that ship yard, so murderous +was the spirit which prevailed there. On two occasions, while there, I came +near losing my life. I was driving bolts in the hold, through the keelson, with +Hays. In its course, the bolt bent. Hays cursed me, and said that it was my +blow which bent the bolt. I denied this, and charged it upon him. In a fit of +rage he seized an adze, and darted toward me. I met him with a maul, and +parried his blow, or I should have then lost my life. A son of old Tom Lanman +(the latter’s double murder I have elsewhere charged upon him), in the +spirit of his miserable father, made an assault upon me, but the blow with his +maul missed me. After the united assault of North, Stewart, Hays and Humphreys, +finding that the carpenters were as bitter toward me as the apprentices, and +that the latter were probably set on by the former, I found my only chances for +life was in flight. I succeeded in getting away, without an additional blow. To +strike a white man, was death, by Lynch law, in Gardiner’s ship yard; nor +was there much of any other law toward colored people, at that time, in any +other part of Maryland. The whole sentiment of Baltimore was murderous. +</p> + +<p> +After making my escape from the ship yard, I went straight home, and related +the story of the outrage to Master Hugh Auld; and it is due to him to say, that +his conduct—though he was not a religious man—was every way more +humane than that of his brother, Thomas, when I went to the latter in a +somewhat similar plight, from the hands of <i>“Brother Edward +Covey.”</i> He listened attentively to my narration of the circumstances +leading to the ruffianly outrage, and gave many proofs of his strong +indignation at what was done. Hugh was a rough, but manly-hearted fellow, and, +at this time, his best nature showed itself. +</p> + +<p> +The heart of my once almost over-kind mistress, Sophia, was again melted in +pity toward me. My puffed-out eye, and my scarred and blood-covered face, moved +the dear lady to tears. She kindly drew a chair by me, and with friendly, +consoling words, she took water, and washed the blood from my face. No +mother’s hand could have been more tender than hers. She bound up my +head, and covered my wounded eye with a lean piece of fresh beef. It was almost +compensation for the murderous assault, and my suffering, that it furnished and +occasion for the manifestation, once more, of the orignally(sic) characteristic +kindness of my mistress. Her affectionate heart was not yet dead, though much +hardened by time and by circumstances. +</p> + +<p> +As for Master Hugh’s part, as I have said, he was furious about it; and +he gave expression to his fury in the usual forms of speech in that locality. +He poured curses on the heads of the whole ship yard company, and swore that he +would have satisfaction for the outrage. His indignation was really strong and +healthy; but, unfortunately, it resulted from the thought that his rights of +property, in my person, had not been respected, more than from any sense of the +outrage committed on me <i>as a man</i>. I inferred as much as this, from the +fact that he could, himself, beat and mangle when it suited him to do so. Bent +on having satisfaction, as he said, just as soon as I got a little the better +of my bruises, Master Hugh took me to Esquire Watson’s office, on Bond +street, Fell’s Point, with a view to procuring the arrest of those who +had assaulted me. He related the outrage to the magistrate, as I had related it +to him, and seemed to expect that a warrant would, at once, be issued for the +arrest of the lawless ruffians. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Watson heard it all, and instead of drawing up his warrant, he +inquired.— +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Auld, who saw this assault of which you speak?” +</p> + +<p> +“It was done, sir, in the presence of a ship yard full of hands.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sir,” said Watson, “I am sorry, but I cannot move in this +matter except upon the oath of white witnesses.” +</p> + +<p> +“But here’s the boy; look at his head and face,” said the +excited Master Hugh; <i>“they</i> show <i>what</i> has been done.” +</p> + +<p> +But Watson insisted that he was not authorized to do anything, unless +<i>white</i> witnesses of the transaction would come forward, and testify to +what had taken place. He could issue no warrant on my word, against white +persons; and, if I had been killed in the presence of a <i>thousand blacks</i>, +their testimony, combined would have been insufficient to arrest a single +murderer. Master Hugh, for once, was compelled to say, that this state of +things was <i>too bad;</i> and he left the office of the magistrate, disgusted. +</p> + +<p> +Of course, it was impossible to get any white man to testify against my +assailants. The carpenters saw what was done; but the actors were but the +agents of their malice, and only what the carpenters sanctioned. They had +cried, with one accord, <i>“Kill the nigger!” “Kill the +nigger!”</i> Even those who may have pitied me, if any such were among +them, lacked the moral courage to come and volunteer their evidence. The +slightest manifestation of sympathy or justice toward a person of color, was +denounced as abolitionism; and the name of abolitionist, subjected its bearer +to frightful liabilities. “D—n <i>abolitionists,”</i> and +<i>“Kill the niggers,”</i> were the watch-words of the foul-mouthed +ruffians of those days. Nothing was done, and probably there would not have +been any thing done, had I been killed in the affray. The laws and the morals +of the Christian city of Baltimore, afforded no protection to the sable +denizens of that city. +</p> + +<p> +Master Hugh, on finding he could get no redress for the cruel wrong, withdrew +me from the employment of Mr. Gardiner, and took me into his own family, Mrs. +Auld kindly taking care of me, and dressing my wounds, until they were healed, +and I was ready to go again to work. +</p> + +<p> +While I was on the Eastern Shore, Master Hugh had met with reverses, which +overthrew his business; and he had given up ship building in his own yard, on +the City Block, and was now acting as foreman of Mr. Walter Price. The best he +could now do for me, was to take me into Mr. Price’s yard, and afford me +the facilities there, for completing the trade which I had began to learn at +Gardiner’s. Here I rapidly became expert in the use of my calking tools; +and, in the course of a single year, I was able to command the highest wages +paid to journeymen calkers in Baltimore. +</p> + +<p> +The reader will observe that I was now of some pecuniary value to my master. +During the busy season, I was bringing six and seven dollars per week. I have, +sometimes, brought him as much as nine dollars a week, for the wages were a +dollar and a half per day. +</p> + +<p> +After learning to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own contracts, and +collected my own earnings; giving Master Hugh no trouble in any part of the +transactions to which I was a party. +</p> + +<p> +Here, then, were better days for the Eastern Shore <i>slave</i>. I was now free +from the vexatious assalts(sic) of the apprentices at Mr. Gardiner’s; and +free from the perils of plantation life, and once more in a favorable condition +to increase my little stock of education, which had been at a dead stand since +my removal from Baltimore. I had, on the Eastern Shore, been only a teacher, +when in company with other slaves, but now there were colored persons who could +instruct me. Many of the young calkers could read, write and cipher. Some of +them had high notions about mental improvement; and the free ones, on +Fell’s Point, organized what they called the <i>“East Baltimore +Mental Improvement Society.”</i> To this society, notwithstanding it was +intended that only free persons should attach themselves, I was admitted, and +was, several times, assigned a prominent part in its debates. I owe much to the +society of these young men. +</p> + +<p> +The reader already knows enough of the <i>ill</i> effects of good treatment on +a slave, to anticipate what was now the case in my improved condition. It was +not long before I began to show signs of disquiet with slavery, and to look +around for means to get out of that condition by the shortest route. I was +living among <i>free men;</i> and was, in all respects, equal to them by nature +and by attainments. <i>Why should I be a slave?</i> There was <i>no</i> reason +why I should be the thrall of any man. +</p> + +<p> +Besides, I was now getting—as I have said—a dollar and fifty cents +per day. I contracted for it, worked for it, earned it, collected it; it was +paid to me, and it was <i>rightfully</i> my own; and yet, upon every returning +Saturday night, this money—my own hard earnings, every cent of +it—was demanded of me, and taken from me by Master Hugh. He did not earn +it; he had no hand in earning it; why, then, should he have it? I owed him +nothing. He had given me no schooling, and I had received from him only my food +and raiment; and for these, my services were supposed to pay, from the first. +The right to take my earnings, was the right of the robber. He had the power to +compel me to give him the fruits of my labor, and this power was his only right +in the case. I became more and more dissatisfied with this state of things; +and, in so becoming, I only gave proof of the same human nature which every +reader of this chapter in my life—slaveholder, or nonslaveholder—is +conscious of possessing. +</p> + +<p> +To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to +darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate his +power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. The +man that takes his earnings, must be able to convince him that he has a perfect +right to do so. It must not depend upon mere force; the slave must know no +Higher Law than his master’s will. The whole relationship must not only +demonstrate, to his mind, its necessity, but its absolute rightfulness. If +there be one crevice through which a single drop can fall, it will certainly +rust off the slave’s chain. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"></a> +CHAPTER XXI. <i>My Escape from Slavery</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +CLOSING INCIDENTS OF “MY LIFE AS A SLAVE”—REASONS WHY FULL +PARTICULARS OF THE MANNER OF MY ESCAPE WILL NOT BE GIVEN—CRAFTINESS AND +MALICE OF SLAVEHOLDERS—SUSPICION OF AIDING A SLAVE’S ESCAPE ABOUT +AS DANGEROUS AS POSITIVE EVIDENCE—WANT OF WISDOM SHOWN IN PUBLISHING +DETAILS OF THE ESCAPE OF THE FUGITIVES—PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS REACH THE +MASTERS, NOT THE SLAVES—SLAVEHOLDERS STIMULATED TO GREATER +WATCHFULNESS—MY CONDITION—DISCONTENT—SUSPICIONS IMPLIED BY +MASTER HUGH’S MANNER, WHEN RECEIVING MY WAGES—HIS OCCASIONAL +GENEROSITY!—DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF ESCAPE—EVERY AVENUE +GUARDED—PLAN TO OBTAIN MONEY—I AM ALLOWED TO HIRE MY TIME—A +GLEAM OF HOPE—ATTENDS CAMP-MEETING, WITHOUT PERMISSION—ANGER OF +MASTER HUGH THEREAT—THE RESULT—MY PLANS OF ESCAPE ACCELERATED +THERBY—THE DAY FOR MY DEPARTURE FIXED—HARASSED BY DOUBTS AND +FEARS—PAINFUL THOUGHTS OF SEPARATION FROM FRIENDS—THE ATTEMPT +MADE—ITS SUCCESS. +</p> + +<p> +I will now make the kind reader acquainted with the closing incidents of my +“Life as a Slave,” having already trenched upon the limit allotted +to my “Life as a Freeman.” Before, however, proceeding with this +narration, it is, perhaps, proper that I should frankly state, in advance, my +intention to withhold a part of the(sic) connected with my escape from slavery. +There are reasons for this suppression, which I trust the reader will deem +altogether valid. It may be easily conceived, that a full and complete +statement of all facts pertaining to the flight of a bondman, might implicate +and embarrass some who may have, wittingly or unwittingly, assisted him; and no +one can wish me to involve any man or woman who has befriended me, even in the +liability of embarrassment or trouble. +</p> + +<p> +Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the rattlesnake, his +malice retains its poison long; and, although it is now nearly seventeen years +since I made my escape, it is well to be careful, in dealing with the +circumstances relating to it. Were I to give but a shadowy outline of the +process adopted, with characteristic aptitude, the crafty and malicious among +the slaveholders might, possibly, hit upon the track I pursued, and involve +some one in suspicion which, in a slave state, is about as bad as positive +evidence. The colored man, there, must not only shun evil, but shun the very +<i>appearance</i> of evil, or be condemned as a criminal. A slaveholding +community has a peculiar taste for ferreting out offenses against the slave +system, justice there being more sensitive in its regard for the peculiar +rights of this system, than for any other interest or institution. By stringing +together a train of events and circumstances, even if I were not very explicit, +the means of escape might be ascertained, and, possibly, those means be +rendered, thereafter, no longer available to the liberty-seeking children of +bondage I have left behind me. No antislavery man can wish me to do anything +favoring such results, and no slaveholding reader has any right to expect the +impartment of such information. +</p> + +<p> +While, therefore, it would afford me pleasure, and perhaps would materially add +to the interest of my story, were I at liberty to gratify a curiosity which I +know to exist in the minds of many, as to the manner of my escape, I must +deprive myself of this pleasure, and the curious of the gratification, which +such a statement of facts would afford. I would allow myself to suffer under +the greatest imputations that evil minded men might suggest, rather than +exculpate myself by explanation, and thereby run the hazards of closing the +slightest avenue by which a brother in suffering might clear himself of the +chains and fetters of slavery. +</p> + +<p> +The practice of publishing every new invention by which a slave is known to +have escaped from slavery, has neither wisdom nor necessity to sustain it. Had +not Henry Box Brown and his friends attracted slaveholding attention to the +manner of his escape, we might have had a thousand <i>Box Browns</i> per annum. +The singularly original plan adopted by William and Ellen Crafts, perished with +the first using, because every slaveholder in the land was apprised of it. The +<i>salt water slave</i> who hung in the guards of a steamer, being washed three +days and three nights—like another Jonah—by the waves of the sea, +has, by the publicity given to the circumstance, set a spy on the guards of +every steamer departing from southern ports. +</p> + +<p> +I have never approved of the very public manner, in which some of our western +friends have conducted what <i>they</i> call the <i>“Under-ground +Railroad,”</i> but which, I think, by their open declarations, has been +made, most emphatically, the <i>“Upper</i>-ground Railroad.” Its +stations are far better known to the slaveholders than to the slaves. I honor +those good men and women for their noble daring, in willingly subjecting +themselves to persecution, by openly avowing their participation in the escape +of slaves; nevertheless, the good resulting from such avowals, is of a very +questionable character. It may kindle an enthusiasm, very pleasant to inhale; +but that is of no practical benefit to themselves, nor to the slaves escaping. +Nothing is more evident, than that such disclosures are a positive evil to the +slaves remaining, and seeking to escape. In publishing such accounts, the +anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, <i>not the slave;</i> he stimulates +the former to greater watchfulness, and adds to his facilities for capturing +his slave. We owe something to the slaves, south of Mason and Dixon’s +line, as well as to those north of it; and, in discharging the duty of aiding +the latter, on their way to freedom, we should be careful to do nothing which +would be likely to hinder the former, in making their escape from slavery. Such +is my detestation of slavery, that I would keep the merciless slaveholder +profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. He should be +left to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever +ready to snatch, from his infernal grasp, his trembling prey. In pursuing his +victim, let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let shades of darkness, +commensurate with his crime, shut every ray of light from his pathway; and let +him be made to feel, that, at every step he takes, with the hellish purpose of +reducing a brother man to slavery, he is running the frightful risk of having +his hot brains dashed out by an invisible hand. +</p> + +<p> +But, enough of this. I will now proceed to the statement of those facts, +connected with my escape, for which I am alone responsible, and for which no +one can be made to suffer but myself. +</p> + +<p> +My condition in the year (1838) of my escape, was, comparatively, a free and +easy one, so far, at least, as the wants of the physical man were concerned; +but the reader will bear in mind, that my troubles from the beginning, have +been less physical than mental, and he will thus be prepared to find, after +what is narrated in the previous chapters, that slave life was adding nothing +to its charms for me, as I grew older, and became better acquainted with it. +The practice, from week to week, of openly robbing me of all my earnings, kept +the nature and character of slavery constantly before me. I could be robbed by +<i>indirection</i>, but this was <i>too</i> open and barefaced to be endured. I +could see no reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of +my honest toil into the purse of any man. The thought itself vexed me, and the +manner in which Master Hugh received my wages, vexed me more than the original +wrong. Carefully counting the money and rolling it out, dollar by dollar, he +would look me in the face, as if he would search my heart as well as my pocket, +and reproachfully ask me, “<i>Is that all</i>?”—implying that +I had, perhaps, kept back part of my wages; or, if not so, the demand was made, +possibly, to make me feel, that, after all, I was an “unprofitable +servant.” Draining me of the last cent of my hard earnings, he would, +however, occasionally—when I brought home an extra large sum—dole +out to me a sixpence or a shilling, with a view, perhaps, of kindling up my +gratitude; but this practice had the opposite effect—it was an admission +of <i>my right to the whole sum</i>. The fact, that he gave me any part of my +wages, was proof that he suspected that I had a right <i>to the whole of +them</i>. I always felt uncomfortable, after having received anything in this +way, for I feared that the giving me a few cents, might, possibly, ease his +conscience, and make him feel himself a pretty honorable robber, after all! +</p> + +<p> +Held to a strict account, and kept under a close watch—the old suspicion +of my running away not having been entirely removed—escape from slavery, +even in Baltimore, was very difficult. The railroad from Baltimore to +Philadelphia was under regulations so stringent, that even <i>free</i> colored +travelers were almost excluded. They must have <i>free</i> papers; they must be +measured and carefully examined, before they were allowed to enter the cars; +they only went in the day time, even when so examined. The steamboats were +under regulations equally stringent. All the great turnpikes, leading +northward, were beset with kidnappers, a class of men who watched the +newspapers for advertisements for runaway slaves, making their living by the +accursed reward of slave hunting. +</p> + +<p> +My discontent grew upon me, and I was on the look-out for means of escape. With +money, I could easily have managed the matter, and, therefore, I hit upon the +plan of soliciting the privilege of hiring my time. It is quite common, in +Baltimore, to allow slaves this privilege, and it is the practice, also, in New +Orleans. A slave who is considered trustworthy, can, by paying his master a +definite sum regularly, at the end of each week, dispose of his time as he +likes. It so happened that I was not in very good odor, and I was far from +being a trustworthy slave. Nevertheless, I watched my opportunity when Master +Thomas came to Baltimore (for I was still his property, Hugh only acted as his +agent) in the spring of 1838, to purchase his spring supply of goods, and +applied to him, directly, for the much-coveted privilege of hiring my time. +This request Master Thomas unhesitatingly refused to grant; and he charged me, +with some sternness, with inventing this stratagem to make my escape. He told +me, “I could go <i>nowhere</i> but he could catch me; and, in the event +of my running away, I might be assured he should spare no pains in his efforts +to recapture me.” He recounted, with a good deal of eloquence, the many +kind offices he had done me, and exhorted me to be contented and obedient. +“Lay out no plans for the future,” said he. “If you behave +yourself properly, I will take care of you.” Now, kind and considerate as +this offer was, it failed to soothe me into repose. In spite of Master Thomas, +and, I may say, in spite of myself, also, I continued to think, and worse +still, to think almost exclusively about the injustice and wickedness of +slavery. No effort of mine or of his could silence this trouble-giving thought, +or change my purpose to run away. +</p> + +<p> +About two months after applying to Master Thomas for the privilege of hiring my +time, I applied to Master Hugh for the same liberty, supposing him to be +unacquainted with the fact that I had made a similar application to Master +Thomas, and had been refused. My boldness in making this request, fairly +astounded him at the first. He gazed at me in amazement. But I had many good +reasons for pressing the matter; and, after listening to them awhile, he did +not absolutely refuse, but told me he would think of it. Here, then, was a +gleam of hope. Once master of my own time, I felt sure that I could make, over +and above my obligation to him, a dollar or two every week. Some slaves have +made enough, in this way, to purchase their freedom. It is a sharp spur to +industry; and some of the most enterprising colored men in Baltimore hire +themselves in this way. After mature reflection—as I must suppose it was +Master Hugh granted me the privilege in question, on the following terms: I was +to be allowed all my time; to make all bargains for work; to find my own +employment, and to collect my own wages; and, in return for this liberty, I was +required, or obliged, to pay him three dollars at the end of each week, and to +board and clothe myself, and buy my own calking tools. A failure in any of +these particulars would put an end to my privilege. This was a hard bargain. +The wear and tear of clothing, the losing and breaking of tools, and the +expense of board, made it necessary for me to earn at least six dollars per +week, to keep even with the world. All who are acquainted with calking, know +how uncertain and irregular that employment is. It can be done to advantage +only in dry weather, for it is useless to put wet oakum into a seam. Rain or +shine, however, work or no work, at the end of each week the money must be +forthcoming. +</p> + +<p> +Master Hugh seemed to be very much pleased, for a time, with this arrangement; +and well he might be, for it was decidedly in his favor. It relieved him of all +anxiety concerning me. His money was sure. He had armed my love of liberty with +a lash and a driver, far more efficient than any I had before known; and, while +he derived all the benefits of slaveholding by the arrangement, without its +evils, I endured all the evils of being a slave, and yet suffered all the care +and anxiety of a responsible freeman. “Nevertheless,” thought I, +“it is a valuable privilege another step in my career toward +freedom.” It was something even to be permitted to stagger under the +disadvantages of liberty, and I was determined to hold on to the newly gained +footing, by all proper industry. I was ready to work by night as well as by +day; and being in the enjoyment of excellent health, I was able not only to +meet my current expenses, but also to lay by a small sum at the end of each +week. All went on thus, from the month of May till August; then—for +reasons which will become apparent as I proceed—my much valued liberty +was wrested from me. +</p> + +<p> +During the week previous to this (to me) calamitous event, I had made +arrangements with a few young friends, to accompany them, on Saturday night, to +a camp-meeting, held about twelve miles from Baltimore. On the evening of our +intended start for the camp-ground, something occurred in the ship yard where I +was at work, which detained me unusually late, and compelled me either to +disappoint my young friends, or to neglect carrying my weekly dues to Master +Hugh. Knowing that I had the money, and could hand it to him on another day, I +decided to go to camp-meeting, and to pay him the three dollars, for the past +week, on my return. Once on the camp-ground, I was induced to remain one day +longer than I had intended, when I left home. But, as soon as I returned, I +went straight to his house on Fell street, to hand him his (my) money. +Unhappily, the fatal mistake had been committed. I found him exceedingly angry. +He exhibited all the signs of apprehension and wrath, which a slaveholder may +be surmised to exhibit on the supposed escape of a favorite slave. “You +rascal! I have a great mind to give you a severe whipping. How dare you go out +of the city without first asking and obtaining my permission?” +“Sir,” said I, “I hired my time and paid you the price you +asked for it. I did not know that it was any part of the bargain that I should +ask you when or where I should go.” +</p> + +<p> +“You did not know, you rascal! You are bound to show yourself here every +Saturday night.” After reflecting, a few moments, he became somewhat +cooled down; but, evidently greatly troubled, he said, “Now, you +scoundrel! you have done for yourself; you shall hire your time no longer. The +next thing I shall hear of, will be your running away. Bring home your tools +and your clothes, at once. I’ll teach you how to go off in this +way.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus ended my partial freedom. I could hire my time no longer; and I obeyed my +master’s orders at once. The little taste of liberty which I had +had—although as the reader will have seen, it was far from being +unalloyed—by no means enhanced my contentment with slavery. Punished thus +by Master Hugh, it was now my turn to punish him. “Since,” thought +I, “you <i>will</i> make a slave of me, I will await your orders in all +things;” and, instead of going to look for work on Monday morning, as I +had formerly done, I remained at home during the entire week, without the +performance of a single stroke of work. Saturday night came, and he called upon +me, as usual, for my wages. I, of course, told him I had done no work, and had +no wages. Here we were at the point of coming to blows. His wrath had been +accumulating during the whole week; for he evidently saw that I was making no +effort to get work, but was most aggravatingly awaiting his orders, in all +things. As I look back to this behavior of mine, I scarcely know what possessed +me, thus to trifle with those who had such unlimited power to bless or to blast +me. Master Hugh raved and swore his determination to <i>“get hold of +me;”</i> but, wisely for <i>him</i>, and happily for <i>me</i>, his wrath +only employed those very harmless, impalpable missiles, which roll from a +limber tongue. In my desperation, I had fully made up my mind to measure +strength with Master Hugh, in case he should undertake to execute his threats. +I am glad there was no necessity for this; for resistance to him could not have +ended so happily for me, as it did in the case of Covey. He was not a man to be +safely resisted by a slave; and I freely own, that in my conduct toward him, in +this instance, there was more folly than wisdom. Master Hugh closed his +reproofs, by telling me that, hereafter, I need give myself no uneasiness about +getting work; that he “would, himself, see to getting work for me, and +enough of it, at that.” This threat I confess had some terror in it; and, +on thinking the matter over, during the Sunday, I resolved, not only to save +him the trouble of getting me work, but that, upon the third day of September, +I would attempt to make my escape from slavery. The refusal to allow me to hire +my time, therefore, hastened the period of flight. I had three weeks, now, in +which to prepare for my journey. +</p> + +<p> +Once resolved, I felt a certain degree of repose, and on Monday, instead of +waiting for Master Hugh to seek employment for me, I was up by break of day, +and off to the ship yard of Mr. Butler, on the City Block, near the +draw-bridge. I was a favorite with Mr. B., and, young as I was, I had served as +his foreman on the float stage, at calking. Of course, I easily obtained work, +and, at the end of the week—which by the way was exceedingly fine I +brought Master Hugh nearly nine dollars. The effect of this mark of returning +good sense, on my part, was excellent. He was very much pleased; he took the +money, commended me, and told me I might have done the same thing the week +before. It is a blessed thing that the tyrant may not always know the thoughts +and purposes of his victim. Master Hugh little knew what my plans were. The +going to camp-meeting without asking his permission—the insolent answers +made to his reproaches—the sulky deportment the week after being deprived +of the privilege of hiring my time—had awakened in him the suspicion that +I might be cherishing disloyal purposes. My object, therefore, in working +steadily, was to remove suspicion, and in this I succeeded admirably. He +probably thought I was never better satisfied with my condition, than at the +very time I was planning my escape. The second week passed, and again I carried +him my full week’s wages—<i>nine dollars;</i> and so well pleased +was he, that he gave me TWENTY-FIVE CENTS! and “bade me make good use of +it!” I told him I would, for one of the uses to which I meant to put it, +was to pay my fare on the underground railroad. +</p> + +<p> +Things without went on as usual; but I was passing through the same internal +excitement and anxiety which I had experienced two years and a half before. The +failure, in that instance, was not calculated to increase my confidence in the +success of this, my second attempt; and I knew that a second failure could not +leave me where my first did—I must either get to the <i>far north</i>, or +be sent to the <i>far south</i>. Besides the exercise of mind from this state +of facts, I had the painful sensation of being about to separate from a circle +of honest and warm hearted friends, in Baltimore. The thought of such a +separation, where the hope of ever meeting again is excluded, and where there +can be no correspondence, is very painful. It is my opinion, that thousands +would escape from slavery who now remain there, but for the strong cords of +affection that bind them to their families, relatives and friends. The daughter +is hindered from escaping, by the love she bears her mother, and the father, by +the love he bears his children; and so, to the end of the chapter. I had no +relations in Baltimore, and I saw no probability of ever living in the +neighborhood of sisters and brothers; but the thought of leaving my friends, +was among the strongest obstacles to my running away. The last two days of the +week—Friday and Saturday—were spent mostly in collecting my things +together, for my journey. Having worked four days that week, for my master, I +handed him six dollars, on Saturday night. I seldom spent my Sundays at home; +and, for fear that something might be discovered in my conduct, I kept up my +custom, and absented myself all day. On Monday, the third day of September, +1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to the city of +Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence from childhood. +</p> + +<p> +How I got away—in what direction I traveled—whether by land or by +water; whether with or without assistance—must, for reasons already +mentioned, remain unexplained. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"></a> +LIFE as a FREEMAN</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"></a> +CHAPTER XXII. <i>Liberty Attained</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM—A WANDERER IN NEW YORK—FEELINGS +ON REACHING THAT CITY—AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE MET—UNFAVORABLE +IMPRESSIONS—LONELINESS AND INSECURITY—APOLOGY FOR SLAVES WHO RETURN +TO THEIR MASTERS—COMPELLED TO TELL MY CONDITION—SUCCORED BY A +SAILOR—DAVID RUGGLES—THE UNDERGROUND +RAILROAD—MARRIAGE—BAGGAGE TAKEN FROM ME—KINDNESS OF NATHAN +JOHNSON—MY CHANGE OF NAME—DARK NOTIONS OF NORTHERN +CIVILIZATION—THE CONTRAST—COLORED PEOPLE IN NEW BEDFORD—AN +INCIDENT ILLUSTRATING THEIR SPIRIT—A COMMON LABORER—DENIED WORK AT +MY TRADE—THE FIRST WINTER AT THE NORTH—REPULSE AT THE DOORS OF THE +CHURCH—SANCTIFIED HATE—THE <i>Liberator</i> AND ITS EDITOR. +</p> + +<p> +There is no necessity for any extended notice of the incidents of this part of +my life. There is nothing very striking or peculiar about my career as a +freeman, when viewed apart from my life as a slave. The relation subsisting +between my early experience and that which I am now about to narrate, is, +perhaps, my best apology for adding another chapter to this book. +</p> + +<p> +Disappearing from the kind reader, in a flying cloud or balloon (pardon the +figure), driven by the wind, and knowing not where I should land—whether +in slavery or in freedom—it is proper that I should remove, at once, all +anxiety, by frankly making known where I alighted. The flight was a bold and +perilous one; but here I am, in the great city of New York, safe and sound, +without loss of blood or bone. In less than a week after leaving Baltimore, I +was walking amid the hurrying throng, and gazing upon the dazzling wonders of +Broadway. The dreams of my childhood and the purposes of my manhood were now +fulfilled. A free state around me, and a free earth under my feet! What a +moment was this to me! A whole year was pressed into a single day. A new world +burst upon my agitated vision. I have often been asked, by kind friends to whom +I have told my story, how I felt when first I found myself beyond the limits of +slavery; and I must say here, as I have often said to them, there is scarcely +anything about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. It was a +moment of joyous excitement, which no words can describe. In a letter to a +friend, written soon after reaching New York. I said I felt as one might be +supposed to feel, on escaping from a den of hungry lions. But, in a moment like +that, sensations are too intense and too rapid for words. Anguish and grief, +like darkness and rain, may be described, but joy and gladness, like the +rainbow of promise, defy alike the pen and pencil. +</p> + +<p> +For ten or fifteen years I had been dragging a heavy chain, with a huge block +attached to it, cumbering my every motion. I had felt myself doomed to drag +this chain and this block through life. All efforts, before, to separate myself +from the hateful encumbrance, had only seemed to rivet me the more firmly to +it. Baffled and discouraged at times, I had asked myself the question, May not +this, after all, be God’s work? May He not, for wise ends, have doomed me +to this lot? A contest had been going on in my mind for years, between the +clear consciousness of right and the plausible errors of superstition; between +the wisdom of manly courage, and the foolish weakness of timidity. The contest +was now ended; the chain was severed; God and right stood vindicated. I was A +FREEMAN, and the voice of peace and joy thrilled my heart. +</p> + +<p> +Free and joyous, however, as I was, joy was not the only sensation I +experienced. It was like the quick blaze, beautiful at the first, but which +subsiding, leaves the building charred and desolate. I was soon taught that I +was still in an enemy’s land. A sense of loneliness and insecurity +oppressed me sadly. I had been but a few hours in New York, before I was met in +the streets by a fugitive slave, well known to me, and the information I got +from him respecting New York, did nothing to lessen my apprehension of danger. +The fugitive in question was “Allender’s Jake,” in Baltimore; +but, said he, I am “WILLIAM DIXON,” in New York! I knew Jake well, +and knew when Tolly Allender and Mr. Price (for the latter employed Master Hugh +as his foreman, in his shipyard on Fell’s Point) made an attempt to +recapture Jake, and failed. Jake told me all about his circumstances, and how +narrowly he escaped being taken back to slavery; that the city was now full of +southerners, returning from the springs; that the black people in New York were +not to be trusted; that there were hired men on the lookout for fugitives from +slavery, and who, for a few dollars, would betray me into the hands of the +slave-catchers; that I must trust no man with my secret; that I must not think +of going either on the wharves to work, or to a boarding-house to board; and, +worse still, this same Jake told me it was not in his power to help me. He +seemed, even while cautioning me, to be fearing lest, after all, I might be a +party to a second attempt to recapture him. Under the inspiration of this +thought, I must suppose it was, he gave signs of a wish to get rid of me, and +soon left me his whitewash brush in hand—as he said, for his work. He was +soon lost to sight among the throng, and I was alone again, an easy prey to the +kidnappers, if any should happen to be on my track. +</p> + +<p> +New York, seventeen years ago, was less a place of safety for a runaway slave +than now, and all know how unsafe it now is, under the new fugitive slave bill. +I was much troubled. I had very little money enough to buy me a few loaves of +bread, but not enough to pay board, outside a lumber yard. I saw the wisdom of +keeping away from the ship yards, for if Master Hugh pursued me, he would +naturally expect to find me looking for work among the calkers. For a time, +every door seemed closed against me. A sense of my loneliness and helplessness +crept over me, and covered me with something bordering on despair. In the midst +of thousands of my fellowmen, and yet a perfect stranger! In the midst of human +brothers, and yet more fearful of them than of hungry wolves! I was without +home, without friends, without work, without money, and without any definite +knowledge of which way to go, or where to look for succor. +</p> + +<p> +Some apology can easily be made for the few slaves who have, after making good +their escape, turned back to slavery, preferring the actual rule of their +masters, to the life of loneliness, apprehension, hunger, and anxiety, which +meets them on their first arrival in a free state. It is difficult for a +freeman to enter into the feelings of such fugitives. He cannot see things in +the same light with the slave, because he does not, and cannot, look from the +same point from which the slave does. “Why do you tremble,” he says +to the slave “you are in a free state;” but the difficulty is, in +realizing that he is in a free state, the slave might reply. A freeman cannot +understand why the slave-master’s shadow is bigger, to the slave, than +the might and majesty of a free state; but when he reflects that the slave +knows more about the slavery of his master than he does of the might and +majesty of the free state, he has the explanation. The slave has been all his +life learning the power of his master—being trained to dread his +approach—and only a few hours learning the power of the state. The master +is to him a stern and flinty reality, but the state is little more than a +dream. He has been accustomed to regard every white man as the friend of his +master, and every colored man as more or less under the control of his +master’s friends—the white people. It takes stout nerves to stand +up, in such circumstances. A man, homeless, shelterless, breadless, friendless, +and moneyless, is not in a condition to assume a very proud or joyous tone; and +in just this condition was I, while wandering about the streets of New York +city and lodging, at least one night, among the barrels on one of its wharves. +I was not only free from slavery, but I was free from home, as well. The reader +will easily see that I had something more than the simple fact of being free to +think of, in this extremity. +</p> + +<p> +I kept my secret as long as I could, and at last was forced to go in search of +an honest man—a man sufficiently <i>human</i> not to betray me into the +hands of slave-catchers. I was not a bad reader of the human face, nor long in +selecting the right man, when once compelled to disclose the facts of my +condition to some one. +</p> + +<p> +I found my man in the person of one who said his name was Stewart. He was a +sailor, warm-hearted and generous, and he listened to my story with a +brother’s interest. I told him I was running for my freedom—knew +not where to go—money almost gone—was hungry—thought it +unsafe to go the shipyards for work, and needed a friend. Stewart promptly put +me in the way of getting out of my trouble. He took me to his house, and went +in search of the late David Ruggles, who was then the secretary of the New York +Vigilance Committee, and a very active man in all anti-slavery works. Once in +the hands of Mr. Ruggles, I was comparatively safe. I was hidden with Mr. +Ruggles several days. In the meantime, my intended wife, Anna, came on from +Baltimore—to whom I had written, informing her of my safe arrival at New +York—and, in the presence of Mrs. Mitchell and Mr. Ruggles, we were +married, by Rev. James W. C. Pennington. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Ruggles <a href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a> was +the first officer on the under-ground railroad with whom I met after reaching +the north, and, indeed, the first of whom I ever heard anything. Learning that +I was a calker by trade, he promptly decided that New Bedford was the proper +place to send me. “Many ships,” said he, “are there fitted +out for the whaling business, and you may there find work at your trade, and +make a good living.” Thus, in one fortnight after my flight from +Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, regularly entered upon the exercise of the +rights, responsibilities, and duties of a freeman. +</p> + +<p> +I may mention a little circumstance which annoyed me on reaching New Bedford. I +had not a cent of money, and lacked two dollars toward paying our fare from +Newport, and our baggage not very costly—was taken by the stage driver, +and held until I could raise the money to redeem it. This difficulty was soon +surmounted. Mr. Nathan Johnson, to whom we had a line from Mr. Ruggles, not +only received us kindly and hospitably, but, on being informed about our +baggage, promptly loaned me two dollars with which to redeem my little +property. I shall ever be deeply grateful, both to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson, +for the lively interest they were pleased to take in me, in this hour of my +extremest need. They not only gave myself and wife bread and shelter, but +taught us how to begin to secure those benefits for ourselves. Long may they +live, and may blessings attend them in this life and in that which is to come! +</p> + +<p> +Once initiated into the new life of freedom, and assured by Mr. Johnson that +New Bedford was a safe place, the comparatively unimportant matter, as to what +should be my name, came up for considertion(sic). It was necessary to have a +name in my new relations. The name given me by my beloved mother was no less +pretentious than “Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.” I had, +however, before leaving Maryland, dispensed with the <i>Augustus +Washington</i>, and retained the name <i>Frederick Bailey</i>. Between +Baltimore and New Bedford, however, I had several different names, the better +to avoid being overhauled by the hunters, which I had good reason to believe +would be put on my track. Among honest men an honest man may well be content +with one name, and to acknowledge it at all times and in all places; but toward +fugitives, Americans are not honest. When I arrived at New Bedford, my name was +Johnson; and finding that the Johnson family in New Bedford were already quite +numerous—sufficiently so to produce some confusion in attempts to +distinguish one from another—there was the more reason for making another +change in my name. In fact, “Johnson” had been assumed by nearly +every slave who had arrived in New Bedford from Maryland, and this, much to the +annoyance of the original “Johnsons” (of whom there were many) in +that place. Mine host, unwilling to have another of his own name added to the +community in this unauthorized way, after I spent a night and a day at his +house, gave me my present name. He had been reading the “Lady of the +Lake,” and was pleased to regard me as a suitable person to wear this, +one of Scotland’s many famous names. Considering the noble hospitality +and manly character of Nathan Johnson, I have felt that he, better than I, +illustrated the virtues of the great Scottish chief. Sure I am, that had any +slave-catcher entered his domicile, with a view to molest any one of his +household, he would have shown himself like him of the “stalwart +hand.” +</p> + +<p> +The reader will be amused at my ignorance, when I tell the notions I had of the +state of northern wealth, enterprise, and civilization. Of wealth and +refinement, I supposed the north had none. My <i>Columbian Orator</i>, which +was almost my only book, had not done much to enlighten me concerning northern +society. The impressions I had received were all wide of the truth. New +Bedford, especially, took me by surprise, in the solid wealth and grandeur +there exhibited. I had formed my notions respecting the social condition of the +free states, by what I had seen and known of free, white, non-slaveholding +people in the slave states. Regarding slavery as the basis of wealth, I fancied +that no people could become very wealthy without slavery. A free white man, +holding no slaves, in the country, I had known to be the most ignorant and +poverty-stricken of men, and the laughing stock even of slaves +themselves—called generally by them, in derision, <i>“poor white +trash</i>.” Like the non-slaveholders at the south, in holding no slaves, +I suppose the northern people like them, also, in poverty and degradation. +Judge, then, of my amazement and joy, when I found—as I did +find—the very laboring population of New Bedford living in better houses, +more elegantly furnished—surrounded by more comfort and +refinement—than a majority of the slaveholders on the Eastern Shore of +Maryland. There was my friend, Mr. Johnson, himself a colored man (who at the +south would have been regarded as a proper marketable commodity), who lived in +a better house—dined at a richer board—was the owner of more +books—the reader of more newspapers—was more conversant with the +political and social condition of this nation and the world—than +nine-tenths of all the slaveholders of Talbot county, Maryland. Yet Mr. Johnson +was a working man, and his hands were hardened by honest toil. Here, then, was +something for observation and study. Whence the difference? The explanation was +soon furnished, in the superiority of mind over simple brute force. Many pages +might be given to the contrast, and in explanation of its causes. But an +incident or two will suffice to show the reader as to how the mystery gradually +vanished before me. +</p> + +<p> +My first afternoon, on reaching New Bedford, was spent in visiting the wharves +and viewing the shipping. The sight of the broad brim and the plain, Quaker +dress, which met me at every turn, greatly increased my sense of freedom and +security. “I am among the Quakers,” thought I, “and am +safe.” Lying at the wharves and riding in the stream, were full-rigged +ships of finest model, ready to start on whaling voyages. Upon the right and +the left, I was walled in by large granite-fronted warehouses, crowded with the +good things of this world. On the wharves, I saw industry without bustle, labor +without noise, and heavy toil without the whip. There was no loud singing, as +in southern ports, where ships are loading or unloading—no loud cursing +or swearing—but everything went on as smoothly as the works of a well +adjusted machine. How different was all this from the nosily fierce and +clumsily absurd manner of labor-life in Baltimore and St. Michael’s! One +of the first incidents which illustrated the superior mental character of +northern labor over that of the south, was the manner of unloading a +ship’s cargo of oil. In a southern port, twenty or thirty hands would +have been employed to do what five or six did here, with the aid of a single ox +attached to the end of a fall. Main strength, unassisted by skill, is +slavery’s method of labor. An old ox, worth eighty dollars, was doing, in +New Bedford, what would have required fifteen thousand dollars worth of human +bones and muscles to have performed in a southern port. I found that everything +was done here with a scrupulous regard to economy, both in regard to men and +things, time and strength. The maid servant, instead of spending at least a +tenth part of her time in bringing and carrying water, as in Baltimore, had the +pump at her elbow. The wood was dry, and snugly piled away for winter. +Woodhouses, in-door pumps, sinks, drains, self-shutting gates, washing +machines, pounding barrels, were all new things, and told me that I was among a +thoughtful and sensible people. To the ship-repairing dock I went, and saw the +same wise prudence. The carpenters struck where they aimed, and the calkers +wasted no blows in idle flourishes of the mallet. I learned that men went from +New Bedford to Baltimore, and bought old ships, and brought them here to +repair, and made them better and more valuable than they ever were before. Men +talked here of going whaling on a four <i>years’</i> voyage with more +coolness than sailors where I came from talked of going a four +<i>months’</i> voyage. +</p> + +<p> +I now find that I could have landed in no part of the United States, where I +should have found a more striking and gratifying contrast to the condition of +the free people of color in Baltimore, than I found here in New Bedford. No +colored man is really free in a slaveholding state. He wears the badge of +bondage while nominally free, and is often subjected to hardships to which the +slave is a stranger; but here in New Bedford, it was my good fortune to see a +pretty near approach to freedom on the part of the colored people. I was taken +all aback when Mr. Johnson—who lost no time in making me acquainted with +the fact—told me that there was nothing in the constitution of +Massachusetts to prevent a colored man from holding any office in the state. +There, in New Bedford, the black man’s children—although +anti-slavery was then far from popular—went to school side by side with +the white children, and apparently without objection from any quarter. To make +me at home, Mr. Johnson assured me that no slaveholder could take a slave from +New Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their lives, before +such an outrage could be perpetrated. The colored people themselves were of the +best metal, and would fight for liberty to the death. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, I was told the following story, which was +said to illustrate the spirit of the colored people in that goodly town: A +colored man and a fugitive slave happened to have a little quarrel, and the +former was heard to threaten the latter with informing his master of his +whereabouts. As soon as this threat became known, a notice was read from the +desk of what was then the only colored church in the place, stating that +business of importance was to be then and there transacted. Special measures +had been taken to secure the attendance of the would-be Judas, and had proved +successful. Accordingly, at the hour appointed, the people came, and the +betrayer also. All the usual formalities of public meetings were scrupulously +gone through, even to the offering prayer for Divine direction in the duties of +the occasion. The president himself performed this part of the ceremony, and I +was told that he was unusually fervent. Yet, at the close of his prayer, the +old man (one of the numerous family of Johnsons) rose from his knees, +deliberately surveyed his audience, and then said, in a tone of solemn +resolution, <i>“Well, friends, we have got him here, and I would now +recommend that you young men should just take him outside the door and kill +him.”</i> With this, a large body of the congregation, who well +understood the business they had come there to transact, made a rush at the +villain, and doubtless would have killed him, had he not availed himself of an +open sash, and made good his escape. He has never shown his head in New Bedford +since that time. This little incident is perfectly characteristic of the spirit +of the colored people in New Bedford. A slave could not be taken from that town +seventeen years ago, any more than he could be so taken away now. The reason +is, that the colored people in that city are educated up to the point of +fighting for their freedom, as well as speaking for it. +</p> + +<p> +Once assured of my safety in New Bedford, I put on the habiliments of a common +laborer, and went on the wharf in search of work. I had no notion of living on +the honest and generous sympathy of my colored brother, Johnson, or that of the +abolitionists. My cry was like that of Hood’s laborer, “Oh! only +give me work.” Happily for me, I was not long in searching. I found +employment, the third day after my arrival in New Bedford, in stowing a sloop +with a load of oil for the New York market. It was new, hard, and dirty work, +even for a calker, but I went at it with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was +now my own master—a tremendous fact—and the rapturous excitement +with which I seized the job, may not easily be understood, except by some one +with an experience like mine. The thoughts—“I can work! I can work +for a living; I am not afraid of work; I have no Master Hugh to rob me of my +earnings”—placed me in a state of independence, beyond seeking +friendship or support of any man. That day’s work I considered the real +starting point of something like a new existence. Having finished this job and +got my pay for the same, I went next in pursuit of a job at calking. It so +happened that Mr. Rodney French, late mayor of the city of New Bedford, had a +ship fitting out for sea, and to which there was a large job of calking and +coppering to be done. I applied to that noblehearted man for employment, and he +promptly told me to go to work; but going on the float-stage for the purpose, I +was informed that every white man would leave the ship if I struck a blow upon +her. “Well, well,” thought I, “this is a hardship, but yet +not a very serious one for me.” The difference between the wages of a +calker and that of a common day laborer, was an hundred per cent in favor of +the former; but then I was free, and free to work, though not at my trade. I +now prepared myself to do anything which came to hand in the way of turning an +honest penny; sawed wood—dug cellars—shoveled coal—swept +chimneys with Uncle Lucas Debuty—rolled oil casks on the +wharves—helped to load and unload vessels—worked in +Ricketson’s candle works—in Richmond’s brass foundery, and +elsewhere; and thus supported myself and family for three years. +</p> + +<p> +The first winter was unusually severe, in consequence of the high prices of +food; but even during that winter we probably suffered less than many who had +been free all their lives. During the hardest of the winter, I hired out for +nine dolars(sic) a month; and out of this rented two rooms for nine dollars per +quarter, and supplied my wife—who was unable to work—with food and +some necessary articles of furniture. We were closely pinched to bring our +wants within our means; but the jail stood over the way, and I had a wholesome +dread of the consequences of running in debt. This winter past, and I was up +with the times—got plenty of work—got well paid for it—and +felt that I had not done a foolish thing to leave Master Hugh and Master +Thomas. I was now living in a new world, and was wide awake to its advantages. +I early began to attend the meetings of the colored people of New Bedford, and +to take part in them. I was somewhat amazed to see colored men drawing up +resolutions and offering them for consideration. Several colored young men of +New Bedford, at that period, gave promise of great usefulness. They were +educated, and possessed what seemed to me, at the time, very superior talents. +Some of them have been cut down by death, and others have removed to different +parts of the world, and some remain there now, and justify, in their present +activities, my early impressions of them. +</p> + +<p> +Among my first concerns on reaching New Bedford, was to become united with the +church, for I had never given up, in reality, my religious faith. I had become +lukewarm and in a backslidden state, but I was still convinced that it was my +duty to join the Methodist church. I was not then aware of the powerful +influence of that religious body in favor of the enslavement of my race, nor +did I see how the northern churches could be responsible for the conduct of +southern churches; neither did I fully understand how it could be my duty to +remain separate from the church, because bad men were connected with it. The +slaveholding church, with its Coveys, Weedens, Aulds, and Hopkins, I could see +through at once, but I could not see how Elm Street church, in New Bedford, +could be regarded as sanctioning the Christianity of these characters in the +church at St. Michael’s. I therefore resolved to join the Methodist +church in New Bedford, and to enjoy the spiritual advantage of public worship. +The minister of the Elm Street Methodist church, was the Rev. Mr. Bonney; and +although I was not allowed a seat in the body of the house, and was proscribed +on account of my color, regarding this proscription simply as an accommodation +of the uncoverted congregation who had not yet been won to Christ and his +brotherhood, I was willing thus to be proscribed, lest sinners should be driven +away form the saving power of the gospel. Once converted, I thought they would +be sure to treat me as a man and a brother. “Surely,” thought I, +“these Christian people have none of this feeling against color. They, at +least, have renounced this unholy feeling.” Judge, then, dear reader, of +my astonishment and mortification, when I found, as soon I did find, all my +charitable assumptions at fault. +</p> + +<p> +An opportunity was soon afforded me for ascertaining the exact position of Elm +Street church on that subject. I had a chance of seeing the religious part of +the congregation by themselves; and although they disowned, in effect, their +black brothers and sisters, before the world, I did think that where none but +the saints were assembled, and no offense could be given to the wicked, and the +gospel could not be “blamed,” they would certainly recognize us as +children of the same Father, and heirs of the same salvation, on equal terms +with themselves. +</p> + +<p> +The occasion to which I refer, was the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, +that most sacred and most solemn of all the ordinances of the Christian church. +Mr. Bonney had preached a very solemn and searching discourse, which really +proved him to be acquainted with the inmost secerts(sic) of the human heart. At +the close of his discourse, the congregation was dismissed, and the church +remained to partake of the sacrament. I remained to see, as I thought, this +holy sacrament celebrated in the spirit of its great Founder. +</p> + +<p> +There were only about a half dozen colored members attached to the Elm Street +church, at this time. After the congregation was dismissed, these descended +from the gallery, and took a seat against the wall most distant from the altar. +Brother Bonney was very animated, and sung very sweetly, “Salvation +‘tis a joyful sound,” and soon began to administer the sacrament. I +was anxious to observe the bearing of the colored members, and the result was +most humiliating. During the whole ceremony, they looked like sheep without a +shepherd. The white members went forward to the altar by the bench full; and +when it was evident that all the whites had been served with the bread and +wine, Brother Bonney—pious Brother Bonney—after a long pause, as if +inquiring whether all the whites members had been served, and fully assuring +himself on that important point, then raised his voice to an unnatural pitch, +and looking to the corner where his black sheep seemed penned, beckoned with +his hand, exclaiming, “Come forward, colored friends! come forward! You, +too, have an interest in the blood of Christ. God is no respecter of persons. +Come forward, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort.” The colored +members poor, slavish souls went forward, as invited. I went out, and have +never been in that church since, although I honestly went there with a view to +joining that body. I found it impossible to respect the religious profession of +any who were under the dominion of this wicked prejudice, and I could not, +therefore, feel that in joining them, I was joining a Christian church, at all. +I tried other churches in New Bedford, with the same result, and finally, I +attached myself to a small body of colored Methodists, known as the Zion +Methodists. Favored with the affection and confidence of the members of this +humble communion, I was soon made a classleader and a local preacher among +them. Many seasons of peace and joy I experienced among them, the remembrance +of which is still precious, although I could not see it to be my duty to remain +with that body, when I found that it consented to the same spirit which held my +brethren in chains. +</p> + +<p> +In four or five months after reaching New Bedford, there came a young man to +me, with a copy of the <i>Liberator</i>, the paper edited by WILLIAM LLOYD +GARRISON, and published by ISAAC KNAPP, and asked me to subscribe for it. I +told him I had but just escaped from slavery, and was of course very poor, and +remarked further, that I was unable to pay for it then; the agent, however, +very willingly took me as a subscriber, and appeared to be much pleased with +securing my name to his list. From this time I was brought in contact with the +mind of William Lloyd Garrison. His paper took its place with me next to the +bible. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Liberator</i> was a paper after my own heart. It detested slavery +exposed hypocrisy and wickedness in high places—made no truce with the +traffickers in the bodies and souls of men; it preached human brotherhood, +denounced oppression, and, with all the solemnity of God’s word, demanded +the complete emancipation of my race. I not only liked—I <i>loved</i> +this paper, and its editor. He seemed a match for all the oponents(sic) of +emancipation, whether they spoke in the name of the law, or the gospel. His +words were few, full of holy fire, and straight to the point. Learning to love +him, through his paper, I was prepared to be pleased with his presence. +Something of a hero worshiper, by nature, here was one, on first sight, to +excite my love and reverence. +</p> + +<p> +Seventeen years ago, few men possessed a more heavenly countenance than William +Lloyd Garrison, and few men evinced a more genuine or a more exalted piety. The +bible was his text book—held sacred, as the word of the Eternal +Father—sinless perfection—complete submission to insults and +injuries—literal obedience to the injunction, if smitten on one side to +turn the other also. Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all days were Sabbaths, +and to be kept holy. All sectarism false and mischievous—the regenerated, +throughout the world, members of one body, and the HEAD Christ Jesus. Prejudice +against color was rebellion against God. Of all men beneath the sky, the +slaves, because most neglected and despised, were nearest and dearest to his +great heart. Those ministers who defended slavery from the bible, were of their +“father the devil”; and those churches which fellowshiped +slaveholders as Christians, were synagogues of Satan, and our nation was a +nation of liars. Never loud or noisy—calm and serene as a summer sky, and +as pure. “You are the man, the Moses, raised up by God, to deliver his +modern Israel from bondage,” was the spontaneous feeling of my heart, as +I sat away back in the hall and listened to his mighty words; mighty in +truth—mighty in their simple earnestness. +</p> + +<p> +I had not long been a reader of the <i>Liberator</i>, and listener to its +editor, before I got a clear apprehension of the principles of the anti-slavery +movement. I had already the spirit of the movement, and only needed to +understand its principles and measures. These I got from the <i>Liberator</i>, +and from those who believed in that paper. My acquaintance with the movement +increased my hope for the ultimate freedom of my race, and I united with it +from a sense of delight, as well as duty. +</p> + +<p> +Every week the <i>Liberator</i> came, and every week I made myself master of +its contents. All the anti-slavery meetings held in New Bedford I promptly +attended, my heart burning at every true utterance against the slave system, +and every rebuke of its friends and supporters. Thus passed the first three +years of my residence in New Bedford. I had not then dreamed of the +posibility(sic) of my becoming a public advocate of the cause so deeply +imbedded in my heart. It was enough for me to listen—to receive and +applaud the great words of others, and only whisper in private, among the white +laborers on the wharves, and elsewhere, the truths which burned in my breast. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"></a> +CHAPTER XXIII. <i>Introduced to the Abolitionists</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +FIRST SPEECH AT NANTUCKET—MUCH SENSATION—EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH OF +MR. GARRISON—AUTHOR BECOMES A PUBLIC LECTURER—FOURTEEN YEARS +EXPERIENCE—YOUTHFUL ENTHUSIASM—A BRAND NEW FACT—MATTER OF MY +AUTHOR’S SPEECH—COULD NOT FOLLOW THE PROGRAMME—FUGITIVE +SLAVESHIP DOUBTED—TO SETTLE ALL DOUBT I WRITE MY EXPERIENCE OF +SLAVERY—DANGER OF RECAPTURE INCREASED. +</p> + +<p> +In the summer of 1841, a grand anti-slavery convention was held in Nantucket, +under the auspices of Mr. Garrison and his friends. Until now, I had taken no +holiday since my escape from slavery. Having worked very hard that spring and +summer, in Richmond’s brass foundery—sometimes working all night as +well as all day—and needing a day or two of rest, I attended this +convention, never supposing that I should take part in the proceedings. Indeed, +I was not aware that any one connected with the convention even so much as knew +my name. I was, however, quite mistaken. Mr. William C. Coffin, a prominent +abolitionst(sic) in those days of trial, had heard me speaking to my colored +friends, in the little school house on Second street, New Bedford, where we +worshiped. He sought me out in the crowd, and invited me to say a few words to +the convention. Thus sought out, and thus invited, I was induced to speak out +the feelings inspired by the occasion, and the fresh recollection of the scenes +through which I had passed as a slave. My speech on this occasion is about the +only one I ever made, of which I do not remember a single connected sentence. +It was with the utmost difficulty that I could stand erect, or that I could +command and articulate two words without hesitation and stammering. I trembled +in every limb. I am not sure that my embarrassment was not the most effective +part of my speech, if speech it could be called. At any rate, this is about the +only part of my performance that I now distinctly remember. But excited and +convulsed as I was, the audience, though remarkably quiet before, became as +much excited as myself. Mr. Garrison followed me, taking me as his text; and +now, whether I had made an eloquent speech in behalf of freedom or not, his was +one never to be forgotten by those who heard it. Those who had heard Mr. +Garrison oftenest, and had known him longest, were astonished. It was an effort +of unequaled power, sweeping down, like a very tornado, every opposing barrier, +whether of sentiment or opinion. For a moment, he possessed that almost +fabulous inspiration, often referred to but seldom attained, in which a public +meeting is transformed, as it were, into a single individuality—the +orator wielding a thousand heads and hearts at once, and by the simple majesty +of his all controlling thought, converting his hearers into the express image +of his own soul. That night there were at least one thousand Garrisonians in +Nantucket! A(sic) the close of this great meeting, I was duly waited on by Mr. +John A. Collins—then the general agent of the Massachusetts anti-slavery +society—and urgently solicited by him to become an agent of that society, +and to publicly advocate its anti-slavery principles. I was reluctant to take +the proffered position. I had not been quite three years from slavery—was +honestly distrustful of my ability—wished to be excused; publicity +exposed me to discovery and arrest by my master; and other objections came up, +but Mr. Collins was not to be put off, and I finally consented to go out for +three months, for I supposed that I should have got to the end of my story and +my usefulness, in that length of time. +</p> + +<p> +Here opened upon me a new life a life for which I had had no preparation. I was +a “graduate from the peculiar institution,” Mr. Collins used to +say, when introducing me, <i>“with my diploma written on my +back!”</i> The three years of my freedom had been spent in the hard +school of adversity. My hands had been furnished by nature with something like +a solid leather coating, and I had bravely marked out for myself a life of +rough labor, suited to the hardness of my hands, as a means of supporting +myself and rearing my children. +</p> + +<p> +Now what shall I say of this fourteen years’ experience as a public +advocate of the cause of my enslaved brothers and sisters? The time is but as a +speck, yet large enough to justify a pause for retrospection—and a pause +it must only be. +</p> + +<p> +Young, ardent, and hopeful, I entered upon this new life in the full gush of +unsuspecting enthusiasm. The cause was good; the men engaged in it were good; +the means to attain its triumph, good; Heaven’s blessing must attend all, +and freedom must soon be given to the pining millions under a ruthless bondage. +My whole heart went with the holy cause, and my most fervent prayer to the +Almighty Disposer of the hearts of men, were continually offered for its early +triumph. “Who or what,” thought I, “can withstand a cause so +good, so holy, so indescribably glorious. The God of Israel is with us. The +might of the Eternal is on our side. Now let but the truth be spoken, and a +nation will start forth at the sound!” In this enthusiastic spirit, I +dropped into the ranks of freedom’s friends, and went forth to the +battle. For a time I was made to forget that my skin was dark and my hair +crisped. For a time I regretted that I could not have shared the hardships and +dangers endured by the earlier workers for the slave’s release. I soon, +however, found that my enthusiasm had been extravagant; that hardships and +dangers were not yet passed; and that the life now before me, had shadows as +well as sunbeams. +</p> + +<p> +Among the first duties assigned me, on entering the ranks, was to travel, in +company with Mr. George Foster, to secure subscribers to the <i>Anti-slavery +Standard</i> and the <i>Liberator</i>. With him I traveled and lectured through +the eastern counties of Massachusetts. Much interest was awakened—large +meetings assembled. Many came, no doubt, from curiosity to hear what a Negro +could say in his own cause. I was generally introduced as a +<i>“chattel”—</i>a<i>“thing”</i>—a piece of +southern <i>“property”</i>—the chairman assuring the audience +that <i>it</i> could speak. Fugitive slaves, at that time, were not so +plentiful as now; and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of +being a <i>“brand new fact”</i>—the first one out. Up to that +time, a colored man was deemed a fool who confessed himself a runaway slave, +not only because of the danger to which he exposed himself of being retaken, +but because it was a confession of a very <i>low</i> origin! Some of my colored +friends in New Bedford thought very badly of my wisdom for thus exposing and +degrading myself. The only precaution I took, at the beginning, to prevent +Master Thomas from knowing where I was, and what I was about, was the +withholding my former name, my master’s name, and the name of the state +and county from which I came. During the first three or four months, my +speeches were almost exclusively made up of narrations of my own personal +experience as a slave. “Let us have the facts,” said the people. So +also said Friend George Foster, who always wished to pin me down to my simple +narrative. “Give us the facts,” said Collins, “we will take +care of the philosophy.” Just here arose some embarrassment. It was +impossible for me to repeat the same old story month after month, and to keep +up my interest in it. It was new to the people, it is true, but it was an old +story to me; and to go through with it night after night, was a task altogether +too mechanical for my nature. “Tell your story, Frederick,” would +whisper my then revered friend, William Lloyd Garrison, as I stepped upon the +platform. I could not always obey, for I was now reading and thinking. New +views of the subject were presented to my mind. It did not entirely satisfy me +to <i>narrate</i> wrongs; I felt like <i>denouncing</i> them. I could not +always curb my moral indignation for the perpetrators of slaveholding villainy, +long enough for a circumstantial statement of the facts which I felt almost +everybody must know. Besides, I was growing, and needed room. “People +won’t believe you ever was a slave, Frederick, if you keep on this +way,” said Friend Foster. “Be yourself,” said Collins, +“and tell your story.” It was said to me, “Better have a +<i>little</i> of the plantation manner of speech than not; ‘tis not best +that you seem too learned.” These excellent friends were actuated by the +best of motives, and were not altogether wrong in their advice; and still I +must speak just the word that seemed to <i>me</i> the word to be spoken +<i>by</i> me. +</p> + +<p> +At last the apprehended trouble came. People doubted if I had ever been a +slave. They said I did not talk like a slave, look like a slave, nor act like a +slave, and that they believed I had never been south of Mason and Dixon’s +line. “He don’t tell us where he came from—what his +master’s name was—how he got away—nor the story of his +experience. Besides, he is educated, and is, in this, a contradiction of all +the facts we have concerning the ignorance of the slaves.” Thus, I was in +a pretty fair way to be denounced as an impostor. The committee of the +Massachusetts anti-slavery society knew all the facts in my case, and agreed +with me in the prudence of keeping them private. They, therefore, never doubted +my being a genuine fugitive; but going down the aisles of the churches in which +I spoke, and hearing the free spoken Yankees saying, repeatedly, +<i>“He’s never been a slave, I’ll warrant ye</i>,” I +resolved to dispel all doubt, at no distant day, by such a revelation of facts +as could not be made by any other than a genuine fugitive. +</p> + +<p> +In a little less than four years, therefore, after becoming a public lecturer, +I was induced to write out the leading facts connected with my experience in +slavery, giving names of persons, places, and dates—thus putting it in +the power of any who doubted, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of my story +of being a fugitive slave. This statement soon became known in Maryland, and I +had reason to believe that an effort would be made to recapture me. +</p> + +<p> +It is not probable that any open attempt to secure me as a slave could have +succeeded, further than the obtainment, by my master, of the money value of my +bones and sinews. Fortunately for me, in the four years of my labors in the +abolition cause, I had gained many friends, who would have suffered themselves +to be taxed to almost any extent to save me from slavery. It was felt that I +had committed the double offense of running away, and exposing the secrets and +crimes of slavery and slaveholders. There was a double motive for seeking my +reenslavement—avarice and vengeance; and while, as I have said, there was +little probability of successful recapture, if attempted openly, I was +constantly in danger of being spirited away, at a moment when my friends could +render me no assistance. In traveling about from place to place—often +alone I was much exposed to this sort of attack. Any one cherishing the design +to betray me, could easily do so, by simply tracing my whereabouts through the +anti-slavery journals, for my meetings and movements were promptly made known +in advance. My true friends, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips, had no faith in the +power of Massachusetts to protect me in my right to liberty. Public sentiment +and the law, in their opinion, would hand me over to the tormentors. Mr. +Phillips, especially, considered me in danger, and said, when I showed him the +manuscript of my story, if in my place, he would throw it into the fire. Thus, +the reader will observe, the settling of one difficulty only opened the way for +another; and that though I had reached a free state, and had attained position +for public usefulness, I ws(sic) still tormented with the liability of losing +my liberty. How this liability was dispelled, will be related, with other +incidents, in the next chapter. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"></a> +CHAPTER XXIV. <i>Twenty-One Months in Great Britain</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +GOOD ARISING OUT OF UNPROPITIOUS EVENTS—DENIED CABIN +PASSAGE—PROSCRIPTION TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT—THE HUTCHINSON +FAMILY—THE MOB ON BOARD THE “CAMBRIA”—HAPPY +INTRODUCTION TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC—LETTER ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM LLOYD +GARRISON—TIME AND LABORS WHILE ABROAD—FREEDOM PURCHASED—MRS. +HENRY RICHARDSON—FREE PAPERS—ABOLITIONISTS DISPLEASED WITH THE +RANSOM—HOW MY ENERGIES WERE DIRECTED—RECEPTION SPEECH IN +LONDON—CHARACTER OF THE SPEECH DEFENDED—CIRCUMSTANCES +EXPLAINED—CAUSES CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUCCESS OF MY MISSION—FREE +CHURCH OF SCOTLAND—TESTIMONIAL. +</p> + +<p> +The allotments of Providence, when coupled with trouble and anxiety, often +conceal from finite vision the wisdom and goodness in which they are sent; and, +frequently, what seemed a harsh and invidious dispensation, is converted by +after experience into a happy and beneficial arrangement. Thus, the painful +liability to be returned again to slavery, which haunted me by day, and +troubled my dreams by night, proved to be a necessary step in the path of +knowledge and usefulness. The writing of my pamphlet, in the spring of 1845, +endangered my liberty, and led me to seek a refuge from republican slavery in +monarchical England. A rude, uncultivated fugitive slave was driven, by stern +necessity, to that country to which young American gentlemen go to increase +their stock of knowledge, to seek pleasure, to have their rough, democratic +manners softened by contact with English aristocratic refinement. On applying +for a passage to England, on board the “Cambria”, of the Cunard +line, my friend, James N. Buffum, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was informed that I +could not be received on board as a cabin passenger. American prejudice against +color triumphed over British liberality and civilization, and erected a color +test and condition for crossing the sea in the cabin of a British vessel. The +insult was keenly felt by my white friends, but to me, it was common, expected, +and therefore, a thing of no great consequence, whether I went in the cabin or +in the steerage. Moreover, I felt that if I could not go into the first cabin, +first-cabin passengers could come into the second cabin, and the result +justified my anticipations to the fullest extent. Indeed, I soon found myself +an object of more general interest than I wished to be; and so far from being +degraded by being placed in the second cabin, that part of the ship became the +scene of as much pleasure and refinement, during the voyage, as the cabin +itself. The Hutchinson Family, celebrated +vocalists—fellow-passengers—often came to my rude forecastle deck, +and sung their sweetest songs, enlivening the place with eloquent music, as +well as spirited conversation, during the voyage. In two days after leaving +Boston, one part of the ship was about as free to me as another. My +fellow-passengers not only visited me, but invited me to visit them, on the +saloon deck. My visits there, however, were but seldom. I preferred to live +within my privileges, and keep upon my own premises. I found this quite as much +in accordance with good policy, as with my own feelings. The effect was, that +with the majority of the passengers, all color distinctions were flung to the +winds, and I found myself treated with every mark of respect, from the +beginning to the end of the voyage, except in a single instance; and in that, I +came near being mobbed, for complying with an invitation given me by the +passengers, and the captain of the “Cambria,” to deliver a lecture +on slavery. Our New Orleans and Georgia passengers were pleased to regard my +lecture as an insult offered to them, and swore I should not speak. They went +so far as to threaten to throw me overboard, and but for the firmness of +Captain Judkins, probably would have (under the inspiration of <i>slavery</i> +and <i>brandy</i>) attempted to put their threats into execution. I have no +space to describe this scene, although its tragic and comic peculiarities are +well worth describing. An end was put to the <i>melee</i>, by the +captain’s calling the ship’s company to put the salt water +mobocrats in irons. At this determined order, the gentlemen of the lash +scampered, and for the rest of the voyage conducted themselves very decorously. +</p> + +<p> +This incident of the voyage, in two days after landing at Liverpool, brought me +at once before the British public, and that by no act of my own. The gentlemen +so promptly snubbed in their meditated violence, flew to the press to justify +their conduct, and to denounce me as a worthless and insolent Negro. This +course was even less wise than the conduct it was intended to sustain; for, +besides awakening something like a national interest in me, and securing me an +audience, it brought out counter statements, and threw the blame upon +themselves, which they had sought to fasten upon me and the gallant captain of +the ship. +</p> + +<p> +Some notion may be formed of the difference in my feelings and circumstances, +while abroad, from the following extract from one of a series of letters +addressed by me to Mr. Garrison, and published in the <i>Liberator</i>. It was +written on the first day of January, 1846: +</p> + +<p> +MY DEAR FRIEND GARRISON: Up to this time, I have given no direct expression of +the views, feelings, and opinions which I have formed, respecting the character +and condition of the people of this land. I have refrained thus, purposely. I +wish to speak advisedly, and in order to do this, I have waited till, I trust, +experience has brought my opinions to an intelligent maturity. I have been thus +careful, not because I think what I say will have much effect in shaping the +opinions of the world, but because whatever of influence I may possess, whether +little or much, I wish it to go in the right direction, and according to truth. +I hardly need say that, in speaking of Ireland, I shall be influenced by no +prejudices in favor of America. I think my circumstances all forbid that. I +have no end to serve, no creed to uphold, no government to defend; and as to +nation, I belong to none. I have no protection at home, or resting-place +abroad. The land of my birth welcomes me to her shores only as a slave, and +spurns with contempt the idea of treating me differently; so that I am an +outcast from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw in the land of my +birth. “I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers +were.” That men should be patriotic, is to me perfectly natural; and as a +philosophical fact, I am able to give it an <i>intellectual</i> recognition. +But no further can I go. If ever I had any patriotism, or any capacity for the +feeling, it was whipped out of me long since, by the lash of the American +soul-drivers. +</p> + +<p> +In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky, +her grand old woods, her fertile fields, her beautiful rivers, her mighty +lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is +soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal +spirit of slaveholding, robbery, and wrong; when I remember that with the +waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, +disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the +warm blood of my outraged sisters; I am filled with unutterable loathing, and +led to reproach myself that anything could fall from my lips in praise of such +a land. America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent on +compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst enemies. May +God give her repentance, before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my +heart. I will continue to pray, labor, and wait, believing that she cannot +always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of +humanity. +</p> + +<p> +My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the people of this +land have been very great. I have traveled almost from the Hill of Howth to the +Giant’s Causeway, and from the Giant’s Causway, to Cape Clear. +During these travels, I have met with much in the chara@@ and condition of the +people to approve, and much to condemn; much that @@thrilled me with pleasure, +and very much that has filled me with pain. I @@ @@t, in this letter, attempt +to give any description of those scenes which have given me pain. This I will +do hereafter. I have enough, and more than your subscribers will be disposed to +read at one time, of the bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have +spent some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. I +seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life. The warm and +generous cooperation extended to me by the friends of my despised race; the +prompt and liberal manner with which the press has rendered me its aid; the +glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have flocked to hear the cruel wrongs +of my down-trodden and long-enslaved fellow-countrymen portrayed; the deep +sympathy for the slave, and the strong abhorrence of the slaveholder, +everywhere evinced; the cordiality with which members and ministers of various +religious bodies, and of various shades of religious opinion, have embraced me, +and lent me their aid; the kind of hospitality constantly proffered to me by +persons of the highest rank in society; the spirit of freedom that seems to +animate all with whom I come in contact, and the entire absence of everything +that looked like prejudice against me, on account of the color of my +skin—contrasted so strongly with my long and bitter experience in the +United States, that I look with wonder and amazement on the transition. In the +southern part of the United States, I was a slave, thought of and spoken of as +property; in the language of the LAW, “<i>held, taken, reputed, and +adjudged to be a chattel in the hands of my owners and possessors, and their +executors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and +purposes whatsoever</i>.” (Brev. Digest, 224). In the northern states, a +fugitive slave, liable to be hunted at any moment, like a felon, and to be +hurled into the terrible jaws of slavery—doomed by an inveterate +prejudice against color to insult and outrage on every hand (Massachusetts out +of the question)—denied the privileges and courtesies common to others in +the use of the most humble means of conveyance—shut out from the cabins +on steamboats—refused admission to respectable hotels—caricatured, +scorned, scoffed, mocked, and maltreated with impunity by any one (no matter +how black his heart), so he has a white skin. But now behold the change! Eleven +days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous +deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. +Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey +fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man. I gaze +around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his +slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab—I am seated beside white +people—I reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown +into the same parlor—I dine at the same table and no one is offended. No +delicate nose grows deformed in my presence. I find no difficulty here in +obtaining admission into any place of worship, instruction, or amusement, on +equal terms with people as white as any I ever saw in the United States. I meet +nothing to remind me of my complexion. I find myself regarded and treated at +every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to +church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, “<i>We +don’t allow niggers in here</i>!” +</p> + +<p> +I remember, about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the south-west +corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long desired to see such a +collection as I understood was being exhibited there. Never having had an +opportunity while a slave, I resolved to seize this, my first, since my escape. +I went, and as I approached the entrance to gain admission, I was met and told +by the door-keeper, in a harsh and contemptuous tone, “<i>We don’t +allow niggers in here</i>.” I also remember attending a revival meeting +in the Rev. Henry Jackson’s meeting-house, at New Bedford, and going up +the broad aisle to find a seat, I was met by a good deacon, who told me, in a +pious tone, “<i>We don’t allow niggers in here</i>!” Soon +after my arrival in New Bedford, from the south, I had a strong desire to +attend the Lyceum, but was told, “<i>They don’t allow niggers in +here</i>!” While passing from New York to Boston, on the steamer +Massachusetts, on the night of the 9th of December, 1843, when chilled almost +through with the cold, I went into the cabin to get a little warm. I was soon +touched upon the shoulder, and told, “<i>We don’t allow niggers in +here</i>!” On arriving in Boston, from an anti-slavery tour, hungry and +tired, I went into an eating-house, near my friend, Mr. Campbell’s to get +some refreshments. I was met by a lad in a white apron, “<i>We +don’t allow niggers in here</i>!” A week or two before leaving the +United States, I had a meeting appointed at Weymouth, the home of that glorious +band of true abolitionists, the Weston family, and others. On attempting to +take a seat in the omnibus to that place, I was told by the driver (and I never +shall forget his fiendish hate). “<i>I don’t allow niggers in +here</i>!” Thank heaven for the respite I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin +but a few days, when a gentleman of great respectability kindly offered to +conduct me through all the public buildings of that beautiful city; and a +little afterward, I found myself dining with the lord mayor of Dublin. What a +pity there was not some American democratic Christian at the door of his +splendid mansion, to bark out at my approach, “<i>They don’t allow +niggers in here</i>!” The truth is, the people here know nothing of the +republican Negro hate prevalent in our glorious land. They measure and esteem +men according to their moral and intellectual worth, and not according to the +color of their skin. Whatever may be said of the aristocracies here, there is +none based on the color of a man’s skin. This species of aristocracy +belongs preeminently to “the land of the free, and the home of the +brave.” I have never found it abroad, in any but Americans. It sticks to +them wherever they go. They find it almost as hard to get rid of, as to get rid +of their skins. +</p> + +<p> +The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my friend, +Buffum, and several other friends, I went to Eaton Hall, the residence of the +Marquis of Westminster, one of the most splendid buildings in England. On +approaching the door, I found several of our American passengers, who came out +with us in the “Cambria,” waiting for admission, as but one party +was allowed in the house at a time. We all had to wait till the company within +came out. And of all the faces, expressive of chagrin, those of the Americans +were preeminent. They looked as sour as vinegar, and as bitter as gall, when +they found I was to be admitted on equal terms with themselves. When the door +was opened, I walked in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, and +from all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the servants that +showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin. As I walked through the +building, the statuary did not fall down, the pictures did not leap from their +places, the doors did not refuse to open, and the servants did not say, +“<i>We don’t allow niggers in here</i>!” +</p> + +<p> +A happy new-year to you, and all the friends of freedom. +</p> + +<p> +My time and labors, while abroad were divided between England, Ireland, +Scotland, and Wales. Upon this experience alone, I might write a book twice the +size of this, <i>My Bondage and My Freedom</i>. I visited and lectured in +nearly all the large towns and cities in the United Kingdom, and enjoyed many +favorable opportunities for observation and information. But books on England +are abundant, and the public may, therefore, dismiss any fear that I am +meditating another infliction in that line; though, in truth, I should like +much to write a book on those countries, if for nothing else, to make grateful +mention of the many dear friends, whose benevolent actions toward me are +ineffaceably stamped upon my memory, and warmly treasured in my heart. To these +friends I owe my freedom in the United States. On their own motion, without any +solicitation from me (Mrs. Henry Richardson, a clever lady, remarkable for her +devotion to every good work, taking the lead), they raised a fund sufficient to +purchase my freedom, and actually paid it over, and placed the papers <a +href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> of my manumission +in my hands, before they would tolerate the idea of my returning to this, my +native country. To this commercial transaction I owe my exemption from the +democratic operation of the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. But for this, I might +at any time become a victim of this most cruel and scandalous enactment, and be +doomed to end my life, as I began it, a slave. The sum paid for my freedom was +one hundred and fifty pounds sterling. +</p> + +<p> +Some of my uncompromising anti-slavery friends in this country failed to see +the wisdom of this arrangement, and were not pleased that I consented to it, +even by my silence. They thought it a violation of anti-slavery +principles—conceding a right of property in man—and a wasteful +expenditure of money. On the other hand, viewing it simply in the light of a +ransom, or as money extorted by a robber, and my liberty of more value than one +hundred and fifty pounds sterling, I could not see either a violation of the +laws of morality, or those of economy, in the transaction. +</p> + +<p> +It is true, I was not in the possession of my claimants, and could have easily +remained in England, for the same friends who had so generously purchased my +freedom, would have assisted me in establishing myself in that country. To +this, however, I could not consent. I felt that I had a duty to +perform—and that was, to labor and suffer with the oppressed in my native +land. Considering, therefore, all the circumstances—the fugitive slave +bill included—I think the very best thing was done in letting Master Hugh +have the hundred and fifty pounds sterling, and leaving me free to return to my +appropriate field of labor. Had I been a private person, having no other +relations or duties than those of a personal and family nature, I should never +have consented to the payment of so large a sum for the privilege of living +securely under our glorious republican form of government. I could have +remained in England, or have gone to some other country; and perhaps I could +even have lived unobserved in this. But to this I could not consent. I had +already become somewhat notorious, and withal quite as unpopular as notorious; +and I was, therefore, much exposed to arrest and recapture. +</p> + +<p> +The main object to which my labors in Great Britain were directed, was the +concentration of the moral and religious sentiment of its people against +American slavery. England is often charged with having established slavery in +the United States, and if there were no other justification than this, for +appealing to her people to lend their moral aid for the abolition of slavery, I +should be justified. My speeches in Great Britain were wholly extemporaneous, +and I may not always have been so guarded in my expressions, as I otherwise +should have been. I was ten years younger then than now, and only seven years +from slavery. I cannot give the reader a better idea of the nature of my +discourses, than by republishing one of them, delivered in Finsbury chapel, +London, to an audience of about two thousand persons, and which was published +in the <i>London Universe</i>, at the time. <a href="#linknote-9" +name="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a> +</p> + +<p> +Those in the United States who may regard this speech as being harsh in its +spirit and unjust in its statements, because delivered before an audience +supposed to be anti-republican in their principles and feelings, may view the +matter differently, when they learn that the case supposed did not exist. It so +happened that the great mass of the people in England who attended and +patronized my anti-slavery meetings, were, in truth, about as good republicans +as the mass of Americans, and with this decided advantage over the +latter—they are lovers of republicanism for all men, for black men as +well as for white men. They are the people who sympathize with Louis Kossuth +and Mazzini, and with the oppressed and enslaved, of every color and nation, +the world over. They constitute the democratic element in British politics, and +are as much opposed to the union of church and state as we, in America, are to +such an union. At the meeting where this speech was delivered, Joseph +Sturge—a world-wide philanthropist, and a member of the society of +Friends—presided, and addressed the meeting. George William Alexander, +another Friend, who has spent more than an Ameriacn(sic) fortune in promoting +the anti-slavery cause in different sections of the world, was on the platform; +and also Dr. Campbell (now of the <i>British Banner</i>) who combines all the +humane tenderness of Melanchthon, with the directness and boldness of Luther. +He is in the very front ranks of non-conformists, and looks with no unfriendly +eye upon America. George Thompson, too, was there; and America will yet own +that he did a true man’s work in relighting the rapidly dying-out fire of +true republicanism in the American heart, and be ashamed of the treatment he +met at her hands. Coming generations in this country will applaud the spirit of +this much abused republican friend of freedom. There were others of note seated +on the platform, who would gladly ingraft upon English institutions all that is +purely republican in the institutions of America. Nothing, therefore, must be +set down against this speech on the score that it was delivered in the presence +of those who cannot appreciate the many excellent things belonging to our +system of government, and with a view to stir up prejudice against republican +institutions. +</p> + +<p> +Again, let it also be remembered—for it is the simple truth—that +neither in this speech, nor in any other which I delivered in England, did I +ever allow myself to address Englishmen as against Americans. I took my stand +on the high ground of human brotherhood, and spoke to Englishmen as men, in +behalf of men. Slavery is a crime, not against Englishmen, but against God, and +all the members of the human family; and it belongs to the whole human family +to seek its suppression. In a letter to Mr. Greeley, of the New York Tribune, +written while abroad, I said: +</p> + +<p> +I am, nevertheless aware that the wisdom of exposing the sins of one nation in +the ear of another, has been seriously questioned by good and clear-sighted +people, both on this and on your side of the Atlantic. And the thought is not +without weight on my own mind. I am satisfied that there are many evils which +can be best removed by confining our efforts to the immediate locality where +such evils exist. This, however, is by no means the case with the system of +slavery. It is such a giant sin—such a monstrous aggregation of +iniquity—so hardening to the human heart—so destructive to the +moral sense, and so well calculated to beget a character, in every one around +it, favorable to its own continuance,—that I feel not only at liberty, +but abundantly justified, in appealing to the whole world to aid in its +removal. +</p> + +<p> +But, even if I had—as has been often charged—labored to bring +American institutions generally into disrepute, and had not confined my labors +strictly within the limits of humanity and morality, I should not have been +without illustrious examples to support me. Driven into semi-exile by civil and +barbarous laws, and by a system which cannot be thought of without a shudder, I +was fully justified in turning, if possible, the tide of the moral universe +against the heaven-daring outrage. +</p> + +<p> +Four circumstances greatly assisted me in getting the question of American +slavery before the British public. First, the mob on board the +“Cambria,” already referred to, which was a sort of national +announcement of my arrival in England. Secondly, the highly reprehensible +course pursued by the Free Church of Scotland, in soliciting, receiving, and +retaining money in its sustentation fund for supporting the gospel in Scotland, +which was evidently the ill-gotten gain of slaveholders and slave-traders. +Third, the great Evangelical Alliance—or rather the attempt to form such +an alliance, which should include slaveholders of a certain +description—added immensely to the interest felt in the slavery question. +About the same time, there was the World’s Temperance Convention, where I +had the misfortune to come in collision with sundry American doctors of +divinity—Dr. Cox among the number—with whom I had a small +controversy. +</p> + +<p> +It has happened to me—as it has happened to most other men engaged in a +good cause—often to be more indebted to my enemies than to my own skill +or to the assistance of my friends, for whatever success has attended my +labors. Great surprise was expressed by American newspapers, north and south, +during my stay in Great Britain, that a person so illiterate and insignificant +as myself could awaken an interest so marked in England. These papers were not +the only parties surprised. I was myself not far behind them in surprise. But +the very contempt and scorn, the systematic and extravagant disparagement of +which I was the object, served, perhaps, to magnify my few merits, and to +render me of some account, whether deserving or not. A man is sometimes made +great, by the greatness of the abuse a portion of mankind may think proper to +heap upon him. Whether I was of as much consequence as the English papers made +me out to be, or not, it was easily seen, in England, that I could not be the +ignorant and worthless creature, some of the American papers would have them +believe I was. Men, in their senses, do not take bowie-knives to kill +mosquitoes, nor pistols to shoot flies; and the American passengers who thought +proper to get up a mob to silence me, on board the “Cambria,” took +the most effective method of telling the British public that I had something to +say. +</p> + +<p> +But to the second circumstance, namely, the position of the Free Church of +Scotland, with the great Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish at its +head. That church, with its leaders, put it out of the power of the Scotch +people to ask the old question, which we in the north have often most wickedly +asked—“<i>What have we to do with slavery</i>?” That church +had taken the price of blood into its treasury, with which to build <i>free</i> +churches, and to pay <i>free</i> church ministers for preaching the gospel; +and, worse still, when honest John Murray, of Bowlien Bay—now gone to his +reward in heaven—with William Smeal, Andrew Paton, Frederick Card, and +other sterling anti-slavery men in Glasgow, denounced the transaction as +disgraceful and shocking to the religious sentiment of Scotland, this church, +through its leading divines, instead of repenting and seeking to mend the +mistake into which it had fallen, made it a flagrant sin, by undertaking to +defend, in the name of God and the bible, the principle not only of taking the +money of slave-dealers to build churches, but of holding fellowship with the +holders and traffickers in human flesh. This, the reader will see, brought up +the whole question of slavery, and opened the way to its full discussion, +without any agency of mine. I have never seen a people more deeply moved than +were the people of Scotland, on this very question. Public meeting succeeded +public meeting. Speech after speech, pamphlet after pamphlet, editorial after +editorial, sermon after sermon, soon lashed the conscientious Scotch people +into a perfect <i>furore</i>. “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was +indignantly cried out, from Greenock to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to +Aberdeen. George Thompson, of London, Henry C. Wright, of the United States, +James N. Buffum, of Lynn, Massachusetts, and myself were on the anti-slavery +side; and Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish on the other. In a +conflict where the latter could have had even the show of right, the truth, in +our hands as against them, must have been driven to the wall; and while I +believe we were able to carry the conscience of the country against the action +of the Free Church, the battle, it must be confessed, was a hard-fought one. +Abler defenders of the doctrine of fellowshiping slaveholders as christians, +have not been met with. In defending this doctrine, it was necessary to deny +that slavery is a sin. If driven from this position, they were compelled to +deny that slaveholders were responsible for the sin; and if driven from both +these positions, they must deny that it is a sin in such a sense, and that +slaveholders are sinners in such a sense, as to make it wrong, in the +circumstances in which they were placed, to recognize them as Christians. Dr. +Cunningham was the most powerful debater on the slavery side of the question; +Mr. Thompson was the ablest on the anti-slavery side. A scene occurred between +these two men, a parallel to which I think I never witnessed before, and I know +I never have since. The scene was caused by a single exclamation on the part of +Mr. Thompson. +</p> + +<p> +The general assembly of the Free Church was in progress at Cannon Mills, +Edinburgh. The building would hold about twenty-five hundred persons; and on +this occasion it was densely packed, notice having been given that Doctors +Cunningham and Candlish would speak, that day, in defense of the relations of +the Free Church of Scotland to slavery in America. Messrs. Thompson, Buffum, +myself, and a few anti-slavery friends, attended, but sat at such a distance, +and in such a position, that, perhaps we were not observed from the platform. +The excitement was intense, having been greatly increased by a series of +meetings held by Messrs. Thompson, Wright, Buffum, and myself, in the most +splendid hall in that most beautiful city, just previous to the meetings of the +general assembly. “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” stared at us from every +street corner; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” in large capitals, adorned +the broad flags of the pavement; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was the +chorus of the popular street songs; “SEND BACK THE MONEY!” was the +heading of leading editorials in the daily newspapers. This day, at Cannon +Mills, the great doctors of the church were to give an answer to this loud and +stern demand. Men of all parties and all sects were most eager to hear. +Something great was expected. The occasion was great, the men great, and great +speeches were expected from them. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to the outside pressure upon Doctors Cunningham and Candlish, there +was wavering in their own ranks. The conscience of the church itself was not at +ease. A dissatisfaction with the position of the church touching slavery, was +sensibly manifest among the members, and something must be done to counteract +this untoward influence. The great Dr. Chalmers was in feeble health, at the +time. His most potent eloquence could not now be summoned to Cannon Mills, as +formerly. He whose voice was able to rend asunder and dash down the granite +walls of the established church of Scotland, and to lead a host in solemn +procession from it, as from a doomed city, was now old and enfeebled. Besides, +he had said his word on this very question; and his word had not silenced the +clamor without, nor stilled the anxious heavings within. The occasion was +momentous, and felt to be so. The church was in a perilous condition. A change +of some sort must take place in her condition, or she must go to pieces. To +stand where she did, was impossible. The whole weight of the matter fell on +Cunningham and Candlish. No shoulders in the church were broader than theirs; +and I must say, badly as I detest the principles laid down and defended by +them, I was compelled to acknowledge the vast mental endowments of the men. +Cunningham rose; and his rising was the signal for almost tumultous applause. +You will say this was scarcely in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion, +but to me it served to increase its grandeur and gravity. The applause, though +tumultuous, was not joyous. It seemed to me, as it thundered up from the vast +audience, like the fall of an immense shaft, flung from shoulders already +galled by its crushing weight. It was like saying, “Doctor, we have borne +this burden long enough, and willingly fling it upon you. Since it was you who +brought it upon us, take it now, and do what you will with it, for we are too +weary to bear it. [“no close”]. +</p> + +<p> +Doctor Cunningham proceeded with his speech, abounding in logic, learning, and +eloquence, and apparently bearing down all opposition; but at the +moment—the fatal moment—when he was just bringing all his arguments +to a point, and that point being, that neither Jesus Christ nor his holy +apostles regarded slaveholding as a sin, George Thompson, in a clear, sonorous, +but rebuking voice, broke the deep stillness of the audience, exclaiming, HEAR! +HEAR! HEAR! The effect of this simple and common exclamation is almost +incredible. It was as if a granite wall had been suddenly flung up against the +advancing current of a mighty river. For a moment, speaker and audience were +brought to a dead silence. Both the doctor and his hearers seemed appalled by +the audacity, as well as the fitness of the rebuke. At length a shout went up +to the cry of “<i>Put him out</i>!” Happily, no one attempted to +execute this cowardly order, and the doctor proceeded with his discourse. Not, +however, as before, did the learned doctor proceed. The exclamation of Thompson +must have reechoed itself a thousand times in his memory, during the remainder +of his speech, for the doctor never recovered from the blow. +</p> + +<p> +The deed was done, however; the pillars of the church—<i>the proud, Free +Church of Scotland</i>—were committed and the humility of repentance was +absent. The Free Church held on to the blood-stained money, and continued to +justify itself in its position—and of course to apologize for +slavery—and does so till this day. She lost a glorious opportunity for +giving her voice, her vote, and her example to the cause of humanity; and +to-day she is staggering under the curse of the enslaved, whose blood is in her +skirts. The people of Scotland are, to this day, deeply grieved at the course +pursued by the Free Church, and would hail, as a relief from a deep and +blighting shame, the “sending back the money” to the slaveholders +from whom it was gathered. +</p> + +<p> +One good result followed the conduct of the Free Church; it furnished an +occasion for making the people of Scotland thoroughly acquainted with the +character of slavery, and for arraying against the system the moral and +religious sentiment of that country. Therefore, while we did not succeed in +accomplishing the specific object of our mission, namely—procure the +sending back of the money—we were amply justified by the good which +really did result from our labors. +</p> + +<p> +Next comes the Evangelical Alliance. This was an attempt to form a union of all +evangelical Christians throughout the world. Sixty or seventy American divines +attended, and some of them went there merely to weave a world-wide garment with +which to clothe evangelical slaveholders. Foremost among these divines, was the +Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, moderator of the New School Presbyterian General +Assembly. He and his friends spared no pains to secure a platform broad enough +to hold American slaveholders, and in this partly succeeded. But the question +of slavery is too large a question to be finally disposed of, even by the +Evangelical Alliance. We appealed from the judgment of the Alliance, to the +judgment of the people of Great Britain, and with the happiest effect. This +controversy with the Alliance might be made the subject of extended remark, but +I must forbear, except to say, that this effort to shield the Christian +character of slaveholders greatly served to open a way to the British ear for +anti-slavery discussion, and that it was well improved. +</p> + +<p> +The fourth and last circumstance that assisted me in getting before the British +public, was an attempt on the part of certain doctors of divinity to silence me +on the platform of the World’s Temperance Convention. Here I was brought +into point blank collison with Rev. Dr. Cox, who made me the subject not only +of bitter remark in the convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter +published in the New York Evangelist and other American papers. I replied to +the doctor as well as I could, and was successful in getting a respectful +hearing before the British public, who are by nature and practice ardent lovers +of fair play, especially in a conflict between the weak and the strong. +</p> + +<p> +Thus did circumstances favor me, and favor the cause of which I strove to be +the advocate. After such distinguished notice, the public in both countries was +compelled to attach some importance to my labors. By the very ill usage I +received at the hands of Dr. Cox and his party, by the mob on board the +“Cambria,” by the attacks made upon me in the American newspapers, +and by the aspersions cast upon me through the organs of the Free Church of +Scotland, I became one of that class of men, who, for the moment, at least, +“have greatness forced upon them.” People became the more anxious +to hear for themselves, and to judge for themselves, of the truth which I had +to unfold. While, therefore, it is by no means easy for a stranger to get +fairly before the British public, it was my lot to accomplish it in the easiest +manner possible. +</p> + +<p> +Having continued in Great Britain and Ireland nearly two years, and being about +to return to America—not as I left it, a slave, but a +freeman—leading friends of the cause of emancipation in that country +intimated their intention to make me a testimonial, not only on grounds of +personal regard to myself, but also to the cause to which they were so ardently +devoted. How far any such thing could have succeeded, I do not know; but many +reasons led me to prefer that my friends should simply give me the means of +obtaining a printing press and printing materials, to enable me to start a +paper, devoted to the interests of my enslaved and oppressed people. I told +them that perhaps the greatest hinderance to the adoption of abolition +principles by the people of the United States, was the low estimate, everywhere +in that country, placed upon the Negro, as a man; that because of his assumed +natural inferiority, people reconciled themselves to his enslavement and +oppression, as things inevitable, if not desirable. The grand thing to be done, +therefore, was to change the estimation in which the colored people of the +United States were held; to remove the prejudice which depreciated and +depressed them; to prove them worthy of a higher consideration; to disprove +their alleged inferiority, and demonstrate their capacity for a more exalted +civilization than slavery and prejudice had assigned to them. I further stated, +that, in my judgment, a tolerably well conducted press, in the hands of persons +of the despised race, by calling out the mental energies of the race itself; by +making them acquainted with their own latent powers; by enkindling among them +the hope that for them there is a future; by developing their moral power; by +combining and reflecting their talents—would prove a most powerful means +of removing prejudice, and of awakening an interest in them. I further informed +them—and at that time the statement was true—that there was not, in +the United States, a single newspaper regularly published by the colored +people; that many attempts had been made to establish such papers; but that, up +to that time, they had all failed. These views I laid before my friends. The +result was, nearly two thousand five hundred dollars were speedily raised +toward starting my paper. For this prompt and generous assistance, rendered +upon my bare suggestion, without any personal efforts on my part, I shall never +cease to feel deeply grateful; and the thought of fulfilling the noble +expectations of the dear friends who gave me this evidence of their confidence, +will never cease to be a motive for persevering exertion. +</p> + +<p> +Proposing to leave England, and turning my face toward America, in the spring +of 1847, I was met, on the threshold, with something which painfully reminded +me of the kind of life which awaited me in my native land. For the first time +in the many months spent abroad, I was met with proscription on account of my +color. A few weeks before departing from England, while in London, I was +careful to purchase a ticket, and secure a berth for returning home, in the +“Cambria”—the steamer in which I left the United +States—paying therefor the round sum of forty pounds and nineteen +shillings sterling. This was first cabin fare. But on going aboard the Cambria, +I found that the Liverpool agent had ordered my berth to be given to another, +and had forbidden my entering the saloon! This contemptible conduct met with +stern rebuke from the British press. For, upon the point of leaving England, I +took occasion to expose the disgusting tyranny, in the columns of the London +<i>Times</i>. That journal, and other leading journals throughout the United +Kingdom, held up the outrage to unmitigated condemnation. So good an +opportunity for calling out a full expression of British sentiment on the +subject, had not before occurred, and it was most fully embraced. The result +was, that Mr. Cunard came out in a letter to the public journals, assuring them +of his regret at the outrage, and promising that the like should never occur +again on board his steamers; and the like, we believe, has never since occurred +on board the steamships of the Cunard line. +</p> + +<p> +It is not very pleasant to be made the subject of such insults; but if all such +necessarily resulted as this one did, I should be very happy to bear, +patiently, many more than I have borne, of the same sort. Albeit, the lash of +proscription, to a man accustomed to equal social position, even for a time, as +I was, has a sting for the soul hardly less severe than that which bites the +flesh and draws the blood from the back of the plantation slave. It was rather +hard, after having enjoyed nearly two years of equal social privileges in +England, often dining with gentlemen of great literary, social, political, and +religious eminence never, during the whole time, having met with a single word, +look, or gesture, which gave me the slightest reason to think my color was an +offense to anybody—now to be cooped up in the stern of the +“Cambria,” and denied the right to enter the saloon, lest my dark +presence should be deemed an offense to some of my democratic +fellow-passengers. The reader will easily imagine what must have been my +feelings. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"></a> +CHAPTER XXV. <i>Various Incidents</i></h2> + +<p class="letter"> +NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE—UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION—THE OBJECTIONS TO +IT—THEIR PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED—MOTIVES FOR COMING TO +ROCHESTER—DISCIPLE OF MR. GARRISON—CHANGE OF OPINION—CAUSES +LEADING TO IT—THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHANGE—PREJUDICE AGAINST +COLOR—AMUSING CONDESCENSION—“JIM CROW +CARS”—COLLISIONS WITH CONDUCTORS AND BRAKEMEN—TRAINS ORDERED +NOT TO STOP AT LYNN—AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE—SEPARATE TABLES FOR +MASTER AND MAN—PREJUDICE UNNATURAL—ILLUSTRATIONS—IN HIGH +COMPANY—ELEVATION OF THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR—PLEDGE FOR THE +FUTURE. +</p> + +<p> +I have now given the reader an imperfect sketch of nine years’ experience +in freedom—three years as a common laborer on the wharves of New Bedford, +four years as a lecturer in New England, and two years of semi-exile in Great +Britain and Ireland. A single ray of light remains to be flung upon my life +during the last eight years, and my story will be done. +</p> + +<p> +A trial awaited me on my return from England to the United States, for which I +was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans for my then future usefulness as an +anti-slavery advocate were all settled. My friends in England had resolved to +raise a given sum to purchase for me a press and printing materials; and I +already saw myself wielding my pen, as well as my voice, in the great work of +renovating the public mind, and building up a public sentiment which should, at +least, send slavery and oppression to the grave, and restore to “liberty +and the pursuit of happiness” the people with whom I had suffered, both +as a slave and as a freeman. Intimation had reached my friends in Boston of +what I intended to do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find them +favorably disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was mistaken. +I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my starting a paper, and for +several reasons. First, the paper was not needed; secondly, it would interfere +with my usefulness as a lecturer; thirdly, I was better fitted to speak than to +write; fourthly, the paper could not succeed. This opposition, from a quarter +so highly esteemed, and to which I had been accustomed to look for advice and +direction, caused me not only to hesitate, but inclined me to abandon the +enterprise. All previous attempts to establish such a journal having failed, I +felt that probably I should but add another to the list of failures, and thus +contribute another proof of the mental and moral deficiencies of my race. Very +much that was said to me in respect to my imperfect literary acquirements, I +felt to be most painfully true. The unsuccessful projectors of all the previous +colored newspapers were my superiors in point of education, and if they failed, +how could I hope for success? Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the +undertaking. Some of my English friends greatly encouraged me to go forward, +and I shall never cease to be grateful for their words of cheer and generous +deeds. +</p> + +<p> +I can easily pardon those who have denounced me as ambitious and presumptuous, +in view of my persistence in this enterprise. I was but nine years from +slavery. In point of mental experience, I was but nine years old. That one, in +such circumstances, should aspire to establish a printing press, among an +educated people, might well be considered, if not ambitious, quite silly. My +American friends looked at me with astonishment! “A wood-sawyer” +offering himself to the public as an editor! A slave, brought up in the very +depths of ignorance, assuming to instruct the highly civilized people of the +north in the principles of liberty, justice, and humanity! The thing looked +absurd. Nevertheless, I persevered. I felt that the want of education, great as +it was, could be overcome by study, and that knowledge would come by +experience; and further (which was perhaps the most controlling consideration). +I thought that an intelligent public, knowing my early history, would easily +pardon a large share of the deficiencies which I was sure that my paper would +exhibit. The most distressing thing, however, was the offense which I was about +to give my Boston friends, by what seemed to them a reckless disregard of their +sage advice. I am not sure that I was not under the influence of something like +a slavish adoration of my Boston friends, and I labored hard to convince them +of the wisdom of my undertaking, but without success. Indeed, I never expect to +succeed, although time has answered all their original objections. The paper +has been successful. It is a large sheet, costing eighty dollars per +week—has three thousand subscribers—has been published regularly +nearly eight years—and bids fair to stand eight years longer. At any +rate, the eight years to come are as full of promise as were the eight that are +past. +</p> + +<p> +It is not to be concealed, however, that the maintenance of such a journal, +under the circumstances, has been a work of much difficulty; and could all the +perplexity, anxiety, and trouble attending it, have been clearly foreseen, I +might have shrunk from the undertaking. As it is, I rejoice in having engaged +in the enterprise, and count it joy to have been able to suffer, in many ways, +for its success, and for the success of the cause to which it has been +faithfully devoted. I look upon the time, money, and labor bestowed upon it, as +being amply rewarded, in the development of my own mental and moral energies, +and in the corresponding development of my deeply injured and oppressed people. +</p> + +<p> +From motives of peace, instead of issuing my paper in Boston, among my New +England friends, I came to Rochester, western New York, among strangers, where +the circulation of my paper could not interfere with the local circulation of +the <i>Liberator</i> and the <i>Standard;</i> for at that time I was, on the +anti-slavery question, a faithful disciple of William Lloyd Garrison, and fully +committed to his doctrine touching the pro-slavery character of the +constitution of the United States, and the <i>non-voting principle</i>, of +which he is the known and distinguished advocate. With Mr. Garrison, I held it +to be the first duty of the non-slaveholding states to dissolve the union with +the slaveholding states; and hence my cry, like his, was, “No union with +slaveholders.” With these views, I came into western New York; and during +the first four years of my labor here, I advocated them with pen and tongue, +according to the best of my ability. +</p> + +<p> +About four years ago, upon a reconsideration of the whole subject, I became +convinced that there was no necessity for dissolving the “union between +the northern and southern states;” that to seek this dissolution was no +part of my duty as an abolitionist; that to abstain from voting, was to refuse +to exercise a legitimate and powerful means for abolishing slavery; and that +the constitution of the United States not only contained no guarantees in favor +of slavery, but, on the contrary, it is, in its letter and spirit, an +anti-slavery instrument, demanding the abolition of slavery as a condition of +its own existence, as the supreme law of the land. +</p> + +<p> +Here was a radical change in my opinions, and in the action logically resulting +from that change. To those with whom I had been in agreement and in sympathy, I +was now in opposition. What they held to be a great and important truth, I now +looked upon as a dangerous error. A very painful, and yet a very natural, thing +now happened. Those who could not see any honest reasons for changing their +views, as I had done, could not easily see any such reasons for my change, and +the common punishment of apostates was mine. +</p> + +<p> +The opinions first entertained were naturally derived and honestly entertained, +and I trust that my present opinions have the same claims to respect. Brought +directly, when I escaped from slavery, into contact with a class of +abolitionists regarding the constitution as a slaveholding instrument, and +finding their views supported by the united and entire history of every +department of the government, it is not strange that I assumed the constitution +to be just what their interpretation made it. I was bound, not only by their +superior knowledge, to take their opinions as the true ones, in respect to the +subject, but also because I had no means of showing their unsoundness. But for +the responsibility of conducting a public journal, and the necessity imposed +upon me of meeting opposite views from abolitionists in this state, I should in +all probability have remained as firm in my disunion views as any other +disciple of William Lloyd Garrison. +</p> + +<p> +My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject, and to study, +with some care, not only the just and proper rules of legal interpretation, but +the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and duties of civil government, and +also the relations which human beings sustain to it. By such a course of +thought and reading, I was conducted to the conclusion that the constitution of +the United States—inaugurated “to form a more perfect union, +establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common +defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of +liberty”—could not well have been designed at the same time to +maintain and perpetuate a system of rapine and murder, like slavery; +especially, as not one word can be found in the constitution to authorize such +a belief. Then, again, if the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern +the meaning of all its parts and details, as they clearly should, the +constitution of our country is our warrant for the abolition of slavery in +every state in the American Union. I mean, however, not to argue, but simply to +state my views. It would require very many pages of a volume like this, to set +forth the arguments demonstrating the unconstitutionality and the complete +illegality of slavery in our land; and as my experience, and not my arguments, +is within the scope and contemplation of this volume, I omit the latter and +proceed with the former. +</p> + +<p> +I will now ask the kind reader to go back a little in my story, while I bring +up a thread left behind for convenience sake, but which, small as it is, cannot +be properly omitted altogether; and that thread is American prejudice against +color, and its varied illustrations in my own experience. +</p> + +<p> +When I first went among the abolitionists of New England, and began to travel, +I found this prejudice very strong and very annoying. The abolitionists +themselves were not entirely free from it, and I could see that they were nobly +struggling against it. In their eagerness, sometimes, to show their contempt +for the feeling, they proved that they had not entirely recovered from it; +often illustrating the saying, in their conduct, that a man may “stand up +so straight as to lean backward.” When it was said to me, “Mr. +Douglass, I will walk to meeting with you; I am not afraid of a black +man,” I could not help thinking—seeing nothing very frightful in my +appearance—“And why should you be?” The children at the north +had all been educated to believe that if they were bad, the old <i>black</i> +man—not the old <i>devil</i>—would get them; and it was evidence of +some courage, for any so educated to get the better of their fears. +</p> + +<p> +The custom of providing separate cars for the accommodation of colored +travelers, was established on nearly all the railroads of New England, a dozen +years ago. Regarding this custom as fostering the spirit of caste, I made it a +rule to seat myself in the cars for the accommodation of passengers generally. +Thus seated, I was sure to be called upon to betake myself to the “<i>Jim +Crow car</i>.” Refusing to obey, I was often dragged out of my seat, +beaten, and severely bruised, by conductors and brakemen. Attempting to start +from Lynn, one day, for Newburyport, on the Eastern railroad, I went, as my +custom was, into one of the best railroad carriages on the road. The seats were +very luxuriant and beautiful. I was soon waited upon by the conductor, and +ordered out; whereupon I demanded the reason for my invidious removal. After a +good deal of parleying, I was told that it was because I was black. This I +denied, and appealed to the company to sustain my denial; but they were +evidently unwilling to commit themselves, on a point so delicate, and requiring +such nice powers of discrimination, for they remained as dumb as death. I was +soon waited on by half a dozen fellows of the baser sort (just such as would +volunteer to take a bull-dog out of a meeting-house in time of public worship), +and told that I must move out of that seat, and if I did not, they would drag +me out. I refused to move, and they clutched me, head, neck, and shoulders. +But, in anticipation of the stretching to which I was about to be subjected, I +had interwoven myself among the seats. In dragging me out, on this occasion, it +must have cost the company twenty-five or thirty dollars, for I tore up seats +and all. So great was the excitement in Lynn, on the subject, that the +superintendent, Mr. Stephen A. Chase, ordered the trains to run through Lynn +without stopping, while I remained in that town; and this ridiculous farce was +enacted. For several days the trains went dashing through Lynn without +stopping. At the same time that they excluded a free colored man from their +cars, this same company allowed slaves, in company with their masters and +mistresses, to ride unmolested. +</p> + +<p> +After many battles with the railroad conductors, and being roughly handled in +not a few instances, proscription was at last abandoned; and the “Jim +Crow car”—set up for the degradation of colored people—is +nowhere found in New England. This result was not brought about without the +intervention of the people, and the threatened enactment of a law compelling +railroad companies to respect the rights of travelers. Hon. Charles Francis +Adams performed signal service in the Massachusetts legislature, in bringing +this reformation; and to him the colored citizens of that state are deeply +indebted. +</p> + +<p> +Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice against +color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet amusement. A half-cured +subject of it is sometimes driven into awkward straits, especially if he +happens to get a genuine specimen of the race into his house. +</p> + +<p> +In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and lecturing, in company with William +A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana. Anti-slavery friends were not +very abundant in Indiana, at that time, and beds were not more plentiful than +friends. We often slept out, in preference to sleeping in the houses, at some +points. At the close of one of our meetings, we were invited home with a +kindly-disposed old farmer, who, in the generous enthusiasm of the moment, +seemed to have forgotten that he had but one spare bed, and that his guests +were an ill-matched pair. All went on pretty well, till near bed time, when +signs of uneasiness began to show themselves, among the unsophisticated sons +and daughters. White is remarkably fine looking, and very evidently a born +gentleman; the idea of putting us in the same bed was hardly to be tolerated; +and yet, there we were, and but the one bed for us, and that, by the way, was +in the same room occupied by the other members of the family. White, as well as +I, perceived the difficulty, for yonder slept the old folks, there the sons, +and a little farther along slept the daughters; and but one other bed remained. +Who should have this bed, was the puzzling question. There was some whispering +between the old folks, some confused looks among the young, as the time for +going to bed approached. After witnessing the confusion as long as I liked, I +relieved the kindly-disposed family by playfully saying, “Friend White, +having got entirely rid of my prejudice against color, I think, as a proof of +it, I must allow you to sleep with me to-night.” White kept up the joke, +by seeming to esteem himself the favored party, and thus the difficulty was +removed. If we went to a hotel, and called for dinner, the landlord was sure to +set one table for White and another for me, always taking him to be master, and +me the servant. Large eyes were generally made when the order was given to +remove the dishes from my table to that of White’s. In those days, it was +thought strange that a white man and a colored man could dine peaceably at the +same table, and in some parts the strangeness of such a sight has not entirely +subsided. +</p> + +<p> +Some people will have it that there is a natural, an inherent, and an +invincible repugnance in the breast of the white race toward dark-colored +people; and some very intelligent colored men think that their proscription is +owing solely to the color which nature has given them. They hold that they are +rated according to their color, and that it is impossible for white people ever +to look upon dark races of men, or men belonging to the African race, with +other than feelings of aversion. My experience, both serious and mirthful, +combats this conclusion. Leaving out of sight, for a moment, grave facts, to +this point, I will state one or two, which illustrate a very interesting +feature of American character as well as American prejudice. Riding from Boston +to Albany, a few years ago, I found myself in a large car, well filled with +passengers. The seat next to me was about the only vacant one. At every +stopping place we took in new passengers, all of whom, on reaching the seat +next to me, cast a disdainful glance upon it, and passed to another car, +leaving me in the full enjoyment of a hole form. For a time, I did not know but +that my riding there was prejudicial to the interest of the railroad company. A +circumstance occurred, however, which gave me an elevated position at once. +Among the passengers on this train was Gov. George N. Briggs. I was not +acquainted with him, and had no idea that I was known to him, however, I was, +for upon observing me, the governor left his place, and making his way toward +me, respectfully asked the privilege of a seat by my side; and upon introducing +himself, we entered into a conversation very pleasant and instructive to me. +The despised seat now became honored. His excellency had removed all the +prejudice against sitting by the side of a Negro; and upon his leaving it, as +he did, on reaching Pittsfield, there were at least one dozen applicants for +the place. The governor had, without changing my skin a single shade, made the +place respectable which before was despicable. +</p> + +<p> +A similar incident happened to me once on the Boston and New Bedford railroad, +and the leading party to it has since been governor of the state of +Massachusetts. I allude to Col. John Henry Clifford. Lest the reader may fancy +I am aiming to elevate myself, by claiming too much intimacy with great men, I +must state that my only acquaintance with Col. Clifford was formed while I was +<i>his hired servant</i>, during the first winter of my escape from slavery. I +owe it him to say, that in that relation I found him always kind and +gentlemanly. But to the incident. I entered a car at Boston, for New Bedford, +which, with the exception of a single seat was full, and found I must occupy +this, or stand up, during the journey. Having no mind to do this, I stepped up +to the man having the next seat, and who had a few parcels on the seat, and +gently asked leave to take a seat by his side. My fellow-passenger gave me a +look made up of reproach and indignation, and asked me why I should come to +that particular seat. I assured him, in the gentlest manner, that of all others +this was the seat for me. Finding that I was actually about to sit down, he +sang out, “O! stop, stop! and let me get out!” Suiting the action +to the word, up the agitated man got, and sauntered to the other end of the +car, and was compelled to stand for most of the way thereafter. Halfway to New +Bedford, or more, Col. Clifford, recognizing me, left his seat, and not having +seen me before since I had ceased to wait on him (in everything except hard +arguments against his pro-slavery position), apparently forgetful of his rank, +manifested, in greeting me, something of the feeling of an old friend. This +demonstration was not lost on the gentleman whose dignity I had, an hour +before, most seriously offended. Col. Clifford was known to be about the most +aristocratic gentleman in Bristol county; and it was evidently thought that I +must be somebody, else I should not have been thus noticed, by a person so +distinguished. Sure enough, after Col. Clifford left me, I found myself +surrounded with friends; and among the number, my offended friend stood +nearest, and with an apology for his rudeness, which I could not resist, +although it was one of the lamest ever offered. With such facts as these before +me—and I have many of them—I am inclined to think that pride and +fashion have much to do with the treatment commonly extended to colored people +in the United States. I once heard a very plain man say (and he was cross-eyed, +and awkwardly flung together in other respects) that he should be a handsome +man when public opinion shall be changed. +</p> + +<p> +Since I have been editing and publishing a journal devoted to the cause of +liberty and progress, I have had my mind more directed to the condition and +circumstances of the free colored people than when I was the agent of an +abolition society. The result has been a corresponding change in the +disposition of my time and labors. I have felt it to be a part of my +mission—under a gracious Providence to impress my sable brothers in this +country with the conviction that, notwithstanding the ten thousand +discouragements and the powerful hinderances, which beset their existence in +this country—notwithstanding the blood-written history of Africa, and her +children, from whom we have descended, or the clouds and darkness (whose +stillness and gloom are made only more awful by wrathful thunder and lightning) +now overshadowing them—progress is yet possible, and bright skies shall +yet shine upon their pathway; and that “Ethiopia shall yet reach forth +her hand unto God.” +</p> + +<p> +Believing that one of the best means of emancipating the slaves of the south is +to improve and elevate the character of the free colored people of the north I +shall labor in the future, as I have labored in the past, to promote the moral, +social, religious, and intellectual elevation of the free colored people; never +forgetting my own humble orgin(sic), nor refusing, while Heaven lends me +ability, to use my voice, my pen, or my vote, to advocate the great and primary +work of the universal and unconditional emancipation of my entire race. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"></a> +RECEPTION SPEECH <a href="#linknote-10" +name="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a>. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, +England, May 12,</h2> + +<p> +1846 +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Douglass rose amid loud cheers, and said: I feel exceedingly glad of the +opportunity now afforded me of presenting the claims of my brethren in bonds in +the United States, to so many in London and from various parts of Britain, who +have assembled here on the present occasion. I have nothing to commend me to +your consideration in the way of learning, nothing in the way of education, to +entitle me to your attention; and you are aware that slavery is a very bad +school for rearing teachers of morality and religion. Twenty-one years of my +life have been spent in slavery—personal slavery—surrounded by +degrading influences, such as can exist nowhere beyond the pale of slavery; and +it will not be strange, if under such circumstances, I should betray, in what I +have to say to you, a deficiency of that refinement which is seldom or ever +found, except among persons that have experienced superior advantages to those +which I have enjoyed. But I will take it for granted that you know something +about the degrading influences of slavery, and that you will not expect great +things from me this evening, but simply such facts as I may be able to advance +immediately in connection with my own experience of slavery. +</p> + +<p> +Now, what is this system of slavery? This is the subject of my lecture this +evening—what is the character of this institution? I am about to answer +the inquiry, what is American slavery? I do this the more readily, since I have +found persons in this country who have identified the term slavery with that +which I think it is not, and in some instances, I have feared, in so doing, +have rather (unwittingly, I know) detracted much from the horror with which the +term slavery is contemplated. It is common in this country to distinguish every +bad thing by the name of slavery. Intemperance is slavery; to be deprived of +the right to vote is slavery, says one; to have to work hard is slavery, says +another; and I do not know but that if we should let them go on, they would say +that to eat when we are hungry, to walk when we desire to have exercise, or to +minister to our necessities, or have necessities at all, is slavery. I do not +wish for a moment to detract from the horror with which the evil of +intemperance is contemplated—not at all; nor do I wish to throw the +slightest obstruction in the way of any political freedom that any class of +persons in this country may desire to obtain. But I am here to say that I think +the term slavery is sometimes abused by identifying it with that which it is +not. Slavery in the United States is the granting of that power by which one +man exercises and enforces a right of property in the body and soul of another. +The condition of a slave is simply that of the brute beast. He is a piece of +property—a marketable commodity, in the language of the law, to be bought +or sold at the will and caprice of the master who claims him to be his +property; he is spoken of, thought of, and treated as property. His own good, +his conscience, his intellect, his affections, are all set aside by the master. +The will and the wishes of the master are the law of the slave. He is as much a +piece of property as a horse. If he is fed, he is fed because he is property. +If he is clothed, it is with a view to the increase of his value as property. +Whatever of comfort is necessary to him for his body or soul that is +inconsistent with his being property, is carefully wrested from him, not only +by public opinion, but by the law of the country. He is carefully deprived of +everything that tends in the slightest degree to detract from his value as +property. He is deprived of education. God has given him an intellect; the +slaveholder declares it shall not be cultivated. If his moral perception leads +him in a course contrary to his value as property, the slaveholder declares he +shall not exercise it. The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and +one-sixth of the population of democratic America is denied its privileges by +the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, +boasting of its humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of +justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of +persons denied by law the right of marriage?—what must be the condition +of that people? I need not lift up the veil by giving you any experience of my +own. Every one that can put two ideas together, must see the most fearful +results from such a state of things as I have just mentioned. If any of these +three millions find for themselves companions, and prove themselves honest, +upright, virtuous persons to each other, yet in these cases—few as I am +bound to confess they are—the virtuous live in constant apprehension of +being torn asunder by the merciless men-stealers that claim them as their +property. This is American slavery; no marriage—no education—the +light of the gospel shut out from the dark mind of the bondman—and he +forbidden by law to learn to read. If a mother shall teach her children to +read, the law in Louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the neck. If the +father attempt to give his son a knowledge of letters, he may be punished by +the whip in one instance, and in another be killed, at the discretion of the +court. Three millions of people shut out from the light of knowledge! It is +easy for you to conceive the evil that must result from such a state of things. +</p> + +<p> +I now come to the physical evils of slavery. I do not wish to dwell at length +upon these, but it seems right to speak of them, not so much to influence your +minds on this question, as to let the slaveholders of America know that the +curtain which conceals their crimes is being lifted abroad; that we are opening +the dark cell, and leading the people into the horrible recesses of what they +are pleased to call their domestic institution. We want them to know that a +knowledge of their whippings, their scourgings, their brandings, their +chainings, is not confined to their plantations, but that some Negro of theirs +has broken loose from his chains—has burst through the dark incrustation +of slavery, and is now exposing their deeds of deep damnation to the gaze of +the christian people of England. +</p> + +<p> +The slaveholders resort to all kinds of cruelty. If I were disposed, I have +matter enough to interest you on this question for five or six evenings, but I +will not dwell at length upon these cruelties. Suffice it to say, that all of +the peculiar modes of torture that were resorted to in the West India islands, +are resorted to, I believe, even more frequently, in the United States of +America. Starvation, the bloody whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, +cat-hauling, the cat-o’-nine-tails, the dungeon, the blood-hound, are all +in requisition to keep the slave in his condition as a slave in the United +States. If any one has a doubt upon this point, I would ask him to read the +chapter on slavery in Dickens’s <i>Notes on America</i>. If any man has a +doubt upon it, I have here the “testimony of a thousand witnesses,” +which I can give at any length, all going to prove the truth of my statement. +The blood-hound is regularly trained in the United States, and advertisements +are to be found in the southern papers of the Union, from persons advertising +themselves as blood-hound trainers, and offering to hunt down slaves at fifteen +dollars a piece, recommending their hounds as the fleetest in the neighborhood, +never known to fail. Advertisements are from time to time inserted, stating +that slaves have escaped with iron collars about their necks, with bands of +iron about their feet, marked with the lash, branded with red-hot irons, the +initials of their master’s name burned into their flesh; and the masters +advertise the fact of their being thus branded with their own signature, +thereby proving to the world, that, however damning it may appear to +non-slavers, such practices are not regarded discreditable among the +slaveholders themselves. Why, I believe if a man should brand his horse in this +country—burn the initials of his name into any of his cattle, and publish +the ferocious deed here—that the united execrations of Christians in +Britain would descend upon him. Yet in the United States, human beings are thus +branded. As Whittier says— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +... Our countrymen in chains,<br/> +The whip on woman’s shrinking flesh,<br/> +Our soil yet reddening with the stains<br/> +Caught from her scourgings warm and fresh. +</p> + +<p> +The slave-dealer boldly publishes his infamous acts to the world. Of all things +that have been said of slavery to which exception has been taken by +slaveholders, this, the charge of cruelty, stands foremost, and yet there is no +charge capable of clearer demonstration, than that of the most barbarous +inhumanity on the part of the slaveholders toward their slaves. And all this is +necessary; it is necessary to resort to these cruelties, in order to <i>make +the slave a slave</i>, and to <i>keep him a slave</i>. Why, my experience all +goes to prove the truth of what you will call a marvelous proposition, that the +better you treat a slave, the more you destroy his value <i>as a slave</i>, and +enhance the probability of his eluding the grasp of the slaveholder; the more +kindly you treat him, the more wretched you make him, while you keep him in the +condition of a slave. My experience, I say, confirms the truth of this +proposition. When I was treated exceedingly ill; when my back was being +scourged daily; when I was whipped within an inch of my life—<i>life</i> +was all I cared for. “Spare my life,” was my continual prayer. When +I was looking for the blow about to be inflicted upon my head, I was not +thinking of my liberty; it was my life. But, as soon as the blow was not to be +feared, then came the longing for liberty. If a slave has a bad master, his +ambition is to get a better; when he gets a better, he aspires to have the +best; and when he gets the best, he aspires to be his own master. But the slave +must be brutalized to keep him as a slave. The slaveholder feels this +necessity. I admit this necessity. If it be right to hold slaves at all, it is +right to hold them in the only way in which they can be held; and this can be +done only by shutting out the light of education from their minds, and +brutalizing their persons. The whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the +blood-hound, the stocks, and all the other bloody paraphernalia of the slave +system, are indispensably necessary to the relation of master and slave. The +slave must be subjected to these, or he ceases to be a slave. Let him know that +the whip is burned; that the fetters have been turned to some useful and +profitable employment; that the chain is no longer for his limbs; that the +blood-hound is no longer to be put upon his track; that his master’s +authority over him is no longer to be enforced by taking his life—and +immediately he walks out from the house of bondage and asserts his freedom as a +man. The slaveholder finds it necessary to have these implements to keep the +slave in bondage; finds it necessary to be able to say, “Unless you do so +and so; unless you do as I bid you—I will take away your life!” +</p> + +<p> +Some of the most awful scenes of cruelty are constantly taking place in the +middle states of the Union. We have in those states what are called the +slave-breeding states. Allow me to speak plainly. Although it is harrowing to +your feelings, it is necessary that the facts of the case should be stated. We +have in the United States slave-breeding states. The very state from which the +minister from our court to yours comes, is one of these states—Maryland, +where men, women, and children are reared for the market, just as horses, +sheep, and swine are raised for the market. Slave-rearing is there looked upon +as a legitimate trade; the law sanctions it, public opinion upholds it, the +church does not condemn it. It goes on in all its bloody horrors, sustained by +the auctioneer’s block. If you would see the cruelties of this system, +hear the following narrative. Not long since the following scene occurred. A +slave-woman and a slaveman had united themselves as man and wife in the absence +of any law to protect them as man and wife. They had lived together by the +permission, not by right, of their master, and they had reared a family. The +master found it expedient, and for his interest, to sell them. He did not ask +them their wishes in regard to the matter at all; they were not consulted. The +man and woman were brought to the auctioneer’s block, under the sound of +the hammer. The cry was raised, “Here goes; who bids cash?” Think +of it—a man and wife to be sold! The woman was placed on the +auctioneer’s block; her limbs, as is customary, were brutally exposed to +the purchasers, who examined her with all the freedom with which they would +examine a horse. There stood the husband, powerless; no right to his wife; the +master’s right preeminent. She was sold. He was next brought to the +auctioneer’s block. His eyes followed his wife in the distance; and he +looked beseechingly, imploringly, to the man that had bought his wife, to buy +him also. But he was at length bid off to another person. He was about to be +separated forever from her he loved. No word of his, no work of his, could save +him from this separation. He asked permission of his new master to go and take +the hand of his wife at parting. It was denied him. In the agony of his soul he +rushed from the man who had just bought him, that he might take a farewell of +his wife; but his way was obstructed, he was struck over the head with a loaded +whip, and was held for a moment; but his agony was too great. When he was let +go, he fell a corpse at the feet of his master. His heart was broken. Such +scenes are the everyday fruits of American slavery. Some two years since, the +Hon. Seth. M. Gates, an anti-slavery gentleman of the state of New York, a +representative in the congress of the United States, told me he saw with his +own eyes the following circumstances. In the national District of Columbia, +over which the star-spangled emblem is constantly waving, where orators are +ever holding forth on the subject of American liberty, American democracy, +American republicanism, there are two slave prisons. When going across a +bridge, leading to one of these prisons, he saw a young woman run out, +bare-footed and bare-headed, and with very little clothing on. She was running +with all speed to the bridge he was approaching. His eye was fixed upon her, +and he stopped to see what was the matter. He had not paused long before he saw +three men run out after her. He now knew what the nature of the case was; a +slave escaping from her chains—a young woman, a sister—escaping +from the bondage in which she had been held. She made her way to the bridge, +but had not reached, ere from the Virginia side there came two slaveholders. As +soon as they saw them, her pursuers called out, “Stop her!” True to +their Virginian instincts, they came to the rescue of their brother kidnappers, +across the bridge. The poor girl now saw that there was no chance for her. It +was a trying time. She knew if she went back, she must be a slave +forever—she must be dragged down to the scenes of pollution which the +slaveholders continually provide for most of the poor, sinking, wretched young +women, whom they call their property. She formed her resolution; and just as +those who were about to take her, were going to put hands upon her, to drag her +back, she leaped over the balustrades of the bridge, and down she went to rise +no more. She chose death, rather than to go back into the hands of those +christian slaveholders from whom she had escaped. +</p> + +<p> +Can it be possible that such things as these exist in the United States? Are +not these the exceptions? Are any such scenes as this general? Are not such +deeds condemned by the law and denounced by public opinion? Let me read to you +a few of the laws of the slaveholding states of America. I think no better +exposure of slavery can be made than is made by the laws of the states in which +slavery exists. I prefer reading the laws to making any statement in +confirmation of what I have said myself; for the slaveholders cannot object to +this testimony, since it is the calm, the cool, the deliberate enactment of +their wisest heads, of their most clear-sighted, their own constituted +representatives. “If more than seven slaves together are found in any +road without a white person, twenty lashes a piece; for visiting a plantation +without a written pass, ten lashes; for letting loose a boat from where it is +made fast, thirty-nine lashes for the first offense; and for the second, shall +have cut off from his head one ear; for keeping or carrying a club, thirty-nine +lashes; for having any article for sale, without a ticket from his master, ten +lashes; for traveling in any other than the most usual and accustomed road, +when going alone to any place, forty lashes; for traveling in the night without +a pass, forty lashes.” I am afraid you do not understand the awful +character of these lashes. You must bring it before your mind. A human being in +a perfect state of nudity, tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man +standing behind with a heavy whip, knotted at the end, each blow cutting into +the flesh, and leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet; and for these +trifles. “For being found in another person’s negro-quarters, forty +lashes; for hunting with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes; for being on +horseback without the written permission of his master, twenty-five lashes; for +riding or going abroad in the night, or riding horses in the day time, without +leave, a slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the cheek with the letter +R. or otherwise punished, such punishment not extending to life, or so as to +render him unfit for labor.” The laws referred to, may be found by +consulting <i>Brevard’s Digest; Haywood’s Manual; Virginia Revised +Code; Prince’s Digest; Missouri Laws; Mississippi Revised Code</i>. A +man, for going to visit his brethren, without the permission of his +master—and in many instances he may not have that permission; his master, +from caprice or other reasons, may not be willing to allow it—may be +caught on his way, dragged to a post, the branding-iron heated, and the name of +his master or the letter R branded into his cheek or on his forehead. They +treat slaves thus, on the principle that they must punish for light offenses, +in order to prevent the commission of larger ones. I wish you to mark that in +the single state of Virginia there are seventy-one crimes for which a colored +man may be executed; while there are only three of these crimes, which, when +committed by a white man, will subject him to that punishment. There are many +of these crimes which if the white man did not commit, he would be regarded as +a scoundrel and a coward. In the state of Maryland, there is a law to this +effect: that if a slave shall strike his master, he may be hanged, his head +severed from his body, his body quartered, and his head and quarters set up in +the most prominent places in the neighborhood. If a colored woman, in the +defense of her own virtue, in defense of her own person, should shield herself +from the brutal attacks of her tyrannical master, or make the slightest +resistance, she may be killed on the spot. No law whatever will bring the +guilty man to justice for the crime. +</p> + +<p> +But you will ask me, can these things be possible in a land professing +Christianity? Yes, they are so; and this is not the worst. No; a darker feature +is yet to be presented than the mere existence of these facts. I have to inform +you that the religion of the southern states, at this time, is the great +supporter, the great sanctioner of the bloody atrocities to which I have +referred. While America is printing tracts and bibles; sending missionaries +abroad to convert the heathen; expending her money in various ways for the +promotion of the gospel in foreign lands—the slave not only lies +forgotten, uncared for, but is trampled under foot by the very churches of the +land. What have we in America? Why, we have slavery made part of the religion +of the land. Yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender of this +cursed <i>institution</i>, as it is called. Ministers of religion come forward +and torture the hallowed pages of inspired wisdom to sanction the bloody deed. +They stand forth as the foremost, the strongest defenders of this +“institution.” As a proof of this, I need not do more than state +the general fact, that slavery has existed under the droppings of the sanctuary +of the south for the last two hundred years, and there has not been any war +between the <i>religion</i> and the <i>slavery</i> of the south. Whips, chains, +gags, and thumb-screws have all lain under the droppings of the sanctuary, and +instead of rusting from off the limbs of the bondman, those droppings have +served to preserve them in all their strength. Instead of preaching the gospel +against this tyranny, rebuke, and wrong, ministers of religion have sought, by +all and every means, to throw in the back-ground whatever in the bible could be +construed into opposition to slavery, and to bring forward that which they +could torture into its support. This I conceive to be the darkest feature of +slavery, and the most difficult to attack, because it is identified with +religion, and exposes those who denounce it to the charge of infidelity. Yes, +those with whom I have been laboring, namely, the old organization anti-slavery +society of America, have been again and again stigmatized as infidels, and for +what reason? Why, solely in consequence of the faithfulness of their attacks +upon the slaveholding religion of the southern states, and the northern +religion that sympathizes with it. I have found it difficult to speak on this +matter without persons coming forward and saying, “Douglass, are you not +afraid of injuring the cause of Christ? You do not desire to do so, we know; +but are you not undermining religion?” This has been said to me again and +again, even since I came to this country, but I cannot be induced to leave off +these exposures. I love the religion of our blessed Savior. I love that +religion that comes from above, in the “wisdom of God,” which is +first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and +good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. I love that religion +that sends its votaries to bind up the wounds of him that has fallen among +thieves. I love that religion that makes it the duty of its disciples to visit +the father less and the widow in their affliction. I love that religion that is +based upon the glorious principle, of love to God and love to man; which makes +its followers do unto others as they themselves would be done by. If you demand +liberty to yourself, it says, grant it to your neighbors. If you claim a right +to think for yourself, it says, allow your neighbors the same right. If you +claim to act for yourself, it says, allow your neighbors the same right. It is +because I love this religion that I hate the slaveholding, the woman-whipping, +the mind-darkening, the soul-destroying religion that exists in the southern +states of America. It is because I regard the one as good, and pure, and holy, +that I cannot but regard the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. Loving the one +I must hate the other; holding to the one I must reject the other. +</p> + +<p> +I may be asked, why I am so anxious to bring this subject before the British +public—why I do not confine my efforts to the United States? My answer +is, first, that slavery is the common enemy of mankind, and all mankind should +be made acquainted with its abominable character. My next answer is, that the +slave is a man, and, as such, is entitled to your sympathy as a brother. All +the feelings, all the susceptibilities, all the capacities, which you have, he +has. He is a part of the human family. He has been the prey—the common +prey—of Christendom for the last three hundred years, and it is but +right, it is but just, it is but proper, that his wrongs should be known +throughout the world. I have another reason for bringing this matter before the +British public, and it is this: slavery is a system of wrong, so blinding to +all around, so hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the morals, so +deleterious to religion, so sapping to all the principles of justice in its +immediate vicinity, that the community surrounding it lack the moral stamina +necessary to its removal. It is a system of such gigantic evil, so strong, so +overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is equal to its removal. It +requires the humanity of Christianity, the morality of the world to remove it. +Hence, I call upon the people of Britain to look at this matter, and to exert +the influence I am about to show they possess, for the removal of slavery from +America. I can appeal to them, as strongly by their regard for the slaveholder +as for the slave, to labor in this cause. I am here, because you have an +influence on America that no other nation can have. You have been drawn +together by the power of steam to a marvelous extent; the distance between +London and Boston is now reduced to some twelve or fourteen days, so that the +denunciations against slavery, uttered in London this week, may be heard in a +fortnight in the streets of Boston, and reverberating amidst the hills of +Massachusetts. There is nothing said here against slavery that will not be +recorded in the United States. I am here, also, because the slaveholders do not +want me to be here; they would rather that I were not here. I have adopted a +maxim laid down by Napoleon, never to occupy ground which the enemy would like +me to occupy. The slaveholders would much rather have me, if I will denounce +slavery, denounce it in the northern states, where their friends and supporters +are, who will stand by and mob me for denouncing it. They feel something as the +man felt, when he uttered his prayer, in which he made out a most horrible case +for himself, and one of his neighbors touched him and said, “My friend, I +always had the opinion of you that you have now expressed for +yourself—that you are a very great sinner.” Coming from himself, it +was all very well, but coming from a stranger it was rather cutting. The +slaveholders felt that when slavery was denounced among themselves, it was not +so bad; but let one of the slaves get loose, let him summon the people of +Britain, and make known to them the conduct of the slaveholders toward their +slaves, and it cuts them to the quick, and produces a sensation such as would +be produced by nothing else. The power I exert now is something like the power +that is exerted by the man at the end of the lever; my influence now is just in +proportion to the distance that I am from the United States. My exposure of +slavery abroad will tell more upon the hearts and consciences of slaveholders, +than if I was attacking them in America; for almost every paper that I now +receive from the United States, comes teeming with statements about this +fugitive Negro, calling him a “glib-tongued scoundrel,” and saying +that he is running out against the institutions and people of America. I deny +the charge that I am saying a word against the institutions of America, or the +people, as such. What I have to say is against slavery and slaveholders. I feel +at liberty to speak on this subject. I have on my back the marks of the lash; I +have four sisters and one brother now under the galling chain. I feel it my +duty to cry aloud and spare not. I am not averse to having the good opinion of +my fellow creatures. I am not averse to being kindly regarded by all men; but I +am bound, even at the hazard of making a large class of religionists in this +country hate me, oppose me, and malign me as they have done—I am bound by +the prayers, and tears, and entreaties of three millions of kneeling bondsmen, +to have no compromise with men who are in any shape or form connected with the +slaveholders of America. I expose slavery in this country, because to expose it +is to kill it. Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light +of truth is death. Expose slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what the +heat of the sun is to the root of a tree; it must die under it. All the +slaveholder asks of me is silence. He does not ask me to go abroad and preach +<i>in favor</i> of slavery; he does not ask any one to do that. He would not +say that slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances. The +slaveholders want total darkness on the subject. They want the hatchway shut +down, that the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing human hopes +and happiness, destroying the bondman at will, and having no one to reprove or +rebuke him. Slavery shrinks from the light; it hateth the light, neither cometh +to the light, lest its deeds should be reproved. To tear off the mask from this +abominable system, to expose it to the light of heaven, aye, to the heat of the +sun, that it may burn and wither it out of existence, is my object in coming to +this country. I want the slaveholder surrounded, as by a wall of anti-slavery +fire, so that he may see the condemnation of himself and his system glaring +down in letters of light. I want him to feel that he has no sympathy in +England, Scotland, or Ireland; that he has none in Canada, none in Mexico, none +among the poor wild Indians; that the voice of the civilized, aye, and savage +world is against him. I would have condemnation blaze down upon him in every +direction, till, stunned and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is +compelled to let go the grasp he holds upon the persons of his victims, and +restore them to their long-lost rights. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"></a> +Dr. Campbell’s Reply</h2> + +<p> +From Rev. Dr. Campbell’s brilliant reply we extract the following: +FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “the beast of burden,” the portion of +“goods and chattels,” the representative of three millions of men, +has been raised up! Shall I say the <i>man?</i> If there is a man on earth, he +is a man. My blood boiled within me when I heard his address tonight, and +thought that he had left behind him three millions of such men. +</p> + +<p> +We must see more of this man; we must have more of this man. One would have +taken a voyage round the globe some forty years back—especially since the +introduction of steam—to have heard such an exposure of slavery from the +lips of a slave. It will be an era in the individual history of the present +assembly. Our children—our boys and girls—I have tonight seen the +delightful sympathy of their hearts evinced by their heaving breasts, while +their eyes sparkled with wonder and admiration, that this black man—this +slave—had so much logic, so much wit, so much fancy, so much eloquence. +He was something more than a man, according to their little notions. Then, I +say, we must hear him again. We have got a purpose to accomplish. He has +appealed to the pulpit of England. The English pulpit is with him. He has +appealed to the press of England; the press of England is conducted by English +hearts, and that press will do him justice. About ten days hence, and his +second master, who may well prize “such a piece of goods,” will +have the pleasure of reading his burning words, and his first master will bless +himself that he has got quit of him. We have to create public opinion, or +rather, not to create it, for it is created already; but we have to foster it; +and when tonight I heard those magnificent words—the words of Curran, by +which my heart, from boyhood, has ofttimes been deeply moved—I rejoice to +think that they embody an instinct of an Englishman’s nature. I heard, +with inexpressible delight, how they told on this mighty mass of the citizens +of the metropolis. +</p> + +<p> +Britain has now no slaves; we can therefore talk to the other nations now, as +we could not have talked a dozen years ago. I want the whole of the London +ministry to meet Douglass. For as his appeal is to England, and throughout +England, I should rejoice in the idea of churchmen and dissenters merging all +sectional distinctions in this cause. Let us have a public breakfast. Let the +ministers meet him; let them hear him; let them grasp his hand; and let him +enlist their sympathies on behalf of the slave. Let him inspire them with +abhorrence of the man-stealer—the slaveholder. No slaveholding American +shall ever my cross my door. No slaveholding or slavery-supporting minister +shall ever pollute my pulpit. While I have a tongue to speak, or a hand to +write, I will, to the utmost of my power, oppose these slaveholding men. We +must have Douglass amongst us to aid in fostering public opinion. +</p> + +<p> +The great conflict with slavery must now take place in America; and while they +are adding other slave states to the Union, our business is to step forward and +help the abolitionists there. It is a pleasing circumstance that such a body of +men has risen in America, and whilst we hurl our thunders against her slavers, +let us make a distinction between those who advocate slavery and those who +oppose it. George Thompson has been there. This man, Frederick Douglass, has +been there, and has been compelled to flee. I wish, when he first set foot on +our shores, he had made a solemn vow, and said, “Now that I am free, and +in the sanctuary of freedom, I will never return till I have seen the +emancipation of my country completed.” He wants to surround these men, +the slaveholders, as by a wall of fire; and he himself may do much toward +kindling it. Let him travel over the island—east, west, north, and +south—everywhere diffusing knowledge and awakening principle, till the +whole nation become a body of petitioners to America. He will, he must, do it. +He must for a season make England his home. He must send for his wife. He must +send for his children. I want to see the sons and daughters of such a sire. We, +too, must do something for him and them worthy of the English name. I do not +like the idea of a man of such mental dimensions, such moral courage, and all +but incomparable talent, having his own small wants, and the wants of a distant +wife and children, supplied by the poor profits of his publication, the sketch +of his life. Let the pamphlet be bought by tens of thousands. But we will do +something more for him, shall we not? +</p> + +<p> +It only remains that we pass a resolution of thanks to Frederick Douglass, the +slave that was, the man that is! He that was covered with chains, and that is +now being covered with glory, and whom we will send back a gentleman. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"></a> +LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. <a href="#linknote-11" +name="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a>. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld</h2> + +<p> +SIR—The long and intimate, though by no means friendly, relation which +unhappily subsisted between you and myself, leads me to hope that you will +easily account for the great liberty which I now take in addressing you in this +open and public manner. The same fact may remove any disagreeable surprise +which you may experience on again finding your name coupled with mine, in any +other way than in an advertisement, accurately describing my person, and +offering a large sum for my arrest. In thus dragging you again before the +public, I am aware that I shall subject myself to no inconsiderable amount of +censure. I shall probably be charged with an unwarrantable, if not a wanton and +reckless disregard of the rights and properties of private life. There are +those north as well as south who entertain a much higher respect for rights +which are merely conventional, than they do for rights which are personal and +essential. Not a few there are in our country, who, while they have no scruples +against robbing the laborer of the hard earned results of his patient industry, +will be shocked by the extremely indelicate manner of bringing your name before +the public. Believing this to be the case, and wishing to meet every reasonable +or plausible objection to my conduct, I will frankly state the ground upon +which I justfy(sic) myself in this instance, as well as on former occasions +when I have thought proper to mention your name in public. All will agree that +a man guilty of theft, robbery, or murder, has forfeited the right to +concealment and private life; that the community have a right to subject such +persons to the most complete exposure. However much they may desire retirement, +and aim to conceal themselves and their movements from the popular gaze, the +public have a right to ferret them out, and bring their conduct before the +proper tribunals of the country for investigation. Sir, you will undoubtedly +make the proper application of these generally admitted principles, and will +easily see the light in which you are regarded by me; I will not therefore +manifest ill temper, by calling you hard names. I know you to be a man of some +intelligence, and can readily determine the precise estimate which I entertain +of your character. I may therefore indulge in language which may seem to others +indirect and ambiguous, and yet be quite well understood by yourself. +</p> + +<p> +I have selected this day on which to address you, because it is the anniversary +of my emancipation; and knowing no better way, I am led to this as the best +mode of celebrating that truly important events. Just ten years ago this +beautiful September morning, yon bright sun beheld me a slave—a poor +degraded chattel—trembling at the sound of your voice, lamenting that I +was a man, and wishing myself a brute. The hopes which I had treasured up for +weeks of a safe and successful escape from your grasp, were powerfully +confronted at this last hour by dark clouds of doubt and fear, making my person +shake and my bosom to heave with the heavy contest between hope and fear. I +have no words to describe to you the deep agony of soul which I experienced on +that never-to-be-forgotten morning—for I left by daylight. I was making a +leap in the dark. The probabilities, so far as I could by reason determine +them, were stoutly against the undertaking. The preliminaries and precautions I +had adopted previously, all worked badly. I was like one going to war without +weapons—ten chances of defeat to one of victory. One in whom I had +confided, and one who had promised me assistance, appalled by fear at the trial +hour, deserted me, thus leaving the responsibility of success or failure solely +with myself. You, sir, can never know my feelings. As I look back to them, I +can scarcely realize that I have passed through a scene so trying. Trying, +however, as they were, and gloomy as was the prospect, thanks be to the Most +High, who is ever the God of the oppressed, at the moment which was to +determine my whole earthly career, His grace was sufficient; my mind was made +up. I embraced the golden opportunity, took the morning tide at the flood, and +a free man, young, active, and strong, is the result. +</p> + +<p> +I have often thought I should like to explain to you the grounds upon which I +have justified myself in running away from you. I am almost ashamed to do so +now, for by this time you may have discovered them yourself. I will, however, +glance at them. When yet but a child about six years old, I imbibed the +determination to run away. The very first mental effort that I now remember on +my part, was an attempt to solve the mystery—why am I a slave? and with +this question my youthful mind was troubled for many days, pressing upon me +more heavily at times than others. When I saw the slave-driver whip a +slave-woman, cut the blood out of her neck, and heard her piteous cries, I went +away into the corner of the fence, wept and pondered over the mystery. I had, +through some medium, I know not what, got some idea of God, the Creator of all +mankind, the black and the white, and that he had made the blacks to serve the +whites as slaves. How he could do this and be <i>good</i>, I could not tell. I +was not satisfied with this theory, which made God responsible for slavery, for +it pained me greatly, and I have wept over it long and often. At one time, your +first wife, Mrs. Lucretia, heard me sighing and saw me shedding tears, and +asked of me the matter, but I was afraid to tell her. I was puzzled with this +question, till one night while sitting in the kitchen, I heard some of the old +slaves talking of their parents having been stolen from Africa by white men, +and were sold here as slaves. The whole mystery was solved at once. Very soon +after this, my Aunt Jinny and Uncle Noah ran away, and the great noise made +about it by your father-in-law, made me for the first time acquainted with the +fact, that there were free states as well as slave states. From that time, I +resolved that I would some day run away. The morality of the act I dispose of +as follows: I am myself; you are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal +persons. What you are, I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, and +made us separate beings. I am not by nature bond to you, or you to me. Nature +does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine to depend upon yours. I +cannot walk upon your legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe for you, or you +for me; I must breathe for myself, and you for yourself. We are distinct +persons, and are each equally provided with faculties necessary to our +individual existence. In leaving you, I took nothing but what belonged to me, +and in no way lessened your means for obtaining an <i>honest</i> living. Your +faculties remained yours, and mine became useful to their rightful owner. I +therefore see no wrong in any part of the transaction. It is true, I went off +secretly; but that was more your fault than mine. Had I let you into the +secret, you would have defeated the enterprise entirely; but for this, I should +have been really glad to have made you acquainted with my intentions to leave. +</p> + +<p> +You may perhaps want to know how I like my present condition. I am free to say, +I greatly prefer it to that which I occupied in Maryland. I am, however, by no +means prejudiced against the state as such. Its geography, climate, fertility, +and products, are such as to make it a very desirable abode for any man; and +but for the existence of slavery there, it is not impossible that I might again +take up my abode in that state. It is not that I love Maryland less, but +freedom more. You will be surprised to learn that people at the north labor +under the strange delusion that if the slaves were emancipated at the south, +they would flock to the north. So far from this being the case, in that event, +you would see many old and familiar faces back again to the south. The fact is, +there are few here who would not return to the south in the event of +emancipation. We want to live in the land of our birth, and to lay our bones by +the side of our fathers; and nothing short of an intense love of personal +freedom keeps us from the south. For the sake of this, most of us would live on +a crust of bread and a cup of cold water. +</p> + +<p> +Since I left you, I have had a rich experience. I have occupied stations which +I never dreamed of when a slave. Three out of the ten years since I left you, I +spent as a common laborer on the wharves of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was +there I earned my first free dollar. It was mine. I could spend it as I +pleased. I could buy hams or herring with it, without asking any odds of +anybody. That was a precious dollar to me. You remember when I used to make +seven, or eight, or even nine dollars a week in Baltimore, you would take every +cent of it from me every Saturday night, saying that I belonged to you, and my +earnings also. I never liked this conduct on your part—to say the best, I +thought it a little mean. I would not have served you so. But let that pass. I +was a little awkward about counting money in New England fashion when I first +landed in New Bedford. I came near betraying myself several times. I caught +myself saying phip, for fourpence; and at one time a man actually charged me +with being a runaway, whereupon I was silly enough to become one by running +away from him, for I was greatly afraid he might adopt measures to get me again +into slavery, a condition I then dreaded more than death. +</p> + +<p> +I soon learned, however, to count money, as well as to make it, and got on +swimmingly. I married soon after leaving you; in fact, I was engaged to be +married before I left you; and instead of finding my companion a burden, she +was truly a helpmate. She went to live at service, and I to work on the wharf, +and though we toiled hard the first winter, we never lived more happily. After +remaining in New Bedford for three years, I met with William Lloyd Garrison, a +person of whom you have <i>possibly</i> heard, as he is pretty generally known +among slaveholders. He put it into my head that I might make myself serviceable +to the cause of the slave, by devoting a portion of my time to telling my own +sorrows, and those of other slaves, which had come under my observation. This +was the commencement of a higher state of existence than any to which I had +ever aspired. I was thrown into society the most pure, enlightened, and +benevolent, that the country affords. Among these I have never forgotten you, +but have invariably made you the topic of conversation—thus giving you +all the notoriety I could do. I need not tell you that the opinion formed of +you in these circles is far from being favorable. They have little respect for +your honesty, and less for your religion. +</p> + +<p> +But I was going on to relate to you something of my interesting experience. I +had not long enjoyed the excellent society to which I have referred, before the +light of its excellence exerted a beneficial influence on my mind and heart. +Much of my early dislike of white persons was removed, and their manners, +habits, and customs, so entirely unlike what I had been used to in the +kitchen-quarters on the plantations of the south, fairly charmed me, and gave +me a strong disrelish for the coarse and degrading customs of my former +condition. I therefore made an effort so to improve my mind and deportment, as +to be somewhat fitted to the station to which I seemed almost providentially +called. The transition from degradation to respectability was indeed great, and +to get from one to the other without carrying some marks of one’s former +condition, is truly a difficult matter. I would not have you think that I am +now entirely clear of all plantation peculiarities, but my friends here, while +they entertain the strongest dislike to them, regard me with that charity to +which my past life somewhat entitles me, so that my condition in this respect +is exceedingly pleasant. So far as my domestic affairs are concerned, I can +boast of as comfortable a dwelling as your own. I have an industrious and neat +companion, and four dear children—the oldest a girl of nine years, and +three fine boys, the oldest eight, the next six, and the youngest four years +old. The three oldest are now going regularly to school—two can read and +write, and the other can spell, with tolerable correctness, words of two +syllables. Dear fellows! they are all in comfortable beds, and are sound +asleep, perfectly secure under my own roof. There are no slaveholders here to +rend my heart by snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother’s dearest +hopes by tearing them from her bosom. These dear children are ours—not to +work up into rice, sugar, and tobacco, but to watch over, regard, and protect, +and to rear them up in the nurture and admonition of the gospel—to train +them up in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and, as far as we can, to make them +useful to the world and to themselves. Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to +me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear +children. It is then that my feelings rise above my control. I meant to have +said more with respect to my own prosperity and happiness, but thoughts and +feelings which this recital has quickened, unfit me to proceed further in that +direction. The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly terror before +me; the wails of millions pierce my heart and chill my blood. I remember the +chain, the gag, the bloody whip; the death-like gloom overshadowing the broken +spirit of the fettered bondman; the appalling liability of his being torn away +from wife and children, and sold like a beast in the market. Say not that this +is a picture of fancy. You well know that I wear stripes on my back, inflicted +by your direction; and that you, while we were brothers in the same church, +caused this right hand, with which I am now penning this letter, to be closely +tied to my left, and my person dragged, at the pistol’s mouth, fifteen +miles, from the Bay Side to Easton, to be sold like a beast in the market, for +the alleged crime of intending to escape from your possession. All this, and +more, you remember, and know to be perfectly true, not only of yourself, but of +nearly all of the slaveholders around you. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment, you are probably the guilty holder of at least three of my own +dear sisters, and my only brother, in bondage. These you regard as your +property. They are recorded on your ledger, or perhaps have been sold to human +flesh-mongers, with a view to filling our own ever-hungry purse. Sir, I desire +to know how and where these dear sisters are. Have you sold them? or are they +still in your possession? What has become of them? are they living or dead? And +my dear old grandmother, whom you turned out like an old horse to die in the +woods—is she still alive? Write and let me know all about them. If my +grandmother be still alive, she is of no service to you, for by this time she +must be nearly eighty years old—too old to be cared for by one to whom +she has ceased to be of service; send her to me at Rochester, or bring her to +Philadelphia, and it shall be the crowning happiness of my life to take care of +her in her old age. Oh! she was to me a mother and a father, so far as hard +toil for my comfort could make her such. Send me my grandmother! that I may +watch over and take care of her in her old age. And my sisters—let me +know all about them. I would write to them, and learn all I want to know of +them, without disturbing you in any way, but that, through your unrighteous +conduct, they have been entirely deprived of the power to read and write. You +have kept them in utter ignorance, and have therefore robbed them of the sweet +enjoyments of writing or receiving letters from absent friends and relatives. +Your wickedness and cruelty, committed in this respect on your +fellow-creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon my back +or theirs. It is an outrage upon the soul, a war upon the immortal spirit, and +one for which you must give account at the bar of our common Father and +Creator. +</p> + +<p> +The responsibility which you have assumed in this regard is truly awful, and +how you could stagger under it these many years is marvelous. Your mind must +have become darkened, your heart hardened, your conscience seared and +petrified, or you would have long since thrown off the accursed load, and +sought relief at the hands of a sin-forgiving God. How, let me ask, would you +look upon me, were I, some dark night, in company with a band of hardened +villains, to enter the precincts of your elegant dwelling, and seize the person +of your own lovely daughter, Amanda, and carry her off from your family, +friends, and all the loved ones of her youth—make her my +slave—compel her to work, and I take her wages—place her name on my +ledger as property—disregard her personal rights—fetter the powers +of her immortal soul by denying her the right and privilege of learning to read +and write—feed her coarsely—clothe her scantily, and whip her on +the naked back occasionally; more, and still more horrible, leave her +unprotected—a degraded victim to the brutal lust of fiendish overseers, +who would pollute, blight, and blast her fair soul—rob her of all +dignity—destroy her virtue, and annihilate in her person all the graces +that adorn the character of virtuous womanhood? I ask, how would you regard me, +if such were my conduct? Oh! the vocabulary of the damned would not afford a +word sufficiently infernal to express your idea of my God-provoking wickedness. +Yet, sir, your treatment of my beloved sisters is in all essential points +precisely like the case I have now supposed. Damning as would be such a deed on +my part, it would be no more so than that which you have committed against me +and my sisters. +</p> + +<p> +I will now bring this letter to a close; you shall hear from me again unless +you let me hear from you. I intend to make use of you as a weapon with which to +assail the system of slavery—as a means of concentrating public attention +on the system, and deepening the horror of trafficking in the souls and bodies +of men. I shall make use of you as a means of exposing the character of the +American church and clergy—and as a means of bringing this guilty nation, +with yourself, to repentance. In doing this, I entertain no malice toward you +personally. There is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and +there is nothing in my house which you might need for your comfort, which I +would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege to set you an +example as to how mankind ought to treat each other. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +I am your fellow-man, but not your slave. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"></a> +THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,</h2> + +<p> +December 1, 1850 +</p> + +<p> +More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery. My +childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities of the slave system. I +grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra headed monster—not as a +master—not as an idle spectator—not as the guest of the +slaveholder—but as A SLAVE, eating the bread and drinking the cup of +slavery with the most degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing with them all +the painful conditions of their wretched lot. In consideration of these facts, +I feel that I have a right to speak, and to speak <i>strongly</i>. Yet, my +friends, I feel bound to speak truly. +</p> + +<p> +Goading as have been the cruelties to which I have been subjected—bitter +as have been the trials through which I have passed—exasperating as have +been, and still are, the indignities offered to my manhood—I find in them +no excuse for the slightest departure from truth in dealing with any branch of +this subject. +</p> + +<p> +First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and social relation of +master and slave. A master is one—to speak in the vocabulary of the +southern states—who claims and exercises a right of property in the +person of a fellow-man. This he does with the force of the law and the sanction +of southern religion. The law gives the master absolute power over the slave. +He may work him, flog him, hire him out, sell him, and, in certain +contingencies, <i>kill</i> him, with perfect impunity. The slave is a human +being, divested of all rights—reduced to the level of a brute—a +mere “chattel” in the eye of the law—placed beyond the circle +of human brotherhood—cut off from his kind—his name, which the +“recording angel” may have enrolled in heaven, among the blest, is +impiously inserted in a <i>master’s ledger</i>, with horses, sheep, and +swine. In law, the slave has no wife, no children, no country, and no home. He +can own nothing, possess nothing, acquire nothing, but what must belong to +another. To eat the fruit of his own toil, to clothe his person with the work +of his own hands, is considered stealing. He toils that another may reap the +fruit; he is industrious that another may live in idleness; he eats unbolted +meal that another may eat the bread of fine flour; he labors in chains at home, +under a burning sun and biting lash, that another may ride in ease and splendor +abroad; he lives in ignorance that another may be educated; he is abused that +another may be exalted; he rests his toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp ground +that another may repose on the softest pillow; he is clad in coarse and +tattered raiment that another may be arrayed in purple and fine linen; he is +sheltered only by the wretched hovel that a master may dwell in a magnificent +mansion; and to this condition he is bound down as by an arm of iron. +</p> + +<p> +From this monstrous relation there springs an unceasing stream of most +revolting cruelties. The very accompaniments of the slave system stamp it as +the offspring of hell itself. To ensure good behavior, the slaveholder relies +on the whip; to induce proper humility, he relies on the whip; to rebuke what +he is pleased to term insolence, he relies on the whip; to supply the place of +wages as an incentive to toil, he relies on the whip; to bind down the spirit +of the slave, to imbrute and destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip, the +chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the pillory, the bowie knife the pistol, and +the blood-hound. These are the necessary and unvarying accompaniments of the +system. Wherever slavery is found, these horrid instruments are also found. +Whether on the coast of Africa, among the savage tribes, or in South Carolina, +among the refined and civilized, slavery is the same, and its accompaniments +one and the same. It makes no difference whether the slaveholder worships the +God of the Christians, or is a follower of Mahomet, he is the minister of the +same cruelty, and the author of the same misery. <i>Slavery</i> is always +<i>slavery;</i> always the same foul, haggard, and damning scourge, whether +found in the eastern or in the western hemisphere. +</p> + +<p> +There is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. The physical +cruelties are indeed sufficiently harassing and revolting; but they are as a +few grains of sand on the sea shore, or a few drops of water in the great +ocean, compared with the stupendous wrongs which it inflicts upon the mental, +moral, and religious nature of its hapless victims. It is only when we +contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being, that we can adequately +comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slavery, and the intense criminality of +the slaveholder. I have said that the slave was a man. “What a piece of +work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving +how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how +like a God! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!” +</p> + +<p> +The slave is a man, “the image of God,” but “a little lower +than the angels;” possessing a soul, eternal and indestructible; capable +of endless happiness, or immeasurable woe; a creature of hopes and fears, of +affections and passions, of joys and sorrows, and he is endowed with those +mysterious powers by which man soars above the things of time and sense, and +grasps, with undying tenacity, the elevating and sublimely glorious idea of a +God. It is <i>such</i> a being that is smitten and blasted. The first work of +slavery is to mar and deface those characteristics of its victims which +distinguish <i>men</i> from <i>things</i>, and <i>persons</i> from +<i>property</i>. Its first aim is to destroy all sense of high moral and +religious responsibility. It reduces man to a mere machine. It cuts him off +from his Maker, it hides from him the laws of God, and leaves him to grope his +way from time to eternity in the dark, under the arbitrary and despotic control +of a frail, depraved, and sinful fellow-man. As the serpent-charmer of India is +compelled to extract the deadly teeth of his venomous prey before he is able to +handle him with impunity, so the slaveholder must strike down the conscience of +the slave before he can obtain the entire mastery over his victim. +</p> + +<p> +It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, deaden, and +destroy the central principle of human responsibility. Conscience is, to the +individual soul, and to society, what the law of gravitation is to the +universe. It holds society together; it is the basis of all trust and +confidence; it is the pillar of all moral rectitude. Without it, suspicion +would take the place of trust; vice would be more than a match for virtue; men +would prey upon each other, like the wild beasts of the desert; and earth would +become a <i>hell</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Nor is slavery more adverse to the conscience than it is to the mind. This is +shown by the fact, that in every state of the American Union, where slavery +exists, except the state of Kentucky, there are laws absolutely prohibitory of +education among the slaves. The crime of teaching a slave to read is punishable +with severe fines and imprisonment, and, in some instances, with <i>death +itself</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Nor are the laws respecting this matter a dead letter. Cases may occur in which +they are disregarded, and a few instances may be found where slaves may have +learned to read; but such are isolated cases, and only prove the rule. The +great mass of slaveholders look upon education among the slaves as utterly +subversive of the slave system. I well remember when my mistress first +announced to my master that she had discovered that I could read. His face +colored at once with surprise and chagrin. He said that “I was ruined, +and my value as a slave destroyed; that a slave should know nothing but to obey +his master; that to give a negro an inch would lead him to take an ell; that +having learned how to read, I would soon want to know how to write; and that +by-and-by I would be running away.” I think my audience will bear witness +to the correctness of this philosophy, and to the literal fulfillment of this +prophecy. +</p> + +<p> +It is perfectly well understood at the south, that to educate a slave is to +make him discontened(sic) with slavery, and to invest him with a power which +shall open to him the treasures of freedom; and since the object of the +slaveholder is to maintain complete authority over his slave, his constant +vigilance is exercised to prevent everything which militates against, or +endangers, the stability of his authority. Education being among the menacing +influences, and, perhaps, the most dangerous, is, therefore, the most +cautiously guarded against. +</p> + +<p> +It is true that we do not often hear of the enforcement of the law, punishing +as a crime the teaching of slaves to read, but this is not because of a want of +disposition to enforce it. The true reason or explanation of the matter is +this: there is the greatest unanimity of opinion among the white population in +the south in favor of the policy of keeping the slave in ignorance. There is, +perhaps, another reason why the law against education is so seldom violated. +The slave is too poor to be able to offer a temptation sufficiently strong to +induce a white man to violate it; and it is not to be supposed that in a +community where the moral and religious sentiment is in favor of slavery, many +martyrs will be found sacrificing their liberty and lives by violating those +prohibitory enactments. +</p> + +<p> +As a general rule, then, darkness reigns over the abodes of the enslaved, and +“how great is that darkness!” +</p> + +<p> +We are sometimes told of the contentment of the slaves, and are entertained +with vivid pictures of their happiness. We are told that they often dance and +sing; that their masters frequently give them wherewith to make merry; in fine, +that they have little of which to complain. I admit that the slave does +sometimes sing, dance, and appear to be merry. But what does this prove? It +only proves to my mind, that though slavery is armed with a thousand stings, it +is not able entirely to kill the elastic spirit of the bondman. That spirit +will rise and walk abroad, despite of whips and chains, and extract from the +cup of nature occasional drops of joy and gladness. No thanks to the +slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the vivacious captive may sometimes dance in +his chains; his very mirth in such circumstances stands before God as an +accusing angel against his enslaver. +</p> + +<p> +It is often said, by the opponents of the anti-slavery cause, that the +condition of the people of Ireland is more deplorable than that of the American +slaves. Far be it from me to underrate the sufferings of the Irish people. They +have been long oppressed; and the same heart that prompts me to plead the cause +of the American bondman, makes it impossible for me not to sympathize with the +oppressed of all lands. Yet I must say that there is no analogy between the two +cases. The Irishman is poor, but he is not a slave. He may be in rags, but he +is not a slave. He is still the master of his own body, and can say with the +poet, “The hand of Douglass is his own.” “The world is all +before him, where to choose;” and poor as may be my opinion of the +British parliament, I cannot believe that it will ever sink to such a depth of +infamy as to pass a law for the recapture of fugitive Irishmen! The shame and +scandal of kidnapping will long remain wholly monopolized by the American +congress. The Irishman has not only the liberty to emigrate from his country, +but he has liberty at home. He can write, and speak, and cooperate for the +attainment of his rights and the redress of his wrongs. +</p> + +<p> +The multitude can assemble upon all the green hills and fertile plains of the +Emerald Isle; they can pour out their grievances, and proclaim their wants +without molestation; and the press, that “swift-winged messenger,” +can bear the tidings of their doings to the extreme bounds of the civilized +world. They have their “Conciliation Hall,” on the banks of the +Liffey, their reform clubs, and their newspapers; they pass resolutions, send +forth addresses, and enjoy the right of petition. But how is it with the +American slave? Where may he assemble? Where is his Conciliation Hall? Where +are his newspapers? Where is his right of petition? Where is his freedom of +speech? his liberty of the press? and his right of locomotion? He is said to be +happy; happy men can speak. But ask the slave what is his condition—what +his state of mind—what he thinks of enslavement? and you had as well +address your inquiries to the <i>silent dead</i>. There comes no <i>voice</i> +from the enslaved. We are left to gather his feelings by imagining what ours +would be, were our souls in his soul’s stead. +</p> + +<p> +If there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the slave is +dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave system as a grand +aggregation of human horrors. +</p> + +<p> +Most who are present, will have observed that leading men in this country have +been putting forth their skill to secure quiet to the nation. A system of +measures to promote this object was adopted a few months ago in congress. The +result of those measures is known. Instead of quiet, they have produced alarm; +instead of peace, they have brought us war; and so it must ever be. +</p> + +<p> +While this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions of innocent +men and women, it is as idle to think of having a sound and lasting peace, as +it is to think there is no God to take cognizance of the affairs of men. There +can be no peace to the wicked while slavery continues in the land. It will be +condemned; and while it is condemned there will be agitation. Nature must cease +to be nature; men must become monsters; humanity must be transformed; +Christianity must be exterminated; all ideas of justice and the laws of eternal +goodness must be utterly blotted out from the human soul—ere a system so +foul and infernal can escape condemnation, or this guilty republic can have a +sound, enduring peace. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"></a> +INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,</h2> + +<p> +December 8, 1850 +</p> + +<p> +The relation of master and slave has been called patriarchal, and only second +in benignity and tenderness to that of the parent and child. This +representation is doubtless believed by many northern people; and this may +account, in part, for the lack of interest which we find among persons whom we +are bound to believe to be honest and humane. What, then, are the facts? Here I +will not quote my own experience in slavery; for this you might call one-sided +testimony. I will not cite the declarations of abolitionists; for these you +might pronounce exaggerations. I will not rely upon advertisements cut from +newspapers; for these you might call isolated cases. But I will refer you to +the laws adopted by the legislatures of the slave states. I give you such +evidence, because it cannot be invalidated nor denied. I hold in my hand sundry +extracts from the slave codes of our country, from which I will quote. * * * +</p> + +<p> +Now, if the foregoing be an indication of kindness, <i>what is cruelty</i>? If +this be parental affection, <i>what is bitter malignity</i>? A more atrocious +and blood-thirsty string of laws could not well be conceived of. And yet I am +bound to say that they fall short of indicating the horrible cruelties +constantly practiced in the slave states. +</p> + +<p> +I admit that there are individual slaveholders less cruel and barbarous than is +allowed by law; but these form the exception. The majority of slaveholders find +it necessary, to insure obedience, at times, to avail themselves of the utmost +extent of the law, and many go beyond it. If kindness were the rule, we should +not see advertisements filling the columns of almost every southern newspaper, +offering large rewards for fugitive slaves, and describing them as being +branded with irons, loaded with chains, and scarred by the whip. One of the +most telling testimonies against the pretended kindness of slaveholders, is the +fact that uncounted numbers of fugitives are now inhabiting the Dismal Swamp, +preferring the untamed wilderness to their cultivated homes—choosing +rather to encounter hunger and thirst, and to roam with the wild beasts of the +forest, running the hazard of being hunted and shot down, than to submit to the +authority of <i>kind</i> masters. +</p> + +<p> +I tell you, my friends, humanity is never driven to such an unnatural course of +life, without great wrong. The slave finds more of the milk of human kindness +in the bosom of the savage Indian, than in the heart of his <i>Christian</i> +master. He leaves the man of the <i>bible</i>, and takes refuge with the man of +the <i>tomahawk</i>. He rushes from the praying slaveholder into the paws of +the bear. He quits the homes of men for the haunts of wolves. He prefers to +encounter a life of trial, however bitter, or death, however terrible, to +dragging out his existence under the dominion of these <i>kind</i> masters. +</p> + +<p> +The apologists for slavery often speak of the abuses of slavery; and they tell +us that they are as much opposed to those abuses as we are; and that they would +go as far to correct those abuses and to ameliorate the condition of the slave +as anybody. The answer to that view is, that slavery is itself an abuse; that +it lives by abuse; and dies by the absence of abuse. Grant that slavery is +right; grant that the relations of master and slave may innocently exist; and +there is not a single outrage which was ever committed against the slave but +what finds an apology in the very necessity of the case. As we said by a +slaveholder (the Rev. A. G. Few) to the Methodist conference, “If the +relation be right, the means to maintain it are also right;” for without +those means slavery could not exist. Remove the dreadful scourge—the +plaited thong—the galling fetter—the accursed chain—and let +the slaveholder rely solely upon moral and religious power, by which to secure +obedience to his orders, and how long do you suppose a slave would remain on +his plantation? The case only needs to be stated; it carries its own refutation +with it. +</p> + +<p> +Absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man over the body +and soul of another man, without brutal chastisement and enormous cruelty. +</p> + +<p> +To talk of <i>kindness</i> entering into a relation in which one party is +robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of friends, of +society, of knowledge, and of all that makes this life desirable, is most +absurd, wicked, and preposterous. +</p> + +<p> +I have shown that slavery is wicked—wicked, in that it violates the great +law of liberty, written on every human heart—wicked, in that it violates +the first command of the decalogue—wicked, in that it fosters the most +disgusting licentiousness—wicked, in that it mars and defaces the image +of God by cruel and barbarous inflictions—wicked, in that it contravenes +the laws of eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all the humane and +heavenly precepts of the New Testament. +</p> + +<p> +The evils resulting from this huge system of iniquity are not confined to the +states south of Mason and Dixon’s line. Its noxious influence can easily +be traced throughout our northern borders. It comes even as far north as the +state of New York. Traces of it may be seen even in Rochester; and travelers +have told me it casts its gloomy shadows across the lake, approaching the very +shores of Queen Victoria’s dominions. +</p> + +<p> +The presence of slavery may be explained by—as it is the explanation +of—the mobocratic violence which lately disgraced New York, and which +still more recently disgraced the city of Boston. These violent demonstrations, +these outrageous invasions of human rights, faintly indicate the presence and +power of slavery here. It is a significant fact, that while meetings for almost +any purpose under heaven may be held unmolested in the city of Boston, that in +the same city, a meeting cannot be peaceably held for the purpose of preaching +the doctrine of the American Declaration of Independence, “that all men +are created equal.” The pestiferous breath of slavery taints the whole +moral atmosphere of the north, and enervates the moral energies of the whole +people. +</p> + +<p> +The moment a foreigner ventures upon our soil, and utters a natural repugnance +to oppression, that moment he is made to feel that there is little sympathy in +this land for him. If he were greeted with smiles before, he meets with frowns +now; and it shall go well with him if he be not subjected to that peculiarly +fining method of showing fealty to slavery, the assaults of a mob. +</p> + +<p> +Now, will any man tell me that such a state of things is natural, and that such +conduct on the part of the people of the north, springs from a consciousness of +rectitude? No! every fibre of the human heart unites in detestation of tyranny, +and it is only when the human mind has become familiarized with slavery, is +accustomed to its injustice, and corrupted by its selfishness, that it fails to +record its abhorrence of slavery, and does not exult in the triumphs of +liberty. +</p> + +<p> +The northern people have been long connected with slavery; they have been +linked to a decaying corpse, which has destroyed the moral health. The union of +the government; the union of the north and south, in the political parties; the +union in the religious organizations of the land, have all served to deaden the +moral sense of the northern people, and to impregnate them with sentiments and +ideas forever in conflict with what as a nation we call <i>genius of American +institutions</i>. Rightly viewed, this is an alarming fact, and ought to rally +all that is pure, just, and holy in one determined effort to crush the monster +of corruption, and to scatter “its guilty profits” to the winds. In +a high moral sense, as well as in a national sense, the whole American people +are responsible for slavery, and must share, in its guilt and shame, with the +most obdurate men-stealers of the south. +</p> + +<p> +While slavery exists, and the union of these states endures, every American +citizen must bear the chagrin of hearing his country branded before the world +as a nation of liars and hypocrites; and behold his cherished flag pointed at +with the utmost scorn and derision. Even now an American <i>abroad</i> is +pointed out in the crowd, as coming from a land where men gain their fortunes +by “the blood of souls,” from a land of slave markets, of +blood-hounds, and slave-hunters; and, in some circles, such a man is shunned +altogether, as a moral pest. Is it not time, then, for every American to awake, +and inquire into his duty with respect to this subject? +</p> + +<p> +Wendell Phillips—the eloquent New England orator—on his return from +Europe, in 1842, said, “As I stood upon the shores of Genoa, and saw +floating on the placid waters of the Mediterranean, the beautiful American war +ship Ohio, with her masts tapering proportionately aloft, and an eastern sun +reflecting her noble form upon the sparkling waters, attracting the gaze of the +multitude, my first impulse was of pride, to think myself an American; but when +I thought that the first time that gallant ship would gird on her gorgeous +apparel, and wake from beneath her sides her dormant thunders, it would be in +defense of the African slave trade, I blushed in utter <i>shame</i> for my +country.” +</p> + +<p> +Let me say again, <i>slavery is alike the sin and the shame of the American +people;</i> it is a blot upon the American name, and the only national reproach +which need make an American hang his head in shame, in the presence of +monarchical governments. +</p> + +<p> +With this gigantic evil in the land, we are constantly told to look <i>at +home;</i> if we say ought against crowned heads, we are pointed to our enslaved +millions; if we talk of sending missionaries and bibles abroad, we are pointed +to three millions now lying in worse than heathen darkness; if we express a +word of sympathy for Kossuth and his Hungarian fugitive brethren, we are +pointed to that horrible and hell-black enactment, “the fugitive slave +bill.” +</p> + +<p> +Slavery blunts the edge of all our rebukes of tyranny abroad—the +criticisms that we make upon other nations, only call forth ridicule, contempt, +and scorn. In a word, we are made a reproach and a by-word to a mocking earth, +and we must continue to be so made, so long as slavery continues to pollute our +soil. +</p> + +<p> +We have heard much of late of the virtue of patriotism, the love of country, +&c., and this sentiment, so natural and so strong, has been impiously +appealed to, by all the powers of human selfishness, to cherish the viper which +is stinging our national life away. In its name, we have been called upon to +deepen our infamy before the world, to rivet the fetter more firmly on the +limbs of the enslaved, and to become utterly insensible to the voice of human +woe that is wafted to us on every southern gale. We have been called upon, in +its name, to desecrate our whole land by the footprints of slave-hunters, and +even to engage ourselves in the horrible business of kidnapping. +</p> + +<p> +I, too, would invoke the spirit of patriotism; not in a narrow and restricted +sense, but, I trust, with a broad and manly signification; not to cover up our +national sins, but to inspire us with sincere repentance; not to hide our shame +from the the(sic) world’s gaze, but utterly to abolish the cause of that +shame; not to explain away our gross inconsistencies as a nation, but to remove +the hateful, jarring, and incongruous elements from the land; not to sustain an +egregious wrong, but to unite all our energies in the grand effort to remedy +that wrong. +</p> + +<p> +I would invoke the spirit of patriotism, in the name of the law of the living +God, natural and revealed, and in the full belief that “righteousness +exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people.” “He that +walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of +oppressions, that shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, he shall dwell +on high, his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be +given him, his water shall be sure.” +</p> + +<p> +We have not only heard much lately of patriotism, and of its aid being invoked +on the side of slavery and injustice, but the very prosperity of this people +has been called in to deafen them to the voice of duty, and to lead them onward +in the pathway of sin. Thus has the blessing of God been converted into a +curse. In the spirit of genuine patriotism, I warn the American people, by all +that is just and honorable, to BEWARE! +</p> + +<p> +I warn them that, strong, proud, and prosperous though we be, there is a power +above us that can “bring down high looks; at the breath of whose mouth +our wealth may take wings; and before whom every knee shall bow;” and who +can tell how soon the avenging angel may pass over our land, and the sable +bondmen now in chains, may become the instruments of our nation’s +chastisement! Without appealing to any higher feeling, I would warn the +American people, and the American government, to be wise in their day and +generation. I exhort them to remember the history of other nations; and I +remind them that America cannot always sit “as a queen,” in peace +and repose; that prouder and stronger governments than this have been shattered +by the bolts of a just God; that the time may come when those they now despise +and hate, may be needed; when those whom they now compel by oppression to be +enemies, may be wanted as friends. What has been, may be again. There is a +point beyond which human endurance cannot go. The crushed worm may yet turn +under the heel of the oppressor. I warn them, then, with all solemnity, and in +the name of retributive justice, <i>to look to their ways;</i> for in an evil +hour, those sable arms that have, for the last two centuries, been engaged in +cultivating and adorning the fair fields of our country, may yet become the +instruments of terror, desolation, and death, throughout our borders. +</p> + +<p> +It was the sage of the Old Dominion that said—while speaking of the +possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the +slaveholders—“God has no attribute that could take sides with the +oppressor in such a contest. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God +<i>is just</i>, and that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Such is the +warning voice of Thomas Jefferson; and every day’s experience since its +utterance until now, confirms its wisdom, and commends its truth. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"></a> +WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at</h2> + +<p> +Rochester, July 5, 1852 +</p> + +<p> +Fellow-Citizens—Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to +speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national +independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural +justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am +I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, +and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings, +resulting from your independence to us? +</p> + +<p> +Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be +truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my +burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation’s +sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of +gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who +so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs +of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from +his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently +speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.” +</p> + +<p> +But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the +disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious +anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance +between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in +common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, +bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that +brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This +Fourth of July is <i>yours</i>, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To +drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call +upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious +irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, +there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous +to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were +thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable +ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten +people. +</p> + +<p> +“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we +remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For +there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who +wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How +can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O +Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let +my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.” +</p> + +<p> +Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the mournful wail +of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day rendered +more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I +do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, +“may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the +roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and +to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and +shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, +then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its +popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing there, +identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate +to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation +never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. Whether we turn to the +declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of +the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, +false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. +Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, +in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is +fettered, in the name of the constitution and the bible, which are disregarded +and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the +emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery—the +great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not +excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one +word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, +or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. +</p> + +<p> +But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance +that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on +the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade +more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I +submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the +anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do +the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave +is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders +themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They +acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There +are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a black +man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; +while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to the like +punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, +intellectual, and responsible being. The manhood of the slave is conceded. It +is admitted in the fact that southern statute books are covered with enactments +forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read +or write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of +the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs +in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when +the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to +distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave +is a man! +</p> + +<p> +For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is +it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all +kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building +ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold; that, while +we are reading, writing, and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and +secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, +editors, orators, and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of +enterprises common to other men—digging gold in California, capturing the +whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, +acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and +children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian’s God, +and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave—we are +called upon to prove that we are men! +</p> + +<p> +Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the +rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the +wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans? Is it to be +settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great +difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard +to be understood? How should I look to-day in the presence of Americans, +dividing and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to +freedom, speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and +affirmatively? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an +insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven +that does not know that slavery is wrong for <i>him</i>. +</p> + +<p> +What! am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their +liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations +to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the +lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at +auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their +flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I +argue that a system, thus marked with blood and stained with pollution, is +wrong? No; I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than +such arguments would imply. +</p> + +<p> +What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God +did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is +blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be divine. Who can +reason on such a proposition! They that can, may! I cannot. The time for such +argument is past. +</p> + +<p> +At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! +had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would to-day +pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering +sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is +not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the +earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the +nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the +hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man +must be proclaimed and denounced. +</p> + +<p> +What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals +to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty +to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your +boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; +your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of +tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow +mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your +religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, +impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would +disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of +practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, +at this very hour. +</p> + +<p> +Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and +despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every +abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the +every-day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for +revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"></a> +THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July</h2> + +<p> +5, 1852 +</p> + +<p> +Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers, is especially +prosperous just now. Ex-senator Benton tells us that the price of men was never +higher than now. He mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. +This trade is one of the peculiarities of American institutions. It is carried +on in all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; and +millions are pocketed every year by dealers in this horrid traffic. In several +states this trade is a chief source of wealth. It is called (in +contradistinction to the foreign slave trade) <i>“the internal slave +trade</i>.” It is, probably, called so, too, in order to divert from it +the horror with which the foreign slave trade is contemplated. That trade has +long since been denounced by this government as piracy. It has been denounced +with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable +traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a squadron, at +immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere in this country, it is safe to +speak of this foreign slave trade as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to +the laws of God and of man. The duty to extirpate and destroy it is admitted +even by our <i>doctors of divinity</i>. In order to put an end to it, some of +these last have consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should +leave this country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa. It +is, however, a notable fact, that, while so much execration is poured out by +Americans, upon those engaged in the foreign slave trade, the men engaged in +the slave trade between the states pass without condemnation, and their +business is deemed honorable. +</p> + +<p> +Behold the practical operation of this internal slave trade—the American +slave trade sustained by American politics and American religion! Here you will +see men and women reared like swine for the market. You know what is a +swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. They inhabit all our southern +states. They perambulate the country, and crowd the highways of the nation with +droves of human stock. You will see one of these human-flesh-jobbers, armed +with pistol, whip, and bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, +and children, from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These +wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They are +food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad procession as +it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage +yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives. +There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Cast one glance, if you +please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, +her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that +girl of thirteen, weeping, yes, weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom +she has been torn. The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly +consumed their strength. Suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of +a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are +saluted with a scream that seems to have torn its way to the center of your +soul. The crack you heard was the sound of the slave whip; the scream you heard +was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered under the +weight of her child and her chains; that gash on her shoulder tells her to move +on. Follow this drove to New Orleans. Attend the auction; see men examined like +horses; see the forms of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze +of American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated forever; and never +forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Tell me, +citizens, where, under the sun, can you witness a spectacle more fiendish and +shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave trade, as it exists at +this moment, in the ruling part of the United States. +</p> + +<p> +I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave trade is a +terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of its +horrors. I lived on Philpot street, Fell’s Point, Baltimore, and have +watched from the wharves the slave ships in the basin, anchored from the shore, +with their cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them +down the Chesapeake. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the +head of Pratt street, by Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town +and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival through the papers, and on +flaming hand-bills, headed, “cash for negroes.” These men were +generally well dressed, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to +drink, to treat, and to gamble. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the +turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its +mothers by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness. +</p> + +<p> +The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, chained, +to the general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient number have been collected +here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to +Mobile or to New Orleans. From the slave-prison to the ship, they are usually +driven in the darkness of night; for since the anti-slavery agitation a certain +caution is observed. +</p> + +<p> +In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead, +heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our +door. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, +when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom +was very wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the +heart-rending cries. I was glad to find one who sympathized with me in my +horror. +</p> + +<p> +Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is to-day in active operation in this +boasted republic. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on +the highways of the south; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful +wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims +are to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the highest +bidder. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, +caprice, and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the +sight. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Is this the land your fathers loved?<br/> + The freedom which they toiled to win?<br/> +Is this the earth whereon they moved?<br/> + Are these the graves they slumber in? +</p> + +<p> +But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things remains +to be presented. By an act of the American congress, not yet two years old, +slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. By that +act, Mason and Dixon’s line has been obliterated; New York has become as +Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children as +slaves, remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution +of the whole United States. The power is coextensive with the star-spangled +banner and American christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless +slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for the +sportsman’s gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the +liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Your broad republican domain +is a hunting-ground for <i>men</i>. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of +society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have commanded +all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your president, your +secretary of state, your lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce as a duty +you owe to your free and glorious country and to your God, that you do this +accursed thing. Not fewer than forty Americans have within the past two years +been hunted down, and without a moment’s warning, hurried away in chains, +and consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had wives +and children dependent on them for bread; but of this no account was made. The +right of the hunter to his prey, stands superior to the right of marriage, and +to <i>all</i> rights in this republic, the rights of God included! For black +men there are neither law, justice, humanity, nor religion. The fugitive slave +law makes MERCY TO THEM A CRIME; and bribes the judge who tries them. An +American judge GETS TEN DOLLARS FOR EVERY VICTIM HE CONSIGNS to slavery, and +five, when he fails to do so. The oath of an(sic) two villains is sufficient, +under this hell-black enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man +into the remorseless jaws of slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can +bring no witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound by +the law to hear but <i>one side</i>, and that side is the side of the +oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be thundered +around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king hating, people-loving, +democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who +hold their office under an open and palpable <i>bribe</i>, and are bound, in +deciding in the case of a man’s liberty, <i>to hear only his +accusers!</i> +</p> + +<p> +In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of +administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in +diabolical intent, this fugitive slave law stands alone in the annals of +tyrannical legislation. I doubt if there be another nation on the globe having +the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. If any man in +this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and feels able to +disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any suitable time and +place he may select. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"></a> +THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S.</h2> + +<p> +Society, in New York, May, 1853. +</p> + +<p> +Sir, it is evident that there is in this country a purely slavery party—a +party which exists for no other earthly purpose but to promote the interests of +slavery. The presence of this party is felt everywhere in the republic. It is +known by no particular name, and has assumed no definite shape; but its +branches reach far and wide in the church and in the state. This shapeless and +nameless party is not intangible in other and more important respects. That +party, sir, has determined upon a fixed, definite, and comprehensive policy +toward the whole colored population of the United States. What that policy is, +it becomes us as abolitionists, and especially does it become the colored +people themselves, to consider and to understand fully. We ought to know who +our enemies are, where they are, and what are their objects and measures. Well, +sir, here is my version of it—not original with me—but mine because +I hold it to be true. +</p> + +<p> +I understand this policy to comprehend five cardinal objects. They are these: +1st. The complete suppression of all anti-slavery discussion. 2d. The +expatriation of the entire free people of color from the United States. 3d. The +unending perpetuation of slavery in this republic. 4th. The nationalization of +slavery to the extent of making slavery respected in every state of the Union. +5th. The extension of slavery over Mexico and the entire South American states. +</p> + +<p> +Sir, these objects are forcibly presented to us in the stern logic of passing +events; in the facts which are and have been passing around us during the last +three years. The country has been and is now dividing on these grand issues. In +their magnitude, these issues cast all others into the shade, depriving them of +all life and vitality. Old party ties are broken. Like is finding its like on +either side of these great issues, and the great battle is at hand. For the +present, the best representative of the slavery party in politics is the +democratic party. Its great head for the present is President Pierce, whose +boast it was, before his election, that his whole life had been consistent with +the interests of slavery, that he is above reproach on that score. In his +inaugural address, he reassures the south on this point. Well, the head of the +slave power being in power, it is natural that the pro slavery elements should +cluster around the administration, and this is rapidly being done. A +fraternization is going on. The stringent protectionists and the free-traders +strike hands. The supporters of Fillmore are becoming the supporters of Pierce. +The silver-gray whig shakes hands with the hunker democrat; the former only +differing from the latter in name. They are of one heart, one mind, and the +union is natural and perhaps inevitable. Both hate Negroes; both hate progress; +both hate the “higher law;” both hate William H. Seward; both hate +the free democratic party; and upon this hateful basis they are forming a union +of hatred. “Pilate and Herod are thus made friends.” Even the +central organ of the whig party is extending its beggar hand for a morsel from +the table of slavery democracy, and when spurned from the feast by the more +deserving, it pockets the insult; when kicked on one side it turns the other, +and preseveres in its importunities. The fact is, that paper comprehends the +demands of the times; it understands the age and its issues; it wisely sees +that slavery and freedom are the great antagonistic forces in the country, and +it goes to its own side. Silver grays and hunkers all understand this. They +are, therefore, rapidly sinking all other questions to nothing, compared with +the increasing demands of slavery. They are collecting, arranging, and +consolidating their forces for the accomplishment of their appointed work. +</p> + +<p> +The keystone to the arch of this grand union of the slavery party of the United +States, is the compromise of 1850. In that compromise we have all the objects +of our slaveholding policy specified. It is, sir, favorable to this view of the +designs of the slave power, that both the whig and the democratic party bent +lower, sunk deeper, and strained harder, in their conventions, preparatory to +the late presidential election, to meet the demands of the slavery party than +at any previous time in their history. Never did parties come before the +northern people with propositions of such undisguised contempt for the moral +sentiment and the religious ideas of that people. They virtually asked them to +unite in a war upon free speech, and upon conscience, and to drive the Almighty +presence from the councils of the nation. Resting their platforms upon the +fugitive slave bill, they boldly asked the people for political power to +execute the horrible and hell-black provisions of that bill. The history of +that election reveals, with great clearness, the extent to which slavery has +shot its leprous distillment through the life-blood of the nation. The party +most thoroughly opposed to the cause of justice and humanity, triumphed; while +the party suspected of a leaning toward liberty, was overwhelmingly defeated, +some say annihilated. +</p> + +<p> +But here is a still more important fact, illustrating the designs of the slave +power. It is a fact full of meaning, that no sooner did the democratic slavery +party come into power, than a system of legislation was presented to the +legislatures of the northern states, designed to put the states in harmony with +the fugitive slave law, and the malignant bearing of the national government +toward the colored inhabitants of the country. This whole movement on the part +of the states, bears the evidence of having one origin, emanating from one +head, and urged forward by one power. It was simultaneous, uniform, and +general, and looked to one end. It was intended to put thorns under feet +already bleeding; to crush a people already bowed down; to enslave a people +already but half free; in a word, it was intended to discourage, dishearten, +and drive the free colored people out of the country. In looking at the recent +black law of Illinois, one is struck dumb with its enormity. It would seem that +the men who enacted that law, had not only banished from their minds all sense +of justice, but all sense of shame. It coolly proposes to sell the bodies and +souls of the blacks to increase the intelligence and refinement of the whites; +to rob every black stranger who ventures among them, to increase their literary +fund. +</p> + +<p> +While this is going on in the states, a pro-slavery, political board of health +is established at Washington. Senators Hale, Chase, and Sumner are robbed of a +part of their senatorial dignity and consequence as representing sovereign +states, because they have refused to be inoculated with the slavery virus. +Among the services which a senator is expected by his state to perform, are +many that can only be done efficiently on committees; and, in saying to these +honorable senators, you shall not serve on the committees of this body, the +slavery party took the responsibility of robbing and insulting the states that +sent them. It is an attempt at Washington to decide for the states who shall be +sent to the senate. Sir, it strikes me that this aggression on the part of the +slave power did not meet at the hands of the proscribed senators the rebuke +which we had a right to expect would be administered. It seems to me that an +opportunity was lost, that the great principle of senatorial equality was left +undefended, at a time when its vindication was sternly demanded. But it is not +to the purpose of my present statement to criticise the conduct of our friends. +I am persuaded that much ought to be left to the discretion of anti slavery men +in congress, and charges of recreancy should never be made but on the most +sufficient grounds. For, of all the places in the world where an anti-slavery +man needs the confidence and encouragement of friends, I take Washington to be +that place. +</p> + +<p> +Let me now call attention to the social influences which are operating and +cooperating with the slavery party of the country, designed to contribute to +one or all of the grand objects aimed at by that party. We see here the black +man attacked in his vital interests; prejudice and hate are excited against +him; enmity is stirred up between him and other laborers. The Irish people, +warm-hearted, generous, and sympathizing with the oppressed everywhere, when +they stand upon their own green island, are instantly taught, on arriving in +this Christian country, to hate and despise the colored people. They are taught +to believe that we eat the bread which of right belongs to them. The cruel lie +is told the Irish, that our adversity is essential to their prosperity. Sir, +the Irish-American will find out his mistake one day. He will find that in +assuming our avocation he also has assumed our degradation. But for the present +we are sufferers. The old employments by which we have heretofore gained our +livelihood, are gradually, and it may be inevitably, passing into other hands. +Every hour sees us elbowed out of some employment to make room perhaps for some +newly-arrived emigrants, whose hunger and color are thought to give them a +title to especial favor. White men are becoming house-servants, cooks, and +stewards, common laborers, and flunkeys to our gentry, and, for aught I see, +they adjust themselves to their stations with all becoming obsequiousness. This +fact proves that if we cannot rise to the whites, the whites can fall to us. +Now, sir, look once more. While the colored people are thus elbowed out of +employment; while the enmity of emigrants is being excited against us; while +state after state enacts laws against us; while we are hunted down, like wild +game, and oppressed with a general feeling of insecurity—the American +colonization society—that old offender against the best interests and +slanderer of the colored people—awakens to new life, and vigorously +presses its scheme upon the consideration of the people and the government. New +papers are started—some for the north and some for the south—and +each in its tone adapting itself to its latitude. Government, state and +national, is called upon for appropriations to enable the society to send us +out of the country by steam! They want steamers to carry letters and Negroes to +Africa. Evidently, this society looks upon our “extremity as its +opportunity,” and we may expect that it will use the occasion well. They +do not deplore, but glory, in our misfortunes. +</p> + +<p> +But, sir, I must hasten. I have thus briefly given my view of one aspect of the +present condition and future prospects of the colored people of the United +States. And what I have said is far from encouraging to my afflicted people. I +have seen the cloud gather upon the sable brows of some who hear me. I confess +the case looks black enough. Sir, I am not a hopeful man. I think I am apt even +to undercalculate the benefits of the future. Yet, sir, in this seemingly +desperate case, I do not despair for my people. There is a bright side to +almost every picture of this kind; and ours is no exception to the general +rule. If the influences against us are strong, those for us are also strong. To +the inquiry, will our enemies prevail in the execution of their designs. In my +God and in my soul, I believe they <i>will not</i>. Let us look at the first +object sought for by the slavery party of the country, viz: the suppression of +anti slavery discussion. They desire to suppress discussion on this subject, +with a view to the peace of the slaveholder and the security of slavery. Now, +sir, neither the principle nor the subordinate objects here declared, can be at +all gained by the slave power, and for this reason: It involves the proposition +to padlock the lips of the whites, in order to secure the fetters on the limbs +of the blacks. The right of speech, precious and priceless, <i>cannot, will +not</i>, be surrendered to slavery. Its suppression is asked for, as I have +said, to give peace and security to slaveholders. Sir, that thing cannot be +done. God has interposed an insuperable obstacle to any such result. +“There can be <i>no peace</i>, saith my God, to the wicked.” +Suppose it were possible to put down this discussion, what would it avail the +guilty slaveholder, pillowed as he is upon heaving bosoms of ruined souls? He +could not have a peaceful spirit. If every anti-slavery tongue in the nation +were silent—every anti-slavery organization dissolved—every +anti-slavery press demolished—every anti slavery periodical, paper, book, +pamphlet, or what not, were searched out, gathered, deliberately burned to +ashes, and their ashes given to the four winds of heaven, still, still the +slaveholder could have <i>“no peace</i>.” In every pulsation of his +heart, in every throb of his life, in every glance of his eye, in the breeze +that soothes, and in the thunder that startles, would be waked up an accuser, +whose cause is, “Thou art, verily, guilty concerning thy brother.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"></a> +THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various</h2> + +<p> +Anti-Slavery Bodies, in the Winter of 1855. +</p> + +<p> +A grand movement on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for any purpose, +moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit and proper to be studied. It is +such, not only for those who eagerly participate in it, but also for those who +stand aloof from it—even for those by whom it is opposed. I take the +anti-slavery movement to be such an one, and a movement as sublime and glorious +in its character, as it is holy and beneficent in the ends it aims to +accomplish. At this moment, I deem it safe to say, it is properly engrossing +more minds in this country than any other subject now before the American +people. The late John C. Calhoun—one of the mightiest men that ever stood +up in the American senate—did not deem it beneath him; and he probably +studied it as deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or William Lloyd +Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with the subject; and the +greatest efforts of his last years in the senate had direct reference to this +movement. His eagle eye watched every new development connected with it; and he +was ever prompt to inform the south of every important step in its progress. He +never allowed himself to make light of it; but always spoke of it and treated +it as a matter of grave import; and in this he showed himself a master of the +mental, moral, and religious constitution of human society. Daniel Webster, +too, in the better days of his life, before he gave his assent to the fugitive +slave bill, and trampled upon all his earlier and better convictions—when +his eye was yet single—he clearly comprehended the nature of the elements +involved in this movement; and in his own majestic eloquence, warned the south, +and the country, to have a care how they attempted to put it down. He is an +illustration that it is easier to give, than to take, good advice. To these two +men—the greatest men to whom the nation has yet given birth—may be +traced the two great facts of the present—the south triumphant, and the +north humbled. Their names may stand thus—Calhoun and +domination—Webster and degradation. Yet again. If to the enemies of +liberty this subject is one of engrossing interest, vastly more so should it be +such to freedom’s friends. The latter, it leads to the gates of all +valuable knowledge—philanthropic, ethical, and religious; for it brings +them to the study of man, wonderfully and fearfully made—the proper study +of man through all time—the open book, in which are the records of time +and eternity. +</p> + +<p> +Of the existence and power of the anti-slavery movement, as a fact, you need no +evidence. The nation has seen its face, and felt the controlling pressure of +its hand. You have seen it moving in all directions, and in all weathers, and +in all places, appearing most where desired least, and pressing hardest where +most resisted. No place is exempt. The quiet prayer meeting, and the stormy +halls of national debate, share its presence alike. It is a common intruder, +and of course has the name of being ungentlemanly. Brethren who had long sung, +in the most affectionate fervor, and with the greatest sense of security, +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Together let us sweetly live—together let us die, +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +have been suddenly and violently separated by it, and ranged in hostile +attitude toward each other. The Methodist, one of the most powerful religious +organizations of this country, has been rent asunder, and its strongest bolts +of denominational brotherhood started at a single surge. It has changed the +tone of the northern pulpit, and modified that of the press. A celebrated +divine, who, four years ago, was for flinging his own mother, or brother, into +the remorseless jaws of the monster slavery, lest he should swallow up the +Union, now recognizes anti-slavery as a characteristic of future civilization. +Signs and wonders follow this movement; and the fact just stated is one of +them. Party ties are loosened by it; and men are compelled to take sides for or +against it, whether they will or not. Come from where he may, or come for what +he may, he is compelled to show his hand. What is this mighty force? What is +its history? and what is its destiny? Is it ancient or modern, transient or +permanent? Has it turned aside, like a stranger and a sojourner, to tarry for a +night? or has it come to rest with us forever? Excellent chances are here for +speculation; and some of them are quite profound. We might, for instance, +proceed to inquire not only into the philosophy of the anti-slavery movement, +but into the philosophy of the law, in obedience to which that movement started +into existence. We might demand to know what is that law or power, which, at +different times, disposes the minds of men to this or that particular +object—now for peace, and now for war—now for freedom, and now for +slavery; but this profound question I leave to the abolitionists of the +superior class to answer. The speculations which must precede such answer, +would afford, perhaps, about the same satisfaction as the learned theories +which have rained down upon the world, from time to time, as to the origin of +evil. I shall, therefore, avoid water in which I cannot swim, and deal with +anti-slavery as a fact, like any other fact in the history of mankind, capable +of being described and understood, both as to its internal forces, and its +external phases and relations. +</p> + +<p> +[After an eloquent, a full, and highly interesting exposition of the nature, +character, and history of the anti-slavery movement, from the insertion of +which want of space precludes us, he concluded in the following happy manner.] +</p> + +<p> +Present organizations may perish, but the cause will go on. That cause has a +life, distinct and independent of the organizations patched up from time to +time to carry it forward. Looked at, apart from the bones and sinews and body, +it is a thing immortal. It is the very essence of justice, liberty, and love. +The moral life of human society, it cannot die while conscience, honor, and +humanity remain. If but one be filled with it, the cause lives. Its incarnation +in any one individual man, leaves the whole world a priesthood, occupying the +highest moral eminence even that of disinterested benevolence. Whoso has +ascended his height, and has the grace to stand there, has the world at his +feet, and is the world’s teacher, as of divine right. He may set in +judgment on the age, upon the civilization of the age, and upon the religion of +the age; for he has a test, a sure and certain test, by which to try all +institutions, and to measure all men. I say, he may do this, but this is not +the chief business for which he is qualified. The great work to which he is +called is not that of judgment. Like the Prince of Peace, he may say, if I +judge, I judge righteous judgment; still mainly, like him, he may say, this is +not his work. The man who has thoroughly embraced the principles of justice, +love, and liberty, like the true preacher of Christianity, is less anxious to +reproach the world of its sins, than to win it to repentance. His great work on +earth is to exemplify, and to illustrate, and to ingraft those principles upon +the living and practical understandings of all men within the reach of his +influence. This is his work; long or short his years, many or few his +adherents, powerful or weak his instrumentalities, through good report, or +through bad report, this is his work. It is to snatch from the bosom of nature +the latent facts of each individual man’s experience, and with steady +hand to hold them up fresh and glowing, enforcing, with all his power, their +acknowledgment and practical adoption. If there be but <i>one</i> such man in +the land, no matter what becomes of abolition societies and parties, there will +be an anti-slavery cause, and an anti-slavery movement. Fortunately for that +cause, and fortunately for him by whom it is espoused, it requires no +extraordinary amount of talent to preach it or to receive it when preached. The +grand secret of its power is, that each of its principles is easily rendered +appreciable to the faculty of reason in man, and that the most unenlightened +conscience has no difficulty in deciding on which side to register its +testimony. It can call its preachers from among the fishermen, and raise them +to power. In every human breast, it has an advocate which can be silent only +when the heart is dead. It comes home to every man’s understanding, and +appeals directly to every man’s conscience. A man that does not recognize +and approve for himself the rights and privileges contended for, in behalf of +the American slave, has not yet been found. In whatever else men may differ, +they are alike in the apprehension of their natural and personal rights. The +difference between abolitionists and those by whom they are opposed, is not as +to principles. All are agreed in respect to these. The manner of applying them +is the point of difference. +</p> + +<p> +The slaveholder himself, the daily robber of his equal brother, discourses +eloquently as to the excellency of justice, and the man who employs a brutal +driver to flay the flesh of his negroes, is not offended when kindness and +humanity are commended. Every time the abolitionist speaks of justice, the +anti-abolitionist assents says, yes, I wish the world were filled with a +disposition to render to every man what is rightfully due him; I should then +get what is due me. That’s right; let us have justice. By all means, let +us have justice. Every time the abolitionist speaks in honor of human liberty, +he touches a chord in the heart of the anti-abolitionist, which responds in +harmonious vibrations. Liberty—yes, that is evidently my right, and let +him beware who attempts to invade or abridge that right. Every time he speaks +of love, of human brotherhood, and the reciprocal duties of man and man, the +anti-abolitionist assents—says, yes, all right—all true—we +cannot have such ideas too often, or too fully expressed. So he says, and so he +feels, and only shows thereby that he is a man as well as an anti-abolitionist. +You have only to keep out of sight the manner of applying your principles, to +get them endorsed every time. Contemplating himself, he sees truth with +absolute clearness and distinctness. He only blunders when asked to lose sight +of himself. In his own cause he can beat a Boston lawyer, but he is dumb when +asked to plead the cause of others. He knows very well whatsoever he would have +done unto himself, but is quite in doubt as to having the same thing done unto +others. It is just here, that lions spring up in the path of duty, and the +battle once fought in heaven is refought on the earth. So it is, so hath it +ever been, and so must it ever be, when the claims of justice and mercy make +their demand at the door of human selfishness. Nevertheless, there is that +within which ever pleads for the right and the just. +</p> + +<p> +In conclusion, I have taken a sober view of the present anti-slavery movement. +I am sober, but not hopeless. There is no denying, for it is everywhere +admitted, that the anti-slavery question is the great moral and social question +now before the American people. A state of things has gradually been developed, +by which that question has become the first thing in order. It must be met. +Herein is my hope. The great idea of impartial liberty is now fairly before the +American people. Anti-slavery is no longer a thing to be prevented. The time +for prevention is past. This is great gain. When the movement was younger and +weaker—when it wrought in a Boston garret to human apprehension, it might +have been silently put out of the way. Things are different now. It has grown +too large—its friends are too numerous—its facilities too +abundant—its ramifications too extended—its power too omnipotent, +to be snuffed out by the contingencies of infancy. A thousand strong men might +be struck down, and its ranks still be invincible. One flash from the +heart-supplied intellect of Harriet Beecher Stowe could light a million camp +fires in front of the embattled host of slavery, which not all the waters of +the Mississippi, mingled as they are with blood, could extinguish. The present +will be looked to by after coming generations, as the age of anti-slavery +literature—when supply on the gallop could not keep pace with the ever +growing demand—when a picture of a Negro on the cover was a help to the +sale of a book—when conservative lyceums and other American literary +associations began first to select their orators for distinguished occasions +from the ranks of the previously despised abolitionists. If the anti-slavery +movement shall fail now, it will not be from outward opposition, but from +inward decay. Its auxiliaries are everywhere. Scholars, authors, orators, +poets, and statesmen give it their aid. The most brilliant of American poets +volunteer in its service. Whittier speaks in burning verse to more than thirty +thousand, in the National Era. Your own Longfellow whispers, in every hour of +trial and disappointment, “labor and wait.” James Russell Lowell is +reminding us that “men are more than institutions.” Pierpont cheers +the heart of the pilgrim in search of liberty, by singing the praises of +“the north star.” Bryant, too, is with us; and though chained to +the car of party, and dragged on amidst a whirl of political excitement, he +snatches a moment for letting drop a smiling verse of sympathy for the man in +chains. The poets are with us. It would seem almost absurd to say it, +considering the use that has been made of them, that we have allies in the +Ethiopian songs; those songs that constitute our national music, and without +which we have no national music. They are heart songs, and the finest feelings +of human nature are expressed in them. “Lucy Neal,” “Old +Kentucky Home,” and “Uncle Ned,” can make the heart sad as +well as merry, and can call forth a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the +sympathies for the slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and +flourish. In addition to authors, poets, and scholars at home, the moral sense +of the civilized world is with us. England, France, and Germany, the three +great lights of modern civilization, are with us, and every American traveler +learns to regret the existence of slavery in his country. The growth of +intelligence, the influence of commerce, steam, wind, and lightning are our +allies. It would be easy to amplify this summary, and to swell the vast +conglomeration of our material forces; but there is a deeper and truer method +of measuring the power of our cause, and of comprehending its vitality. This is +to be found in its accordance with the best elements of human nature. It is +beyond the power of slavery to annihilate affinities recognized and established +by the Almighty. The slave is bound to mankind by the powerful and inextricable +net-work of human brotherhood. His voice is the voice of a man, and his cry is +the cry of a man in distress, and man must cease to be man before he can become +insensible to that cry. It is the righteous of the cause—the humanity of +the cause—which constitutes its potency. As one genuine bankbill is worth +more than a thousand counterfeits, so is one man, with right on his side, worth +more than a thousand in the wrong. “One may chase a thousand, and put ten +thousand to flight.” It is, therefore, upon the goodness of our cause, +more than upon all other auxiliaries, that we depend for its final triumph. +</p> + +<p> +Another source of congratulations is the fact that, amid all the efforts made +by the church, the government, and the people at large, to stay the onward +progress of this movement, its course has been onward, steady, straight, +unshaken, and unchecked from the beginning. Slavery has gained victories large +and numerous; but never as against this movement—against a temporizing +policy, and against northern timidity, the slave power has been victorious; but +against the spread and prevalence in the country, of a spirit of resistance to +its aggression, and of sentiments favorable to its entire overthrow, it has yet +accomplished nothing. Every measure, yet devised and executed, having for its +object the suppression of anti-slavery, has been as idle and fruitless as +pouring oil to extinguish fire. A general rejoicing took place on the passage +of “the compromise measures” of 1850. Those measures were called +peace measures, and were afterward termed by both the great parties of the +country, as well as by leading statesmen, a final settlement of the whole +question of slavery; but experience has laughed to scorn the wisdom of +pro-slavery statesmen; and their final settlement of agitation seems to be the +final revival, on a broader and grander scale than ever before, of the question +which they vainly attempted to suppress forever. The fugitive slave bill has +especially been of positive service to the anti-slavery movement. It has +illustrated before all the people the horrible character of slavery toward the +slave, in hunting him down in a free state, and tearing him away from wife and +children, thus setting its claims higher than marriage or parental claims. It +has revealed the arrogant and overbearing spirit of the slave states toward the +free states; despising their principles—shocking their feelings of +humanity, not only by bringing before them the abominations of slavery, but by +attempting to make them parties to the crime. It has called into exercise among +the colored people, the hunted ones, a spirit of manly resistance well +calculated to surround them with a bulwark of sympathy and respect hitherto +unknown. For men are always disposed to respect and defend rights, when the +victims of oppression stand up manfully for themselves. +</p> + +<p> +There is another element of power added to the anti-slavery movement, of great +importance; it is the conviction, becoming every day more general and +universal, that slavery must be abolished at the south, or it will demoralize +and destroy liberty at the north. It is the nature of slavery to beget a state +of things all around it favorable to its own continuance. This fact, connected +with the system of bondage, is beginning to be more fully realized. The +slave-holder is not satisfied to associate with men in the church or in the +state, unless he can thereby stain them with the blood of his slaves. To be a +slave-holder is to be a propagandist from necessity; for slavery can only live +by keeping down the under-growth morality which nature supplies. Every new-born +white babe comes armed from the Eternal presence, to make war on slavery. The +heart of pity, which would melt in due time over the brutal chastisements it +sees inflicted on the helpless, must be hardened. And this work goes on every +day in the year, and every hour in the day. +</p> + +<p> +What is done at home is being done also abroad here in the north. And even now +the question may be asked, have we at this moment a single free state in the +Union? The alarm at this point will become more general. The slave power must +go on in its career of exactions. Give, give, will be its cry, till the +timidity which concedes shall give place to courage, which shall resist. Such +is the voice of experience, such has been the past, such is the present, and +such will be that future, which, so sure as man is man, will come. Here I leave +the subject; and I leave off where I began, consoling myself and congratulating +the friends of freedom upon the fact that the anti-slavery cause is not a new +thing under the sun; not some moral delusion which a few years’ +experience may dispel. It has appeared among men in all ages, and summoned its +advocates from all ranks. Its foundations are laid in the deepest and holiest +convictions, and from whatever soul the demon, selfishness, is expelled, there +will this cause take up its abode. Old as the everlasting hills; immovable as +the throne of God; and certain as the purposes of eternal power, against all +hinderances, and against all delays, and despite all the mutations of human +instrumentalities, it is the faith of my soul, that this anti-slavery cause +will triumph. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT"></a> +FOOTNOTES</h2> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ Letter, Introduction to <i>Life +of Frederick Douglass</i>, Boston, 1841.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ One of these ladies, impelled +by the same noble spirit which carried Miss Nightingale to Scutari, has devoted +her time, her untiring energies, to a great extent her means, and her high +literary abilities, to the advancement and support of Frederick Douglass’ +Paper, the only organ of the downtrodden, edited and published by one of +themselves, in the United States.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Stephen Myers, of Albany, +deserves mention as one of the most persevering among the colored editorial +fraternity.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ The German physiologists have +even discovered vegetable matter—starch—in the human body. See +<i>Med. Chirurgical Rev</i>., Oct., 1854, p. 339.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Wm. H. Topp, of Albany.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ This is the same man who gave +me the roots to prevent my being whipped by Mr. Covey. He was “a clever +soul.” We used frequently to talk about the fight with Covey, and as +often as we did so, he would claim my success as the result of the roots which +he gave me. This superstition is very common among the more ignorant slaves. A +slave seldom dies, but that his death is attributed to trickery.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ He was a whole-souled man, +fully imbued with a love of his afflicted and hunted people, and took pleasure +in being to me, as was his wont, “Eyes to the blind, and legs to the +lame.” This brave and devoted man suffered much from the persecutions +common to all who have been prominent benefactors. He at last became blind, and +needed a friend to guide him, even as he had been a guide to others. Even in +his blindness, he exhibited his manly character. In search of health, he became +a physician. When hope of gaining is(sic) own was gone, he had hope for others. +Believing in hydropathy, he established, at Northampton, Massachusetts, a large +<i>“Water Cure,”</i> and became one of the most successful of all +engaged in that mode of treatment.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ The following is a copy of +these curious papers, both of my transfer from Thomas to Hugh Auld, and from +Hugh to myself: +</p> + +<p> +“Know all men by these Presents, That I, Thomas Auld, of Talbot county, +and state of Maryland, for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred +dollars, current money, to me paid by Hugh Auld, of the city of Baltimore, in +the said state, at and before the sealing and delivery of these presents, the +receipt whereof, I, the said Thomas Auld, do hereby acknowledge, have granted, +bargained, and sold, and by these presents do grant, bargain, and sell unto the +said Hugh Auld, his executors, administrators, and assigns, ONE NEGRO MAN, by +the name of FREDERICK BAILY, or DOUGLASS, as he callls(sic) himself—he is +now about twenty-eight years of age—to have and to hold the said negro +man for life. And I, the said Thomas Auld, for myself my heirs, executors, and +administrators, all and singular, the said FREDERICK BAILY <i>alias</i> +DOUGLASS, unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, administrators, and assigns +against me, the said Thomas Auld, my executors, and administrators, and against +ali and every other person or persons whatsoever, shall and will warrant and +forever defend by these presents. In witness whereof, I set my hand and seal, +this thirteenth day of November, eighteen hundred and forty-six. +</p> + +<p> +THOMAS AULD +</p> + +<p> +“Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of Wrightson Jones. +</p> + +<p> +“JOHN C. LEAS. +</p> + +<p> +The authenticity of this bill of sale is attested by N. Harrington, a justice +of the peace of the state of Maryland, and for the county of Talbot, dated same +day as above. +</p> + +<p> +“To all whom it may concern: Be it known, that I, Hugh Auld, of the city +of Baltimore, in Baltimore county, in the state of Maryland, for divers good +causes and considerations, me thereunto moving, have released from slavery, +liberated, manumitted, and set free, and by these presents do hereby release +from slavery, liberate, manumit, and set free, MY NEGRO MAN, named FREDERICK +BAILY, otherwise called DOUGLASS, being of the age of twenty-eight years, or +thereabouts, and able to work and gain a sufficient livelihood and maintenance; +and him the said negro man named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called FREDERICK +DOUGLASS, I do declare to be henceforth free, manumitted, and discharged from +all manner of servitude to me, my executors, and administrators forever. +</p> + +<p> +“In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Auld, have hereunto set my hand and +seal the fifth of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and +forty-six. +</p> + +<p> +Hugh Auld +</p> + +<p> +“Sealed and delivered in presence of T. Hanson Belt. +</p> + +<p> +“JAMES N. S. T. WRIGHT”] <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ See Appendix to this volume, +page 317.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Douglass’ published +speeches alone, would fill two volumes of the size of this. Our space will only +permit the insertion of the extracts which follow; and which, for originality +of thought, beauty and force of expression, and for impassioned, indignatory +eloquence, have seldom been equaled.] +</p> + +<p> +<a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"></a> +</p> + +<p class="foot"> +11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ It is not often that chattels +address their owners. The following letter is unique; and probably the only +specimen of the kind extant. It was written while in England.] +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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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..9439580 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #202 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/202) diff --git a/old/202.txt b/old/202.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c805a34 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/202.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12603 @@ +Project Gutenberg's My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass + +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: My Bondage and My Freedom + +Author: Frederick Douglass + +Release Date: July 1, 2008 [EBook #202] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM *** + + + + +Produced by Mike Lough + + + + + +MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + +By Frederick Douglass + + +By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally +differenced from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, necessarily +excludes the idea of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING. +--COLERIDGE + + +Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick Douglass in +the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New +York + + +TO + HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH, + AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF + ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER, + ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE, + AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND + GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP, + AND AS + A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of + HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES + OF AN + AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE, + BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER, + AND BY + DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE, + This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated, + BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND, + + FREDERICK DOUGLAS. + ROCHESTER, N.Y. + + + + + + CONTENTS + + EDITORS PREFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 + INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 + +LIFE AS A SLAVE? + + I--CHILDHOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + II--REMOVED FROM MY FIRST HOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 + III--PARENTAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + IV--A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SLAVE PLANTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + V--GRADUAL INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES OF SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . 61 + VI--TREATMENT OF SLAVES ON LLOYDS PLANTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + VII--LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + VIII--A CHAPTER OF HORRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + IX--PERSONAL TREATMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 + X--LIFE IN BALTIMORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 + XI--"A CHANGE CAME O'ER THE SPIRIT OF MY DREAM". . . . . . . . . . .118 + XII--RELIGIOUS NATURE AWAKENED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127 + XIII--THE VICISSITUDES OF SLAVE LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 + XIV--EXPERIENCE IN ST. MICHAEL'S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144 + XV--COVEY, THE NEGRO BREAKER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 + XVI--ANOTHER PRESSURE OF THE TYRANTS VICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . .172 + + +<xii> CONTENTS + + XVII--THE LAST FLOGGING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180 + XVIII--NEW RELATIONS AND DUTIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194 + XIX--THE RUN-AWAY PLOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209 + XX--APPRENTICESHIP LIFE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 + XXI--MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248 + +LIFE AS A FREEMAN + XXII--LIBERTY ATTAINED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .261 + XXIII--INTRODUCED TO THE ABOLITIONISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278 + XXIV--TWENTY-ONE MONTHS IN GREAT BRITAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . .284 + XXV--VARIOUS INCIDENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .304 + +APPENDIX + RECEPTION SPEECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318 + LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330 + THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .337 + INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343 + WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349 + THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .354 + THE SLAVERY PARTY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .358 + THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .363 + + + + + +MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM + + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + +If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of ART, the +history of its misfortune might be written in two very simple words--TOO +LATE. The nature and character of slavery have been subjects of an +almost endless variety of artistic representation; and after the +brilliant achievements in that field, and while those achievements are +yet fresh in the memory of the million, he who would add another to the +legion, must possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize +for something worse than rashness. The reader is, therefore, assured, +with all due promptitude, that his attention is not invited to a work of +ART, but to a work of FACTS--Facts, terrible and almost incredible, it +may be yet FACTS, nevertheless. + +I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor place +in the whole volume; but that names and places are literally given, and +that every transaction therein described actually transpired. + +Perhaps the best Preface to this volume is furnished in the following +letter of Mr. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent solicitation for +such a work: + + ROCHESTER, N. Y. _July_ 2, 1855. + +DEAR FRIEND: I have long entertained, as you very well know, a somewhat +positive repugnance to writing or speaking anything for the public, +which could, with any degree of plausibilty, make me liable to the +imputation of seeking personal notoriety, for its own sake. Entertaining +that feeling very sincerely, and permitting its control, perhaps, quite +unreasonably, I have often{2} refused to narrate my personal experience +in public anti-slavery meetings, and in sympathizing circles, when urged +to do so by friends, with whose views and wishes, ordinarily, it were a +pleasure to comply. In my letters and speeches, I have generally +aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in the light of fundamental +principles, and upon facts, notorious and open to all; making, I trust, +no more of the fact of my own former enslavement, than circumstances +seemed absolutely to require. I have never placed my opposition to +slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather upon the +indestructible and unchangeable laws of human nature, every one of which +is perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system. I have also +felt that it was best for those having histories worth the writing--or +supposed to be so--to commit such work to hands other than their own. To +write of one's self, in such a manner as not to incur the imputation of +weakness, vanity, and egotism, is a work within the ability of but few; +and I have little reason to believe that I belong to that fortunate few. + +These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly urged +me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave, and +my life as a freeman. + +Nevertheless, I see, with you, many reasons for regarding my +autobiography as exceptional in its character, and as being, in some +sense, naturally beyond the reach of those reproaches which honorable +and sensitive minds dislike to incur. It is not to illustrate any heroic +achievements of a man, but to vindicate a just and beneficent principle, +in its application to the whole human family, by letting in the light of +truth upon a system, esteemed by some as a blessing, and by others as a +curse and a crime. I agree with you, that this system is now at the bar +of public opinion--not only of this country, but of the whole civilized +world--for judgment. Its friends have made for it the usual plea--"not +guilty;" the case must, therefore, proceed. Any facts, either from +slaves, slaveholders, or by-standers, calculated to enlighten the public +mind, by revealing the true nature, character, and tendency of the slave +system, are in order, and can scarcely be innocently withheld. + +I see, too, that there are special reasons why I should write my own +biography, in preference to employing another to do it. Not only is +slavery on trial, but unfortunately, the enslaved people are also on +trial. It is alleged, that they are, naturally, inferior; that they are +_so low_ in the scale of humanity, and so utterly stupid, that they are +unconscious of their wrongs, and do not apprehend their rights. Looking, +then, at your request, from this stand-point, and wishing everything of +which you think me capable to go to the benefit of my afflicted people, +I part with my doubts and hesitation, and proceed to furnish you +the desired manuscript; hoping that you may be able to make such +arrangements for its publication as shall be best adapted to accomplish +that good which you so enthusiastically anticipate. + +FREDERICK DOUGLASS +{3} + +There was little necessity for doubt and hesitation on the part of Mr. +Douglass, as to the propriety of his giving to the world a full account +of himself. A man who was born and brought up in slavery, a living +witness of its horrors; who often himself experienced its cruelties; and +who, despite the depressing influences surrounding his birth, youth and +manhood, has risen, from a dark and almost absolute obscurity, to the +distinguished position which he now occupies, might very well assume the +existence of a commendable curiosity, on the part of the public, to know +the facts of his remarkable history. + +EDITOR + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +When a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society to +the highest, mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration; when he +accomplishes this elevation by native energy, guided by prudence and +wisdom, their admiration is increased; but when his course, onward and +upward, excellent in itself, furthermore proves a possible, what had +hitherto been regarded as an impossible, reform, then he becomes a +burning and a shining light, on which the aged may look with gladness, +the young with hope, and the down-trodden, as a representative of +what they may themselves become. To such a man, dear reader, it is my +privilege to introduce you. + +The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow, +is not merely an example of self-elevation under the most adverse +circumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of the highest aims +of the American anti-slavery movement. The real object of that movement +is not only to disenthrall, it is, also, to bestow upon the Negro the +exercise of all those rights, from the possession of which he has been +so long debarred. + +But this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and the +entire admission of the same to the full privileges, political, +religious and social, of manhood, requires powerful effort on the part +of the enthralled, as well as on the part of those who would disenthrall +them. The people at large must feel the conviction, as well as admit the +abstract logic, of human equality;{5} the Negro, for the first time in +the world's history, brought in full contact with high civilization, +must prove his title first to all that is demanded for him; in the teeth +of unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to the mass of those who +oppress him--therefore, absolutely superior to his apparent fate, and +to their relative ability. And it is most cheering to the friends of +freedom, today, that evidence of this equality is rapidly accumulating, +not from the ranks of the half-freed colored people of the free states, +but from the very depths of slavery itself; the indestructible equality +of man to man is demonstrated by the ease with which black men, scarce +one remove from barbarism--if slavery can be honored with such a +distinction--vault into the high places of the most advanced and +painfully acquired civilization. Ward and Garnett, Wells Brown and +Pennington, Loguen and Douglass, are banners on the outer wall, under +which abolition is fighting its most successful battles, because +they are living exemplars of the practicability of the most radical +abolitionism; for, they were all of them born to the doom of slavery, +some of them remained slaves until adult age, yet they all have not +only won equality to their white fellow citizens, in civil, religious, +political and social rank, but they have also illustrated and adorned +our common country by their genius, learning and eloquence. + +The characteristics whereby Mr. Douglass has won first rank among these +remarkable men, and is still rising toward highest rank among living +Americans, are abundantly laid bare in the book before us. Like the +autobiography of Hugh Miller, it carries us so far back into early +childhood, as to throw light upon the question, "when positive and +persistent memory begins in the human being." And, like Hugh Miller, he +must have been a shy old-fashioned child, occasionally oppressed by what +he could not well account for, peering and poking about among the layers +of right and wrong, of tyrant and thrall, and the wonderfulness of that +hopeless tide of things which brought power to one race, and unrequited +toil to another, until, finally, he stumbled upon{6} his "first-found +Ammonite," hidden away down in the depths of his own nature, and which +revealed to him the fact that liberty and right, for all men, were +anterior to slavery and wrong. When his knowledge of the world was +bounded by the visible horizon on Col. Lloyd's plantation, and while +every thing around him bore a fixed, iron stamp, as if it had always +been so, this was, for one so young, a notable discovery. + +To his uncommon memory, then, we must add a keen and accurate insight +into men and things; an original breadth of common sense which enabled +him to see, and weigh, and compare whatever passed before him, and +which kindled a desire to search out and define their relations to other +things not so patent, but which never succumbed to the marvelous nor the +supernatural; a sacred thirst for liberty and for learning, first as a +means of attaining liberty, then as an end in itself most desirable; a +will; an unfaltering energy and determination to obtain what his soul +pronounced desirable; a majestic self-hood; determined courage; a deep +and agonizing sympathy with his embruted, crushed and bleeding fellow +slaves, and an extraordinary depth of passion, together with that rare +alliance between passion and intellect, which enables the former, when +deeply roused, to excite, develop and sustain the latter. + +With these original gifts in view, let us look at his schooling; the +fearful discipline through which it pleased God to prepare him for the +high calling on which he has since entered--the advocacy of emancipation +by the people who are not slaves. And for this special mission, his +plantation education was better than any he could have acquired in any +lettered school. What he needed, was facts and experiences, welded to +acutely wrought up sympathies, and these he could not elsewhere have +obtained, in a manner so peculiarly adapted to his nature. His physical +being was well trained, also, running wild until advanced into boyhood; +hard work and light diet, thereafter, and a skill in handicraft in +youth.{7} + +For his special mission, then, this was, considered in connection with +his natural gifts, a good schooling; and, for his special mission, +he doubtless "left school" just at the proper moment. Had he remained +longer in slavery--had he fretted under bonds until the ripening of +manhood and its passions, until the drear agony of slave-wife and +slave-children had been piled upon his already bitter experiences--then, +not only would his own history have had another termination, but the +drama of American slavery would have been essentially varied; for I +cannot resist the belief, that the boy who learned to read and write as +he did, who taught his fellow slaves these precious acquirements as he +did, who plotted for their mutual escape as he did, would, when a man +at bay, strike a blow which would make slavery reel and stagger. +Furthermore, blows and insults he bore, at the moment, without +resentment; deep but suppressed emotion rendered him insensible to +their sting; but it was afterward, when the memory of them went +seething through his brain, breeding a fiery indignation at his injured +self-hood, that the resolve came to resist, and the time fixed when +to resist, and the plot laid, how to resist; and he always kept his +self-pledged word. In what he undertook, in this line, he looked fate +in the face, and had a cool, keen look at the relation of means to ends. +Henry Bibb, to avoid chastisement, strewed his master's bed with charmed +leaves and _was whipped_. Frederick Douglass quietly pocketed a like +_fetiche_, compared his muscles with those of Covey--and _whipped him_. + +In the history of his life in bondage, we find, well developed, that +inherent and continuous energy of character which will ever render him +distinguished. What his hand found to do, he did with his might; even +while conscious that he was wronged out of his daily earnings, he +worked, and worked hard. At his daily labor he went with a will; with +keen, well set eye, brawny chest, lithe figure, and fair sweep of arm, +he would have been king among calkers, had that been his mission. + +It must not be overlooked, in this glance at his education, that{8} Mr. +Douglass lacked one aid to which so many men of mark have been deeply +indebted--he had neither a mother's care, nor a mother's culture, save +that which slavery grudgingly meted out to him. Bitter nurse! may not +even her features relax with human feeling, when she gazes at +such offspring! How susceptible he was to the kindly influences of +mother-culture, may be gathered from his own words, on page 57: "It +has been a life-long standing grief to me, that I know so little of my +mother, and that I was so early separated from her. The counsels of +her love must have been beneficial to me. The side view of her face is +imaged on my memory, and I take few steps in life, without feeling her +presence; but the image is mute, and I have no striking words of hers +treasured up." + +From the depths of chattel slavery in Maryland, our author escaped into +the caste-slavery of the north, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Here he +found oppression assuming another, and hardly less bitter, form; of +that very handicraft which the greed of slavery had taught him, his +half-freedom denied him the exercise for an honest living; he found +himself one of a class--free colored men--whose position he has +described in the following words: + +"Aliens are we in our native land. The fundamental principles of +the republic, to which the humblest white man, whether born here or +elsewhere, may appeal with confidence, in the hope of awakening a +favorable response, are held to be inapplicable to us. The glorious +doctrines of your revolutionary fathers, and the more glorious teachings +of the Son of God, are construed and applied against us. We are +literally scourged beyond the beneficent range of both authorities, +human and divine. * * * * American humanity hates us, scorns us, disowns +and denies, in a thousand ways, our very personality. The outspread wing +of American christianity, apparently broad enough to give shelter to a +perishing world, refuses to cover us. To us, its bones are brass, and +its features iron. In running thither for shelter and{9} succor, we +have only fled from the hungry blood-hound to the devouring wolf--from +a corrupt and selfish world, to a hollow and hypocritical +church."--_Speech before American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, +May_, 1854. + +Four years or more, from 1837 to 1841, he struggled on, in New Bedford, +sawing wood, rolling casks, or doing what labor he might, to support +himself and young family; four years he brooded over the scars which +slavery and semi-slavery had inflicted upon his body and soul; and then, +with his wounds yet unhealed, he fell among the Garrisonians--a glorious +waif to those most ardent reformers. It happened one day, at Nantucket, +that he, diffidently and reluctantly, was led to address an anti-slavery +meeting. He was about the age when the younger Pitt entered the House of +Commons; like Pitt, too, he stood up a born orator. + +William Lloyd Garrison, who was happily present, writes thus of Mr. +Douglass' maiden effort; "I shall never forget his first speech at the +convention--the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind--the +powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken +by surprise. * * * I think I never hated slavery so intensely as at +that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which is +inflicted by it on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered +far more clear than ever. There stood one in physical proportions and +stature commanding and exact--in intellect richly endowed--in natural +eloquence a prodigy." +[1] + +It is of interest to compare Mr. Douglass's account of this meeting with +Mr. Garrison's. Of the two, I think the latter the most correct. It must +have been a grand burst of eloquence! The pent up agony, indignation and +pathos of an abused and harrowed boyhood and youth, bursting out in all +their freshness and overwhelming earnestness! + +This unique introduction to its great leader, led immediately{10} to +the employment of Mr. Douglass as an agent by the American Anti-Slavery +Society. So far as his self-relying and independent character would +permit, he became, after the strictest sect, a Garrisonian. It is not +too much to say, that he formed a complement which they needed, and they +were a complement equally necessary to his "make-up." With his deep and +keen sensitiveness to wrong, and his wonderful memory, he came from the +land of bondage full of its woes and its evils, and painting them in +characters of living light; and, on his part, he found, told out in +sound Saxon phrase, all those principles of justice and right and +liberty, which had dimly brooded over the dreams of his youth, seeking +definite forms and verbal expression. It must have been an electric +flashing of thought, and a knitting of soul, granted to but few in this +life, and will be a life-long memory to those who participated in it. In +the society, moreover, of Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, William +Lloyd Garrison, and other men of earnest faith and refined culture, Mr. +Douglass enjoyed the high advantage of their assistance and counsel in +the labor of self-culture, to which he now addressed himself with wonted +energy. Yet, these gentlemen, although proud of Frederick Douglass, +failed to fathom, and bring out to the light of day, the highest +qualities of his mind; the force of their own education stood in +their own way: they did not delve into the mind of a colored man for +capacities which the pride of race led them to believe to be restricted +to their own Saxon blood. Bitter and vindictive sarcasm, irresistible +mimicry, and a pathetic narrative of his own experiences of slavery, +were the intellectual manifestations which they encouraged him to +exhibit on the platform or in the lecture desk. + +A visit to England, in 1845, threw Mr. Douglass among men and women of +earnest souls and high culture, and who, moreover, had never drank of +the bitter waters of American caste. For the first time in his life, he +breathed an atmosphere congenial to the longings of his spirit, and felt +his manhood free and{11} unrestricted. The cordial and manly greetings +of the British and Irish audiences in public, and the refinement and +elegance of the social circles in which he mingled, not only as an +equal, but as a recognized man of genius, were, doubtless, genial and +pleasant resting places in his hitherto thorny and troubled journey +through life. There are joys on the earth, and, to the wayfaring +fugitive from American slavery or American caste, this is one of them. + +But his sojourn in England was more than a joy to Mr. Douglass. Like +the platform at Nantucket, it awakened him to the consciousness of new +powers that lay in him. From the pupilage of Garrisonism he rose to the +dignity of a teacher and a thinker; his opinions on the broader aspects +of the great American question were earnestly and incessantly sought, +from various points of view, and he must, perforce, bestir himself to +give suitable answer. With that prompt and truthful perception which +has led their sisters in all ages of the world to gather at the feet +and support the hands of reformers, the gentlewomen of England [2] were +foremost to encourage and strengthen him to carve out for himself a path +fitted to his powers and energies, in the life-battle against slavery +and caste to which he was pledged. And one stirring thought, inseparable +from the British idea of the evangel of freedom, must have smote his ear +from every side-- + + _Hereditary bondmen! know ye not + Who would be free, themselves mast strike the blow?_ + + +The result of this visit was, that on his return to the United States, +he established a newspaper. This proceeding was sorely against the +wishes and the advice of the leaders of the American Anti-Slavery +Society, but our author had fully grown up to the conviction of a truth +which they had once promulged, but now{12} forgotten, to wit: that in +their own elevation--self-elevation--colored men have a blow to strike +"on their own hook," against slavery and caste. Differing from his +Boston friends in this matter, diffident in his own abilities, reluctant +at their dissuadings, how beautiful is the loyalty with which he still +clung to their principles in all things else, and even in this. + +Now came the trial hour. Without cordial support from any large body of +men or party on this side the Atlantic, and too far distant in space and +immediate interest to expect much more, after the much already done, +on the other side, he stood up, almost alone, to the arduous labor and +heavy expenditure of editor and lecturer. The Garrison party, to which +he still adhered, did not want a _colored_ newspaper--there was an odor +of _caste_ about it; the Liberty party could hardly be expected to give +warm support to a man who smote their principles as with a hammer; +and the wide gulf which separated the free colored people from the +Garrisonians, also separated them from their brother, Frederick +Douglass. + +The arduous nature of his labors, from the date of the establishment of +his paper, may be estimated by the fact, that anti-slavery papers in the +United States, even while organs of, and when supported by, anti-slavery +parties, have, with a single exception, failed to pay expenses. Mr. +Douglass has maintained, and does maintain, his paper without the +support of any party, and even in the teeth of the opposition of those +from whom he had reason to expect counsel and encouragement. He has been +compelled, at one and the same time, and almost constantly, during the +past seven years, to contribute matter to its columns as editor, and +to raise funds for its support as lecturer. It is within bounds to say, +that he has expended twelve thousand dollars of his own hard earned +money, in publishing this paper, a larger sum than has been contributed +by any one individual for the general advancement of the colored people. +There had been many other papers published and edited by colored men, +beginning as far back as{13} 1827, when the Rev. Samuel E. Cornish and +John B. Russworm (a graduate of Bowdoin college, and afterward Governor +of Cape Palmas) published the _Freedom's Journal_, in New York City; +probably not less than one hundred newspaper enterprises have been +started in the United States, by free colored men, born free, and some +of them of liberal education and fair talents for this work; but, one +after another, they have fallen through, although, in several instances, +anti-slavery friends contributed to their support. [3] It had almost +been given up, as an impracticable thing, to maintain a colored +newspaper, when Mr. Douglass, with fewest early advantages of all his +competitors, essayed, and has proved the thing perfectly practicable, +and, moreover, of great public benefit. This paper, in addition to its +power in holding up the hands of those to whom it is especially +devoted, also affords irrefutable evidence of the justice, safety and +practicability of Immediate Emancipation; it further proves the immense +loss which slavery inflicts on the land while it dooms such energies as +his to the hereditary degradation of slavery. + +It has been said in this Introduction, that Mr. Douglass had raised +himself by his own efforts to the highest position in society. As a +successful editor, in our land, he occupies this position. Our editors +rule the land, and he is one of them. As an orator and thinker, his +position is equally high, in the opinion of his countrymen. If a +stranger in the United States would seek its most distinguished men--the +movers of public opinion--he will find their names mentioned, and their +movements chronicled, under the head of "BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH," in the +daily papers. The keen caterers for the public attention, set down, in +this column, such men only as have won high mark in the public esteem. +During the past winter--1854-5--very frequent mention of Frederick +Douglass was made under this head in the daily papers; his name glided +as often--this week from Chicago, next{14} week from Boston--over the +lightning wires, as the name of any other man, of whatever note. To no +man did the people more widely nor more earnestly say, _"Tell me thy +thought!"_ And, somehow or other, revolution seemed to follow in his +wake. His were not the mere words of eloquence which Kossuth speaks +of, that delight the ear and then pass away. No! They were _work_-able, +_do_-able words, that brought forth fruits in the revolution in +Illinois, and in the passage of the franchise resolutions by the +Assembly of New York. + +And the secret of his power, what is it? He is a Representative American +man--a type of his countrymen. Naturalists tell us that a full grown man +is a resultant or representative of all animated nature on this globe; +beginning with the early embryo state, then representing the lowest +forms of organic life, [4] and passing through every subordinate grade +or type, until he reaches the last and highest--manhood. In like manner, +and to the fullest extent, has Frederick Douglass passed through every +gradation of rank comprised in our national make-up, and bears upon his +person and upon his soul every thing that is American. And he has not +only full sympathy with every thing American; his proclivity or bent, +to active toil and visible progress, are in the strictly national +direction, delighting to outstrip "all creation." + +Nor have the natural gifts, already named as his, lost anything by his +severe training. When unexcited, his mental processes are probably slow, +but singularly clear in perception, and wide in vision, the unfailing +memory bringing up all the facts in their every aspect; incongruities +he lays hold of incontinently, and holds up on the edge of his keen and +telling wit. But this wit never descends to frivolity; it is rigidly +in the keeping of his truthful common sense, and always used in +illustration or proof of some point which could not so readily be +reached any other way. "Beware of a Yankee when he is feeding," is a +shaft that strikes home{15} in a matter never so laid bare by satire +before. "The Garrisonian views of disunion, if carried to a successful +issue, would only place the people of the north in the same relation +to American slavery which they now bear to the slavery of Cuba or the +Brazils," is a statement, in a few words, which contains the result and +the evidence of an argument which might cover pages, but could not carry +stronger conviction, nor be stated in less pregnable form. In proof +of this, I may say, that having been submitted to the attention of the +Garrisonians in print, in March, it was repeated before them at their +business meeting in May--the platform, _par excellence_, on which they +invite free fight, _a l'outrance_, to all comers. It was given out in +the clear, ringing tones, wherewith the hall of shields was wont to +resound of old, yet neither Garrison, nor Phillips, nor May, nor Remond, +nor Foster, nor Burleigh, with his subtle steel of "the ice brook's +temper," ventured to break a lance upon it! The doctrine of the +dissolution of the Union, as a means for the abolition of American +slavery, was silenced upon the lips that gave it birth, and in the +presence of an array of defenders who compose the keenest intellects in +the land. + +_"The man who is right is a majority"_ is an aphorism struck out by +Mr. Douglass in that great gathering of the friends of freedom, at +Pittsburgh, in 1852, where he towered among the highest, because, with +abilities inferior to none, and moved more deeply than any, there was +neither policy nor party to trammel the outpourings of his soul. Thus +we find, opposed to all disadvantages which a black man in the United +States labors and struggles under, is this one vantage ground--when the +chance comes, and the audience where he may have a say, he stands forth +the freest, most deeply moved and most earnest of all men. + +It has been said of Mr. Douglass, that his descriptive and declamatory +powers, admitted to be of the very highest order, take precedence of +his logical force. Whilst the schools might have trained him to +the exhibition of the formulas of deductive{16} logic, nature and +circumstances forced him into the exercise of the higher faculties +required by induction. The first ninety pages of this "Life in Bondage," +afford specimens of observing, comparing, and careful classifying, +of such superior character, that it is difficult to believe them the +results of a child's thinking; he questions the earth, and the children +and the slaves around him again and again, and finally looks to _"God in +the sky"_ for the why and the wherefore of the unnatural thing, slavery. +_"Yes, if indeed thou art, wherefore dost thou suffer us to be slain?"_ +is the only prayer and worship of the God-forsaken Dodos in the heart of +Africa. Almost the same was his prayer. One of his earliest observations +was that white children should know their ages, while the colored +children were ignorant of theirs; and the songs of the slaves grated on +his inmost soul, because a something told him that harmony in sound, and +music of the spirit, could not consociate with miserable degradation. + +To such a mind, the ordinary processes of logical deduction are like +proving that two and two make four. Mastering the intermediate steps +by an intuitive glance, or recurring to them as Ferguson resorted to +geometry, it goes down to the deeper relation of things, and brings out +what may seem, to some, mere statements, but which are new and brilliant +generalizations, each resting on a broad and stable basis. Thus, Chief +Justice Marshall gave his decisions, and then told Brother Story to look +up the authorities--and they never differed from him. Thus, also, in his +"Lecture on the Anti-Slavery Movement," delivered before the Rochester +Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. Douglass presents a mass of thought, +which, without any showy display of logic on his part, requires an +exercise of the reasoning faculties of the reader to keep pace with him. +And his "Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered," is full of new +and fresh thoughts on the dawning science of race-history. + +If, as has been stated, his intellection is slow, when unexcited, it is +most prompt and rapid when he is thoroughly aroused.{17} Memory, logic, +wit, sarcasm, invective pathos and bold imagery of rare structural +beauty, well up as from a copious fountain, yet each in its proper +place, and contributing to form a whole, grand in itself, yet complete +in the minutest proportions. It is most difficult to hedge him in a +corner, for his positions are taken so deliberately, that it is rare to +find a point in them undefended aforethought. Professor Reason tells me +the following: "On a recent visit of a public nature, to Philadelphia, +and in a meeting composed mostly of his colored brethren, Mr. Douglass +proposed a comparison of views in the matters of the relations and +duties of 'our people;' he holding that prejudice was the result +of condition, and could be conquered by the efforts of the degraded +themselves. A gentleman present, distinguished for logical acumen and +subtlety, and who had devoted no small portion of the last twenty-five +years to the study and elucidation of this very question, held the +opposite view, that prejudice is innate and unconquerable. He terminated +a series of well dove-tailed, Socratic questions to Mr. Douglass, +with the following: 'If the legislature at Harrisburgh should awaken, +to-morrow morning, and find each man's skin turned black and his hair +woolly, what could they do to remove prejudice?' 'Immediately pass laws +entitling black men to all civil, political and social privileges,' was +the instant reply--and the questioning ceased." + +The most remarkable mental phenomenon in Mr. Douglass, is his style in +writing and speaking. In March, 1855, he delivered an address in the +assembly chamber before the members of the legislature of the state of +New York. An eye witness [5] describes the crowded and most intelligent +audience, and their rapt attention to the speaker, as the grandest scene +he ever witnessed in the capitol. Among those whose eyes were riveted on +the speaker full two hours and a half, were Thurlow Weed and Lieutenant +Governor Raymond; the latter, at the conclusion of the address, +exclaimed to a friend, "I would give twenty thousand dollars,{18} if I +could deliver that address in that manner." Mr. Raymond is a first class +graduate of Dartmouth, a rising politician, ranking foremost in the +legislature; of course, his ideal of oratory must be of the most +polished and finished description. + +The style of Mr. Douglass in writing, is to me an intellectual puzzle. +The strength, affluence and terseness may easily be accounted for, +because the style of a man is the man; but how are we to account +for that rare polish in his style of writing, which, most critically +examined, seems the result of careful early culture among the best +classics of our language; it equals if it does not surpass the style of +Hugh Miller, which was the wonder of the British literary public, until +he unraveled the mystery in the most interesting of autobiographies. But +Frederick Douglass was still calking the seams of Baltimore clippers, +and had only written a "pass," at the age when Miller's style was +already formed. + +I asked William Whipper, of Pennsylvania, the gentleman alluded to +above, whether he thought Mr. Douglass's power inherited from the +Negroid, or from what is called the Caucasian side of his make up? After +some reflection, he frankly answered, "I must admit, although sorry to +do so, that the Caucasian predominates." At that time, I almost agreed +with him; but, facts narrated in the first part of this work, throw a +different light on this interesting question. + +We are left in the dark as to who was the paternal ancestor of our +author; a fact which generally holds good of the Romuluses and Remuses +who are to inaugurate the new birth of our republic. In the absence of +testimony from the Caucasian side, we must see what evidence is given on +the other side of the house. + +"My grandmother, though advanced in years, * * * was yet a woman of +power and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, elastic and +muscular." (p. 46.) + +After describing her skill in constructing nets, her perseverance in +using them, and her wide-spread fame in the agricultural way he adds, +"It happened to her--as it will happen to any careful{19} and thrifty +person residing in an ignorant and improvident neighborhood--to enjoy +the reputation of being born to good luck." And his grandmother was a +black woman. + +"My mother was tall, and finely proportioned; of deep black, glossy +complexion; had regular features; and among other slaves was remarkably +sedate in her manners." "Being a field hand, she was obliged to walk +twelve miles and return, between nightfall and daybreak, to see her +children" (p. 54.) "I shall never forget the indescribable expression of +her countenance when I told her that I had had no food since morning. +* * * There was pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation at Aunt +Katy at the same time; * * * * she read Aunt Katy a lecture which she +never forgot." (p. 56.) "I learned after my mother's death, that she +could read, and that she was the _only_ one of all the slaves and +colored people in Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired +this knowledge, I know not, for Tuckahoe is the last place in the world +where she would be apt to find facilities for learning." (p. 57.) "There +is, in _Prichard's Natural History of Man_, the head of a figure--on +page 157--the features of which so resemble those of my mother, that I +often recur to it with something of the feeling which I suppose others +experience when looking upon the pictures of dear departed ones." (p. +52.) + +The head alluded to is copied from the statue of Ramses the Great, an +Egyptian king of the nineteenth dynasty. The authors of the _Types of +Mankind_ give a side view of the same on page 148, remarking that the +profile, "like Napoleon's, is superbly European!" The nearness of its +resemblance to Mr. Douglass' mother rests upon the evidence of his +memory, and judging from his almost marvelous feats of recollection +of forms and outlines recorded in this book, this testimony may be +admitted. + +These facts show that for his energy, perseverance, eloquence, +invective, sagacity, and wide sympathy, he is indebted to his Negro +blood. The very marvel of his style would seem to be a development of +that other marvel--how his mother learned to read.{20} The versatility +of talent which he wields, in common with Dumas, Ira Aldridge, and +Miss Greenfield, would seem to be the result of the grafting of the +Anglo-Saxon on good, original, Negro stock. If the friends of "Caucasus" +choose to claim, for that region, what remains after this analysis--to +wit: combination--they are welcome to it. They will forgive me for +reminding them that the term "Caucasian" is dropped by recent writers on +Ethnology; for the people about Mount Caucasus, are, and have ever been, +Mongols. The great "white race" now seek paternity, according to Dr. +Pickering, in Arabia--"Arida Nutrix" of the best breed of horses &c. +Keep on, gentlemen; you will find yourselves in Africa, by-and-by. The +Egyptians, like the Americans, were a _mixed race_, with some Negro +blood circling around the throne, as well as in the mud hovels. + +This is the proper place to remark of our author, that the same strong +self-hood, which led him to measure strength with Mr. Covey, and to +wrench himself from the embrace of the Garrisonians, and which has borne +him through many resistances to the personal indignities offered him as +a colored man, sometimes becomes a hyper-sensitiveness to such assaults +as men of his mark will meet with, on paper. Keen and unscrupulous +opponents have sought, and not unsuccessfully, to pierce him in this +direction; for well they know, that if assailed, he will smite back. + +It is not without a feeling of pride, dear reader, that I present you +with this book. The son of a self-emancipated bond-woman, I feel joy in +introducing to you my brother, who has rent his own bonds, and who, in +his every relation--as a public man, as a husband and as a father--is +such as does honor to the land which gave him birth. I shall place this +book in the hands of the only child spared me, bidding him to strive and +emulate its noble example. You may do likewise. It is an American book, +for Americans, in the fullest sense of the idea. It shows that the +worst of our institutions, in its worst aspect, cannot keep down energy, +truthfulness, and earnest struggle for the right. It proves the{21} +justice and practicability of Immediate Emancipation. It shows that any +man in our land, "no matter in what battle his liberty may have been +cloven down, * * * * no matter what complexion an Indian or an African +sun may have burned upon him," not only may "stand forth redeemed +and disenthralled," but may also stand up a candidate for the highest +suffrage of a great people--the tribute of their honest, hearty +admiration. Reader, _Vale! New York_ + +JAMES M'CUNE SMITH + + + + +CHAPTER I. _Childhood_ + +PLACE OF BIRTH--CHARACTER OF THE DISTRICT--TUCKAHOE--ORIGIN OF THE +NAME--CHOPTANK RIVER--TIME OF BIRTH--GENEALOGICAL TREES--MODE OF +COUNTING TIME--NAMES OF GRANDPARENTS--THEIR POSITION--GRANDMOTHER +ESPECIALLY ESTEEMED--"BORN TO GOOD LUCK"--SWEET +POTATOES--SUPERSTITION--THE LOG CABIN--ITS CHARMS--SEPARATING +CHILDREN--MY AUNTS--THEIR NAMES--FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF BEING A SLAVE--OLD +MASTER--GRIEFS AND JOYS OF CHILDHOOD--COMPARATIVE HAPPINESS OF THE +SLAVE-BOY AND THE SON OF A SLAVEHOLDER. + + +In Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the county town +of that county, there is a small district of country, thinly populated, +and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, +sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation +of its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its +inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever. + +The name of this singularly unpromising and truly famine stricken +district is Tuckahoe, a name well known to all Marylanders, black and +white. It was given to this section of country probably, at the first, +merely in derision; or it may possibly have been applied to it, as I +have heard, because some one of its earlier inhabitants had been guilty +of the petty meanness of stealing a hoe--or taking a hoe that did not +belong to him. Eastern Shore men usually pronounce the word _took_, as +_tuck; Took-a-hoe_, therefore, is, in Maryland parlance, _Tuckahoe_. +But, whatever may have been its origin--and about this I will not be +{26} positive--that name has stuck to the district in question; and it +is seldom mentioned but with contempt and derision, on account of the +barrenness of its soil, and the ignorance, indolence, and poverty of its +people. Decay and ruin are everywhere visible, and the thin population +of the place would have quitted it long ago, but for the Choptank +river, which runs through it, from which they take abundance of shad and +herring, and plenty of ague and fever. + +It was in this dull, flat, and unthrifty district, or neighborhood, +surrounded by a white population of the lowest order, indolent and +drunken to a proverb, and among slaves, who seemed to ask, _"Oh! what's +the use?"_ every time they lifted a hoe, that I--without any fault of +mine was born, and spent the first years of my childhood. + +The reader will pardon so much about the place of my birth, on the score +that it is always a fact of some importance to know where a man is born, +if, indeed, it be important to know anything about him. In regard to the +_time_ of my birth, I cannot be as definite as I have been respecting +the _place_. Nor, indeed, can I impart much knowledge concerning my +parents. Genealogical trees do not flourish among slaves. A person of +some consequence here in the north, sometimes designated _father_, is +literally abolished in slave law and slave practice. It is only once in +a while that an exception is found to this statement. I never met with a +slave who could tell me how old he was. Few slave-mothers know anything +of the months of the year, nor of the days of the month. They keep no +family records, with marriages, births, and deaths. They measure the +ages of their children by spring time, winter time, harvest time, +planting time, and the like; but these soon become undistinguishable +and forgotten. Like other slaves, I cannot tell how old I am. This +destitution was among my earliest troubles. I learned when I grew up, +that my master--and this is the case with masters generally--allowed +no questions to be put to him, by which a slave might learn his{27 +GRANDPARENTS} age. Such questions deemed evidence of impatience, and +even of impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, the dates of +which I have since learned, I suppose myself to have been born about the +year 1817. + +The first experience of life with me that I now remember--and I remember +it but hazily--began in the family of my grandmother and grandfather. +Betsey and Isaac Baily. They were quite advanced in life, and had long +lived on the spot where they then resided. They were considered old +settlers in the neighborhood, and, from certain circumstances, I infer +that my grandmother, especially, was held in high esteem, far higher +than is the lot of most colored persons in the slave states. She was +a good nurse, and a capital hand at making nets for catching shad and +herring; and these nets were in great demand, not only in Tuckahoe, but +at Denton and Hillsboro, neighboring villages. She was not only good at +making the nets, but was also somewhat famous for her good fortune in +taking the fishes referred to. I have known her to be in the water +half the day. Grandmother was likewise more provident than most of +her neighbors in the preservation of seedling sweet potatoes, and it +happened to her--as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person +residing in an ignorant and improvident community--to enjoy the +reputation of having been born to "good luck." Her "good luck" was owing +to the exceeding care which she took in preventing the succulent root +from getting bruised in the digging, and in placing it beyond the reach +of frost, by actually burying it under the hearth of her cabin during +the winter months. In the time of planting sweet potatoes, "Grandmother +Betty," as she was familiarly called, was sent for in all directions, +simply to place the seedling potatoes in the hills; for superstition had +it, that if "Grandmamma Betty but touches them at planting, they will be +sure to grow and flourish." This high reputation was full of advantage +to her, and to the children around her. Though Tuckahoe had but few of +the good things of{28} life, yet of such as it did possess grandmother +got a full share, in the way of presents. If good potato crops came +after her planting, she was not forgotten by those for whom she planted; +and as she was remembered by others, so she remembered the hungry little +ones around her. + +The dwelling of my grandmother and grandfather had few pretensions. It +was a log hut, or cabin, built of clay, wood, and straw. At a +distance it resembled--though it was smaller, less commodious and less +substantial--the cabins erected in the western states by the first +settlers. To my child's eye, however, it was a noble structure, +admirably adapted to promote the comforts and conveniences of its +inmates. A few rough, Virginia fence-rails, flung loosely over the +rafters above, answered the triple purpose of floors, ceilings, and +bedsteads. To be sure, this upper apartment was reached only by a +ladder--but what in the world for climbing could be better than a +ladder? To me, this ladder was really a high invention, and possessed +a sort of charm as I played with delight upon the rounds of it. In this +little hut there was a large family of children: I dare not say how +many. My grandmother--whether because too old for field service, or +because she had so faithfully discharged the duties of her station in +early life, I know not--enjoyed the high privilege of living in a cabin, +separate from the quarter, with no other burden than her own support, +and the necessary care of the little children, imposed. She evidently +esteemed it a great fortune to live so. The children were not her own, +but her grandchildren--the children of her daughters. She took delight +in having them around her, and in attending to their few wants. The +practice of separating children from their mother, and hiring the latter +out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, except at long +intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the +slave system. But it is in harmony with the grand aim of slavery, which, +always and everywhere, is to reduce man to a level with the brute. It is +a successful method of obliterating{29 "OLD MASTER"} from the mind and +heart of the slave, all just ideas of the sacredness of _the family_, as +an institution. + +Most of the children, however, in this instance, being the children of +my grandmother's daughters, the notions of family, and the reciprocal +duties and benefits of the relation, had a better chance of being +understood than where children are placed--as they often are in the +hands of strangers, who have no care for them, apart from the wishes +of their masters. The daughters of my grandmother were five in number. +Their names were JENNY, ESTHER, MILLY, PRISCILLA, and HARRIET. The +daughter last named was my mother, of whom the reader shall learn more +by-and-by. + +Living here, with my dear old grandmother and grandfather, it was a +long time before I knew myself to be _a slave_. I knew many other things +before I knew that. Grandmother and grandfather were the greatest people +in the world to me; and being with them so snugly in their own little +cabin--I supposed it be their own--knowing no higher authority over me +or the other children than the authority of grandmamma, for a time there +was nothing to disturb me; but, as I grew larger and older, I learned +by degrees the sad fact, that the "little hut," and the lot on which it +stood, belonged not to my dear old grandparents, but to some person who +lived a great distance off, and who was called, by grandmother, "OLD +MASTER." I further learned the sadder fact, that not only the house and +lot, but that grandmother herself, (grandfather was free,) and all +the little children around her, belonged to this mysterious personage, +called by grandmother, with every mark of reverence, "Old Master." Thus +early did clouds and shadows begin to fall upon my path. Once on the +track--troubles never come singly--I was not long in finding out another +fact, still more grievous to my childish heart. I was told that this +"old master," whose name seemed ever to be mentioned with fear and +shuddering, only allowed the children to live with grandmother for a +limited time, and that in fact as soon{30} as they were big enough, they +were promptly taken away, to live with the said "old master." These +were distressing revelations indeed; and though I was quite too young +to comprehend the full import of the intelligence, and mostly spent my +childhood days in gleesome sports with the other children, a shade of +disquiet rested upon me. + +The absolute power of this distant "old master" had touched my young +spirit with but the point of its cold, cruel iron, and left me something +to brood over after the play and in moments of repose. Grandmammy was, +indeed, at that time, all the world to me; and the thought of being +separated from her, in any considerable time, was more than an unwelcome +intruder. It was intolerable. + +Children have their sorrows as well as men and women; and it would be +well to remember this in our dealings with them. SLAVE-children _are_ +children, and prove no exceptions to the general rule. The liability +to be separated from my grandmother, seldom or never to see her again, +haunted me. I dreaded the thought of going to live with that mysterious +"old master," whose name I never heard mentioned with affection, but +always with fear. I look back to this as among the heaviest of my +childhood's sorrows. My grandmother! my grandmother! and the little hut, +and the joyous circle under her care, but especially _she_, who made +us sorry when she left us but for an hour, and glad on her return,--how +could I leave her and the good old home? + +But the sorrows of childhood, like the pleasures of after life, +are transient. It is not even within the power of slavery to write +_indelible_ sorrow, at a single dash, over the heart of a child. + + _The tear down childhood's cheek that flows, + Is like the dew-drop on the rose-- + When next the summer breeze comes by, + And waves the bush--the flower is dry_. + + +There is, after all, but little difference in the measure of contentment +felt by the slave-child neglected and the slaveholder's{31 COMPARATIVE +HAPPINESS} child cared for and petted. The spirit of the All Just +mercifully holds the balance for the young. + +The slaveholder, having nothing to fear from impotent childhood, easily +affords to refrain from cruel inflictions; and if cold and hunger do +not pierce the tender frame, the first seven or eight years of the +slave-boy's life are about as full of sweet content as those of the most +favored and petted _white_ children of the slaveholder. The slave-boy +escapes many troubles which befall and vex his white brother. He seldom +has to listen to lectures on propriety of behavior, or on anything else. +He is never chided for handling his little knife and fork improperly +or awkwardly, for he uses none. He is never reprimanded for soiling the +table-cloth, for he takes his meals on the clay floor. He never has the +misfortune, in his games or sports, of soiling or tearing his clothes, +for he has almost none to soil or tear. He is never expected to act like +a nice little gentleman, for he is only a rude little slave. Thus, freed +from all restraint, the slave-boy can be, in his life and conduct, a +genuine boy, doing whatever his boyish nature suggests; enacting, by +turns, all the strange antics and freaks of horses, dogs, pigs, and +barn-door fowls, without in any manner compromising his dignity, or +incurring reproach of any sort. He literally runs wild; has no pretty +little verses to learn in the nursery; no nice little speeches to make +for aunts, uncles, or cousins, to show how smart he is; and, if he can +only manage to keep out of the way of the heavy feet and fists of the +older slave boys, he may trot on, in his joyous and roguish tricks, as +happy as any little heathen under the palm trees of Africa. To be +sure, he is occasionally reminded, when he stumbles in the path of his +master--and this he early learns to avoid--that he is eating his _"white +bread,"_ and that he will be made to _"see sights"_ by-and-by. The +threat is soon forgotten; the shadow soon passes, and our sable boy +continues to roll in the dust, or play in the mud, as bests suits him, +and in the veriest freedom. If he feels uncomfortable, from mud or from +dust, the coast is clear; he can plunge into{32} the river or the pond, +without the ceremony of undressing, or the fear of wetting his clothes; +his little tow-linen shirt--for that is all he has on--is easily dried; +and it needed ablution as much as did his skin. His food is of the +coarsest kind, consisting for the most part of cornmeal mush, which +often finds it way from the wooden tray to his mouth in an oyster shell. +His days, when the weather is warm, are spent in the pure, open air, and +in the bright sunshine. He always sleeps in airy apartments; he seldom +has to take powders, or to be paid to swallow pretty little sugar-coated +pills, to cleanse his blood, or to quicken his appetite. He eats no +candies; gets no lumps of loaf sugar; always relishes his food; cries +but little, for nobody cares for his crying; learns to esteem his +bruises but slight, because others so esteem them. In a word, he is, for +the most part of the first eight years of his life, a spirited, joyous, +uproarious, and happy boy, upon whom troubles fall only like water on a +duck's back. And such a boy, so far as I can now remember, was the boy +whose life in slavery I am now narrating. + + + + +CHAPTER II. _Removed from My First Home_ + +THE NAME "OLD MASTER" A TERROR--COLONEL LLOYD'S PLANTATION--WYE +RIVER--WHENCE ITS NAME--POSITION OF THE LLOYDS--HOME ATTRACTION--MEET +OFFERING--JOURNEY FROM TUCKAHOE TO WYE RIVER--SCENE ON REACHING OLD +MASTER'S--DEPARTURE OF GRANDMOTHER--STRANGE MEETING OF SISTERS AND +BROTHERS--REFUSAL TO BE COMFORTED--SWEET SLEEP. + + +That mysterious individual referred to in the first chapter as an object +of terror among the inhabitants of our little cabin, under the ominous +title of "old master," was really a man of some consequence. He owned +several farms in Tuckahoe; was the chief clerk and butler on the home +plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd; had overseers on his own farms; and +gave directions to overseers on the farms belonging to Col. Lloyd. +This plantation is situated on Wye river--the river receiving its name, +doubtless, from Wales, where the Lloyds originated. They (the Lloyds) +are an old and honored family in Maryland, exceedingly wealthy. The home +plantation, where they have resided, perhaps for a century or more, is +one of the largest, most fertile, and best appointed, in the state. + +About this plantation, and about that queer old master--who must be +something more than a man, and something worse than an angel--the reader +will easily imagine that I was not only curious, but eager, to know all +that could be known. Unhappily for me, however, all the information +I could get concerning him increased my great dread of being carried +thither--of being{34} separated from and deprived of the protection of +my grandmother and grandfather. It was, evidently, a great thing to go +to Col. Lloyd's; and I was not without a little curiosity to see the +place; but no amount of coaxing could induce in me the wish to remain +there. The fact is, such was my dread of leaving the little cabin, that +I wished to remain little forever, for I knew the taller I grew the +shorter my stay. The old cabin, with its rail floor and rail bedsteads +upstairs, and its clay floor downstairs, and its dirt chimney, and +windowless sides, and that most curious piece of workmanship dug in +front of the fireplace, beneath which grandmammy placed the sweet +potatoes to keep them from the frost, was MY HOME--the only home I ever +had; and I loved it, and all connected with it. The old fences around +it, and the stumps in the edge of the woods near it, and the squirrels +that ran, skipped, and played upon them, were objects of interest and +affection. There, too, right at the side of the hut, stood the old well, +with its stately and skyward-pointing beam, so aptly placed between the +limbs of what had once been a tree, and so nicely balanced that I could +move it up and down with only one hand, and could get a drink myself +without calling for help. Where else in the world could such a well be +found, and where could such another home be met with? Nor were these +all the attractions of the place. Down in a little valley, not far from +grandmammy's cabin, stood Mr. Lee's mill, where the people came often in +large numbers to get their corn ground. It was a watermill; and I never +shall be able to tell the many things thought and felt, while I sat on +the bank and watched that mill, and the turning of that ponderous wheel. +The mill-pond, too, had its charms; and with my pinhook, and thread +line, I could get _nibbles_, if I could catch no fish. But, in all my +sports and plays, and in spite of them, there would, occasionally, come +the painful foreboding that I was not long to remain there, and that I +must soon be called away to the home of old master. + +I was A SLAVE--born a slave and though the fact was in{35 DEPARTURE FROM +TUCKAHOE} comprehensible to me, it conveyed to my mind a sense of my +entire dependence on the will of _somebody_ I had never seen; and, from +some cause or other, I had been made to fear this somebody above all +else on earth. Born for another's benefit, as the _firstling_ of the +cabin flock I was soon to be selected as a meet offering to the fearful +and inexorable _demigod_, whose huge image on so many occasions haunted +my childhood's imagination. When the time of my departure was decided +upon, my grandmother, knowing my fears, and in pity for them, kindly +kept me ignorant of the dreaded event about to transpire. Up to the +morning (a beautiful summer morning) when we were to start, and, indeed, +during the whole journey--a journey which, child as I was, I remember as +well as if it were yesterday--she kept the sad fact hidden from me. This +reserve was necessary; for, could I have known all, I should have +given grandmother some trouble in getting me started. As it was, I was +helpless, and she--dear woman!--led me along by the hand, resisting, +with the reserve and solemnity of a priestess, all my inquiring looks to +the last. + +The distance from Tuckahoe to Wye river--where my old master lived--was +full twelve miles, and the walk was quite a severe test of the endurance +of my young legs. The journey would have proved too severe for me, +but that my dear old grandmother--blessings on her memory!--afforded +occasional relief by "toting" me (as Marylanders have it) on her +shoulder. My grandmother, though advanced in years--as was evident +from more than one gray hair, which peeped from between the ample and +graceful folds of her newly-ironed bandana turban--was yet a woman of +power and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, elastic, and +muscular. I seemed hardly to be a burden to her. She would have "toted" +me farther, but that I felt myself too much of a man to allow it, and +insisted on walking. Releasing dear grandmamma from carrying me, did not +make me altogether independent of her, when we happened to pass through +portions of the somber woods which lay between Tuckahoe and{36} Wye +river. She often found me increasing the energy of my grip, and holding +her clothing, lest something should come out of the woods and eat me up. +Several old logs and stumps imposed upon me, and got themselves taken +for wild beasts. I could see their legs, eyes, and ears, or I could see +something like eyes, legs, and ears, till I got close enough to them to +see that the eyes were knots, washed white with rain, and the legs were +broken limbs, and the ears, only ears owing to the point from which they +were seen. Thus early I learned that the point from which a thing is +viewed is of some importance. + +As the day advanced the heat increased; and it was not until the +afternoon that we reached the much dreaded end of the journey. I found +myself in the midst of a group of children of many colors; black, +brown, copper colored, and nearly white. I had not seen so many children +before. Great houses loomed up in different directions, and a great many +men and women were at work in the fields. All this hurry, noise, and +singing was very different from the stillness of Tuckahoe. As a new +comer, I was an object of special interest; and, after laughing and +yelling around me, and playing all sorts of wild tricks, they (the +children) asked me to go out and play with them. This I refused to do, +preferring to stay with grandmamma. I could not help feeling that our +being there boded no good to me. Grandmamma looked sad. She was soon to +lose another object of affection, as she had lost many before. I knew +she was unhappy, and the shadow fell from her brow on me, though I knew +not the cause. + +All suspense, however, must have an end; and the end of mine, in this +instance, was at hand. Affectionately patting me on the head, and +exhorting me to be a good boy, grandmamma told me to go and play with +the little children. "They are kin to you," said she; "go and play with +them." Among a number of cousins were Phil, Tom, Steve, and Jerry, Nance +and Betty. + +Grandmother pointed out my brother PERRY, my sister SARAH, and my sister +ELIZA, who stood in the group. I had never seen{37 BROTHERS AND SISTERS} +my brother nor my sisters before; and, though I had sometimes heard of +them, and felt a curious interest in them, I really did not understand +what they were to me, or I to them. We were brothers and sisters, but +what of that? Why should they be attached to me, or I to them? Brothers +and sisters we were by blood; but _slavery_ had made us strangers. I +heard the words brother and sisters, and knew they must mean something; +but slavery had robbed these terms of their true meaning. The experience +through which I was passing, they had passed through before. They had +already been initiated into the mysteries of old master's domicile, and +they seemed to look upon me with a certain degree of compassion; but my +heart clave to my grandmother. Think it not strange, dear reader, that +so little sympathy of feeling existed between us. The conditions of +brotherly and sisterly feeling were wanting--we had never nestled and +played together. My poor mother, like many other slave-women, had many +_children_, but NO FAMILY! The domestic hearth, with its holy lessons +and precious endearments, is abolished in the case of a slave-mother +and her children. "Little children, love one another," are words seldom +heard in a slave cabin. + +I really wanted to play with my brother and sisters, but they were +strangers to me, and I was full of fear that grandmother might leave +without taking me with her. Entreated to do so, however, and that, too, +by my dear grandmother, I went to the back part of the house, to play +with them and the other children. _Play_, however, I did not, but stood +with my back against the wall, witnessing the playing of the others. +At last, while standing there, one of the children, who had been in the +kitchen, ran up to me, in a sort of roguish glee, exclaiming, "Fed, Fed! +grandmammy gone! grandmammy gone!" I could not believe it; yet, fearing +the worst, I ran into the kitchen, to see for myself, and found it even +so. Grandmammy had indeed gone, and was now far away, "clean" out of +sight. I need not tell all that happened now. Almost heart-broken at the +discovery, I fell upon the ground, and{38} wept a boy's bitter tears, +refusing to be comforted. My brother and sisters came around me, and +said, "Don't cry," and gave me peaches and pears, but I flung them away, +and refused all their kindly advances. I had never been deceived before; +and I felt not only grieved at parting--as I supposed forever--with my +grandmother, but indignant that a trick had been played upon me in a +matter so serious. + +It was now late in the afternoon. The day had been an exciting and +wearisome one, and I knew not how or where, but I suppose I sobbed +myself to sleep. There is a healing in the angel wing of sleep, even for +the slave-boy; and its balm was never more welcome to any wounded soul +than it was to mine, the first night I spent at the domicile of old +master. The reader may be surprised that I narrate so minutely an +incident apparently so trivial, and which must have occurred when I was +not more than seven years old; but as I wish to give a faithful history +of my experience in slavery, I cannot withhold a circumstance which, at +the time, affected me so deeply. Besides, this was, in fact, my first +introduction to the realities of slavery. + + + + +CHAPTER III. _Parentage_ + +MY FATHER SHROUDED IN MYSTERY--MY MOTHER--HER PERSONAL +APPEARANCE--INTERFERENCE OF SLAVERY WITH THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS OF +MOTHER AND CHILDREN--SITUATION OF MY MOTHER--HER NIGHTLY VISITS TO HER +BOY--STRIKING INCIDENT--HER DEATH--HER PLACE OF BURIAL. + + +If the reader will now be kind enough to allow me time to grow bigger, +and afford me an opportunity for my experience to become greater, I will +tell him something, by-and-by, of slave life, as I saw, felt, and heard +it, on Col. Edward Lloyd's plantation, and at the house of old master, +where I had now, despite of myself, most suddenly, but not unexpectedly, +been dropped. Meanwhile, I will redeem my promise to say something more +of my dear mother. + +I say nothing of _father_, for he is shrouded in a mystery I have never +been able to penetrate. Slavery does away with fathers, as it does away +with families. Slavery has no use for either fathers or families, and +its laws do not recognize their existence in the social arrangements +of the plantation. When they _do_ exist, they are not the outgrowths of +slavery, but are antagonistic to that system. The order of civilization +is reversed here. The name of the child is not expected to be that of +its father, and his condition does not necessarily affect that of the +child. He may be the slave of Mr. Tilgman; and his child, when born, may +be the slave of Mr. Gross. He may be a _freeman;_ and yet his child +may be a _chattel_. He may be white, glorying in the purity of his +Anglo-Saxon{40} blood; and his child may be ranked with the blackest +slaves. Indeed, he _may_ be, and often _is_, master and father to the +same child. He can be father without being a husband, and may sell his +child without incurring reproach, if the child be by a woman in whose +veins courses one thirty-second part of African blood. My father was a +white man, or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master +was my father. + +But to return, or rather, to begin. My knowledge of my mother is very +scanty, but very distinct. Her personal appearance and bearing +are ineffaceably stamped upon my memory. She was tall, and finely +proportioned; of deep black, glossy complexion; had regular features, +and, among the other slaves, was remarkably sedate in her manners. There +is in _Prichard's Natural History of Man_, the head of a figure--on page +157--the features of which so resemble those of my mother, that I +often recur to it with something of the feeling which I suppose others +experience when looking upon the pictures of dear departed ones. + +Yet I cannot say that I was very deeply attached to my mother; certainly +not so deeply as I should have been had our relations in childhood been +different. We were separated, according to the common custom, when I +was but an infant, and, of course, before I knew my mother from any one +else. + +The germs of affection with which the Almighty, in his wisdom and mercy, +arms the hopeless infant against the ills and vicissitudes of his lot, +had been directed in their growth toward that loving old grandmother, +whose gentle hand and kind deportment it was in the first effort of my +infantile understanding to comprehend and appreciate. Accordingly, +the tenderest affection which a beneficent Father allows, as a partial +compensation to the mother for the pains and lacerations of her heart, +incident to the maternal relation, was, in my case, diverted from its +true and natural object, by the envious, greedy, and treacherous hand of +slavery. The slave-mother can be spared long enough from{41 MY MOTHER} +the field to endure all the bitterness of a mother's anguish, when it +adds another name to a master's ledger, but _not_ long enough to receive +the joyous reward afforded by the intelligent smiles of her child. I +never think of this terrible interference of slavery with my infantile +affections, and its diverting them from their natural course, without +feelings to which I can give no adequate expression. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother at my grandmother's at +any time. I remember her only in her visits to me at Col. Lloyd's +plantation, and in the kitchen of my old master. Her visits to me there +were few in number, brief in duration, and mostly made in the night. +The pains she took, and the toil she endured, to see me, tells me that +a true mother's heart was hers, and that slavery had difficulty in +paralyzing it with unmotherly indifference. + +My mother was hired out to a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles +from old master's, and, being a field hand, she seldom had leisure, by +day, for the performance of the journey. The nights and the distance +were both obstacles to her visits. She was obliged to walk, unless +chance flung into her way an opportunity to ride; and the latter was +sometimes her good luck. But she always had to walk one way or the +other. It was a greater luxury than slavery could afford, to allow a +black slave-mother a horse or a mule, upon which to travel twenty-four +miles, when she could walk the distance. Besides, it is deemed a foolish +whim for a slave-mother to manifest concern to see her children, and, +in one point of view, the case is made out--she can do nothing for them. +She has no control over them; the master is even more than the mother, +in all matters touching the fate of her child. Why, then, should +she give herself any concern? She has no responsibility. Such is the +reasoning, and such the practice. The iron rule of the plantation, +always passionately and violently enforced in that neighborhood, makes +flogging the penalty of{42} failing to be in the field before sunrise in +the morning, unless special permission be given to the absenting slave. +"I went to see my child," is no excuse to the ear or heart of the +overseer. + +One of the visits of my mother to me, while at Col. Lloyd's, I remember +very vividly, as affording a bright gleam of a mother's love, and the +earnestness of a mother's care. + +"I had on that day offended "Aunt Katy," (called "Aunt" by way of +respect,) the cook of old master's establishment. I do not now remember +the nature of my offense in this instance, for my offenses were numerous +in that quarter, greatly depending, however, upon the mood of Aunt Katy, +as to their heinousness; but she had adopted, that day, her favorite +mode of punishing me, namely, making me go without food all day--that +is, from after breakfast. The first hour or two after dinner, I +succeeded pretty well in keeping up my spirits; but though I made +an excellent stand against the foe, and fought bravely during the +afternoon, I knew I must be conquered at last, unless I got the +accustomed reenforcement of a slice of corn bread, at sundown. Sundown +came, but _no bread_, and, in its stead, their came the threat, with a +scowl well suited to its terrible import, that she "meant to _starve +the life out of me!"_ Brandishing her knife, she chopped off the heavy +slices for the other children, and put the loaf away, muttering, all the +while, her savage designs upon myself. Against this disappointment, for +I was expecting that her heart would relent at last, I made an extra +effort to maintain my dignity; but when I saw all the other children +around me with merry and satisfied faces, I could stand it no longer. I +went out behind the house, and cried like a fine fellow! When tired of +this, I returned to the kitchen, sat by the fire, and brooded over my +hard lot. I was too hungry to sleep. While I sat in the corner, I caught +sight of an ear of Indian corn on an upper shelf of the kitchen. I +watched my chance, and got it, and, shelling off a few grains, I put +it back again. The grains in my hand, I quickly put in some ashes, +and covered them with embers, to roast them. All this I{43} did +at the risk of getting a brutual thumping, for Aunt Katy could beat, as +well as starve me. My corn was not long in roasting, and, with my keen +appetite, it did not matter even if the grains were not exactly done. I +eagerly pulled them out, and placed them on my stool, in a clever little +pile. Just as I began to help myself to my very dry meal, in came my +dear mother. And now, dear reader, a scene occurred which was altogether +worth beholding, and to me it was instructive as well as interesting. +The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need--and when he did +not dare to look for succor--found himself in the strong, protecting +arms of a mother; a mother who was, at the moment (being endowed with +high powers of manner as well as matter) more than a match for all +his enemies. I shall never forget the indescribable expression of her +countenance, when I told her that I had had no food since morning; and +that Aunt Katy said she "meant to starve the life out of me." There was +pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation at Aunt Katy at the +same time; and, while she took the corn from me, and gave me a large +ginger cake, in its stead, she read Aunt Katy a lecture which she never +forgot. My mother threatened her with complaining to old master in my +behalf; for the latter, though harsh and cruel himself, at times, did +not sanction the meanness, injustice, partiality and oppressions enacted +by Aunt Katy in the kitchen. That night I learned the fact, that I was, +not only a child, but _somebody's_ child. The "sweet cake" my mother +gave me was in the shape of a heart, with a rich, dark ring glazed upon +the edge of it. I was victorious, and well off for the moment; prouder, +on my mother's knee, than a king upon his throne. But my triumph was +short. I dropped off to sleep, and waked in the morning only to find my +mother gone, and myself left at the mercy of the sable virago, dominant +in my old master's kitchen, whose fiery wrath was my constant dread. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother after this occurrence. Death +soon ended the little communication that had{44} existed between us; +and with it, I believe, a life judging from her weary, sad, down-cast +countenance and mute demeanor--full of heartfelt sorrow. I was not +allowed to visit her during any part of her long illness; nor did I see +her for a long time before she was taken ill and died. The heartless and +ghastly form of _slavery_ rises between mother and child, even at the +bed of death. The mother, at the verge of the grave, may not gather her +children, to impart to them her holy admonitions, and invoke for them +her dying benediction. The bond-woman lives as a slave, and is left to +die as a beast; often with fewer attentions than are paid to a favorite +horse. Scenes of sacred tenderness, around the death-bed, never +forgotten, and which often arrest the vicious and confirm the virtuous +during life, must be looked for among the free, though they sometimes +occur among the slaves. It has been a life-long, standing grief to me, +that I knew so little of my mother; and that I was so early separated +from her. The counsels of her love must have been beneficial to me. The +side view of her face is imaged on my memory, and I take few steps in +life, without feeling her presence; but the image is mute, and I have no +striking words of her's treasured up. + +I learned, after my mother's death, that she could read, and that she +was the _only_ one of all the slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who +enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired this knowledge, I know not, for +Tuckahoe is the last place in the world where she would be apt to find +facilities for learning. I can, therefore, fondly and proudly ascribe +to her an earnest love of knowledge. That a "field hand" should learn +to read, in any slave state, is remarkable; but the achievement of my +mother, considering the place, was very extraordinary; and, in view of +that fact, I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any love of +letters I possess, and for which I have got--despite of prejudices only +too much credit, _not_ to my admitted Anglo-Saxon paternity, but to the +native genius of my sable, unprotected, and uncultivated _mother_--a +woman, who belonged to a race{45 PENALTY FOR HAVING A WHITE FATHER} +whose mental endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in +disparagement and contempt. + +Summoned away to her account, with the impassable gulf of slavery +between us during her entire illness, my mother died without leaving me +a single intimation of _who_ my father was. There was a whisper, that my +master was my father; yet it was only a whisper, and I cannot say that +I ever gave it credence. Indeed, I now have reason to think he was not; +nevertheless, the fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that, +by the laws of slavery, children, in all cases, are reduced to the +condition of their mothers. This arrangement admits of the greatest +license to brutal slaveholders, and their profligate sons, brothers, +relations and friends, and gives to the pleasure of sin, the additional +attraction of profit. A whole volume might be written on this single +feature of slavery, as I have observed it. + +One might imagine, that the children of such connections, would fare +better, in the hands of their masters, than other slaves. The rule +is quite the other way; and a very little reflection will satisfy the +reader that such is the case. A man who will enslave his own blood, +may not be safely relied on for magnanimity. Men do not love those who +remind them of their sins unless they have a mind to repent--and the +mulatto child's face is a standing accusation against him who is master +and father to the child. What is still worse, perhaps, such a child is +a constant offense to the wife. She hates its very presence, and when a +slaveholding woman hates, she wants not means to give that hate telling +effect. Women--white women, I mean--are IDOLS at the south, not WIVES, +for the slave women are preferred in many instances; and if these +_idols_ but nod, or lift a finger, woe to the poor victim: kicks, cuffs +and stripes are sure to follow. Masters are frequently compelled to sell +this class of their slaves, out of deference to the feelings of their +white wives; and shocking and scandalous as it may seem for a man to +sell his own blood to the traffickers in human flesh, it is often an +act of humanity{46} toward the slave-child to be thus removed from his +merciless tormentors. + +It is not within the scope of the design of my simple story, to comment +upon every phase of slavery not within my experience as a slave. + +But, I may remark, that, if the lineal descendants of Ham are only to be +enslaved, according to the scriptures, slavery in this country will soon +become an unscriptural institution; for thousands are ushered into the +world, annually, who--like myself--owe their existence to white +fathers, and, most frequently, to their masters, and master's sons. +The slave-woman is at the mercy of the fathers, sons or brothers of her +master. The thoughtful know the rest. + +After what I have now said of the circumstances of my mother, and my +relations to her, the reader will not be surprised, nor be disposed to +censure me, when I tell but the simple truth, viz: that I received the +tidings of her death with no strong emotions of sorrow for her, and with +very little regret for myself on account of her loss. I had to learn the +value of my mother long after her death, and by witnessing the devotion +of other mothers to their children. + +There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so +destructive as slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters strangers +to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded my +father in mystery, and left me without an intelligible beginning in the +world. + +My mother died when I could not have been more than eight or nine years +old, on one of old master's farms in Tuckahoe, in the neighborhood of +Hillsborough. Her grave is, as the grave of the dead at sea, unmarked, +and without stone or stake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. _A General Survey of the Slave Plantation_ + +ISOLATION OF LLOYD S PLANTATION--PUBLIC OPINION THERE NO PROTECTION TO +THE SLAVE--ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE OVERSEER--NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CHARMS +OF THE PLACE--ITS BUSINESS-LIKE APPEARANCE--SUPERSTITION ABOUT THE +BURIAL GROUND--GREAT IDEAS OF COL. LLOYD--ETIQUETTE AMONG SLAVES--THE +COMIC SLAVE DOCTOR--PRAYING AND FLOGGING--OLD MASTER LOSING ITS +TERRORS--HIS BUSINESS--CHARACTER OF AUNT KATY--SUFFERINGS FROM +HUNGER--OLD MASTER'S HOME--JARGON OF THE PLANTATION--GUINEA +SLAVES--MASTER DANIEL--FAMILY OF COL. LLOYD--FAMILY OF CAPT. +ANTHONY--HIS SOCIAL POSITION--NOTIONS OF RANK AND STATION. + + +It is generally supposed that slavery, in the state of Maryland, exists +in its mildest form, and that it is totally divested of those harsh and +terrible peculiarities, which mark and characterize the slave system, +in the southern and south-western states of the American union. The +argument in favor of this opinion, is the contiguity of the free states, +and the exposed condition of slavery in Maryland to the moral, religious +and humane sentiment of the free states. + +I am not about to refute this argument, so far as it relates to slavery +in that state, generally; on the contrary, I am willing to admit that, +to this general point, the arguments is well grounded. Public opinion +is, indeed, an unfailing restraint upon the cruelty and barbarity of +masters, overseers, and slave-drivers, whenever and wherever it can +reach them; but there are certain secluded and out-of-the-way places, +even in the state of Maryland, seldom visited by a single ray of +healthy public sentiment--where{48} slavery, wrapt in its own congenial, +midnight darkness, _can_, and _does_, develop all its malign and +shocking characteristics; where it can be indecent without shame, +cruel without shuddering, and murderous without apprehension or fear of +exposure. + +Just such a secluded, dark, and out-of-the-way place, is the "home +plantation" of Col. Edward Lloyd, on the Eastern Shore, Maryland. It is +far away from all the great thoroughfares, and is proximate to no +town or village. There is neither school-house, nor town-house in its +neighborhood. The school-house is unnecessary, for there are no children +to go to school. The children and grand-children of Col. Lloyd were +taught in the house, by a private tutor--a Mr. Page a tall, gaunt +sapling of a man, who did not speak a dozen words to a slave in a whole +year. The overseers' children go off somewhere to school; and they, +therefore, bring no foreign or dangerous influence from abroad, to +embarrass the natural operation of the slave system of the place. Not +even the mechanics--through whom there is an occasional out-burst +of honest and telling indignation, at cruelty and wrong on other +plantations--are white men, on this plantation. Its whole public is +made up of, and divided into, three classes--SLAVEHOLDERS, SLAVES and +OVERSEERS. Its blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shoemakers, weavers, and +coopers, are slaves. Not even commerce, selfish and iron-hearted at +it is, and ready, as it ever is, to side with the strong against the +weak--the rich against the poor--is trusted or permitted within its +secluded precincts. Whether with a view of guarding against the escape +of its secrets, I know not, but it is a fact, the every leaf and grain +of the produce of this plantation, and those of the neighboring farms +belonging to Col. Lloyd, are transported to Baltimore in Col. +Lloyd's own vessels; every man and boy on board of which--except +the captain--are owned by him. In return, everything brought to the +plantation, comes through the same channel. Thus, even the glimmering +and unsteady light of trade, which sometimes exerts a civilizing +influence, is excluded from this "tabooed" spot.{49} + +Nearly all the plantations or farms in the vicinity of the "home +plantation" of Col. Lloyd, belong to him; and those which do not, are +owned by personal friends of his, as deeply interested in maintaining +the slave system, in all its rigor, as Col. Lloyd himself. Some of his +neighbors are said to be even more stringent than he. The Skinners, the +Peakers, the Tilgmans, the Lockermans, and the Gipsons, are in the same +boat; being slaveholding neighbors, they may have strengthened each +other in their iron rule. They are on intimate terms, and their +interests and tastes are identical. + +Public opinion in such a quarter, the reader will see, is not likely to +very efficient in protecting the slave from cruelty. On the contrary, +it must increase and intensify his wrongs. Public opinion seldom differs +very widely from public practice. To be a restraint upon cruelty and +vice, public opinion must emanate from a humane and virtuous community. +To no such humane and virtuous community, is Col. Lloyd's plantation +exposed. That plantation is a little nation of its own, having its +own language, its own rules, regulations and customs. The laws and +institutions of the state, apparently touch it nowhere. The troubles +arising here, are not settled by the civil power of the state. The +overseer is generally accuser, judge, jury, advocate and executioner. +The criminal is always dumb. The overseer attends to all sides of a +case. + +There are no conflicting rights of property, for all the people are +owned by one man; and they can themselves own no property. Religion and +politics are alike excluded. One class of the population is too high to +be reached by the preacher; and the other class is too low to be cared +for by the preacher. The poor have the gospel preached to them, in this +neighborhood, only when they are able to pay for it. The slaves, having +no money, get no gospel. The politician keeps away, because the people +have no votes, and the preacher keeps away, because the people have no +money. The rich planter can afford to learn politics in the parlor, and +to dispense with religion altogether.{50} + +In its isolation, seclusion, and self-reliant independence, Col. Lloyd's +plantation resembles what the baronial domains were during the middle +ages in Europe. Grim, cold, and unapproachable by all genial influences +from communities without, _there it stands;_ full three hundred years +behind the age, in all that relates to humanity and morals. + +This, however, is not the only view that the place presents. +Civilization is shut out, but nature cannot be. Though separated from +the rest of the world; though public opinion, as I have said, seldom +gets a chance to penetrate its dark domain; though the whole place +is stamped with its own peculiar, ironlike individuality; and though +crimes, high-handed and atrocious, may there be committed, with almost +as much impunity as upon the deck of a pirate ship--it is, nevertheless, +altogether, to outward seeming, a most strikingly interesting place, +full of life, activity, and spirit; and presents a very favorable +contrast to the indolent monotony and languor of Tuckahoe. Keen as was +my regret and great as was my sorrow at leaving the latter, I was not +long in adapting myself to this, my new home. A man's troubles are +always half disposed of, when he finds endurance his only remedy. I +found myself here; there was no getting away; and what remained for me, +but to make the best of it? Here were plenty of children to play with, +and plenty of places of pleasant resort for boys of my age, and boys +older. The little tendrils of affection, so rudely and treacherously +broken from around the darling objects of my grandmother's hut, +gradually began to extend, and to entwine about the new objects by which +I now found myself surrounded. + +There was a windmill (always a commanding object to a child's eye) on +Long Point--a tract of land dividing Miles river from the Wye a mile or +more from my old master's house. There was a creek to swim in, at the +bottom of an open flat space, of twenty acres or more, called "the Long +Green"--a very beautiful play-ground for the children.{51} + +In the river, a short distance from the shore, lying quietly at anchor, +with her small boat dancing at her stern, was a large sloop--the Sally +Lloyd; called by that name in honor of a favorite daughter of the +colonel. The sloop and the mill were wondrous things, full of thoughts +and ideas. A child cannot well look at such objects without _thinking_. + +Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of the +mysteries of life at every stage of it. There was the little red house, +up the road, occupied by Mr. Sevier, the overseer. A little nearer to +my old master's, stood a very long, rough, low building, literally alive +with slaves, of all ages, conditions and sizes. This was called "the +Longe Quarter." Perched upon a hill, across the Long Green, was a very +tall, dilapidated, old brick building--the architectural dimensions of +which proclaimed its erection for a different purpose--now occupied by +slaves, in a similar manner to the Long Quarter. Besides these, there +were numerous other slave houses and huts, scattered around in the +neighborhood, every nook and corner of which was completely occupied. +Old master's house, a long, brick building, plain, but substantial, +stood in the center of the plantation life, and constituted one +independent establishment on the premises of Col. Lloyd. + +Besides these dwellings, there were barns, stables, store-houses, +and tobacco-houses; blacksmiths' shops, wheelwrights' shops, coopers' +shops--all objects of interest; but, above all, there stood the grandest +building my eyes had then ever beheld, called, by every one on the +plantation, the "Great House." This was occupied by Col. Lloyd and his +family. They occupied it; _I_ enjoyed it. The great house was surrounded +by numerous and variously shaped out-buildings. There were kitchens, +wash-houses, dairies, summer-house, green-houses, hen-houses, +turkey-houses, pigeon-houses, and arbors, of many sizes and devices, +all neatly painted, and altogether interspersed with grand old trees, +ornamental and primitive, which afforded delightful shade in{52} +summer, and imparted to the scene a high degree of stately beauty. The +great house itself was a large, white, wooden building, with wings +on three sides of it. In front, a large portico, extending the entire +length of the building, and supported by a long range of columns, gave +to the whole establishment an air of solemn grandeur. It was a treat to +my young and gradually opening mind, to behold this elaborate exhibition +of wealth, power, and vanity. The carriage entrance to the house was +a large gate, more than a quarter of a mile distant from it; the +intermediate space was a beautiful lawn, very neatly trimmed, and +watched with the greatest care. It was dotted thickly over with +delightful trees, shrubbery, and flowers. The road, or lane, from the +gate to the great house, was richly paved with white pebbles from the +beach, and, in its course, formed a complete circle around the beautiful +lawn. Carriages going in and retiring from the great house, made the +circuit of the lawn, and their passengers were permitted to behold a +scene of almost Eden-like beauty. Outside this select inclosure, were +parks, where as about the residences of the English nobility--rabbits, +deer, and other wild game, might be seen, peering and playing about, +with none to molest them or make them afraid. The tops of the stately +poplars were often covered with the red-winged black-birds, making all +nature vocal with the joyous life and beauty of their wild, warbling +notes. These all belonged to me, as well as to Col. Edward Lloyd, and +for a time I greatly enjoyed them. + +A short distance from the great house, were the stately mansions of +the dead, a place of somber aspect. Vast tombs, embowered beneath the +weeping willow and the fir tree, told of the antiquities of the Lloyd +family, as well as of their wealth. Superstition was rife among the +slaves about this family burying ground. Strange sights had been seen +there by some of the older slaves. Shrouded ghosts, riding on great +black horses, had been seen to enter; balls of fire had been seen to fly +there at midnight, and horrid sounds had been repeatedly heard. Slaves +know{53} enough of the rudiments of theology to believe that those go +to hell who die slaveholders; and they often fancy such persons wishing +themselves back again, to wield the lash. Tales of sights and sounds, +strange and terrible, connected with the huge black tombs, were a very +great security to the grounds about them, for few of the slaves felt +like approaching them even in the day time. It was a dark, gloomy and +forbidding place, and it was difficult to feel that the spirits of the +sleeping dust there deposited, reigned with the blest in the realms of +eternal peace. + +The business of twenty or thirty farms was transacted at this, called, +by way of eminence, "great house farm." These farms all belonged to +Col. Lloyd, as did, also, the slaves upon them. Each farm was under the +management of an overseer. As I have said of the overseer of the home +plantation, so I may say of the overseers on the smaller ones; they +stand between the slave and all civil constitutions--their word is law, +and is implicitly obeyed. + +The colonel, at this time, was reputed to be, and he apparently was, +very rich. His slaves, alone, were an immense fortune. These, small and +great, could not have been fewer than one thousand in number, and though +scarcely a month passed without the sale of one or more lots to the +Georgia traders, there was no apparent diminution in the number of his +human stock: the home plantation merely groaned at a removal of the +young increase, or human crop, then proceeded as lively as ever. +Horse-shoeing, cart-mending, plow-repairing, coopering, grinding, and +weaving, for all the neighboring farms, were performed here, and slaves +were employed in all these branches. "Uncle Tony" was the blacksmith; +"Uncle Harry" was the cartwright; "Uncle Abel" was the shoemaker; and +all these had hands to assist them in their several departments. + +These mechanics were called "uncles" by all the younger slaves, not +because they really sustained that relationship to any, but according to +plantation _etiquette_, as a mark of respect, due{54} from the younger +to the older slaves. Strange, and even ridiculous as it may seem, among +a people so uncultivated, and with so many stern trials to look in +the face, there is not to be found, among any people, a more rigid +enforcement of the law of respect to elders, than they maintain. I +set this down as partly constitutional with my race, and partly +conventional. There is no better material in the world for making a +gentleman, than is furnished in the African. He shows to others, and +exacts for himself, all the tokens of respect which he is compelled to +manifest toward his master. A young slave must approach the company +of the older with hat in hand, and woe betide him, if he fails to +acknowledge a favor, of any sort, with the accustomed _"tank'ee,"_ &c. +So uniformly are good manners enforced among slaves, I can easily detect +a "bogus" fugitive by his manners. + +Among other slave notabilities of the plantation, was one called by +everybody Uncle Isaac Copper. It is seldom that a slave gets a surname +from anybody in Maryland; and so completely has the south shaped the +manners of the north, in this respect, that even abolitionists make very +little of the surname of a Negro. The only improvement on the "Bills," +"Jacks," "Jims," and "Neds" of the south, observable here is, that +"William," "John," "James," "Edward," are substituted. It goes against +the grain to treat and address a Negro precisely as they would treat +and address a white man. But, once in a while, in slavery as in the +free states, by some extraordinary circumstance, the Negro has a surname +fastened to him, and holds it against all conventionalities. This was +the case with Uncle Isaac Copper. When the "uncle" was dropped, he +generally had the prefix "doctor," in its stead. He was our doctor of +medicine, and doctor of divinity as well. Where he took his degree I am +unable to say, for he was not very communicative to inferiors, and I was +emphatically such, being but a boy seven or eight years old. He was too +well established in his profession to permit questions as to his native +skill, or his attainments. One qualification he undoubtedly had--he{55 +PRAYING AND FLOGGING} was a confirmed _cripple;_ and he could neither +work, nor would he bring anything if offered for sale in the market. +The old man, though lame, was no sluggard. He was a man that made his +crutches do him good service. He was always on the alert, looking up the +sick, and all such as were supposed to need his counsel. His remedial +prescriptions embraced four articles. For diseases of the body, _Epsom +salts and castor oil;_ for those of the soul, _the Lord's Prayer_, and +_hickory switches_! + +I was not long at Col. Lloyd's before I was placed under the care of +Doctor Issac Copper. I was sent to him with twenty or thirty other +children, to learn the "Lord's Prayer." I found the old gentleman seated +on a huge three-legged oaken stool, armed with several large hickory +switches; and, from his position, he could reach--lame as he was--any +boy in the room. After standing awhile to learn what was expected of us, +the old gentleman, in any other than a devotional tone, commanded us +to kneel down. This done, he commenced telling us to say everything +he said. "Our Father"--this was repeated after him with promptness +and uniformity; "Who art in heaven"--was less promptly and uniformly +repeated; and the old gentleman paused in the prayer, to give us a short +lecture upon the consequences of inattention, both immediate and future, +and especially those more immediate. About these he was absolutely +certain, for he held in his right hand the means of bringing all his +predictions and warnings to pass. On he proceeded with the prayer; and +we with our thick tongues and unskilled ears, followed him to the best +of our ability. This, however, was not sufficient to please the old +gentleman. Everybody, in the south, wants the privilege of whipping +somebody else. Uncle Isaac shared the common passion of his country, +and, therefore, seldom found any means of keeping his disciples in +order short of flogging. "Say everything I say;" and bang would come +the switch on some poor boy's undevotional head. _"What you looking at +there"--"Stop that pushing"_--and down again would come the lash.{56} + +The whip is all in all. It is supposed to secure obedience to the +slaveholder, and is held as a sovereign remedy among the slaves +themselves, for every form of disobedience, temporal or spiritual. +Slaves, as well as slaveholders, use it with an unsparing hand. Our +devotions at Uncle Isaac's combined too much of the tragic and comic, to +make them very salutary in a spiritual point of view; and it is due +to truth to say, I was often a truant when the time for attending the +praying and flogging of Doctor Isaac Copper came on. + +The windmill under the care of Mr. Kinney, a kind hearted old +Englishman, was to me a source of infinite interest and pleasure. The +old man always seemed pleased when he saw a troop of darkey little +urchins, with their tow-linen shirts fluttering in the breeze, +approaching to view and admire the whirling wings of his wondrous +machine. From the mill we could see other objects of deep interest. +These were, the vessels from St. Michael's, on their way to Baltimore. +It was a source of much amusement to view the flowing sails and +complicated rigging, as the little crafts dashed by, and to speculate +upon Baltimore, as to the kind and quality of the place. With so many +sources of interest around me, the reader may be prepared to learn that +I began to think very highly of Col. L.'s plantation. It was just a +place to my boyish taste. There were fish to be caught in the creek, if +one only had a hook and line; and crabs, clams and oysters were to be +caught by wading, digging and raking for them. Here was a field for +industry and enterprise, strongly inviting; and the reader may be +assured that I entered upon it with spirit. + +Even the much dreaded old master, whose merciless fiat had brought me +from Tuckahoe, gradually, to my mind, parted with his terrors. Strange +enough, his reverence seemed to take no particular notice of me, nor of +my coming. Instead of leaping out and devouring me, he scarcely seemed +conscious of my presence. The fact is, he was occupied with matters +more weighty and important than either looking after or vexing me. He +probably thought as{57 "OLD MASTER" LOSING ITS TERRORS} little of my +advent, as he would have thought of the addition of a single pig to his +stock! + +As the chief butler on Col. Lloyd's plantation, his duties were numerous +and perplexing. In almost all important matters he answered in Col. +Lloyd's stead. The overseers of all the farms were in some sort under +him, and received the law from his mouth. The colonel himself seldom +addressed an overseer, or allowed an overseer to address him. Old master +carried the keys of all store houses; measured out the allowance for +each slave at the end of every month; superintended the storing of all +goods brought to the plantation; dealt out the raw material to all the +handicraftsmen; shipped the grain, tobacco, and all saleable produce of +the plantation to market, and had the general oversight of the coopers' +shop, wheelwrights' shop, blacksmiths' shop, and shoemakers' shop. +Besides the care of these, he often had business for the plantation +which required him to be absent two and three days. + +Thus largely employed, he had little time, and perhaps as little +disposition, to interfere with the children individually. What he was to +Col. Lloyd, he made Aunt Katy to him. When he had anything to say or do +about us, it was said or done in a wholesale manner; disposing of us in +classes or sizes, leaving all minor details to Aunt Katy, a person of +whom the reader has already received no very favorable impression. Aunt +Katy was a woman who never allowed herself to act greatly within the +margin of power granted to her, no matter how broad that authority might +be. Ambitious, ill-tempered and cruel, she found in her present position +an ample field for the exercise of her ill-omened qualities. She had a +strong hold on old master she was considered a first rate cook, and she +really was very industrious. She was, therefore, greatly favored by old +master, and as one mark of his favor, she was the only mother who was +permitted to retain her children around her. Even to these children she +was often fiendish in her brutality. She pursued her son Phil, one day, +in{58} my presence, with a huge butcher knife, and dealt a blow with its +edge which left a shocking gash on his arm, near the wrist. For this, +old master did sharply rebuke her, and threatened that if she ever +should do the like again, he would take the skin off her back. Cruel, +however, as Aunt Katy was to her own children, at times she was not +destitute of maternal feeling, as I often had occasion to know, in the +bitter pinches of hunger I had to endure. Differing from the practice +of Col. Lloyd, old master, instead of allowing so much for each slave, +committed the allowance for all to the care of Aunt Katy, to be divided +after cooking it, amongst us. The allowance, consisting of coarse +corn-meal, was not very abundant--indeed, it was very slender; and in +passing through Aunt Katy's hands, it was made more slender still, for +some of us. William, Phil and Jerry were her children, and it is not to +accuse her too severely, to allege that she was often guilty of starving +myself and the other children, while she was literally cramming her own. +Want of food was my chief trouble the first summer at my old master's. +Oysters and clams would do very well, with an occasional supply of +bread, but they soon failed in the absence of bread. I speak but the +simple truth, when I say, I have often been so pinched with hunger, that +I have fought with the dog--"Old Nep"--for the smallest crumbs that fell +from the kitchen table, and have been glad when I won a single crumb +in the combat. Many times have I followed, with eager step, the +waiting-girl when she went out to shake the table cloth, to get the +crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats. The water, in which meat +had been boiled, was as eagerly sought for by me. It was a great thing +to get the privilege of dipping a piece of bread in such water; and +the skin taken from rusty bacon, was a positive luxury. Nevertheless, +I sometimes got full meals and kind words from sympathizing old slaves, +who knew my sufferings, and received the comforting assurance that I +should be a man some day. "Never mind, honey--better day comin'," was +even then a solace, a cheering consolation to me in my{59} troubles. Nor +were all the kind words I received from slaves. I had a friend in the +parlor, as well, and one to whom I shall be glad to do justice, before I +have finished this part of my story. + +I was not long at old master's, before I learned that his surname was +Anthony, and that he was generally called "Captain Anthony"--a title +which he probably acquired by sailing a craft in the Chesapeake Bay. +Col. Lloyd's slaves never called Capt. Anthony "old master," but always +Capt. Anthony; and _me_ they called "Captain Anthony Fred." There +is not, probably, in the whole south, a plantation where the English +language is more imperfectly spoken than on Col. Lloyd's. It is a +mixture of Guinea and everything else you please. At the time of which +I am now writing, there were slaves there who had been brought from the +coast of Africa. They never used the "s" in indication of the possessive +case. "Cap'n Ant'ney Tom," "Lloyd Bill," "Aunt Rose Harry," means +"Captain Anthony's Tom," "Lloyd's Bill," &c. _"Oo you dem long to?"_ +means, "Whom do you belong to?" _"Oo dem got any peachy?"_ means, "Have +you got any peaches?" I could scarcely understand them when I first went +among them, so broken was their speech; and I am persuaded that I could +not have been dropped anywhere on the globe, where I could reap less, +in the way of knowledge, from my immediate associates, than on this +plantation. Even "MAS' DANIEL," by his association with his father's +slaves, had measurably adopted their dialect and their ideas, so far +as they had ideas to be adopted. The equality of nature is strongly +asserted in childhood, and childhood requires children for associates. +_Color_ makes no difference with a child. Are you a child with wants, +tastes and pursuits common to children, not put on, but natural? then, +were you black as ebony you would be welcome to the child of alabaster +whiteness. The law of compensation holds here, as well as elsewhere. +Mas' Daniel could not associate with ignorance without sharing its +shade; and he could not give his black playmates his company, without +giving them his intelligence, as well. Without knowing{60} this, or +caring about it, at the time, I, for some cause or other, spent much of +my time with Mas' Daniel, in preference to spending it with most of the +other boys. + +Mas' Daniel was the youngest son of Col. Lloyd; his older brothers +were Edward and Murray--both grown up, and fine looking men. Edward was +especially esteemed by the children, and by me among the rest; not that +he ever said anything to us or for us, which could be called especially +kind; it was enough for us, that he never looked nor acted scornfully +toward us. There were also three sisters, all married; one to Edward +Winder; a second to Edward Nicholson; a third to Mr. Lownes. + +The family of old master consisted of two sons, Andrew and Richard; his +daughter, Lucretia, and her newly married husband, Capt. Auld. This +was the house family. The kitchen family consisted of Aunt Katy, Aunt +Esther, and ten or a dozen children, most of them older than myself. +Capt. Anthony was not considered a rich slaveholder, but was pretty well +off in the world. He owned about thirty _"head"_ of slaves, and three +farms in Tuckahoe. The most valuable part of his property was his +slaves, of whom he could afford to sell one every year. This crop, +therefore, brought him seven or eight hundred dollars a year, besides +his yearly salary, and other revenue from his farms. + +The idea of rank and station was rigidly maintained on Col. Lloyd's +plantation. Our family never visited the great house, and the Lloyds +never came to our home. Equal non-intercourse was observed between Capt. +Anthony's family and that of Mr. Sevier, the overseer. + +Such, kind reader, was the community, and such the place, in which my +earliest and most lasting impressions of slavery, and of slave-life, +were received; of which impressions you will learn more in the coming +chapters of this book. + + + + +CHAPTER V. _Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery_ + +GROWING ACQUAINTANCE WITH OLD MASTER--HIS CHARACTER--EVILS OF +UNRESTRAINED PASSION--APPARENT TENDERNESS--OLD MASTER A MAN OF +TROUBLE--CUSTOM OF MUTTERING TO HIMSELF--NECESSITY OF BEING AWARE OF +HIS WORDS--THE SUPPOSED OBTUSENESS OF SLAVE-CHILDREN--BRUTAL +OUTRAGE--DRUNKEN OVERSEER--SLAVEHOLDER'S IMPATIENCE--WISDOM OF APPEALING +TO SUPERIORS--THE SLAVEHOLDER S WRATH BAD AS THAT OF THE OVERSEER--A +BASE AND SELFISH ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP A COURTSHIP--A HARROWING SCENE. + + +Although my old master--Capt. Anthony--gave me at first, (as the reader +will have already seen) very little attention, and although that little +was of a remarkably mild and gentle description, a few months only were +sufficient to convince me that mildness and gentleness were not the +prevailing or governing traits of his character. These excellent +qualities were displayed only occasionally. He could, when it suited +him, appear to be literally insensible to the claims of humanity, when +appealed to by the helpless against an aggressor, and he could himself +commit outrages, deep, dark and nameless. Yet he was not by nature worse +than other men. Had he been brought up in a free state, surrounded by +the just restraints of free society--restraints which are necessary to +the freedom of all its members, alike and equally--Capt. Anthony might +have been as humane a man, and every way as respectable, as many who +now oppose the slave system; certainly as humane and respectable as are +members of society generally. The slaveholder, as well as the slave, is +the victim of the slave{62} system. A man's character greatly takes its +hue and shape from the form and color of things about him. Under the +whole heavens there is no relation more unfavorable to the development +of honorable character, than that sustained by the slaveholder to the +slave. Reason is imprisoned here, and passions run wild. Like the fires +of the prairie, once lighted, they are at the mercy of every wind, and +must burn, till they have consumed all that is combustible within their +remorseless grasp. Capt. Anthony could be kind, and, at times, he even +showed an affectionate disposition. Could the reader have seen him +gently leading me by the hand--as he sometimes did--patting me on the +head, speaking to me in soft, caressing tones and calling me his "little +Indian boy," he would have deemed him a kind old man, and really, +almost fatherly. But the pleasant moods of a slaveholder are remarkably +brittle; they are easily snapped; they neither come often, nor remain +long. His temper is subjected to perpetual trials; but, since these +trials are never borne patiently, they add nothing to his natural stock +of patience. + +Old master very early impressed me with the idea that he was an unhappy +man. Even to my child's eye, he wore a troubled, and at times, a haggard +aspect. His strange movements excited my curiosity, and awakened my +compassion. He seldom walked alone without muttering to himself; and he +occasionally stormed about, as if defying an army of invisible foes. "He +would do this, that, and the other; he'd be d--d if he did not,"--was +the usual form of his threats. Most of his leisure was spent in +walking, cursing and gesticulating, like one possessed by a demon. Most +evidently, he was a wretched man, at war with his own soul, and with +all the world around him. To be overheard by the children, disturbed him +very little. He made no more of our presence, than of that of the ducks +and geese which he met on the green. He little thought that the little +black urchins around him, could see, through those vocal crevices, the +very secrets of his heart. Slaveholders ever underrate the intelligence +with which{63 SUPPOSED OBTUSENESS OF SLAVE-CHILDREN} they have to +grapple. I really understood the old man's mutterings, attitudes and +gestures, about as well as he did himself. But slaveholders never +encourage that kind of communication, with the slaves, by which they +might learn to measure the depths of his knowledge. Ignorance is a high +virtue in a human chattel; and as the master studies to keep the slave +ignorant, the slave is cunning enough to make the master think he +succeeds. The slave fully appreciates the saying, "where ignorance is +bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." When old master's gestures were violent, +ending with a threatening shake of the head, and a sharp snap of his +middle finger and thumb, I deemed it wise to keep at a respectable +distance from him; for, at such times, trifling faults stood, in +his eyes, as momentous offenses; and, having both the power and the +disposition, the victim had only to be near him to catch the punishment, +deserved or undeserved. + +One of the first circumstances that opened my eyes to the cruelty and +wickedness of slavery, and the heartlessness of my old master, was the +refusal of the latter to interpose his authority, to protect and shield +a young woman, who had been most cruelly abused and beaten by his +overseer in Tuckahoe. This overseer--a Mr. Plummer--was a man like most +of his class, little better than a human brute; and, in addition to +his general profligacy and repulsive coarseness, the creature was a +miserable drunkard. He was, probably, employed by my old master, less +on account of the excellence of his services, than for the cheap rate at +which they could be obtained. He was not fit to have the management of +a drove of mules. In a fit of drunken madness, he committed the outrage +which brought the young woman in question down to my old master's for +protection. This young woman was the daughter of Milly, an own aunt +of mine. The poor girl, on arriving at our house, presented a pitiable +appearance. She had left in haste, and without preparation; and, +probably, without the knowledge of Mr. Plummer. She had traveled +twelve miles, bare-footed, bare-necked and bare-headed. Her neck and +shoulders{64} were covered with scars, newly made; and not content with +marring her neck and shoulders, with the cowhide, the cowardly brute had +dealt her a blow on the head with a hickory club, which cut a horrible +gash, and left her face literally covered with blood. In this condition, +the poor young woman came down, to implore protection at the hands of my +old master. I expected to see him boil over with rage at the revolting +deed, and to hear him fill the air with curses upon the brutual Plummer; +but I was disappointed. He sternly told her, in an angry tone, he +"believed she deserved every bit of it," and, if she did not go home +instantly, he would himself take the remaining skin from her neck and +back. Thus was the poor girl compelled to return, without redress, and +perhaps to receive an additional flogging for daring to appeal to old +master against the overseer. + +Old master seemed furious at the thought of being troubled by such +complaints. I did not, at that time, understand the philosophy of his +treatment of my cousin. It was stern, unnatural, violent. Had the man no +bowels of compassion? Was he dead to all sense of humanity? No. I think +I now understand it. This treatment is a part of the system, rather than +a part of the man. Were slaveholders to listen to complaints of this +sort against the overseers, the luxury of owning large numbers of +slaves, would be impossible. It would do away with the office of +overseer, entirely; or, in other words, it would convert the master +himself into an overseer. It would occasion great loss of time and +labor, leaving the overseer in fetters, and without the necessary power +to secure obedience to his orders. A privilege so dangerous as that of +appeal, is, therefore, strictly prohibited; and any one exercising it, +runs a fearful hazard. Nevertheless, when a slave has nerve enough +to exercise it, and boldly approaches his master, with a well-founded +complaint against an overseer, though he may be repulsed, and may even +have that of which he complains repeated at the time, and, though he may +be beaten by his master, as well as by the overseer, for his temerity, +in the end the{65} policy of complaining is, generally, vindicated by +the relaxed rigor of the overseer's treatment. The latter becomes more +careful, and less disposed to use the lash upon such slaves thereafter. +It is with this final result in view, rather than with any expectation +of immediate good, that the outraged slave is induced to meet his master +with a complaint. The overseer very naturally dislikes to have the +ear of the master disturbed by complaints; and, either upon this +consideration, or upon advice and warning privately given him by +his employers, he generally modifies the rigor of his rule, after an +outbreak of the kind to which I have been referring. + +Howsoever the slaveholder may allow himself to act toward his slave, +and, whatever cruelty he may deem it wise, for example's sake, or for +the gratification of his humor, to inflict, he cannot, in the absence +of all provocation, look with pleasure upon the bleeding wounds of a +defenseless slave-woman. When he drives her from his presence without +redress, or the hope of redress, he acts, generally, from motives of +policy, rather than from a hardened nature, or from innate brutality. +Yet, let but his own temper be stirred, his own passions get loose, and +the slave-owner will go _far beyond_ the overseer in cruelty. He will +convince the slave that his wrath is far more terrible and boundless, +and vastly more to be dreaded, than that of the underling overseer. What +may have been mechanically and heartlessly done by the overseer, is now +done with a will. The man who now wields the lash is irresponsible. +He may, if he pleases, cripple or kill, without fear of consequences; +except in so far as it may concern profit or loss. To a man of +violent temper--as my old master was--this was but a very slender and +inefficient restraint. I have seen him in a tempest of passion, such +as I have just described--a passion into which entered all the bitter +ingredients of pride, hatred, envy, jealousy, and the thrist(sic) for +revenge. + +The circumstances which I am about to narrate, and which gave rise to +this fearful tempest of passion, are not singular nor{66} isolated in +slave life, but are common in every slaveholding community in which I +have lived. They are incidental to the relation of master and slave, and +exist in all sections of slave-holding countries. + +The reader will have noticed that, in enumerating the names of the +slaves who lived with my old master, _Esther_ is mentioned. This was a +young woman who possessed that which is ever a curse to the slave-girl; +namely--personal beauty. She was tall, well formed, and made a fine +appearance. The daughters of Col. Lloyd could scarcely surpass her in +personal charms. Esther was courted by Ned Roberts, and he was as fine +looking a young man, as she was a woman. He was the son of a favorite +slave of Col. Lloyd. Some slaveholders would have been glad to promote +the marriage of two such persons; but, for some reason or other, my old +master took it upon him to break up the growing intimacy between Esther +and Edward. He strictly ordered her to quit the company of said Roberts, +telling her that he would punish her severely if he ever found her again +in Edward's company. This unnatural and heartless order was, of course, +broken. A woman's love is not to be annihilated by the peremptory +command of any one, whose breath is in his nostrils. It was impossible +to keep Edward and Esther apart. Meet they would, and meet they did. Had +old master been a man of honor and purity, his motives, in this matter, +might have been viewed more favorably. As it was, his motives were as +abhorrent, as his methods were foolish and contemptible. It was too +evident that he was not concerned for the girl's welfare. It is one +of the damning characteristics of the slave system, that it robs its +victims of every earthly incentive to a holy life. The fear of God, and +the hope of heaven, are found sufficient to sustain many slave-women, +amidst the snares and dangers of their strange lot; but, this side of +God and heaven, a slave-woman is at the mercy of the power, caprice +and passion of her owner. Slavery provides no means for the honorable +continuance of the race. Marriage as imposing obligations on the parties +to it--has no{67 A HARROWING SCENE} existence here, except in such +hearts as are purer and higher than the standard morality around them. +It is one of the consolations of my life, that I know of many honorable +instances of persons who maintained their honor, where all around was +corrupt. + +Esther was evidently much attached to Edward, and abhorred--as she had +reason to do--the tyrannical and base behavior of old master. Edward +was young, and fine looking, and he loved and courted her. He might have +been her husband, in the high sense just alluded to; but WHO and _what_ +was this old master? His attentions were plainly brutal and selfish, and +it was as natural that Esther should loathe him, as that she should +love Edward. Abhorred and circumvented as he was, old master, having the +power, very easily took revenge. I happened to see this exhibition of +his rage and cruelty toward Esther. The time selected was singular. It +was early in the morning, when all besides was still, and before any of +the family, in the house or kitchen, had left their beds. I saw but few +of the shocking preliminaries, for the cruel work had begun before I +awoke. I was probably awakened by the shrieks and piteous cries of poor +Esther. My sleeping place was on the floor of a little, rough closet, +which opened into the kitchen; and through the cracks of its unplaned +boards, I could distinctly see and hear what was going on, without being +seen by old master. Esther's wrists were firmly tied, and the twisted +rope was fastened to a strong staple in a heavy wooden joist above, near +the fireplace. Here she stood, on a bench, her arms tightly drawn over +her breast. Her back and shoulders were bare to the waist. Behind her +stood old master, with cowskin in hand, preparing his barbarous work +with all manner of harsh, coarse, and tantalizing epithets. The screams +of his victim were most piercing. He was cruelly deliberate, and +protracted the torture, as one who was delighted with the scene. Again +and again he drew the hateful whip through his hand, adjusting it with +a view of dealing the most pain-giving blow. Poor Esther had never yet +been severely whipped, and her shoulders{68} were plump and tender. +Each blow, vigorously laid on, brought screams as well as blood. _"Have +mercy; Oh! have mercy"_ she cried; "_I won't do so no more;"_ but her +piercing cries seemed only to increase his fury. His answers to them are +too coarse and blasphemous to be produced here. The whole scene, with +all its attendants, was revolting and shocking, to the last degree; and +when the motives of this brutal castigation are considered,--language +has no power to convey a just sense of its awful criminality. After +laying on some thirty or forty stripes, old master untied his suffering +victim, and let her get down. She could scarcely stand, when untied. +From my heart I pitied her, and--child though I was--the outrage kindled +in me a feeling far from peaceful; but I was hushed, terrified, stunned, +and could do nothing, and the fate of Esther might be mine next. The +scene here described was often repeated in the case of poor Esther, and +her life, as I knew it, was one of wretchedness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. _Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd's Plantation_ + +EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY--PRESENTIMENT OF ONE DAY BEING A +FREEMAN--COMBAT BETWEEN AN OVERSEER AND A SLAVEWOMAN--THE ADVANTAGES +OF RESISTANCE--ALLOWANCE DAY ON THE HOME PLANTATION--THE SINGING +OF SLAVES--AN EXPLANATION--THE SLAVES FOOD AND CLOTHING--NAKED +CHILDREN--LIFE IN THE QUARTER--DEPRIVATION OF SLEEP--NURSING CHILDREN +CARRIED TO THE FIELD--DESCRIPTION OF THE COWSKIN--THE ASH-CAKE--MANNER +OF MAKING IT--THE DINNER HOUR--THE CONTRAST. + + +The heart-rending incidents, related in the foregoing chapter, led me, +thus early, to inquire into the nature and history of slavery. _Why am I +a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters? Was there ever +a time this was not so? How did the relation commence?_ These were +the perplexing questions which began now to claim my thoughts, and to +exercise the weak powers of my mind, for I was still but a child, +and knew less than children of the same age in the free states. As my +questions concerning these things were only put to children a little +older, and little better informed than myself, I was not rapid in +reaching a solid footing. By some means I learned from these inquiries +that _"God, up in the sky,"_ made every body; and that he made _white_ +people to be masters and mistresses, and _black_ people to be slaves. +This did not satisfy me, nor lessen my interest in the subject. I was +told, too, that God was good, and that He knew what was best for me, and +best for everybody. This was less satisfactory than the first statement; +because it came, point blank, against all my{70} notions of goodness. +It was not good to let old master cut the flesh off Esther, and make her +cry so. Besides, how did people know that God made black people to be +slaves? Did they go up in the sky and learn it? or, did He come down and +tell them so? All was dark here. It was some relief to my hard +notions of the goodness of God, that, although he made white men to be +slaveholders, he did not make them to be _bad_ slaveholders, and that, +in due time, he would punish the bad slaveholders; that he would, when +they died, send them to the bad place, where they would be "burnt up." +Nevertheless, I could not reconcile the relation of slavery with my +crude notions of goodness. + +Then, too, I found that there were puzzling exceptions to this theory +of slavery on both sides, and in the middle. I knew of blacks who were +_not_ slaves; I knew of whites who were _not_ slaveholders; and I knew +of persons who were _nearly_ white, who were slaves. _Color_, therefore, +was a very unsatisfactory basis for slavery. + +Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in finding +out the true solution of the matter. It was not _color_, but _crime_, +not _God_, but _man_, that afforded the true explanation of the +existence of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important +truth, viz: what man can make, man can unmake. The appalling darkness +faded away, and I was master of the subject. There were slaves here, +direct from Guinea; and there were many who could say that their fathers +and mothers were stolen from Africa--forced from their homes, and +compelled to serve as slaves. This, to me, was knowledge; but it was +a kind of knowledge which filled me with a burning hatred of slavery, +increased my suffering, and left me without the means of breaking away +from my bondage. Yet it was knowledge quite worth possessing. I could +not have been more than seven or eight years old, when I began to make +this subject my study. It was with me in the woods and fields; along the +shore of the river, and wherever my boyish wanderings led me; and though +I was, at that time,{71 EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY} quite ignorant +of the existence of the free states, I distinctly remember being, _even +then_, most strongly impressed with the idea of being a freeman some +day. This cheering assurance was an inborn dream of my human nature a +constant menace to slavery--and one which all the powers of slavery were +unable to silence or extinguish. + +Up to the time of the brutal flogging of my Aunt Esther--for she was +my own aunt--and the horrid plight in which I had seen my cousin from +Tuckahoe, who had been so badly beaten by the cruel Mr. Plummer, my +attention had not been called, especially, to the gross features of +slavery. I had, of course, heard of whippings and of savage _rencontres_ +between overseers and slaves, but I had always been out of the way at +the times and places of their occurrence. My plays and sports, most of +the time, took me from the corn and tobacco fields, where the great body +of the hands were at work, and where scenes of cruelty were enacted and +witnessed. But, after the whipping of Aunt Esther, I saw many cases of +the same shocking nature, not only in my master's house, but on Col. +Lloyd's plantation. One of the first which I saw, and which greatly +agitated me, was the whipping of a woman belonging to Col. Lloyd, named +Nelly. The offense alleged against Nelly, was one of the commonest and +most indefinite in the whole catalogue of offenses usually laid to the +charge of slaves, viz: "impudence." This may mean almost anything, or +nothing at all, just according to the caprice of the master or overseer, +at the moment. But, whatever it is, or is not, if it gets the name +of "impudence," the party charged with it is sure of a flogging. This +offense may be committed in various ways; in the tone of an answer; in +answering at all; in not answering; in the expression of countenance; in +the motion of the head; in the gait, manner and bearing of the slave. +In the case under consideration, I can easily believe that, according to +all slaveholding standards, here was a genuine instance of impudence. +In Nelly there were all the necessary conditions for committing the +offense. She was{72} a bright mulatto, the recognized wife of a favorite +"hand" on board Col. Lloyd's sloop, and the mother of five sprightly +children. She was a vigorous and spirited woman, and one of the most +likely, on the plantation, to be guilty of impudence. My attention was +called to the scene, by the noise, curses and screams that proceeded +from it; and, on going a little in that direction, I came upon the +parties engaged in the skirmish. Mr. Siever, the overseer, had hold +of Nelly, when I caught sight of them; he was endeavoring to drag her +toward a tree, which endeavor Nelly was sternly resisting; but to +no purpose, except to retard the progress of the overseer's plans. +Nelly--as I have said--was the mother of five children; three of them +were present, and though quite small (from seven to ten years old, I +should think) they gallantly came to their mother's defense, and gave +the overseer an excellent pelting with stones. One of the little fellows +ran up, seized the overseer by the leg and bit him; but the monster was +too busily engaged with Nelly, to pay any attention to the assaults of +the children. There were numerous bloody marks on Mr. Sevier's face, +when I first saw him, and they increased as the struggle went on. The +imprints of Nelly's fingers were visible, and I was glad to see them. +Amidst the wild screams of the children--"_Let my mammy go"--"let my +mammy go_"--there escaped, from between the teeth of the bullet-headed +overseer, a few bitter curses, mingled with threats, that "he would +teach the d--d b--h how to give a white man impudence." There is no +doubt that Nelly felt herself superior, in some respects, to the slaves +around her. She was a wife and a mother; her husband was a valued and +favorite slave. Besides, he was one of the first hands on board of the +sloop, and the sloop hands--since they had to represent the plantation +abroad--were generally treated tenderly. The overseer never was allowed +to whip Harry; why then should he be allowed to whip Harry's wife? +Thoughts of this kind, no doubt, influenced her; but, for whatever +reason, she nobly resisted, and, unlike most of the slaves,{73 COMBAT +BETWEEN MR. SEVIER AND NELLY} seemed determined to make her whipping +cost Mr. Sevier as much as possible. The blood on his (and her) face, +attested her skill, as well as her courage and dexterity in using her +nails. Maddened by her resistance, I expected to see Mr. Sevier +level her to the ground by a stunning blow; but no; like a savage +bull-dog--which he resembled both in temper and appearance--he +maintained his grip, and steadily dragged his victim toward the tree, +disregarding alike her blows, and the cries of the children for their +mother's release. He would, doubtless, have knocked her down with his +hickory stick, but that such act might have cost him his place. It is +often deemed advisable to knock a _man_ slave down, in order to tie him, +but it is considered cowardly and inexcusable, in an overseer, thus to +deal with a _woman_. He is expected to tie her up, and to give her what +is called, in southern parlance, a "genteel flogging," without any very +great outlay of strength or skill. I watched, with palpitating interest, +the course of the preliminary struggle, and was saddened by every new +advantage gained over her by the ruffian. There were times when she +seemed likely to get the better of the brute, but he finally overpowered +her, and succeeded in getting his rope around her arms, and in firmly +tying her to the tree, at which he had been aiming. This done, and Nelly +was at the mercy of his merciless lash; and now, what followed, I have +no heart to describe. The cowardly creature made good his every threat; +and wielded the lash with all the hot zest of furious revenge. The cries +of the woman, while undergoing the terrible infliction, were mingled +with those of the children, sounds which I hope the reader may never be +called upon to hear. When Nelly was untied, her back was covered +with blood. The red stripes were all over her shoulders. She was +whipped--severely whipped; but she was not subdued, for she continued to +denounce the overseer, and to call him every vile name. He had bruised +her flesh, but had left her invincible spirit undaunted. Such floggings +are seldom repeated by the same overseer. They prefer to whip those{74} +who are most easily whipped. The old doctrine that submission is the +very best cure for outrage and wrong, does not hold good on the slave +plantation. He is whipped oftenest, who is whipped easiest; and that +slave who has the courage to stand up for himself against the overseer, +although he may have many hard stripes at the first, becomes, in the +end, a freeman, even though he sustain the formal relation of a slave. +"You can shoot me but you can't whip me," said a slave to Rigby Hopkins; +and the result was that he was neither whipped nor shot. If the latter +had been his fate, it would have been less deplorable than the living +and lingering death to which cowardly and slavish souls are subjected. +I do not know that Mr. Sevier ever undertook to whip Nelly again. He +probably never did, for it was not long after his attempt to subdue her, +that he was taken sick, and died. The wretched man died as he had lived, +unrepentant; and it was said--with how much truth I know not--that in +the very last hours of his life, his ruling passion showed itself, +and that when wrestling with death, he was uttering horrid oaths, and +flourishing the cowskin, as though he was tearing the flesh off some +helpless slave. One thing is certain, that when he was in health, it was +enough to chill the blood, and to stiffen the hair of an ordinary man, +to hear Mr. Sevier talk. Nature, or his cruel habits, had given to +his face an expression of unusual savageness, even for a slave-driver. +Tobacco and rage had worn his teeth short, and nearly every sentence +that escaped their compressed grating, was commenced or concluded with +some outburst of profanity. His presence made the field alike the field +of blood, and of blasphemy. Hated for his cruelty, despised for his +cowardice, his death was deplored by no one outside his own house--if +indeed it was deplored there; it was regarded by the slaves as a +merciful interposition of Providence. Never went there a man to the +grave loaded with heavier curses. Mr. Sevier's place was promptly taken +by a Mr. Hopkins, and the change was quite a relief, he being a very +different man. He was, in{75} all respects, a better man than his +predecessor; as good as any man can be, and yet be an overseer. His +course was characterized by no extraordinary cruelty; and when he +whipped a slave, as he sometimes did, he seemed to take no especial +pleasure in it, but, on the contrary, acted as though he felt it to be +a mean business. Mr. Hopkins stayed but a short time; his place much +to the regret of the slaves generally--was taken by a Mr. Gore, of whom +more will be said hereafter. It is enough, for the present, to say, that +he was no improvement on Mr. Sevier, except that he was less noisy and +less profane. + +I have already referred to the business-like aspect of Col. Lloyd's +plantation. This business-like appearance was much increased on the two +days at the end of each month, when the slaves from the different farms +came to get their monthly allowance of meal and meat. These were gala +days for the slaves, and there was much rivalry among them as to _who_ +should be elected to go up to the great house farm for the allowance, +and, indeed, to attend to any business at this (for them) the capital. +The beauty and grandeur of the place, its numerous slave population, +and the fact that Harry, Peter and Jake the sailors of the sloop--almost +always kept, privately, little trinkets which they bought at Baltimore, +to sell, made it a privilege to come to the great house farm. Being +selected, too, for this office, was deemed a high honor. It was taken as +a proof of confidence and favor; but, probably, the chief motive of the +competitors for the place, was, a desire to break the dull monotony of +the field, and to get beyond the overseer's eye and lash. Once on the +road with an ox team, and seated on the tongue of his cart, with no +overseer to look after him, the slave was comparatively free; and, if +thoughtful, he had time to think. Slaves are generally expected to sing +as well as to work. A silent slave is not liked by masters or overseers. +_"Make a noise," "make a noise,"_ and _"bear a hand,"_ are the words +usually addressed to the slaves when there is silence amongst them. This +may account for the almost constant singing{76} heard in the southern +states. There was, generally, more or less singing among the teamsters, +as it was one means of letting the overseer know where they were, and +that they were moving on with the work. But, on allowance day, those who +visited the great house farm were peculiarly excited and noisy. While +on their way, they would make the dense old woods, for miles around, +reverberate with their wild notes. These were not always merry because +they were wild. On the contrary, they were mostly of a plaintive cast, +and told a tale of grief and sorrow. In the most boisterous outbursts of +rapturous sentiment, there was ever a tinge of deep melancholy. I have +never heard any songs like those anywhere since I left slavery, except +when in Ireland. There I heard the same _wailing notes_, and was much +affected by them. It was during the famine of 1845-6. In all the songs +of the slaves, there was ever some expression in praise of the great +house farm; something which would flatter the pride of the owner, and, +possibly, draw a favorable glance from him. + + _I am going away to the great house farm, + O yea! O yea! O yea! + My old master is a good old master, + O yea! O yea! O yea!_ + + +This they would sing, with other words of their own improvising--jargon +to others, but full of meaning to themselves. I have sometimes thought, +that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress truly +spiritual-minded men and women with the soul-crushing and death-dealing +character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of its mere +physical cruelties. They speak to the heart and to the soul of the +thoughtful. I cannot better express my sense of them now, than ten years +ago, when, in sketching my life, I thus spoke of this feature of my +plantation experience: + + +I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meanings of those rude, and +apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle, so that I +neither saw or heard as those without might see and hear. They told a +tale which was{77} then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they +were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and complaint +of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a +testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from +chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirits, and +filled my heart with ineffable sadness. The mere recurrence, even now, +afflicts my spirit, and while I am writing these lines, my tears are +falling. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conceptions of +the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that +conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, +and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to +be impressed with a sense of the soul-killing power of slavery, let him +go to Col. Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance day, place himself +in the deep, pine woods, and there let him, in silence, thoughtfully +analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul, and +if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because "there is no flesh +in his obdurate heart." + + +The remark is not unfrequently made, that slaves are the most contended +and happy laborers in the world. They dance and sing, and make all +manner of joyful noises--so they do; but it is a great mistake to +suppose them happy because they sing. The songs of the slave represent +the sorrows, rather than the joys, of his heart; and he is relieved +by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. Such is the +constitution of the human mind, that, when pressed to extremes, it often +avails itself of the most opposite methods. Extremes meet in mind as +in matter. When the slaves on board of the "Pearl" were overtaken, +arrested, and carried to prison--their hopes for freedom blasted--as +they marched in chains they sang, and found (as Emily Edmunson tells +us) a melancholy relief in singing. The singing of a man cast away on a +desolate island, might be as appropriately considered an evidence of +his contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave. Sorrow and +desolation have their songs, as well as joy and peace. Slaves sing more +to _make_ themselves happy, than to express their happiness. + +It is the boast of slaveholders, that their slaves enjoy more of the +physical comforts of life than the peasantry of any country in the +world. My experience contradicts this. The men and the women slaves on +Col. Lloyd's farm, received, as their monthly{78} allowance of food, +eight pounds of pickled pork, or their equivalent in fish. The pork was +often tainted, and the fish was of the poorest quality--herrings, which +would bring very little if offered for sale in any northern market. With +their pork or fish, they had one bushel of Indian meal--unbolted--of +which quite fifteen per cent was fit only to feed pigs. With this, one +pint of salt was given; and this was the entire monthly allowance of +a full grown slave, working constantly in the open field, from morning +until night, every day in the month except Sunday, and living on a +fraction more than a quarter of a pound of meat per day, and less than +a peck of corn-meal per week. There is no kind of work that a man can do +which requires a better supply of food to prevent physical exhaustion, +than the field-work of a slave. So much for the slave's allowance of +food; now for his raiment. The yearly allowance of clothing for the +slaves on this plantation, consisted of two tow-linen shirts--such linen +as the coarsest crash towels are made of; one pair of trowsers of +the same material, for summer, and a pair of trowsers and a jacket +of woolen, most slazily put together, for winter; one pair of yarn +stockings, and one pair of shoes of the coarsest description. The +slave's entire apparel could not have cost more than eight dollars per +year. The allowance of food and clothing for the little children, was +committed to their mothers, or to the older slavewomen having the care +of them. Children who were unable to work in the field, had neither +shoes, stockings, jackets nor trowsers given them. Their clothing +consisted of two coarse tow-linen shirts--already described--per year; +and when these failed them, as they often did, they went naked until +the next allowance day. Flocks of little children from five to ten years +old, might be seen on Col. Lloyd's plantation, as destitute of clothing +as any little heathen on the west coast of Africa; and this, not merely +during the summer months, but during the frosty weather of March. The +little girls were no better off than the boys; all were nearly in a +state of nudity.{79} + +As to beds to sleep on, they were known to none of the field hands; +nothing but a coarse blanket--not so good as those used in the north to +cover horses--was given them, and this only to the men and women. The +children stuck themselves in holes and corners, about the quarters; +often in the corner of the huge chimneys, with their feet in the ashes +to keep them warm. The want of beds, however, was not considered a very +great privation. Time to sleep was of far greater importance, for, when +the day's work is done, most of the slaves have their washing, mending +and cooking to do; and, having few or none of the ordinary facilities +for doing such things, very many of their sleeping hours are consumed in +necessary preparations for the duties of the coming day. + +The sleeping apartments--if they may be called such--have little regard +to comfort or decency. Old and young, male and female, married and +single, drop down upon the common clay floor, each covering up with his +or her blanket,--the only protection they have from cold or exposure. +The night, however, is shortened at both ends. The slaves work often as +long as they can see, and are late in cooking and mending for the coming +day; and, at the first gray streak of morning, they are summoned to the +field by the driver's horn. + +More slaves are whipped for oversleeping than for any other fault. +Neither age nor sex finds any favor. The overseer stands at the quarter +door, armed with stick and cowskin, ready to whip any who may be a few +minutes behind time. When the horn is blown, there is a rush for the +door, and the hindermost one is sure to get a blow from the overseer. +Young mothers who worked in the field, were allowed an hour, about ten +o'clock in the morning, to go home to nurse their children. Sometimes +they were compelled to take their children with them, and to leave them +in the corner of the fences, to prevent loss of time in nursing them. +The overseer generally rides about the field on horseback. A cowskin and +a hickory stick are his constant companions. The{80} cowskin is a +kind of whip seldom seen in the northern states. It is made entirely +of untanned, but dried, ox hide, and is about as hard as a piece of +well-seasoned live oak. It is made of various sizes, but the usual +length is about three feet. The part held in the hand is nearly an +inch in thickness; and, from the extreme end of the butt or handle, the +cowskin tapers its whole length to a point. This makes it quite elastic +and springy. A blow with it, on the hardest back, will gash the flesh, +and make the blood start. Cowskins are painted red, blue and green, +and are the favorite slave whip. I think this whip worse than the +"cat-o'nine-tails." It condenses the whole strength of the arm to a +single point, and comes with a spring that makes the air whistle. It +is a terrible instrument, and is so handy, that the overseer can always +have it on his person, and ready for use. The temptation to use it is +ever strong; and an overseer can, if disposed, always have cause for +using it. With him, it is literally a word and a blow, and, in most +cases, the blow comes first. + +As a general rule, slaves do not come to the quarters for either +breakfast or dinner, but take their "ash cake" with them, and eat it +in the field. This was so on the home plantation; probably, because +the distance from the quarter to the field, was sometimes two, and even +three miles. + +The dinner of the slaves consisted of a huge piece of ash cake, and a +small piece of pork, or two salt herrings. Not having ovens, nor any +suitable cooking utensils, the slaves mixed their meal with a little +water, to such thickness that a spoon would stand erect in it; and, +after the wood had burned away to coals and ashes, they would place the +dough between oak leaves and lay it carefully in the ashes, completely +covering it; hence, the bread is called ash cake. The surface of this +peculiar bread is covered with ashes, to the depth of a sixteenth part +of an inch, and the ashes, certainly, do not make it very grateful to +the teeth, nor render it very palatable. The bran, or coarse part of +the meal, is baked with the fine, and bright scales run through the +bread.{81} This bread, with its ashes and bran, would disgust and choke +a northern man, but it is quite liked by the slaves. They eat it with +avidity, and are more concerned about the quantity than about the +quality. They are far too scantily provided for, and are worked too +steadily, to be much concerned for the quality of their food. The few +minutes allowed them at dinner time, after partaking of their coarse +repast, are variously spent. Some lie down on the "turning row," and go +to sleep; others draw together, and talk; and others are at work with +needle and thread, mending their tattered garments. Sometimes you may +hear a wild, hoarse laugh arise from a circle, and often a song. Soon, +however, the overseer comes dashing through the field. _"Tumble up! +Tumble up_, and to _work, work,"_ is the cry; and, now, from twelve +o'clock (mid-day) till dark, the human cattle are in motion, wielding +their clumsy hoes; hurried on by no hope of reward, no sense of +gratitude, no love of children, no prospect of bettering their +condition; nothing, save the dread and terror of the slave-driver's +lash. So goes one day, and so comes and goes another. + +But, let us now leave the rough usage of the field, where vulgar +coarseness and brutal cruelty spread themselves and flourish, rank as +weeds in the tropics; where a vile wretch, in the shape of a man, +rides, walks, or struts about, dealing blows, and leaving gashes on +broken-spirited men and helpless women, for thirty dollars per month--a +business so horrible, hardening and disgraceful, that, rather, than +engage in it, a decent man would blow his own brains out--and let the +reader view with me the equally wicked, but less repulsive aspects of +slave life; where pride and pomp roll luxuriously at ease; where the +toil of a thousand men supports a single family in easy idleness and +sin. This is the great house; it is the home of the LLOYDS! Some idea of +its splendor has already been given--and, it is here that we shall find +that height of luxury which is the opposite of that depth of poverty +and physical wretchedness that we have just now been contemplating. But, +there is this difference in the two extremes;{82} viz: that in the +case of the slave, the miseries and hardships of his lot are imposed +by others, and, in the master's case, they are imposed by himself. The +slave is a subject, subjected by others; the slaveholder is a subject, +but he is the author of his own subjection. There is more truth in the +saying, that slavery is a greater evil to the master than to the slave, +than many, who utter it, suppose. The self-executing laws of eternal +justice follow close on the heels of the evil-doer here, as well as +elsewhere; making escape from all its penalties impossible. But, let +others philosophize; it is my province here to relate and describe; only +allowing myself a word or two, occasionally, to assist the reader in the +proper understanding of the facts narrated. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. _Life in the Great House_ + +COMFORTS AND LUXURIES--ELABORATE EXPENDITURE--HOUSE SERVANTS--MEN +SERVANTS AND MAID SERVANTS--APPEARANCES--SLAVE ARISTOCRACY--STABLE AND +CARRIAGE HOUSE--BOUNDLESS HOSPITALITY--FRAGRANCE OF RICH DISHES--THE +DECEPTIVE CHARACTER OF SLAVERY--SLAVES SEEM HAPPY--SLAVES +AND SLAVEHOLDERS ALIKE WRETCHED--FRETFUL DISCONTENT +OF SLAVEHOLDERS--FAULT-FINDING--OLD BARNEY--HIS +PROFESSION--WHIPPING--HUMILIATING SPECTACLE--CASE EXCEPTIONAL--WILLIAM +WILKS--SUPPOSED SON OF COL. LLOYD--CURIOUS INCIDENT--SLAVES PREFER RICH +MASTERS TO POOR ONES. + + +The close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse corn-meal +and tainted meat; that clothed him in crashy tow-linen, and hurried him +to toil through the field, in all weathers, with wind and rain beating +through his tattered garments; that scarcely gave even the young +slave-mother time to nurse her hungry infant in the fence corner; wholly +vanishes on approaching the sacred precincts of the great house, +the home of the Lloyds. There the scriptural phrase finds an exact +illustration; the highly favored inmates of this mansion are literally +arrayed "in purple and fine linen," and fare sumptuously every day! The +table groans under the heavy and blood-bought luxuries gathered with +painstaking care, at home and abroad. Fields, forests, rivers and seas, +are made tributary here. Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, +fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the +taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great _desideratum_. Fish, flesh +and fowl, are here in profusion. Chickens, of{84} all breeds; ducks, +of all kinds, wild and tame, the common, and the huge Muscovite; Guinea +fowls, turkeys, geese, and pea fowls, are in their several pens, fat and +fatting for the destined vortex. The graceful swan, the mongrels, the +black-necked wild goose; partridges, quails, pheasants and pigeons; +choice water fowl, with all their strange varieties, are caught in this +huge family net. Beef, veal, mutton and venison, of the most select +kinds and quality, roll bounteously to this grand consumer. The teeming +riches of the Chesapeake bay, its rock, perch, drums, crocus, trout, +oysters, crabs, and terrapin, are drawn hither to adorn the glittering +table of the great house. The dairy, too, probably the finest on the +Eastern Shore of Maryland--supplied by cattle of the best English stock, +imported for the purpose, pours its rich donations of fragant cheese, +golden butter, and delicious cream, to heighten the attraction of the +gorgeous, unending round of feasting. Nor are the fruits of the +earth forgotten or neglected. The fertile garden, many acres in +size, constituting a separate establishment, distinct from the common +farm--with its scientific gardener, imported from Scotland (a Mr. +McDermott) with four men under his direction, was not behind, either in +the abundance or in the delicacy of its contributions to the same full +board. The tender asparagus, the succulent celery, and the delicate +cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French +beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes, melons of all kinds; the +fruits and flowers of all climes and of all descriptions, from the hardy +apple of the north, to the lemon and orange of the south, culminated at +this point. Baltimore gathered figs, raisins, almonds and juicy grapes +from Spain. Wines and brandies from France; teas of various flavor, from +China; and rich, aromatic coffee from Java, all conspired to swell +the tide of high life, where pride and indolence rolled and lounged in +magnificence and satiety. + +Behind the tall-backed and elaborately wrought chairs, stand the +servants, men and maidens--fifteen in number--discriminately selected, +not only with a view to their industry and faithfulness,{85} but with +special regard to their personal appearance, their graceful agility and +captivating address. Some of these are armed with fans, and are fanning +reviving breezes toward the over-heated brows of the alabaster ladies; +others watch with eager eye, and with fawn-like step anticipate and +supply wants before they are sufficiently formed to be announced by word +or sign. + +These servants constituted a sort of black aristocracy on Col. Lloyd's +plantation. They resembled the field hands in nothing, except in color, +and in this they held the advantage of a velvet-like glossiness, rich +and beautiful. The hair, too, showed the same advantage. The delicate +colored maid rustled in the scarcely worn silk of her young mistress, +while the servant men were equally well attired from the over-flowing +wardrobe of their young masters; so that, in dress, as well as in form +and feature, in manner and speech, in tastes and habits, the distance +between these favored few, and the sorrow and hunger-smitten multitudes +of the quarter and the field, was immense; and this is seldom passed +over. + +Let us now glance at the stables and the carriage house, and we shall +find the same evidences of pride and luxurious extravagance. Here are +three splendid coaches, soft within and lustrous without. Here, too, +are gigs, phaetons, barouches, sulkeys and sleighs. Here are saddles and +harnesses--beautifully wrought and silver mounted--kept with every care. +In the stable you will find, kept only for pleasure, full thirty-five +horses, of the most approved blood for speed and beauty. There are two +men here constantly employed in taking care of these horses. One of +these men must be always in the stable, to answer every call from the +great house. Over the way from the stable, is a house built expressly +for the hounds--a pack of twenty-five or thirty--whose fare would have +made glad the heart of a dozen slaves. Horses and hounds are not the +only consumers of the slave's toil. There was practiced, at the +Lloyd's, a hospitality which would have{86} astonished and charmed any +health-seeking northern divine or merchant, who might have chanced +to share it. Viewed from his own table, and _not_ from the field, the +colonel was a model of generous hospitality. His house was, literally, +a hotel, for weeks during the summer months. At these times, especially, +the air was freighted with the rich fumes of baking, boiling, roasting +and broiling. The odors I shared with the winds; but the meats were +under a more stringent monopoly except that, occasionally, I got a cake +from Mas' Daniel. In Mas' Daniel I had a friend at court, from whom +I learned many things which my eager curiosity was excited to know. I +always knew when company was expected, and who they were, although I was +an outsider, being the property, not of Col. Lloyd, but of a servant of +the wealthy colonel. On these occasions, all that pride, taste and money +could do, to dazzle and charm, was done. + +Who could say that the servants of Col. Lloyd were not well clad and +cared for, after witnessing one of his magnificent entertainments? Who +could say that they did not seem to glory in being the slaves of such a +master? Who, but a fanatic, could get up any sympathy for persons +whose every movement was agile, easy and graceful, and who evinced a +consciousness of high superiority? And who would ever venture to suspect +that Col. Lloyd was subject to the troubles of ordinary mortals? Master +and slave seem alike in their glory here? Can it all be seeming? +Alas! it may only be a sham at last! This immense wealth; this gilded +splendor; this profusion of luxury; this exemption from toil; this life +of ease; this sea of plenty; aye, what of it all? Are the pearly gates +of happiness and sweet content flung open to such suitors? _far from +it!_ The poor slave, on his hard, pine plank, but scantily covered with +his thin blanket, sleeps more soundly than the feverish voluptuary who +reclines upon his feather bed and downy pillow. Food, to the indolent +lounger, is poison, not sustenance. Lurking beneath all their +dishes, are invisible spirits of evil, ready to feed the self-deluded +gormandizers{87} which aches, pains, fierce temper, uncontrolled +passions, dyspepsia, rheumatism, lumbago and gout; and of these the +Lloyds got their full share. To the pampered love of ease, there is no +resting place. What is pleasant today, is repulsive tomorrow; what is +soft now, is hard at another time; what is sweet in the morning, is +bitter in the evening. Neither to the wicked, nor to the idler, is there +any solid peace: _"Troubled, like the restless sea."_ + +I had excellent opportunities of witnessing the restless discontent and +the capricious irritation of the Lloyds. My fondness for horses--not +peculiar to me more than to other boys attracted me, much of the time, +to the stables. This establishment was especially under the care of +"old" and "young" Barney--father and son. Old Barney was a fine looking +old man, of a brownish complexion, who was quite portly, and wore a +dignified aspect for a slave. He was, evidently, much devoted to his +profession, and held his office an honorable one. He was a farrier as +well as an ostler; he could bleed, remove lampers from the mouths of the +horses, and was well instructed in horse medicines. No one on the farm +knew, so well as Old Barney, what to do with a sick horse. But his gifts +and acquirements were of little advantage to him. His office was by +no means an enviable one. He often got presents, but he got stripes as +well; for in nothing was Col. Lloyd more unreasonable and exacting, +than in respect to the management of his pleasure horses. Any supposed +inattention to these animals were sure to be visited with degrading +punishment. His horses and dogs fared better than his men. Their beds +must be softer and cleaner than those of his human cattle. No excuse +could shield Old Barney, if the colonel only suspected something +wrong about his horses; and, consequently, he was often punished when +faultless. It was absolutely painful to listen to the many unreasonable +and fretful scoldings, poured out at the stable, by Col. Lloyd, his sons +and sons-in-law. Of the latter, he had three--Messrs. Nicholson, Winder +and Lownes. These all{88} lived at the great house a portion of the +year, and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the servants when they pleased, +which was by no means unfrequently. A horse was seldom brought out of +the stable to which no objection could be raised. "There was dust in +his hair;" "there was a twist in his reins;" "his mane did not lie +straight;" "he had not been properly grained;" "his head did not look +well;" "his fore-top was not combed out;" "his fetlocks had not been +properly trimmed;" something was always wrong. Listening to complaints, +however groundless, Barney must stand, hat in hand, lips sealed, never +answering a word. He must make no reply, no explanation; the judgment +of the master must be deemed infallible, for his power is absolute +and irresponsible. In a free state, a master, thus complaining without +cause, of his ostler, might be told--"Sir, I am sorry I cannot please +you, but, since I have done the best I can, your remedy is to dismiss +me." Here, however, the ostler must stand, listen and tremble. One of +the most heart-saddening and humiliating scenes I ever witnessed, was +the whipping of Old Barney, by Col. Lloyd himself. Here were two men, +both advanced in years; there were the silvery locks of Col. L., and +there was the bald and toil-worn brow of Old Barney; master and slave; +superior and inferior here, but _equals_ at the bar of God; and, in the +common course of events, they must both soon meet in another world, in +a world where all distinctions, except those based on obedience and +disobedience, are blotted out forever. "Uncover your head!" said the +imperious master; he was obeyed. "Take off your jacket, you old rascal!" +and off came Barney's jacket. "Down on your knees!" down knelt the old +man, his shoulders bare, his bald head glistening in the sun, and +his aged knees on the cold, damp ground. In his humble and debasing +attitude, the master--that master to whom he had given the best years +and the best strength of his life--came forward, and laid on thirty +lashes, with his horse whip. The old man bore it patiently, to the last, +answering each blow with a slight shrug of the shoulders, and a groan. +I cannot think that{89} Col. Lloyd succeeded in marring the flesh of Old +Barney very seriously, for the whip was a light, riding whip; but the +spectacle of an aged man--a husband and a father--humbly kneeling before +a worm of the dust, surprised and shocked me at the time; and since I +have grown old enough to think on the wickedness of slavery, few facts +have been of more value to me than this, to which I was a witness. It +reveals slavery in its true color, and in its maturity of repulsive +hatefulness. I owe it to truth, however, to say, that this was the first +and the last time I ever saw Old Barney, or any other slave, compelled +to kneel to receive a whipping. + +I saw, at the stable, another incident, which I will relate, as it is +illustrative of a phase of slavery to which I have already referred in +another connection. Besides two other coachmen, Col. Lloyd owned one +named William, who, strangely enough, was often called by his surname, +Wilks, by white and colored people on the home plantation. Wilks was +a very fine looking man. He was about as white as anybody on the +plantation; and in manliness of form, and comeliness of features, he +bore a very striking resemblance to Mr. Murray Lloyd. It was whispered, +and pretty generally admitted as a fact, that William Wilks was a son +of Col. Lloyd, by a highly favored slave-woman, who was still on the +plantation. There were many reasons for believing this whisper, not only +in William's appearance, but in the undeniable freedom which he enjoyed +over all others, and his apparent consciousness of being something more +than a slave to his master. It was notorious, too, that William had a +deadly enemy in Murray Lloyd, whom he so much resembled, and that the +latter greatly worried his father with importunities to sell William. +Indeed, he gave his father no rest until he did sell him, to Austin +Woldfolk, the great slave-trader at that time. Before selling him, +however, Mr. L. tried what giving William a whipping would do, toward +making things smooth; but this was a failure. It was a compromise, +and defeated itself; for,{90} immediately after the infliction, the +heart-sickened colonel atoned to William for the abuse, by giving him +a gold watch and chain. Another fact, somewhat curious, is, that though +sold to the remorseless _Woldfolk_, taken in irons to Baltimore and +cast into prison, with a view to being driven to the south, William, by +_some_ means--always a mystery to me--outbid all his purchasers, paid +for himself, _and now resides in Baltimore, a_ FREEMAN. Is there not +room to suspect, that, as the gold watch was presented to atone for the +whipping, a purse of gold was given him by the same hand, with which +to effect his purchase, as an atonement for the indignity involved in +selling his own flesh and blood. All the circumstances of William, on +the great house farm, show him to have occupied a different position +from the other slaves, and, certainly, there is nothing in the supposed +hostility of slaveholders to amalgamation, to forbid the supposition +that William Wilks was the son of Edward Lloyd. _Practical_ amalgamation +is common in every neighborhood where I have been in slavery. + +Col. Lloyd was not in the way of knowing much of the real opinions and +feelings of his slaves respecting him. The distance between him and +them was far too great to admit of such knowledge. His slaves were so +numerous, that he did not know them when he saw them. Nor, indeed, did +all his slaves know him. In this respect, he was inconveniently rich. It +is reported of him, that, while riding along the road one day, he met a +colored man, and addressed him in the usual way of speaking to colored +people on the public highways of the south: "Well, boy, who do you +belong to?" "To Col. Lloyd," replied the slave. "Well, does the colonel +treat you well?" "No, sir," was the ready reply. "What? does he work you +too hard?" "Yes, sir." "Well, don't he give enough to eat?" "Yes, sir, +he gives me enough, such as it is." The colonel, after ascertaining +where the slave belonged, rode on; the slave also went on about his +business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his master. He +thought, said and heard nothing more of the matter, until two or three +weeks afterwards.{91} The poor man was then informed by his overseer, +that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to +a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, +without a moment's warning he was snatched away, and forever sundered +from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than that of +death. _This_ is the penalty of telling the simple truth, in answer to +a series of plain questions. It is partly in consequence of such facts, +that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the character of +their masters, almost invariably say they are contented, and that their +masters are kind. Slaveholders have been known to send spies among their +slaves, to ascertain, if possible, their views and feelings in regard to +their condition. The frequency of this had the effect to establish +among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue makes a wise head. They +suppress the truth rather than take the consequence of telling it, and, +in so doing, they prove themselves a part of the human family. If they +have anything to say of their master, it is, generally, something in his +favor, especially when speaking to strangers. I was frequently asked, +while a slave, if I had a kind master, and I do not remember ever to +have given a negative reply. Nor did I, when pursuing this course, +consider myself as uttering what was utterly false; for I always +measured the kindness of my master by the standard of kindness set up +by slaveholders around us. However, slaves are like other people, and +imbibe similar prejudices. They are apt to think _their condition_ +better than that of others. Many, under the influence of this prejudice, +think their own masters are better than the masters of other slaves; and +this, too, in some cases, when the very reverse is true. Indeed, it is +not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves +about the relative kindness of their masters, contending for the +superior goodness of his own over that of others. At the very same time, +they mutually execrate their masters, when viewed separately. It was so +on our plantation. When Col. Lloyd's slaves met those of Jacob Jepson, +they{92} seldom parted without a quarrel about their masters; Col. +Lloyd's slaves contending that he was the richest, and Mr. Jepson's +slaves that he was the smartest, man of the two. Col. Lloyd's slaves +would boost his ability to buy and sell Jacob Jepson; Mr. Jepson's +slaves would boast his ability to whip Col. Lloyd. These quarrels would +almost always end in a fight between the parties; those that beat were +supposed to have gained the point at issue. They seemed to think that +the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves. To be a +SLAVE, was thought to be bad enough; but to be a _poor man's_ slave, was +deemed a disgrace, indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. _A Chapter of Horrors_ + +AUSTIN GORE--A SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER--OVERSEERS AS A CLASS--THEIR +PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS--THE MARKED INDIVIDUALITY OF AUSTIN +GORE--HIS SENSE OF DUTY--HOW HE WHIPPED--MURDER OF POOR DENBY--HOW IT +OCCURRED--SENSATION--HOW GORE MADE PEACE WITH COL. LLOYD--THE MURDER +UNPUNISHED--ANOTHER DREADFUL MURDER NARRATED--NO LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION +OF SLAVES CAN BE ENFORCED IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. + + +As I have already intimated elsewhere, the slaves on Col. Lloyd's +plantation, whose hard lot, under Mr. Sevier, the reader has already +noticed and deplored, were not permitted to enjoy the comparatively +moderate rule of Mr. Hopkins. The latter was succeeded by a very +different man. The name of the new overseer was Austin Gore. Upon this +individual I would fix particular attention; for under his rule there +was more suffering from violence and bloodshed than had--according to +the older slaves ever been experienced before on this plantation. I +confess, I hardly know how to bring this man fitly before the reader. +He was, it is true, an overseer, and possessed, to a large extent, +the peculiar characteristics of his class; yet, to call him merely an +overseer, would not give the reader a fair notion of the man. I speak +of overseers as a class. They are such. They are as distinct from the +slaveholding gentry of the south, as are the fishwomen of Paris, and +the coal-heavers of London, distinct from other members of society. They +constitute a separate fraternity at the south, not less marked than is +the fraternity of Park Lane bullies in New York. They have been arranged +and classified{94} by that great law of attraction, which determines the +spheres and affinities of men; which ordains, that men, whose malign +and brutal propensities predominate over their moral and intellectual +endowments, shall, naturally, fall into those employments which +promise the largest gratification to those predominating instincts +or propensities. The office of overseer takes this raw material of +vulgarity and brutality, and stamps it as a distinct class of southern +society. But, in this class, as in all other classes, there are +characters of marked individuality, even while they bear a general +resemblance to the mass. Mr. Gore was one of those, to whom a general +characterization would do no manner of justice. He was an overseer; but +he was something more. With the malign and tyrannical qualities of +an overseer, he combined something of the lawful master. He had the +artfulness and the mean ambition of his class; but he was wholly free +from the disgusting swagger and noisy bravado of his fraternity. There +was an easy air of independence about him; a calm self-possession, and a +sternness of glance, which might well daunt hearts less timid than those +of poor slaves, accustomed from childhood and through life to cower +before a driver's lash. The home plantation of Col. Lloyd afforded an +ample field for the exercise of the qualifications for overseership, +which he possessed in such an eminent degree. + +Mr. Gore was one of those overseers, who could torture the slightest +word or look into impudence; he had the nerve, not only to resent, +but to punish, promptly and severely. He never allowed himself to be +answered back, by a slave. In this, he was as lordly and as imperious as +Col. Edward Lloyd, himself; acting always up to the maxim, practically +maintained by slaveholders, that it is better that a dozen slaves suffer +under the lash, without fault, than that the master or the overseer +should _seem_ to have been wrong in the presence of the slave. +_Everything must be absolute here_. Guilty or not guilty, it is enough +to be accused, to be sure of a flogging. The very presence of this +man Gore was{95} painful, and I shunned him as I would have shunned a +rattlesnake. His piercing, black eyes, and sharp, shrill voice, ever +awakened sensations of terror among the slaves. For so young a man (I +describe him as he was, twenty-five or thirty years ago) Mr. Gore was +singularly reserved and grave in the presence of slaves. He indulged +in no jokes, said no funny things, and kept his own counsels. Other +overseers, how brutal soever they might be, were, at times, inclined to +gain favor with the slaves, by indulging a little pleasantry; but Gore +was never known to be guilty of any such weakness. He was always +the cold, distant, unapproachable _overseer_ of Col. Edward Lloyd's +plantation, and needed no higher pleasure than was involved in a +faithful discharge of the duties of his office. When he whipped, he +seemed to do so from a sense of duty, and feared no consequences. What +Hopkins did reluctantly, Gore did with alacrity. There was a stern will, +an iron-like reality, about this Gore, which would have easily made him +the chief of a band of pirates, had his environments been favorable to +such a course of life. All the coolness, savage barbarity and freedom +from moral restraint, which are necessary in the character of a +pirate-chief, centered, I think, in this man Gore. Among many other +deeds of shocking cruelty which he perpetrated, while I was at Mr. +Lloyd's, was the murder of a young colored man, named Denby. He was +sometimes called Bill Denby, or Demby; (I write from sound, and the +sounds on Lloyd's plantation are not very certain.) I knew him well. He +was a powerful young man, full of animal spirits, and, so far as I know, +he was among the most valuable of Col. Lloyd's slaves. In something--I +know not what--he offended this Mr. Austin Gore, and, in accordance with +the custom of the latter, he under took to flog him. He gave Denby but +few stripes; the latter broke away from him and plunged into the creek, +and, standing there to the depth of his neck in water, he refused to +come out at the order of the overseer; whereupon, for this refusal, +_Gore shot him dead!_ It is said that Gore gave Denby three calls, +telling him that{96} if he did not obey the last call, he would shoot +him. When the third call was given, Denby stood his ground firmly; and +this raised the question, in the minds of the by-standing slaves--"Will +he dare to shoot?" Mr. Gore, without further parley, and without making +any further effort to induce Denby to come out of the water, raised his +gun deliberately to his face, took deadly aim at his standing victim, +and, in an instant, poor Denby was numbered with the dead. His mangled +body sank out of sight, and only his warm, red blood marked the place +where he had stood. + +This devilish outrage, this fiendish murder, produced, as it was well +calculated to do, a tremendous sensation. A thrill of horror flashed +through every soul on the plantation, if I may except the guilty wretch +who had committed the hell-black deed. While the slaves generally were +panic-struck, and howling with alarm, the murderer himself was calm +and collected, and appeared as though nothing unusual had happened. The +atrocity roused my old master, and he spoke out, in reprobation of it; +but the whole thing proved to be less than a nine days' wonder. Both +Col. Lloyd and my old master arraigned Gore for his cruelty in the +matter, but this amounted to nothing. His reply, or explanation--as +I remember to have heard it at the time was, that the extraordinary +expedient was demanded by necessity; that Denby had become unmanageable; +that he had set a dangerous example to the other slaves; and that, +without some such prompt measure as that to which he had resorted, were +adopted, there would be an end to all rule and order on the plantation. +That very convenient covert for all manner of cruelty and outrage +that cowardly alarm-cry, that the slaves would _"take the place,"_ was +pleaded, in extenuation of this revolting crime, just as it had been +cited in defense of a thousand similar ones. He argued, that if one +slave refused to be corrected, and was allowed to escape with his life, +when he had been told that he should lose it if he persisted in his +course, the other slaves would soon copy his example; the result of +which would be, the freedom of the slaves, and the enslavement of +the{97} whites. I have every reason to believe that Mr. Gore's defense, +or explanation, was deemed satisfactory--at least to Col. Lloyd. He was +continued in his office on the plantation. His fame as an overseer +went abroad, and his horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial +investigation. The murder was committed in the presence of slaves, and +they, of course, could neither institute a suit, nor testify against +the murderer. His bare word would go further in a court of law, than the +united testimony of ten thousand black witnesses. + +All that Mr. Gore had to do, was to make his peace with Col. Lloyd. This +done, and the guilty perpetrator of one of the most foul murders goes +unwhipped of justice, and uncensured by the community in which he lives. +Mr. Gore lived in St. Michael's, Talbot county, when I left Maryland; if +he is still alive he probably yet resides there; and I have no reason +to doubt that he is now as highly esteemed, and as greatly respected, as +though his guilty soul had never been stained with innocent blood. I am +well aware that what I have now written will by some be branded as false +and malicious. It will be denied, not only that such a thing ever did +transpire, as I have now narrated, but that such a thing could happen in +_Maryland_. I can only say--believe it or not--that I have said nothing +but the literal truth, gainsay it who may. + +I speak advisedly when I say this,--that killing a slave, or any colored +person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by +the courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, ship carpenter, of St. +Michael's, killed two slaves, one of whom he butchered with a hatchet, +by knocking his brains out. He used to boast of the commission of the +awful and bloody deed. I have heard him do so, laughingly, saying, among +other things, that he was the only benefactor of his country in the +company, and that when "others would do as much as he had done, we +should be relieved of the d--d niggers." + +As an evidence of the reckless disregard of human life where the life +is that of a slave I may state the notorious fact, that the{98} wife of +Mr. Giles Hicks, who lived but a short distance from Col. Lloyd's, with +her own hands murdered my wife's cousin, a young girl between fifteen +and sixteen years of age--mutilating her person in a most shocking +manner. The atrocious woman, in the paroxysm of her wrath, not content +with murdering her victim, literally mangled her face, and broke her +breast bone. Wild, however, and infuriated as she was, she took the +precaution to cause the slave-girl to be buried; but the facts of the +case coming abroad, very speedily led to the disinterment of the remains +of the murdered slave-girl. A coroner's jury was assembled, who +decided that the girl had come to her death by severe beating. It was +ascertained that the offense for which this girl was thus hurried out of +the world, was this: she had been set that night, and several preceding +nights, to mind Mrs. Hicks's baby, and having fallen into a sound sleep, +the baby cried, waking Mrs. Hicks, but not the slave-girl. Mrs. Hicks, +becoming infuriated at the girl's tardiness, after calling several +times, jumped from her bed and seized a piece of fire-wood from the +fireplace; and then, as she lay fast asleep, she deliberately pounded in +her skull and breast-bone, and thus ended her life. I will not say that +this most horrid murder produced no sensation in the community. It _did_ +produce a sensation; but, incredible to tell, the moral sense of the +community was blunted too entirely by the ordinary nature of slavery +horrors, to bring the murderess to punishment. A warrant was issued +for her arrest, but, for some reason or other, that warrant was never +served. Thus did Mrs. Hicks not only escape condign punishment, but even +the pain and mortification of being arraigned before a court of justice. + +Whilst I am detailing the bloody deeds that took place during my stay +on Col. Lloyd's plantation, I will briefly narrate another dark +transaction, which occurred about the same time as the murder of Denby +by Mr. Gore. + +On the side of the river Wye, opposite from Col. Lloyd's, there lived +a Mr. Beal Bondley, a wealthy slaveholder. In the direction{99} of his +land, and near the shore, there was an excellent oyster fishing ground, +and to this, some of the slaves of Col. Lloyd occasionally resorted in +their little canoes, at night, with a view to make up the deficiency of +their scanty allowance of food, by the oysters that they could easily +get there. This, Mr. Bondley took it into his head to regard as a +trespass, and while an old man belonging to Col. Lloyd was engaged in +catching a few of the many millions of oysters that lined the bottom of +that creek, to satisfy his hunger, the villainous Mr. Bondley, lying in +ambush, without the slightest ceremony, discharged the contents of his +musket into the back and shoulders of the poor old man. As good fortune +would have it, the shot did not prove mortal, and Mr. Bondley came over, +the next day, to see Col. Lloyd--whether to pay him for his property, +or to justify himself for what he had done, I know not; but this I _can_ +say, the cruel and dastardly transaction was speedily hushed up; there +was very little said about it at all, and nothing was publicly done +which looked like the application of the principle of justice to the +man whom _chance_, only, saved from being an actual murderer. One of +the commonest sayings to which my ears early became accustomed, on Col. +Lloyd's plantation and elsewhere in Maryland, was, that it was _"worth +but half a cent to kill a nigger, and a half a cent to bury him;"_ and +the facts of my experience go far to justify the practical truth of this +strange proverb. Laws for the protection of the lives of the slaves, +are, as they must needs be, utterly incapable of being enforced, where +the very parties who are nominally protected, are not permitted to give +evidence, in courts of law, against the only class of persons from whom +abuse, outrage and murder might be reasonably apprehended. While I heard +of numerous murders committed by slaveholders on the Eastern Shores of +Maryland, I never knew a solitary instance in which a slaveholder was +either hung or imprisoned for having murdered a slave. The usual pretext +for killing a slave is, that the slave has offered resistance. Should +a slave, when assaulted, but raise his hand in self defense, the white +assaulting{100} party is fully justified by southern, or Maryland, +public opinion, in shooting the slave down. Sometimes this is done, +simply because it is alleged that the slave has been saucy. But here I +leave this phase of the society of my early childhood, and will relieve +the kind reader of these heart-sickening details. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. _Personal Treatment_ + +MISS LUCRETIA--HER KINDNESS--HOW IT WAS MANIFESTED--"IKE"--A BATTLE +WITH HIM--THE CONSEQUENCES THEREOF--MISS LUCRETIA'S BALSAM--BREAD--HOW +I OBTAINED IT--BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT AMIDST THE GENERAL DARKNESS--SUFFERING +FROM COLD--HOW WE TOOK OUR MEALS--ORDERS TO PREPARE +FOR BALTIMORE--OVERJOYED AT THE THOUGHT OF QUITTING THE +PLANTATION--EXTRAORDINARY CLEANSING--COUSIN TOM'S VERSION OF +BALTIMORE--ARRIVAL THERE--KIND RECEPTION GIVEN ME BY MRS. SOPHIA +AULD--LITTLE TOMMY--MY NEW POSITION--MY NEW DUTIES--A TURNING POINT IN +MY HISTORY. + + +I have nothing cruel or shocking to relate of my own personal +experience, while I remained on Col. Lloyd's plantation, at the home of +my old master. An occasional cuff from Aunt Katy, and a regular whipping +from old master, such as any heedless and mischievous boy might get from +his father, is all that I can mention of this sort. I was not old enough +to work in the field, and, there being little else than field work to +perform, I had much leisure. The most I had to do, was, to drive up the +cows in the evening, to keep the front yard clean, and to perform +small errands for my young mistress, Lucretia Auld. I have reasons for +thinking this lady was very kindly disposed toward me, and, although I +was not often the object of her attention, I constantly regarded her +as my friend, and was always glad when it was my privilege to do her a +service. In a family where there was so much that was harsh, cold and +indifferent, the slightest word or look of kindness passed, with me, for +its full value. Miss Lucretia--as{102} we all continued to call her long +after her marriage--had bestowed upon me such words and looks as taught +me that she pitied me, if she did not love me. In addition to words and +looks, she sometimes gave me a piece of bread and butter; a thing not +set down in the bill of fare, and which must have been an extra ration, +planned aside from either Aunt Katy or old master, solely out of the +tender regard and friendship she had for me. Then, too, I one day got +into the wars with Uncle Able's son, "Ike," and had got sadly worsted; +in fact, the little rascal had struck me directly in the forehead with a +sharp piece of cinder, fused with iron, from the old blacksmith's forge, +which made a cross in my forehead very plainly to be seen now. The gash +bled very freely, and I roared very loudly and betook myself home. +The coldhearted Aunt Katy paid no attention either to my wound or my +roaring, except to tell me it served me right; I had no business +with Ike; it was good for me; I would now keep away _"from dem Lloyd +niggers."_ Miss Lucretia, in this state of the case, came forward; +and, in quite a different spirit from that manifested by Aunt Katy, she +called me into the parlor (an extra privilege of itself) and, without +using toward me any of the hard-hearted and reproachful epithets of my +kitchen tormentor, she quietly acted the good Samaritan. With her own +soft hand she washed the blood from my head and face, fetched her own +balsam bottle, and with the balsam wetted a nice piece of white linen, +and bound up my head. The balsam was not more healing to the wound in my +head, than her kindness was healing to the wounds in my spirit, made +by the unfeeling words of Aunt Katy. After this, Miss Lucretia was my +friend. I felt her to be such; and I have no doubt that the simple act +of binding up my head, did much to awaken in her mind an interest in my +welfare. It is quite true, that this interest was never very marked, and +it seldom showed itself in anything more than in giving me a piece +of bread when I was hungry; but this was a great favor on a slave +plantation, and I was the only one of the children to whom such +attention was paid.{103} When very hungry, I would go into the back yard +and play under Miss Lucretia's window. When pretty severely pinched by +hunger, I had a habit of singing, which the good lady very soon came to +understand as a petition for a piece of bread. When I sung under Miss +Lucretia's window, I was very apt to get well paid for my music. +The reader will see that I now had two friends, both at important +points--Mas' Daniel at the great house, and Miss Lucretia at home. +From Mas' Daniel I got protection from the bigger boys; and from Miss +Lucretia I got bread, by singing when I was hungry, and sympathy when +I was abused by that termagant, who had the reins of government in the +kitchen. For such friendship I felt deeply grateful, and bitter as are +my recollections of slavery, I love to recall any instances of kindness, +any sunbeams of humane treatment, which found way to my soul through the +iron grating of my house of bondage. Such beams seem all the brighter +from the general darkness into which they penetrate, and the impression +they make is vividly distinct and beautiful. + +As I have before intimated, I was seldom whipped--and never severely--by +my old master. I suffered little from the treatment I received, except +from hunger and cold. These were my two great physical troubles. I could +neither get a sufficiency of food nor of clothing; but I suffered less +from hunger than from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was +kept almost in a state of nudity; no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no +trowsers; nothing but coarse sackcloth or tow-linen, made into a sort of +shirt, reaching down to my knees. This I wore night and day, changing +it once a week. In the day time I could protect myself pretty well, +by keeping on the sunny side of the house; and in bad weather, in the +corner of the kitchen chimney. The great difficulty was, to keep warm +during the night. I had no bed. The pigs in the pen had leaves, and +the horses in the stable had straw, but the children had no beds. They +lodged anywhere in the ample kitchen. I slept, generally, in a little +closet, without even a blanket to cover me. In very cold weather. I +sometimes got down the bag in which corn{104} meal was usually carried +to the mill, and crawled into that. Sleeping there, with my head in and +feet out, I was partly protected, though not comfortable. My feet have +been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing +might be laid in the gashes. The manner of taking our meals at old +master's, indicated but little refinement. Our corn-meal mush, when +sufficiently cooled, was placed in a large wooden tray, or trough, like +those used in making maple sugar here in the north. This tray was set +down, either on the floor of the kitchen, or out of doors on the ground; +and the children were called, like so many pigs; and like so many pigs +they would come, and literally devour the mush--some with oyster shells, +some with pieces of shingles, and none with spoons. He that eat fastest +got most, and he that was strongest got the best place; and few left the +trough really satisfied. I was the most unlucky of any, for Aunt Katy +had no good feeling for me; and if I pushed any of the other children, +or if they told her anything unfavorable of me, she always believed the +worst, and was sure to whip me. + +As I grew older and more thoughtful, I was more and more filled with a +sense of my wretchedness. The cruelty of Aunt Katy, the hunger and cold +I suffered, and the terrible reports of wrong and outrage which came to +my ear, together with what I almost daily witnessed, led me, when yet +but eight or nine years old, to wish I had never been born. I used to +contrast my condition with the black-birds, in whose wild and sweet +songs I fancied them so happy! Their apparent joy only deepened +the shades of my sorrow. There are thoughtful days in the lives of +children--at least there were in mine when they grapple with all +the great, primary subjects of knowledge, and reach, in a moment, +conclusions which no subsequent experience can shake. I was just as well +aware of the unjust, unnatural and murderous character of slavery, when +nine years old, as I am now. Without any appeal to books, to laws, or +to authorities of any kind, it was enough to accept God as a father, to +regard slavery as a crime.{105} + +I was not ten years old when I left Col. Lloyd's plantation for +Balitmore(sic). I left that plantation with inexpressible joy. I never +shall forget the ecstacy with which I received the intelligence from my +friend, Miss Lucretia, that my old master had determined to let me go to +Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh Auld, a brother to Mr. Thomas Auld, my +old master's son-in-law. I received this information about three +days before my departure. They were three of the happiest days of my +childhood. I spent the largest part of these three days in the creek, +washing off the plantation scurf, and preparing for my new home. Mrs. +Lucretia took a lively interest in getting me ready. She told me I +must get all the dead skin off my feet and knees, before I could go to +Baltimore, for the people there were very cleanly, and would laugh at me +if I looked dirty; and, besides, she was intending to give me a pair of +trowsers, which I should not put on unless I got all the dirt off. This +was a warning to which I was bound to take heed; for the thought of +owning a pair of trowsers, was great, indeed. It was almost a sufficient +motive, not only to induce me to scrub off the _mange_ (as pig drovers +would call it) but the skin as well. So I went at it in good earnest, +working for the first time in the hope of reward. I was greatly excited, +and could hardly consent to sleep, lest I should be left. The ties that, +ordinarily, bind children to their homes, were all severed, or they +never had any existence in my case, at least so far as the home +plantation of Col. L. was concerned. I therefore found no severe trail +at the moment of my departure, such as I had experienced when separated +from my home in Tuckahoe. My home at my old master's was charmless to +me; it was not home, but a prison to me; on parting from it, I could not +feel that I was leaving anything which I could have enjoyed by staying. +My mother was now long dead; my grandmother was far away, so that I +seldom saw her; Aunt Katy was my unrelenting tormentor; and my two +sisters and brothers, owing to our early separation in life, and the +family-destroying power of slavery, were, comparatively, strangers{106} +to me. The fact of our relationship was almost blotted out. I looked +for _home_ elsewhere, and was confident of finding none which I should +relish less than the one I was leaving. If, however, I found in my new +home to which I was going with such blissful anticipations--hardship, +whipping and nakedness, I had the questionable consolation that I +should not have escaped any one of these evils by remaining under the +management of Aunt Katy. Then, too, I thought, since I had endured much +in this line on Lloyd's plantation, I could endure as much elsewhere, +and especially at Baltimore; for I had something of the feeling about +that city which is expressed in the saying, that being "hanged in +England, is better than dying a natural death in Ireland." I had the +strongest desire to see Baltimore. My cousin Tom--a boy two or three +years older than I--had been there, and though not fluent (he stuttered +immoderately) in speech, he had inspired me with that desire, by his +eloquent description of the place. Tom was, sometimes, Capt. Auld's +cabin boy; and when he came from Baltimore, he was always a sort of +hero amongst us, at least till his Baltimore trip was forgotten. I could +never tell him of anything, or point out anything that struck me as +beautiful or powerful, but that he had seen something in Baltimore +far surpassing it. Even the great house itself, with all its pictures +within, and pillars without, he had the hardihood to say "was nothing to +Baltimore." He bought a trumpet (worth six pence) and brought it home; +told what he had seen in the windows of stores; that he had heard +shooting crackers, and seen soldiers; that he had seen a steamboat; that +there were ships in Baltimore that could carry four such sloops as the +"Sally Lloyd." He said a great deal about the market-house; he spoke of +the bells ringing; and of many other things which roused my curiosity +very much; and, indeed, which heightened my hopes of happiness in my new +home. + +We sailed out of Miles river for Baltimore early on a Saturday morning. +I remember only the day of the week; for, at that time,{107} I had no +knowledge of the days of the month, nor, indeed, of the months of the +year. On setting sail, I walked aft, and gave to Col. Lloyd's plantation +what I hoped would be the last look I should ever give to it, or to any +place like it. My strong aversion to the great farm, was not owing to +my own personal suffering, but the daily suffering of others, and to the +certainty that I must, sooner or later, be placed under the barbarous +rule of an overseer, such as the accomplished Gore, or the brutal and +drunken Plummer. After taking this last view, I quitted the quarter +deck, made my way to the bow of the sloop, and spent the remainder +of the day in looking ahead; interesting myself in what was in the +distance, rather than what was near by or behind. The vessels, sweeping +along the bay, were very interesting objects. The broad bay opened +like a shoreless ocean on my boyish vision, filling me with wonder and +admiration. + +Late in the afternoon, we reached Annapolis, the capital of the state, +stopping there not long enough to admit of my going ashore. It was the +first large town I had ever seen; and though it was inferior to many a +factory village in New England, my feelings, on seeing it, were excited +to a pitch very little below that reached by travelers at the first +view of Rome. The dome of the state house was especially imposing, and +surpassed in grandeur the appearance of the great house. The great world +was opening upon me very rapidly, and I was eagerly acquainting myself +with its multifarious lessons. + +We arrived in Baltimore on Sunday morning, and landed at Smith's wharf, +not far from Bowly's wharf. We had on board the sloop a large flock of +sheep, for the Baltimore market; and, after assisting in driving them +to the slaughter house of Mr. Curtis, on Loudon Slater's Hill, I was +speedily conducted by Rich--one of the hands belonging to the sloop--to +my new home in Alliciana street, near Gardiner's ship-yard, on Fell's +Point. Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Auld, my new mistress and master, were both at +home, and met me at the door with their rosy cheeked little son, Thomas, +{108} to take care of whom was to constitute my future occupation. In +fact, it was to "little Tommy," rather than to his parents, that old +master made a present of me; and though there was no _legal_ form or +arrangement entered into, I have no doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Auld felt +that, in due time, I should be the legal property of their bright-eyed +and beloved boy, Tommy. I was struck with the appearance, especially, of +my new mistress. Her face was lighted with the kindliest emotions; and +the reflex influence of her countenance, as well as the tenderness with +which she seemed to regard me, while asking me sundry little questions, +greatly delighted me, and lit up, to my fancy, the pathway of my future. +Miss Lucretia was kind; but my new mistress, "Miss Sophy," surpassed +her in kindness of manner. Little Thomas was affectionately told by his +mother, that _"there was his Freddy,"_ and that "Freddy would take care +of him;" and I was told to "be kind to little Tommy"--an injunction I +scarcely needed, for I had already fallen in love with the dear boy; +and with these little ceremonies I was initiated into my new home, and +entered upon my peculiar duties, with not a cloud above the horizon. + +I may say here, that I regard my removal from Col. Lloyd's plantation as +one of the most interesting and fortunate events of my life. Viewing it +in the light of human likelihoods, it is quite probable that, but for +the mere circumstance of being thus removed before the rigors of slavery +had fastened upon me; before my young spirit had been crushed under the +iron control of the slave-driver, instead of being, today, a FREEMAN, I +might have been wearing the galling chains of slavery. I have sometimes +felt, however, that there was something more intelligent than _chance_, +and something more certain than _luck_, to be seen in the circumstance. +If I have made any progress in knowledge; if I have cherished any +honorable aspirations, or have, in any manner, worthily discharged the +duties of a member of an oppressed people; this little circumstance must +be allowed its due weight{109} in giving my life that direction. I have +ever regarded it as the first plain manifestation of that + + _Divinity that shapes our ends, + Rough hew them as we will_. + + +I was not the only boy on the plantation that might have been sent to +live in Baltimore. There was a wide margin from which to select. There +were boys younger, boys older, and boys of the same age, belonging to +my old master some at his own house, and some at his farm--but the high +privilege fell to my lot. + +I may be deemed superstitious and egotistical, in regarding this event +as a special interposition of Divine Providence in my favor; but the +thought is a part of my history, and I should be false to the earliest +and most cherished sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed, or hesitated +to avow that opinion, although it may be characterized as irrational by +the wise, and ridiculous by the scoffer. From my earliest recollections +of serious matters, I date the entertainment of something like an +ineffaceable conviction, that slavery would not always be able to hold +me within its foul embrace; and this conviction, like a word of living +faith, strengthened me through the darkest trials of my lot. This good +spirit was from God; and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise. + + + + +CHAPTER X. _Life in Baltimore_ + +CITY ANNOYANCES--PLANTATION REGRETS--MY MISTRESS, MISS SOPHA--HER +HISTORY--HER KINDNESS TO ME--MY MASTER, HUGH AULD--HIS SOURNESS--MY +INCREASED SENSITIVENESS--MY COMFORTS--MY OCCUPATION--THE BANEFUL EFFECTS +OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY DEAR AND GOOD MISTRESS--HOW SHE COMMENCED TEACHING +ME TO READ--WHY SHE CEASED TEACHING ME--CLOUDS GATHERING OVER MY +BRIGHT PROSPECTS--MASTER AULD'S EXPOSITION OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF +SLAVERY--CITY SLAVES--PLANTATION SLAVES--THE CONTRAST--EXCEPTIONS--MR. +HAMILTON'S TWO SLAVES, HENRIETTA AND MARY--MRS. HAMILTON'S CRUEL +TREATMENT OF THEM--THE PITEOUS ASPECT THEY PRESENTED--NO POWER MUST COME +BETWEEN THE SLAVE AND THE SLAVEHOLDER. + + +Once in Baltimore, with hard brick pavements under my feet, which almost +raised blisters, by their very heat, for it was in the height of summer; +walled in on all sides by towering brick buildings; with troops of +hostile boys ready to pounce upon me at every street corner; with new +and strange objects glaring upon me at every step, and with startling +sounds reaching my ears from all directions, I for a time thought that, +after all, the home plantation was a more desirable place of residence +than my home on Alliciana street, in Baltimore. My country eyes and ears +were confused and bewildered here; but the boys were my chief trouble. +They chased me, and called me _"Eastern Shore man,"_ till really I +almost wished myself back on the Eastern Shore. I had to undergo a sort +of moral acclimation, and when that was over, I did much better. My new +mistress happily proved to be all she _seemed_ to be, when, with her +husband, she met me at{111} the door, with a most beaming, benignant +countenance. She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, kind, +gentle and cheerful. The supercilious contempt for the rights and +feelings of the slave, and the petulance and bad humor which generally +characterize slaveholding ladies, were all quite absent from kind "Miss" +Sophia's manner and bearing toward me. She had, in truth, never been +a slaveholder, but had--a thing quite unusual in the south--depended +almost entirely upon her own industry for a living. To this fact the +dear lady, no doubt, owed the excellent preservation of her natural +goodness of heart, for slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an +angel into a demon. I hardly knew how to behave toward "Miss Sopha," +as I used to call Mrs. Hugh Auld. I had been treated as a _pig_ on the +plantation; I was treated as a _child_ now. I could not even approach +her as I had formerly approached Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang down +my head, and speak with bated breath, when there was no pride to scorn +me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to inspire me with fear? I +therefore soon learned to regard her as something more akin to a mother, +than a slaveholding mistress. The crouching servility of a slave, +usually so acceptable a quality to the haughty slaveholder, was not +understood nor desired by this gentle woman. So far from deeming +it impudent in a slave to look her straight in the face, as some +slaveholding ladies do, she seemed ever to say, "look up, child; don't +be afraid; see, I am full of kindness and good will toward you." The +hands belonging to Col. Lloyd's sloop, esteemed it a great privilege to +be the bearers of parcels or messages to my new mistress; for whenever +they came, they were sure of a most kind and pleasant reception. If +little Thomas was her son, and her most dearly beloved child, she, for +a time, at least, made me something like his half-brother in her +affections. If dear Tommy was exalted to a place on his mother's knee, +"Feddy" was honored by a place at his mother's side. Nor did he lack +the caressing strokes of her gentle hand, to convince him that, though +_motherless_, he was not _friendless_. Mrs. Auld{112} was not only +a kind-hearted woman, but she was remarkably pious; frequent in her +attendance of public worship, much given to reading the bible, and to +chanting hymns of praise, when alone. Mr. Hugh Auld was altogether a +different character. He cared very little about religion, knew more +of the world, and was more of the world, than his wife. He set out, +doubtless to be--as the world goes--a respectable man, and to get on by +becoming a successful ship builder, in that city of ship building. This +was his ambition, and it fully occupied him. I was, of course, of very +little consequence to him, compared with what I was to good Mrs. Auld; +and, when he smiled upon me, as he sometimes did, the smile was borrowed +from his lovely wife, and, like all borrowed light, was transient, +and vanished with the source whence it was derived. While I must +characterize Master Hugh as being a very sour man, and of forbidding +appearance, it is due to him to acknowledge, that he was never very +cruel to me, according to the notion of cruelty in Maryland. The first +year or two which I spent in his house, he left me almost exclusively to +the management of his wife. She was my law-giver. In hands so tender as +hers, and in the absence of the cruelties of the plantation, I became, +both physically and mentally, much more sensitive to good and ill +treatment; and, perhaps, suffered more from a frown from my mistress, +than I formerly did from a cuff at the hands of Aunt Katy. Instead +of the cold, damp floor of my old master's kitchen, I found myself on +carpets; for the corn bag in winter, I now had a good straw bed, well +furnished with covers; for the coarse corn-meal in the morning, I now +had good bread, and mush occasionally; for my poor tow-lien shirt, +reaching to my knees, I had good, clean clothes. I was really well off. +My employment was to run errands, and to take care of Tommy; to prevent +his getting in the way of carriages, and to keep him out of harm's way +generally. Tommy, and I, and his mother, got on swimmingly together, for +a time. I say _for a time_, because the fatal poison of irresponsible +power, and the natural influence{113} of slavery customs, were not long +in making a suitable impression on the gentle and loving disposition of +my excellent mistress. At first, Mrs. Auld evidently regarded me simply +as a child, like any other child; she had not come to regard me as +_property_. This latter thought was a thing of conventional growth. The +first was natural and spontaneous. A noble nature, like hers, could not, +instantly, be wholly perverted; and it took several years to change the +natural sweetness of her temper into fretful bitterness. In her worst +estate, however, there were, during the first seven years I lived with +her, occasional returns of her former kindly disposition. + +The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the bible for she often read +aloud when her husband was absent soon awakened my curiosity in respect +to this _mystery_ of reading, and roused in me the desire to learn. +Having no fear of my kind mistress before my eyes, (she had then given +me no reason to fear,) I frankly asked her to teach me to read; and, +without hesitation, the dear woman began the task, and very soon, by her +assistance, I was master of the alphabet, and could spell words of three +or four letters. My mistress seemed almost as proud of my progress, as +if I had been her own child; and, supposing that her husband would be as +well pleased, she made no secret of what she was doing for me. Indeed, +she exultingly told him of the aptness of her pupil, of her intention to +persevere in teaching me, and of the duty which she felt it to teach +me, at least to read _the bible_. Here arose the first cloud over my +Baltimore prospects, the precursor of drenching rains and chilling +blasts. + +Master Hugh was amazed at the simplicity of his spouse, and, probably +for the first time, he unfolded to her the true philosophy of slavery, +and the peculiar rules necessary to be observed by masters and +mistresses, in the management of their human chattels. Mr. Auld promptly +forbade continuance of her instruction; telling her, in the first place, +that the thing itself was unlawful; that it was also unsafe, and could +only lead to mischief. To use{114} his own words, further, he said, "if +you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell;" "he should know nothing +but the will of his master, and learn to obey it." "if you teach that +nigger--speaking of myself--how to read the bible, there will be no +keeping him;" "it would forever unfit him for the duties of a slave;" +and "as to himself, learning would do him no good, but probably, a great +deal of harm--making him disconsolate and unhappy." "If you learn him +now to read, he'll want to know how to write; and, this accomplished, +he'll be running away with himself." Such was the tenor of Master Hugh's +oracular exposition of the true philosophy of training a human chattel; +and it must be confessed that he very clearly comprehended the nature +and the requirements of the relation of master and slave. His discourse +was the first decidedly anti-slavery lecture to which it had been my lot +to listen. Mrs. Auld evidently felt the force of his remarks; and, like +an obedient wife, began to shape her course in the direction indicated +by her husband. The effect of his words, _on me_, was neither slight nor +transitory. His iron sentences--cold and harsh--sunk deep into my +heart, and stirred up not only my feelings into a sort of rebellion, but +awakened within me a slumbering train of vital thought. It was a new +and special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery, against which my +youthful understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit: the +_white_ man's power to perpetuate the enslavement of the _black_ man. +"Very well," thought I; "knowledge unfits a child to be a slave." +I instinctively assented to the proposition; and from that moment I +understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom. This was just +what I needed; and I got it at a time, and from a source, whence I least +expected it. I was saddened at the thought of losing the assistance of +my kind mistress; but the information, so instantly derived, to some +extent compensated me for the loss I had sustained in this direction. +Wise as Mr. Auld was, he evidently underrated my comprehension, and +had little idea of the use to which I was capable of putting{115} the +impressive lesson he was giving to his wife. _He_ wanted me to be _a +slave;_ I had already voted against that on the home plantation of Col. +Lloyd. That which he most loved I most hated; and the very determination +which he expressed to keep me in ignorance, only rendered me the more +resolute in seeking intelligence. In learning to read, therefore, I am +not sure that I do not owe quite as much to the opposition of my master, +as to the kindly assistance of my amiable mistress. I acknowledge the +benefit rendered me by the one, and by the other; believing, that but +for my mistress, I might have grown up in ignorance. + +I had resided but a short time in Baltimore, before I observed a marked +difference in the manner of treating slaves, generally, from which I had +witnessed in that isolated and out-of-the-way part of the country where +I began life. A city slave is almost a free citizen, in Baltimore, +compared with a slave on Col. Lloyd's plantation. He is much better fed +and clothed, is less dejected in his appearance, and enjoys privileges +altogether unknown to the whip-driven slave on the plantation. +Slavery dislikes a dense population, in which there is a majority of +non-slaveholders. The general sense of decency that must pervade such a +population, does much to check and prevent those outbreaks of atrocious +cruelty, and those dark crimes without a name, almost openly perpetrated +on the plantation. He is a desperate slaveholder who will shock +the humanity of his non-slaveholding neighbors, by the cries of the +lacerated slaves; and very few in the city are willing to incur the +odium of being cruel masters. I found, in Baltimore, that no man was +more odious to the white, as well as to the colored people, than he, who +had the reputation of starving his slaves. Work them, flog them, if need +be, but don't starve them. These are, however, some painful exceptions +to this rule. While it is quite true that most of the slaveholders in +Baltimore feed and clothe their slaves well, there are others who keep +up their country cruelties in the city. + +An instance of this sort is furnished in the case of a family{116} +who lived directly opposite to our house, and were named Hamilton. Mrs. +Hamilton owned two slaves. Their names were Henrietta and Mary. They had +always been house slaves. One was aged about twenty-two, and the other +about fourteen. They were a fragile couple by nature, and the treatment +they received was enough to break down the constitution of a horse. Of +all the dejected, emaciated, mangled and excoriated creatures I ever +saw, those two girls--in the refined, church going and Christian city +of Baltimore were the most deplorable. Of stone must that heart be made, +that could look upon Henrietta and Mary, without being sickened to the +core with sadness. Especially was Mary a heart-sickening object. +Her head, neck and shoulders, were literally cut to pieces. I have +frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered over with +festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do not know +that her master ever whipped her, but I have often been an eye witness +of the revolting and brutal inflictions by Mrs. Hamilton; and what lends +a deeper shade to this woman's conduct, is the fact, that, almost in the +very moments of her shocking outrages of humanity and decency, she would +charm you by the sweetness of her voice and her seeming piety. She used +to sit in a large rocking chair, near the middle of the room, with a +heavy cowskin, such as I have elsewhere described; and I speak within +the truth when I say, that these girls seldom passed that chair, during +the day, without a blow from that cowskin, either upon their bare arms, +or upon their shoulders. As they passed her, she would draw her cowskin +and give them a blow, saying, _"move faster, you black jip!"_ and, +again, _"take that, you black jip!"_ continuing, _"if you don't move +faster, I will give you more."_ Then the lady would go on, singing her +sweet hymns, as though her _righteous_ soul were sighing for the holy +realms of paradise. + +Added to the cruel lashings to which these poor slave-girls were +subjected--enough in themselves to crush the spirit of men--they were, +really, kept nearly half starved; they seldom knew{117} what it was to +eat a full meal, except when they got it in the kitchens of neighbors, +less mean and stingy than the psalm-singing Mrs. Hamilton. I have seen +poor Mary contending for the offal, with the pigs in the street. So much +was the poor girl pinched, kicked, cut and pecked to pieces, that the +boys in the street knew her only by the name of _"pecked,"_ a name +derived from the scars and blotches on her neck, head and shoulders. + +It is some relief to this picture of slavery in Baltimore, to say--what +is but the simple truth--that Mrs. Hamilton's treatment of her slaves +was generally condemned, as disgraceful and shocking; but while I say +this, it must also be remembered, that the very parties who censured the +cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton, would have condemned and promptly punished any +attempt to interfere with Mrs. Hamilton's _right_ to cut and slash +her slaves to pieces. There must be no force between the slave and the +slaveholder, to restrain the power of the one, and protect the weakness +of the other; and the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton is as justly chargeable +to the upholders of the slave system, as drunkenness is chargeable +on those who, by precept and example, or by indifference, uphold the +drinking system. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. _"A Change Came O'er the Spirit of My Dream"_ + +HOW I LEARNED TO READ--MY MISTRESS--HER SLAVEHOLDING DUTIES--THEIR +DEPLORABLE EFFECTS UPON HER ORIGINALLY NOBLE NATURE--THE CONFLICT IN HER +MIND--HER FINAL OPPOSITION TO MY LEARNING TO READ--TOO LATE--SHE HAD +GIVEN ME THE INCH, I WAS RESOLVED TO TAKE THE ELL--HOW I PURSUED +MY EDUCATION--MY TUTORS--HOW I COMPENSATED THEM--WHAT PROGRESS I +MADE--SLAVERY--WHAT I HEARD SAID ABOUT IT--THIRTEEN YEARS OLD--THE +_Columbian Orator_--A RICH SCENE--A DIALOGUE--SPEECHES OF CHATHAM, +SHERIDAN, PITT AND FOX--KNOWLEDGE EVER INCREASING--MY EYES +OPENED--LIBERTY--HOW I PINED FOR IT--MY SADNESS--THE DISSATISFACTION OF +MY POOR MISTRESS--MY HATRED OF SLAVERY--ONE UPAS TREE OVERSHADOWED US +BOTH. + + +I lived in the family of Master Hugh, at Baltimore, seven years, during +which time--as the almanac makers say of the weather--my condition +was variable. The most interesting feature of my history here, was my +learning to read and write, under somewhat marked disadvantages. In +attaining this knowledge, I was compelled to resort to indirections by +no means congenial to my nature, and which were really humiliating to +me. My mistress--who, as the reader has already seen, had begun to teach +me was suddenly checked in her benevolent design, by the strong advice +of her husband. In faithful compliance with this advice, the good lady +had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, but had set her face as a +flint against my learning to read by any means. It is due, however, +to my mistress to say, that she did not adopt this course in all its +stringency at the first. She either thought it unnecessary, or she +lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in{119} mental +darkness. It was, at least, necessary for her to have some training, +and some hardening, in the exercise of the slaveholder's prerogative, +to make her equal to forgetting my human nature and character, and to +treating me as a thing destitute of a moral or an intellectual +nature. Mrs. Auld--my mistress--was, as I have said, a most kind +and tender-hearted woman; and, in the humanity of her heart, and the +simplicity of her mind, she set out, when I first went to live with her, +to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another. + +It is easy to see, that, in entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, +some little experience is needed. Nature has done almost nothing to +prepare men and women to be either slaves or slaveholders. Nothing but +rigid training, long persisted in, can perfect the character of the one +or the other. One cannot easily forget to love freedom; and it is as +hard to cease to respect that natural love in our fellow creatures. +On entering upon the career of a slaveholding mistress, Mrs. Auld was +singularly deficient; nature, which fits nobody for such an office, had +done less for her than any lady I had known. It was no easy matter to +induce her to think and to feel that the curly-headed boy, who stood by +her side, and even leaned on her lap; who was loved by little Tommy, and +who loved little Tommy in turn; sustained to her only the relation of a +chattel. I was _more_ than that, and she felt me to be more than that. +I could talk and sing; I could laugh and weep; I could reason and +remember; I could love and hate. I was human, and she, dear lady, knew +and felt me to be so. How could she, then, treat me as a brute, without +a mighty struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul. That +struggle came, and the will and power of the husband was victorious. Her +noble soul was overthrown; but, he that overthrew it did not, himself, +escape the consequences. He, not less than the other parties, was +injured in his domestic peace by the fall. + +When I went into their family, it was the abode of happiness and +contentment. The mistress of the house was a model of affection{120} +and tenderness. Her fervent piety and watchful uprightness made it +impossible to see her without thinking and feeling--"_that woman is a +Christian_." There was no sorrow nor suffering for which she had not a +tear, and there was no innocent joy for which she did not a smile. She +had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every +mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability +to divest her of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early +happiness. Conscience cannot stand much violence. Once thoroughly broken +down, _who_ is he that can repair the damage? It may be broken toward +the slave, on Sunday, and toward the master on Monday. It cannot endure +such shocks. It must stand entire, or it does not stand at all. If my +condition waxed bad, that of the family waxed not better. The first +step, in the wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and to +conscience, in arresting the benevolence that would have enlightened my +young mind. In ceasing to instruct me, she must begin to justify herself +_to_ herself; and, once consenting to take sides in such a debate, she +was riveted to her position. One needs very little knowledge of moral +philosophy, to see _where_ my mistress now landed. She finally became +even more violent in her opposition to my learning to read, than was her +husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as _well_ +as her husband had commanded her, but seemed resolved to better his +instruction. Nothing appeared to make my poor mistress--after her +turning toward the downward path--more angry, than seeing me, seated in +some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or a newspaper. I have +had her rush at me, with the utmost fury, and snatch from my hand such +newspaper or book, with something of the wrath and consternation which a +traitor might be supposed to feel on being discovered in a plot by some +dangerous spy. + +Mrs. Auld was an apt woman, and the advice of her husband, and her +own experience, soon demonstrated, to her entire satisfaction, that +education and slavery are incompatible with each other. When this +conviction was thoroughly established, I was{121} most narrowly watched +in all my movements. If I remained in a separate room from the family +for any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of +having a book, and was at once called upon to give an account of myself. +All this, however, was entirely _too late_. The first, and never to be +retraced, step had been taken. In teaching me the alphabet, in the days +of her simplicity and kindness, my mistress had given me the _"inch,"_ +and now, no ordinary precaution could prevent me from taking the +_"ell."_ + +Seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, I hit upon +many expedients to accomplish the desired end. The plea which I mainly +adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of using +my young white playmates, with whom I met in the streets as teachers. I +used to carry, almost constantly, a copy of Webster's spelling book in +my pocket; and, when sent of errands, or when play time was allowed +me, I would step, with my young friends, aside, and take a lesson in +spelling. I generally paid my _tuition fee_ to the boys, with bread, +which I also carried in my pocket. For a single biscuit, any of my +hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than +bread. Not every one, however, demanded this consideration, for there +were those who took pleasure in teaching me, whenever I had a chance +to be taught by them. I am strongly tempted to give the names of two or +three of those little boys, as a slight testimonial of the gratitude and +affection I bear them, but prudence forbids; not that it would injure +me, but it might, possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an +unpardonable offense to do any thing, directly or indirectly, to +promote a slave's freedom, in a slave state. It is enough to say, of +my warm-hearted little play fellows, that they lived on Philpot street, +very near Durgin & Bailey's shipyard. + +Although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked +about among grown up people in Maryland, I frequently talked about +it--and that very freely--with the white boys. I{122} would, sometimes, +say to them, while seated on a curb stone or a cellar door, "I wish +I could be free, as you will be when you get to be men." "You will be +free, you know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and can go where you +like, but I am a slave for life. Have I not as good a right to be free +as you have?" Words like these, I observed, always troubled them; and I +had no small satisfaction in wringing from the boys, occasionally, that +fresh and bitter condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature, +unseared and unperverted. Of all consciences let me have those to deal +with which have not been bewildered by the cares of life. I do not +remember ever to have met with a _boy_, while I was in slavery, who +defended the slave system; but I have often had boys to console me, with +the hope that something would yet occur, by which I might be made free. +Over and over again, they have told me, that "they believed I had as +good a right to be free as _they_ had;" and that "they did not believe +God ever made any one to be a slave." The reader will easily see, that +such little conversations with my play fellows, had no tendency to +weaken my love of liberty, nor to render me contented with my condition +as a slave. + +When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning +to read, every increase of knowledge, especially respecting the +FREE STATES, added something to the almost intolerable burden of the +thought--I AM A SLAVE FOR LIFE. To my bondage I saw no end. It was +a terrible reality, and I shall never be able to tell how sadly that +thought chafed my young spirit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, about +this time in my life, I had made enough money to buy what was then a +very popular school book, viz: the _Columbian Orator_. I bought this +addition to my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, Fell's Point, +Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents for it. I was first led to buy this +book, by hearing some little boys say they were going to learn some +little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. This volume was, indeed, a +rich treasure, and every opportunity afforded me, for{123} a time, was +spent in diligently perusing it. Among much other interesting matter, +that which I had perused and reperused with unflagging satisfaction, +was a short dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave is +represented as having been recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; +and the master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging +the slave with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say +in his own defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called upon to reply, the +slave rejoins, that he knows how little anything that he can say will +avail, seeing that he is completely in the hands of his owner; and with +noble resolution, calmly says, "I submit to my fate." Touched by the +slave's answer, the master insists upon his further speaking, and +recapitulates the many acts of kindness which he has performed toward +the slave, and tells him he is permitted to speak for himself. Thus +invited to the debate, the quondam slave made a spirited defense of +himself, and thereafter the whole argument, for and against slavery, was +brought out. The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument; +and seeing himself to be thus vanquished, he generously and meekly +emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. It is +scarcely neccessary(sic) to say, that a dialogue, with such an origin, +and such an ending--read when the fact of my being a slave was a +constant burden of grief--powerfully affected me; and I could not help +feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed answers made by +the slave to the master, in this instance, would find their counterpart +in myself. + +This, however, was not all the fanaticism which I found in this +_Columbian Orator_. I met there one of Sheridan's mighty speeches, +on the subject of Catholic Emancipation, Lord Chatham's speech on the +American war, and speeches by the great William Pitt and by Fox. These +were all choice documents to me, and I read them, over and over again, +with an interest that was ever increasing, because it was ever gaining +in intelligence; for the more I read them, the better I understood them. +The reading of{124} these speeches added much to my limited stock of +language, and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting thoughts, +which had frequently flashed through my soul, and died away for want +of utterance. The mighty power and heart-searching directness of truth, +penetrating even the heart of a slaveholder, compelling him to yield +up his earthly interests to the claims of eternal justice, were finely +illustrated in the dialogue, just referred to; and from the speeches of +Sheridan, I got a bold and powerful denunciation of oppression, and a +most brilliant vindication of the rights of man. Here was, indeed, a +noble acquisition. If I ever wavered under the consideration, that the +Almighty, in some way, ordained slavery, and willed my enslavement for +his own glory, I wavered no longer. I had now penetrated the secret of +all slavery and oppression, and had ascertained their true foundation to +be in the pride, the power and the avarice of man. The dialogue and +the speeches were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and poured +floods of light on the nature and character of slavery. With a book +of this kind in my hand, my own human nature, and the facts of my +experience, to help me, I was equal to a contest with the religious +advocates of slavery, whether among the whites or among the colored +people, for blindness, in this matter, is not confined to the former. I +have met many religious colored people, at the south, who are under the +delusion that God requires them to submit to slavery, and to wear their +chains with meekness and humility. I could entertain no such nonsense +as this; and I almost lost my patience when I found any colored man weak +enough to believe such stuff. Nevertheless, the increase of knowledge +was attended with bitter, as well as sweet results. The more I read, +the more I was led to abhor and detest slavery, and my enslavers. +"Slaveholders," thought I, "are only a band of successful robbers, who +left their homes and went into Africa for the purpose of stealing and +reducing my people to slavery." I loathed them as the meanest and +the most wicked of men. As I read, behold! the very discontent so +graphically pre{125} dicted by Master Hugh, had already come upon me. I +was no longer the light-hearted, gleesome boy, full of mirth and play, +as when I landed first at Baltimore. Knowledge had come; light had +penetrated the moral dungeon where I dwelt; and, behold! there lay the +bloody whip, for my back, and here was the iron chain; and my good, +_kind master_, he was the author of my situation. The revelation haunted +me, stung me, and made me gloomy and miserable. As I writhed under the +sting and torment of this knowledge, I almost envied my fellow slaves +their stupid contentment. This knowledge opened my eyes to the horrible +pit, and revealed the teeth of the frightful dragon that was ready to +pounce upon me, but it opened no way for my escape. I have often wished +myself a beast, or a bird--anything, rather than a slave. I was wretched +and gloomy, beyond my ability to describe. I was too thoughtful to be +happy. It was this everlasting thinking which distressed and tormented +me; and yet there was no getting rid of the subject of my thoughts. +All nature was redolent of it. Once awakened by the silver trump of +knowledge, my spirit was roused to eternal wakefulness. Liberty! the +inestimable birthright of every man, had, for me, converted every object +into an asserter of this great right. It was heard in every sound, and +beheld in every object. It was ever present, to torment me with a sense +of my wretched condition. The more beautiful and charming were the +smiles of nature, the more horrible and desolate was my condition. I saw +nothing without seeing it, and I heard nothing without hearing it. I do +not exaggerate, when I say, that it looked from every star, smiled in +every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm. + +I have no doubt that my state of mind had something to do with the +change in the treatment adopted, by my once kind mistress toward me. I +can easily believe, that my leaden, downcast, and discontented look, +was very offensive to her. Poor lady! She did not know my trouble, and +I dared not tell her. Could I have freely made her acquainted with the +real state of my mind, and{126} given her the reasons therefor, it +might have been well for both of us. Her abuse of me fell upon me like +the blows of the false prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an +_angel_ stood in the way; and--such is the relation of master and slave +I could not tell her. Nature had made us _friends;_ slavery made us +_enemies_. My interests were in a direction opposite to hers, and we +both had our private thoughts and plans. She aimed to keep me ignorant; +and I resolved to know, although knowledge only increased my discontent. +My feelings were not the result of any marked cruelty in the treatment I +received; they sprung from the consideration of my being a slave at all. +It was _slavery_--not its mere _incidents_--that I hated. I had been +cheated. I saw through the attempt to keep me in ignorance; I saw that +slaveholders would have gladly made me believe that they were merely +acting under the authority of God, in making a slave of me, and in +making slaves of others; and I treated them as robbers and deceivers. +The feeding and clothing me well, could not atone for taking my liberty +from me. The smiles of my mistress could not remove the deep sorrow that +dwelt in my young bosom. Indeed, these, in time, came only to deepen +my sorrow. She had changed; and the reader will see that I had changed, +too. We were both victims to the same overshadowing evil--_she_, as +mistress, I, as slave. I will not censure her harshly; she cannot +censure me, for she knows I speak but the truth, and have acted in +my opposition to slavery, just as she herself would have acted, in a +reverse of circumstances. + + + +CHAPTER XII. _Religious Nature Awakened_ + +ABOLITIONISTS SPOKEN OF--MY EAGERNESS TO KNOW WHAT THIS WORD MEANT--MY +CONSULTATION OF THE DICTIONARY--INCENDIARY INFORMATION--HOW AND WHERE +DERIVED--THE ENIGMA SOLVED--NATHANIEL TURNER'S INSURRECTION--THE +CHOLERA--RELIGION--FIRST AWAKENED BY A METHODIST MINISTER NAMED +HANSON--MY DEAR AND GOOD OLD COLORED FRIEND, LAWSON--HIS CHARACTER AND +OCCUPATION--HIS INFLUENCE OVER ME--OUR MUTUAL ATTACHMENT--THE COMFORT +I DERIVED FROM HIS TEACHING--NEW HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS--HEAVENLY +LIGHT AMIDST EARTHLY DARKNESS--THE TWO IRISHMEN ON THE WHARF--THEIR +CONVERSATION--HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE--WHAT WERE MY AIMS. + + +Whilst in the painful state of mind described in the foregoing chapter, +almost regretting my very existence, because doomed to a life of +bondage, so goaded and so wretched, at times, that I was even tempted to +destroy my own life, I was keenly sensitive and eager to know any, +and every thing that transpired, having any relation to the subject of +slavery. I was all ears, all eyes, whenever the words _slave, slavery_, +dropped from the lips of any white person, and the occasions were not +unfrequent when these words became leading ones, in high, social debate, +at our house. Every little while, I could hear Master Hugh, or some +of his company, speaking with much warmth and excitement about +_"abolitionists."_ Of _who_ or _what_ these were, I was totally +ignorant. I found, however, that whatever they might be, they were most +cordially hated and soundly abused by slaveholders, of every grade. I +very soon discovered, too, that slavery was, in some{128} sort, under +consideration, whenever the abolitionists were alluded to. This made the +term a very interesting one to me. If a slave, for instance, had made +good his escape from slavery, it was generally alleged, that he had been +persuaded and assisted by the abolitionists. If, also, a slave killed +his master--as was sometimes the case--or struck down his overseer, or +set fire to his master's dwelling, or committed any violence or crime, +out of the common way, it was certain to be said, that such a crime was +the legitimate fruits of the abolition movement. Hearing such charges +often repeated, I, naturally enough, received the impression that +abolition--whatever else it might be--could not be unfriendly to the +slave, nor very friendly to the slaveholder. I therefore set about +finding out, if possible, _who_ and _what_ the abolitionists were, +and _why_ they were so obnoxious to the slaveholders. The dictionary +afforded me very little help. It taught me that abolition was the "act +of abolishing;" but it left me in ignorance at the very point where +I most wanted information--and that was, as to the _thing_ to be +abolished. A city newspaper, the _Baltimore American_, gave me the +incendiary information denied me by the dictionary. In its columns I +found, that, on a certain day, a vast number of petitions and memorials +had been presented to congress, praying for the abolition of slavery +in the District of Columbia, and for the abolition of the slave trade +between the states of the Union. This was enough. The vindictive +bitterness, the marked caution, the studied reverse, and the cumbrous +ambiguity, practiced by our white folks, when alluding to this subject, +was now fully explained. Ever, after that, when I heard the words +"abolition," or "abolition movement," mentioned, I felt the matter one +of a personal concern; and I drew near to listen, when I could do so, +without seeming too solicitous and prying. There was HOPE in those +words. Ever and anon, too, I could see some terrible denunciation of +slavery, in our papers--copied from abolition papers at the north--and +the injustice of such denunciation commented on. These I read with +avidity.{129} I had a deep satisfaction in the thought, that the +rascality of slaveholders was not concealed from the eyes of the world, +and that I was not alone in abhorring the cruelty and brutality of +slavery. A still deeper train of thought was stirred. I saw that +there was _fear_, as well as _rage_, in the manner of speaking of the +abolitionists. The latter, therefore, I was compelled to regard as +having some power in the country; and I felt that they might, possibly, +succeed in their designs. When I met with a slave to whom I deemed +it safe to talk on the subject, I would impart to him so much of the +mystery as I had been able to penetrate. Thus, the light of this grand +movement broke in upon my mind, by degrees; and I must say, that, +ignorant as I then was of the philosophy of that movement, I believe in +it from the first--and I believed in it, partly, because I saw that it +alarmed the consciences of slaveholders. The insurrection of Nathaniel +Turner had been quelled, but the alarm and terror had not subsided. The +cholera was on its way, and the thought was present, that God was angry +with the white people because of their slaveholding wickedness, and, +therefore, his judgments were abroad in the land. It was impossible for +me not to hope much from the abolition movement, when I saw it supported +by the Almighty, and armed with DEATH! + +Previous to my contemplation of the anti-slavery movement, and its +probable results, my mind had been seriously awakened to the subject of +religion. I was not more than thirteen years old, when I felt the need +of God, as a father and protector. My religious nature was awakened by +the preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson. He thought +that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight +of God; that they were, by nature, rebels against His government; and +that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God, through +Christ. I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what was +required of me; but one thing I knew very well--I was wretched, and had +no means of making myself otherwise. Moreover, I knew that I could pray +for light. I consulted a good colored man, named{130} Charles Johnson; +and, in tones of holy affection, he told me to pray, and what to pray +for. I was, for weeks, a poor, brokenhearted mourner, traveling through +the darkness and misery of doubts and fears. I finally found that change +of heart which comes by "casting all one's care" upon God, and by having +faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Friend, and Savior of those who +diligently seek Him. + +After this, I saw the world in a new light. I seemed to live in a new +world, surrounded by new objects, and to be animated by new hopes +and desires. I loved all mankind--slaveholders not excepted; though I +abhorred slavery more than ever. My great concern was, now, to have the +world converted. The desire for knowledge increased, and especially did +I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the bible. I have +gathered scattered pages from this holy book, from the filthy street +gutters of Baltimore, and washed and dried them, that in the moments of +my leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them. While thus +religiously seeking knowledge, I became acquainted with a good old +colored man, named Lawson. A more devout man than he, I never saw. He +drove a dray for Mr. James Ramsey, the owner of a rope-walk on Fell's +Point, Baltimore. This man not only prayed three time a day, but he +prayed as he walked through the streets, at his work--on his dray +everywhere. His life was a life of prayer, and his words (when he spoke +to his friends,) were about a better world. Uncle Lawson lived near +Master Hugh's house; and, becoming deeply attached to the old man, I +went often with him to prayer-meeting, and spent much of my leisure time +with him on Sunday. The old man could read a little, and I was a great +help to him, in making out the hard words, for I was a better reader +than he. I could teach him _"the letter,"_ but he could teach me _"the +spirit;"_ and high, refreshing times we had together, in singing, +praying and glorifying God. These meetings with Uncle Lawson went on for +a long time, without the knowledge of Master Hugh or my mistress. Both +knew, how{131} ever, that I had become religious, and they seemed to +respect my conscientious piety. My mistress was still a professor of +religion, and belonged to class. Her leader was no less a person than +the Rev. Beverly Waugh, the presiding elder, and now one of the bishops +of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Waugh was then stationed over +Wilk street church. I am careful to state these facts, that the reader +may be able to form an idea of the precise influences which had to do +with shaping and directing my mind. + +In view of the cares and anxieties incident to the life she was then +leading, and, especially, in view of the separation from religious +associations to which she was subjected, my mistress had, as I have +before stated, become lukewarm, and needed to be looked up by her +leader. This brought Mr. Waugh to our house, and gave me an opportunity +to hear him exhort and pray. But my chief instructor, in matters of +religion, was Uncle Lawson. He was my spiritual father; and I loved him +intensely, and was at his house every chance I got. + +This pleasure was not long allowed me. Master Hugh became averse to my +going to Father Lawson's, and threatened to whip me if I ever went there +again. I now felt myself persecuted by a wicked man; and I _would_ go to +Father Lawson's, notwithstanding the threat. The good old man had told +me, that the "Lord had a great work for me to do;" and I must prepare +to do it; and that he had been shown that I must preach the gospel. His +words made a deep impression on my mind, and I verily felt that some +such work was before me, though I could not see _how_ I should ever +engage in its performance. "The good Lord," he said, "would bring it to +pass in his own good time," and that I must go on reading and studying +the scriptures. The advice and the suggestions of Uncle Lawson, were +not without their influence upon my character and destiny. He threw my +thoughts into a channel from which they have never entirely diverged. He +fanned my already intense love of knowledge into a flame, by assuring +me that I was to be a useful man in the world. When I would{132} say +to him, "How can these things be and what can _I_ do?" his simple reply +was, _"Trust in the Lord."_ When I told him that "I was a slave, and +a slave FOR LIFE," he said, "the Lord can make you free, my dear. All +things are possible with him, only _have faith in God."_ "Ask, and it +shall be given." "If you want liberty," said the good old man, "ask the +Lord for it, _in faith_, AND HE WILL GIVE IT TO YOU." + +Thus assured, and cheered on, under the inspiration of hope, I worked +and prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was under the +guidance of a wisdom higher than my own. With all other blessings sought +at the mercy seat, I always prayed that God would, of His great mercy, +and in His own good time, deliver me from my bondage. + +I went, one day, on the wharf of Mr. Waters; and seeing two Irishmen +unloading a large scow of stone, or ballast I went on board, unasked, +and helped them. When we had finished the work, one of the men came to +me, aside, and asked me a number of questions, and among them, if I +were a slave. I told him "I was a slave, and a slave for life." The good +Irishman gave his shoulders a shrug, and seemed deeply affected by the +statement. He said, "it was a pity so fine a little fellow as myself +should be a slave for life." They both had much to say about the matter, +and expressed the deepest sympathy with me, and the most decided hatred +of slavery. They went so far as to tell me that I ought to run away, and +go to the north; that I should find friends there, and that I would be +as free as anybody. I, however, pretended not to be interested in what +they said, for I feared they might be treacherous. White men have been +known to encourage slaves to escape, and then--to get the reward--they +have kidnapped them, and returned them to their masters. And while I +mainly inclined to the notion that these men were honest and meant me +no ill, I feared it might be otherwise. I nevertheless remembered their +words and their advice, and looked forward to an escape to the north, as +a possible means of gaining the liberty{133} for which my heart panted. +It was not my enslavement, at the then present time, that most affected +me; the being a slave _for life_, was the saddest thought. I was too +young to think of running away immediately; besides, I wished to learn +how to write, before going, as I might have occasion to write my own +pass. I now not only had the hope of freedom, but a foreshadowing of the +means by which I might, some day, gain that inestimable boon. Meanwhile, +I resolved to add to my educational attainments the art of writing. + +After this manner I began to learn to write: I was much in the ship +yard--Master Hugh's, and that of Durgan & Bailey--and I observed that +the carpenters, after hewing and getting a piece of timber ready for +use, wrote on it the initials of the name of that part of the ship for +which it was intended. When, for instance, a piece of timber was ready +for the starboard side, it was marked with a capital "S." A piece for +the larboard side was marked "L;" larboard forward, "L. F.;" larboard +aft, was marked "L. A.;" starboard aft, "S. A.;" and starboard forward +"S. F." I soon learned these letters, and for what they were placed on +the timbers. + +My work was now, to keep fire under the steam box, and to watch the ship +yard while the carpenters had gone to dinner. This interval gave me a +fine opportunity for copying the letters named. I soon astonished myself +with the ease with which I made the letters; and the thought was soon +present, "if I can make four, I can make more." But having made these +easily, when I met boys about Bethel church, or any of our play-grounds, +I entered the lists with them in the art of writing, and would make the +letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask them to +"beat that if they could." With playmates for my teachers, fences and +pavements for my copy books, and chalk for my pen and ink, I learned +the art of writing. I, however, afterward adopted various methods of +improving my hand. The most successful, was copying the _italics_ +in Webster's spelling book, until{134} I could make them all without +looking on the book. By this time, my little "Master Tommy" had grown to +be a big boy, and had written over a number of copy books, and brought +them home. They had been shown to the neighbors, had elicited due +praise, and were now laid carefully away. Spending my time between the +ship yard and house, I was as often the lone keeper of the latter as +of the former. When my mistress left me in charge of the house, I had a +grand time; I got Master Tommy's copy books and a pen and ink, and, in +the ample spaces between the lines, I wrote other lines, as nearly like +his as possible. The process was a tedious one, and I ran the risk +of getting a flogging for marring the highly prized copy books of the +oldest son. In addition to those opportunities, sleeping, as I did, in +the kitchen loft--a room seldom visited by any of the family--I got a +flour barrel up there, and a chair; and upon the head of that barrel +I have written (or endeavored to write) copying from the bible and the +Methodist hymn book, and other books which had accumulated on my hands, +till late at night, and when all the family were in bed and asleep. I +was supported in my endeavors by renewed advice, and by holy promises +from the good Father Lawson, with whom I continued to meet, and pray, +and read the scriptures. Although Master Hugh was aware of my going +there, I must say, for his credit, that he never executed his threat to +whip me, for having thus, innocently, employed-my leisure time. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. _The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_ + +DEATH OF OLD MASTER'S SON RICHARD, SPEEDILY FOLLOWED BY THAT OF OLD +MASTER--VALUATION AND DIVISION OF ALL THE PROPERTY, INCLUDING THE +SLAVES--MY PRESENCE REQUIRED AT HILLSBOROUGH TO BE APPRAISED AND +ALLOTTED TO A NEW OWNER--MY SAD PROSPECTS AND GRIEF--PARTING--THE UTTER +POWERLESSNESS OF THE SLAVES TO DECIDE THEIR OWN DESTINY--A GENERAL +DREAD OF MASTER ANDREW--HIS WICKEDNESS AND CRUELTY--MISS LUCRETIA MY NEW +OWNER--MY RETURN TO BALTIMORE--JOY UNDER THE ROOF OF MASTER HUGH--DEATH +OF MRS. LUCRETIA--MY POOR OLD GRANDMOTHER--HER SAD FATE--THE LONE COT +IN THE WOODS--MASTER THOMAS AULD'S SECOND MARRIAGE--AGAIN REMOVED FROM +MASTER HUGH'S--REASONS FOR REGRETTING THE CHANGE--A PLAN OF ESCAPE +ENTERTAINED. + + +I must now ask the reader to go with me a little back in point of time, +in my humble story, and to notice another circumstance that entered +into my slavery experience, and which, doubtless, has had a share in +deepening my horror of slavery, and increasing my hostility toward those +men and measures that practically uphold the slave system. + +It has already been observed, that though I was, after my removal from +Col. Lloyd's plantation, in _form_ the slave of Master Hugh, I was, in +_fact_, and in _law_, the slave of my old master, Capt. Anthony. Very +well. + +In a very short time after I went to Baltimore, my old master's youngest +son, Richard, died; and, in three years and six months after his death, +my old master himself died, leaving only his son, Andrew, and his +daughter, Lucretia, to share his estate. The{136} old man died while +on a visit to his daughter, in Hillsborough, where Capt. Auld and Mrs. +Lucretia now lived. The former, having given up the command of Col. +Lloyd's sloop, was now keeping a store in that town. + +Cut off, thus unexpectedly, Capt. Anthony died intestate; and his +property must now be equally divided between his two children, Andrew +and Lucretia. + +The valuation and the division of slaves, among contending heirs, is an +important incident in slave life. The character and tendencies of the +heirs, are generally well understood among the slaves who are to be +divided, and all have their aversions and preferences. But, neither +their aversions nor their preferences avail them anything. + +On the death of old master, I was immediately sent for, to be valued +and divided with the other property. Personally, my concern was, mainly, +about my possible removal from the home of Master Hugh, which, after +that of my grandmother, was the most endeared to me. But, the whole +thing, as a feature of slavery, shocked me. It furnished me anew insight +into the unnatural power to which I was subjected. My detestation of +slavery, already great, rose with this new conception of its enormity. + +That was a sad day for me, a sad day for little Tommy, and a sad day +for my dear Baltimore mistress and teacher, when I left for the Eastern +Shore, to be valued and divided. We, all three, wept bitterly that day; +for we might be parting, and we feared we were parting, forever. No one +could tell among which pile of chattels I should be flung. Thus early, I +got a foretaste of that painful uncertainty which slavery brings to the +ordinary lot of mortals. Sickness, adversity and death may interfere +with the plans and purposes of all; but the slave has the added danger +of changing homes, changing hands, and of having separations unknown +to other men. Then, too, there was the intensified degradation of the +spectacle. What an assemblage! Men and women, young and old, married +and single; moral and intellectual beings, in open contempt of their +humanity, level at a blow with{137} horses, sheep, horned cattle and +swine! Horses and men--cattle and women--pigs and children--all holding +the same rank in the scale of social existence; and all subjected to the +same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in gold and silver--the +only standard of worth applied by slaveholders to slaves! How vividly, +at that moment, did the brutalizing power of slavery flash before me! +Personality swallowed up in the sordid idea of property! Manhood lost in +chattelhood! + +After the valuation, then came the division. This was an hour of high +excitement and distressing anxiety. Our destiny was now to be _fixed for +life_, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question, than +the oxen and cows that stood chewing at the haymow. One word from the +appraisers, against all preferences or prayers, was enough to sunder all +the ties of friendship and affection, and even to separate husbands and +wives, parents and children. We were all appalled before that power, +which, to human seeming, could bless or blast us in a moment. Added to +the dread of separation, most painful to the majority of the slaves, +we all had a decided horror of the thought of falling into the hands of +Master Andrew. He was distinguished for cruelty and intemperance. + +Slaves generally dread to fall into the hands of drunken owners. Master +Andrew was almost a confirmed sot, and had already, by his reckless +mismanagement and profligate dissipation, wasted a large portion of old +master's property. To fall into his hands, was, therefore, considered +merely as the first step toward being sold away to the far south. He +would spend his fortune in a few years, and his farms and slaves would +be sold, we thought, at public outcry; and we should be hurried away +to the cotton fields, and rice swamps, of the sunny south. This was the +cause of deep consternation. + +The people of the north, and free people generally, I think, have less +attachment to the places where they are born and brought up, than have +the slaves. Their freedom to go and come,{138} to be here and there, +as they list, prevents any extravagant attachment to any one particular +place, in their case. On the other hand, the slave is a fixture; he has +no choice, no goal, no destination; but is pegged down to a single spot, +and must take root here, or nowhere. The idea of removal elsewhere, +comes, generally, in the shape of a threat, and in punishment of crime. +It is, therefore, attended with fear and dread. A slave seldom thinks +of bettering his condition by being sold, and hence he looks upon +separation from his native place, with none of the enthusiasm which +animates the bosoms of young freemen, when they contemplate a life in +the far west, or in some distant country where they intend to rise to +wealth and distinction. Nor can those from whom they separate, give them +up with that cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield each +other up, when they feel that it is for the good of the departing +one that he is removed from his native place. Then, too, there is +correspondence, and there is, at least, the hope of reunion, because +reunion is _possible_. But, with the slave, all these mitigating +circumstances are wanting. There is no improvement in his condition +_probable_,--no correspondence _possible_,--no reunion attainable. His +going out into the world, is like a living man going into the tomb, who, +with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of wife, +children and friends of kindred tie. + +In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our circumstances, +I probably suffered more than most of my fellow servants. I had known +what it was to experience kind, and even tender treatment; they had +known nothing of the sort. Life, to them, had been rough and thorny, as +well as dark. They had--most of them--lived on my old master's farm in +Tuckahoe, and had felt the reign of Mr. Plummer's rule. The overseer had +written his character on the living parchment of most of their backs, +and left them callous; my back (thanks to my early removal from the +plantation to Baltimore) was yet tender. I had left a kind mistress{139} +at Baltimore, who was almost a mother to me. She was in tears when we +parted, and the probabilities of ever seeing her again, trembling in the +balance as they did, could not be viewed without alarm and agony. The +thought of leaving that kind mistress forever, and, worse still, of +being the slave of Andrew Anthony--a man who, but a few days before the +division of the property, had, in my presence, seized my brother Perry +by the throat, dashed him on the ground, and with the heel of his +boot stamped him on the head, until the blood gushed from his nose and +ears--was terrible! This fiendish proceeding had no better apology than +the fact, that Perry had gone to play, when Master Andrew wanted him +for some trifling service. This cruelty, too, was of a piece with his +general character. After inflicting his heavy blows on my brother, on +observing me looking at him with intense astonishment, he said, "_That_ +is the way I will serve you, one of these days;" meaning, no doubt, +when I should come into his possession. This threat, the reader may well +suppose, was not very tranquilizing to my feelings. I could see that he +really thirsted to get hold of me. But I was there only for a few days. +I had not received any orders, and had violated none, and there was, +therefore, no excuse for flogging me. + +At last, the anxiety and suspense were ended; and they ended, thanks to +a kind Providence, in accordance with my wishes. I fell to the portion +of Mrs. Lucretia--the dear lady who bound up my head, when the savage +Aunt Katy was adding to my sufferings her bitterest maledictions. + +Capt. Thomas Auld and Mrs. Lucretia at once decided on my return +to Baltimore. They knew how sincerely and warmly Mrs. Hugh Auld was +attached to me, and how delighted Mr. Hugh's son would be to have +me back; and, withal, having no immediate use for one so young, they +willingly let me off to Baltimore. + +I need not stop here to narrate my joy on returning to Baltimore, nor +that of little Tommy; nor the tearful joy of his mother;{140} nor the +evident saticfaction(sic) of Master Hugh. I was just one month absent +from Baltimore, before the matter was decided; and the time really +seemed full six months. + +One trouble over, and on comes another. The slave's life is full of +uncertainty. I had returned to Baltimore but a short time, when the +tidings reached me, that my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, who was only second +in my regard to Mrs. Hugh Auld, was dead, leaving her husband and only +one child--a daughter, named Amanda. + +Shortly after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, strange to say, Master Andrew +died, leaving his wife and one child. Thus, the whole family of Anthonys +was swept away; only two children remained. All this happened within +five years of my leaving Col. Lloyd's. + +No alteration took place in the condition of the slaves, in consequence +of these deaths, yet I could not help feeling less secure, after the +death of my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, than I had done during her life. +While she lived, I felt that I had a strong friend to plead for me in +any emergency. Ten years ago, while speaking of the state of things in +our family, after the events just named, I used this language: + +Now all the property of my old master, slaves included, was in the hands +of strangers--strangers who had nothing to do in accumulating it. Not +a slave was left free. All remained slaves, from youngest to oldest. If +any one thing in my experience, more than another, served to deepen my +conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with +unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base ingratitude to +my poor old grandmother. She had served my old master faithfully from +youth to old age. She had been the source of all his wealth; she had +peopled his plantation with slaves; she had become a great-grandmother +in his service. She had rocked him in infancy, attended him in +childhood, served him through life, and at his death wiped from his +icy brow the cold death-sweat, and closed his eyes forever. She was +nevertheless left a slave--a slave for life--a slave in the hands of +strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, +and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep, without being +gratified with the small privilege of a single word, as to their or +her own destiny. And, to cap the climax of their base ingratitude +and fiendish barbarity, my grandmother, who was now very old, having +outlived my old master and all his children, having seen the beginning +and end of all of them, and her present owners finding she{141} was of +but little value, her frame already racked with the pains of old age, +and complete helplessness fast stealing over her once active limbs, +they took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put up a little +mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of supporting +herself there in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to +die! If my poor old grandmother now lives, she lives to suffer in utter +loneliness; she lives to remember and mourn over the loss of children, +the loss of grandchildren, and the loss of great-grandchildren. They +are, in the language of the slave's poet, Whittier-- + + _Gone, gone, sold and gone, + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, + Where the noisome insect stings, + Where the fever-demon strews + Poison with the falling dews, + Where the sickly sunbeams glare + Through the hot and misty air:-- + Gone, gone, sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + From Virginia hills and waters-- + Woe is me, my stolen daughters_! + + +The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children, who once +sang and danced in her presence, are gone. She gropes her way, in the +darkness of age, for a drink of water. Instead of the voices of her +children, she hears by day the moans of the dove, and by night the +screams of the hideous owl. All is gloom. The grave is at the door. And +now, when weighed down by the pains and aches of old age, when the head +inclines to the feet, when the beginning and ending of human existence +meet, and helpless infancy and painful old age combine together--at +this time, this most needful time, the time for the exercise of that +tenderness and affection which children only can exercise toward a +declining parent--my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve +children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim +embers. + +Two years after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, Master Thomas married his +second wife. Her name was Rowena Hamilton, the eldest daughter of Mr. +William Hamilton, a rich slaveholder on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, +who lived about five miles from St. Michael's, the then place of my +master's residence. + +Not long after his marriage, Master Thomas had a misunderstanding with +Master Hugh, and, as a means of punishing his brother, he ordered him to +send me home.{142} + +As the ground of misunderstanding will serve to illustrate the character +of southern chivalry, and humanity, I will relate it. + +Among the children of my Aunt Milly, was a daughter, named Henny. When +quite a child, Henny had fallen into the fire, and burnt her hands so +bad that they were of very little use to her. Her fingers were drawn +almost into the palms of her hands. She could make out to do something, +but she was considered hardly worth the having--of little more value +than a horse with a broken leg. This unprofitable piece of human +property, ill shapen, and disfigured, Capt. Auld sent off to Baltimore, +making his brother Hugh welcome to her services. + +After giving poor Henny a fair trial, Master Hugh and his wife came to +the conclusion, that they had no use for the crippled servant, and +they sent her back to Master Thomas. Thus, the latter took as an act +of ingratitude, on the part of his brother; and, as a mark of his +displeasure, he required him to send me immediately to St. Michael's, +saying, if he cannot keep _"Hen,"_ he shall not have _"Fred."_ + +Here was another shock to my nerves, another breaking up of my plans, +and another severance of my religious and social alliances. I was now a +big boy. I had become quite useful to several young colored men, who +had made me their teacher. I had taught some of them to read, and was +accustomed to spend many of my leisure hours with them. Our attachment +was strong, and I greatly dreaded the separation. But regrets, +especially in a slave, are unavailing. I was only a slave; my wishes +were nothing, and my happiness was the sport of my masters. + +My regrets at now leaving Baltimore, were not for the same reasons as +when I before left that city, to be valued and handed over to my proper +owner. My home was not now the pleasant place it had formerly been. A +change had taken place, both in Master Hugh, and in his once pious and +affectionate wife. The influence of brandy and bad company on him, and +the influence of slavery and social isolation upon her, had wrought +disastrously upon the{143} characters of both. Thomas was no longer +"little Tommy," but was a big boy, and had learned to assume the airs +of his class toward me. My condition, therefore, in the house of Master +Hugh, was not, by any means, so comfortable as in former years. My +attachments were now outside of our family. They were felt to those to +whom I _imparted_ instruction, and to those little white boys from whom +I _received_ instruction. There, too, was my dear old father, the pious +Lawson, who was, in christian graces, the very counterpart of "Uncle" +Tom. The resemblance is so perfect, that he might have been the original +of Mrs. Stowe's christian hero. The thought of leaving these dear +friends, greatly troubled me, for I was going without the hope of ever +returning to Baltimore again; the feud between Master Hugh and his +brother being bitter and irreconcilable, or, at least, supposed to be +so. + +In addition to thoughts of friends from whom I was parting, as I +supposed, _forever_, I had the grief of neglected chances of escape to +brood over. I had put off running away, until now I was to be placed +where the opportunities for escaping were much fewer than in a large +city like Baltimore. + +On my way from Baltimore to St. Michael's, down the Chesapeake bay, our +sloop--the "Amanda"--was passed by the steamers plying between that city +and Philadelphia, and I watched the course of those steamers, and, while +going to St. Michael's, I formed a plan to escape from slavery; of which +plan, and matters connected therewith the kind reader shall learn more +hereafter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. _Experience in St. Michael's_ + +THE VILLAGE--ITS INHABITANTS--THEIR OCCUPATION AND LOW PROPENSITIES +CAPTAN(sic) THOMAS AULD--HIS CHARACTER--HIS SECOND WIFE, ROWENA--WELL +MATCHED--SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER--OBLIGED TO TAKE FOOD--MODE OF ARGUMENT +IN VINDICATION THEREOF--NO MORAL CODE OF FREE SOCIETY CAN APPLY TO +SLAVE SOCIETY--SOUTHERN CAMP MEETING--WHAT MASTER THOMAS DID +THERE--HOPES--SUSPICIONS ABOUT HIS CONVERSION--THE RESULT--FAITH AND +WORKS ENTIRELY AT VARIANCE--HIS RISE AND PROGRESS IN THE CHURCH--POOR +COUSIN "HENNY"--HIS TREATMENT OF HER--THE METHODIST PREACHERS--THEIR +UTTER DISREGARD OF US--ONE EXCELLENT EXCEPTION--REV. GEORGE +COOKMAN--SABBATH SCHOOL--HOW BROKEN UP AND BY WHOM--A FUNERAL PALL CAST +OVER ALL MY PROSPECTS--COVEY THE NEGRO-BREAKER. + + +St. Michael's, the village in which was now my new home, compared +favorably with villages in slave states, generally. There were a few +comfortable dwellings in it, but the place, as a whole, wore a dull, +slovenly, enterprise-forsaken aspect. The mass of the buildings were +wood; they had never enjoyed the artificial adornment of paint, and +time and storms had worn off the bright color of the wood, leaving them +almost as black as buildings charred by a conflagration. + +St. Michael's had, in former years, (previous to 1833, for that was the +year I went to reside there,) enjoyed some reputation as a ship building +community, but that business had almost entirely given place to oyster +fishing, for the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets--a course of life +highly unfavorable to morals, industry, and manners. Miles river was +broad, and its oyster fishing{145} grounds were extensive; and the +fishermen were out, often, all day, and a part of the night, during +autumn, winter and spring. This exposure was an excuse for carrying +with them, in considerable quanties(sic), spirituous liquors, the then +supposed best antidote for cold. Each canoe was supplied with its jug +of rum; and tippling, among this class of the citizens of St. Michael's, +became general. This drinking habit, in an ignorant population, +fostered coarseness, vulgarity and an indolent disregard for the social +improvement of the place, so that it was admitted, by the few sober, +thinking people who remained there, that St. Michael's had become a very +_unsaintly_, as well as unsightly place, before I went there to reside. + +I left Baltimore for St. Michael's in the month of March, 1833. I +know the year, because it was the one succeeding the first cholera in +Baltimore, and was the year, also, of that strange phenomenon, when the +heavens seemed about to part with its starry train. I witnessed this +gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. The air seemed filled with +bright, descending messengers from the sky. It was about daybreak when I +saw this sublime scene. I was not without the suggestion, at the moment, +that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; and, +in my then state of mind, I was prepared to hail Him as my friend and +deliverer. I had read, that the "stars shall fall from heaven"; and +they were now falling. I was suffering much in my mind. It did seem that +every time the young tendrils of my affection became attached, they were +rudely broken by some unnatural outside power; and I was beginning to +look away to heaven for the rest denied me on earth. + +But, to my story. It was now more than seven years since I had lived +with Master Thomas Auld, in the family of my old master, on Col. Lloyd's +plantation. We were almost entire strangers to each other; for, when I +knew him at the house of my old master, it was not as a _master_, but +simply as "Captain Auld," who had married old master's daughter. All my +lessons concerning his{146} temper and disposition, and the best methods +of pleasing him, were yet to be learnt. Slaveholders, however, are not +very ceremonious in approaching a slave; and my ignorance of the new +material in shape of a master was but transient. Nor was my mistress +long in making known her animus. She was not a "Miss Lucretia," traces +of whom I yet remembered, and the more especially, as I saw them +shining in the face of little Amanda, her daughter, now living under a +step-mother's government. I had not forgotten the soft hand, guided by a +tender heart, that bound up with healing balsam the gash made in my head +by Ike, the son of Abel. Thomas and Rowena, I found to be a well-matched +pair. _He_ was stingy, and _she_ was cruel; and--what was quite natural +in such cases--she possessed the ability to make him as cruel as +herself, while she could easily descend to the level of his meanness. +In the house of Master Thomas, I was made--for the first time in seven +years to feel the pinchings of hunger, and this was not very easy to +bear. + +For, in all the changes of Master Hugh's family, there was no change in +the bountifulness with which they supplied me with food. Not to give a +slave enough to eat, is meanness intensified, and it is so recognized +among slaveholders generally, in Maryland. The rule is, no matter how +coarse the food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory, +and--in the part of Maryland I came from--the general practice accords +with this theory. Lloyd's plantation was an exception, as was, also, the +house of Master Thomas Auld. + +All know the lightness of Indian corn-meal, as an article of food, and +can easily judge from the following facts whether the statements I have +made of the stinginess of Master Thomas, are borne out. There were four +slaves of us in the kitchen, and four whites in the great house Thomas +Auld, Mrs. Auld, Hadaway Auld (brother of Thomas Auld) and little +Amanda. The names of the slaves in the kitchen, were Eliza, my sister; +Priscilla, my aunt; Henny, my cousin; and myself. There were eight +persons{147} in the family. There was, each week, one half bushel of +corn-meal brought from the mill; and in the kitchen, corn-meal was +almost our exclusive food, for very little else was allowed us. Out of +this bushel of corn-meal, the family in the great house had a small loaf +every morning; thus leaving us, in the kitchen, with not quite a half a +peck per week, apiece. This allowance was less than half the allowance +of food on Lloyd's plantation. It was not enough to subsist upon; and +we were, therefore, reduced to the wretched necessity of living at the +expense of our neighbors. We were compelled either to beg, or to steal, +and we did both. I frankly confess, that while I hated everything like +stealing, _as such_, I nevertheless did not hesitate to take food, when +I was hungry, wherever I could find it. Nor was this practice the mere +result of an unreasoning instinct; it was, in my case, the result of a +clear apprehension of the claims of morality. I weighed and considered +the matter closely, before I ventured to satisfy my hunger by such +means. Considering that my labor and person were the property of Master +Thomas, and that I was by him deprived of the necessaries of life +necessaries obtained by my own labor--it was easy to deduce the right to +supply myself with what was my own. It was simply appropriating what was +my own to the use of my master, since the health and strength derived +from such food were exerted in _his_ service. To be sure, this was +stealing, according to the law and gospel I heard from St. Michael's +pulpit; but I had already begun to attach less importance to what +dropped from that quarter, on that point, while, as yet, I retained +my reverence for religion. It was not always convenient to steal from +master, and the same reason why I might, innocently, steal from him, +did not seem to justify me in stealing from others. In the case of my +master, it was only a question of _removal_--the taking his meat out of +one tub, and putting it into another; the ownership of the meat was not +affected by the transaction. At first, he owned it in the _tub_, and +last, he owned it in _me_. His meat house was not always open. There was +a strict watch kept on that{148} point, and the key was on a large bunch +in Rowena's pocket. A great many times have we, poor creatures, been +severely pinched with hunger, when meat and bread have been moulding +under the lock, while the key was in the pocket of our mistress. This +had been so when she _knew_ we were nearly half starved; and yet, that +mistress, with saintly air, would kneel with her husband, and pray each +morning that a merciful God would bless them in basket and in store, and +save them, at last, in his kingdom. But I proceed with the argument. + +It was necessary that right to steal from _others_ should be +established; and this could only rest upon a wider range of +generalization than that which supposed the right to steal from my +master. + +It was sometime before I arrived at this clear right. The reader will +get some idea of my train of reasoning, by a brief statement of the +case. "I am," thought I, "not only the slave of Thomas, but I am the +slave of society at large. Society at large has bound itself, in form +and in fact, to assist Master Thomas in robbing me of my rightful +liberty, and of the just reward of my labor; therefore, whatever +rights I have against Master Thomas, I have, equally, against those +confederated with him in robbing me of liberty. As society has marked +me out as privileged plunder, on the principle of self-preservation I +am justified in plundering in turn. Since each slave belongs to all; all +must, therefore, belong to each." + +I shall here make a profession of faith which may shock some, offend +others, and be dissented from by all. It is this: Within the bounds of +his just earnings, I hold that the slave is fully justified in helping +himself to the _gold and silver, and the best apparel of his master, or +that of any other slaveholder; and that such taking is not stealing in +any just sense of that word_. + +The morality of _free_ society can have no application to _slave_ +society. Slaveholders have made it almost impossible for the slave to +commit any crime, known either to the laws of God or to the laws of man. +If he steals, he takes his own; if he kills his master,{149} he +imitates only the heroes of the revolution. Slaveholders I hold to be +individually and collectively responsible for all the evils which grow +out of the horrid relation, and I believe they will be so held at the +judgment, in the sight of a just God. Make a man a slave, and you rob +him of moral responsibility. Freedom of choice is the essence of all +accountability. But my kind readers are, probably, less concerned about +my opinions, than about that which more nearly touches my personal +experience; albeit, my opinions have, in some sort, been formed by that +experience. + +Bad as slaveholders are, I have seldom met with one so entirely +destitute of every element of character capable of inspiring respect, as +was my present master, Capt. Thomas Auld. + +When I lived with him, I thought him incapable of a noble action. The +leading trait in his character was intense selfishness. I think he was +fully aware of this fact himself, and often tried to conceal it. Capt. +Auld was not a _born_ slaveholder--not a birthright member of the +slaveholding oligarchy. He was only a slaveholder by _marriage-right;_ +and, of all slaveholders, these latter are, _by far_, the most exacting. +There was in him all the love of domination, the pride of mastery, +and the swagger of authority, but his rule lacked the vital element +of consistency. He could be cruel; but his methods of showing it were +cowardly, and evinced his meanness rather than his spirit. His commands +were strong, his enforcement weak. + +Slaves are not insensible to the whole-souled characteristics of a +generous, dashing slaveholder, who is fearless of consequences; and +they prefer a master of this bold and daring kind--even with the risk +of being shot down for impudence to the fretful, little soul, who never +uses the lash but at the suggestion of a love of gain. + +Slaves, too, readily distinguish between the birthright bearing of +the original slaveholder and the assumed attitudes of the accidental +slaveholder; and while they cannot respect either, they certainly +despise the latter more than the former.{150} + +The luxury of having slaves wait upon him was something new to Master +Thomas; and for it he was wholly unprepared. He was a slaveholder, +without the ability to hold or manage his slaves. We seldom called him +"master," but generally addressed him by his "bay craft" title--"_Capt. +Auld_." It is easy to see that such conduct might do much to make him +appear awkward, and, consequently, fretful. His wife was especially +solicitous to have us call her husband "master." Is your _master_ at the +store?"--"Where is your _master_?"--"Go and tell your _master"_--"I will +make your _master_ acquainted with your conduct"--she would say; but we +were inapt scholars. Especially were I and my sister Eliza inapt in this +particular. Aunt Priscilla was less stubborn and defiant in her spirit +than Eliza and myself; and, I think, her road was less rough than ours. + +In the month of August, 1833, when I had almost become desperate under +the treatment of Master Thomas, and when I entertained more strongly +than ever the oft-repeated determination to run away, a circumstance +occurred which seemed to promise brighter and better days for us all. +At a Methodist camp-meeting, held in the Bay Side (a famous place for +campmeetings) about eight miles from St. Michael's, Master Thomas +came out with a profession of religion. He had long been an object +of interest to the church, and to the ministers, as I had seen by the +repeated visits and lengthy exhortations of the latter. He was a fish +quite worth catching, for he had money and standing. In the community +of St. Michael's he was equal to the best citizen. He was strictly +temperate; _perhaps_, from principle, but most likely, from interest. +There was very little to do for him, to give him the appearance of +piety, and to make him a pillar in the church. Well, the camp-meeting +continued a week; people gathered from all parts of the county, and +two steamboat loads came from Baltimore. The ground was happily chosen; +seats were arranged; a stand erected; a rude altar fenced in, fronting +the preachers' stand, with straw in it for the accommodation of{151} +mourners. This latter would hold at least one hundred persons. In front, +and on the sides of the preachers' stand, and outside the long rows of +seats, rose the first class of stately tents, each vieing with the +other in strength, neatness, and capacity for accommodating its inmates. +Behind this first circle of tents was another, less imposing, which +reached round the camp-ground to the speakers' stand. Outside this +second class of tents were covered wagons, ox carts, and vehicles of +every shape and size. These served as tents to their owners. Outside of +these, huge fires were burning, in all directions, where roasting, and +boiling, and frying, were going on, for the benefit of those who were +attending to their own spiritual welfare within the circle. _Behind_ +the preachers' stand, a narrow space was marked out for the use of the +colored people. There were no seats provided for this class of persons; +the preachers addressed them, _"over the left,"_ if they addressed them +at all. After the preaching was over, at every service, an invitation +was given to mourners to come into the pen; and, in some cases, +ministers went out to persuade men and women to come in. By one of these +ministers, Master Thomas Auld was persuaded to go inside the pen. I +was deeply interested in that matter, and followed; and, though colored +people were not allowed either in the pen or in front of the preachers' +stand, I ventured to take my stand at a sort of half-way place between +the blacks and whites, where I could distinctly see the movements of +mourners, and especially the progress of Master Thomas. + +"If he has got religion," thought I, "he will emancipate his slaves; and +if he should not do so much as this, he will, at any rate, behave toward +us more kindly, and feed us more generously than he has heretofore +done." Appealing to my own religious experience, and judging my master +by what was true in my own case, I could not regard him as soundly +converted, unless some such good results followed his profession of +religion. + +But in my expectations I was doubly disappointed; Master Thomas was +_Master Thomas_ still. The fruits of his righteousness{152} were to +show themselves in no such way as I had anticipated. His conversion +was not to change his relation toward men--at any rate not toward BLACK +men--but toward God. My faith, I confess, was not great. There was +something in his appearance that, in my mind, cast a doubt over his +conversion. Standing where I did, I could see his every movement. I +watched narrowly while he remained in the little pen; and although I saw +that his face was extremely red, and his hair disheveled, and though +I heard him groan, and saw a stray tear halting on his cheek, as if +inquiring "which way shall I go?"--I could not wholly confide in the +genuineness of his conversion. The hesitating behavior of that tear-drop +and its loneliness, distressed me, and cast a doubt upon the whole +transaction, of which it was a part. But people said, _"Capt. Auld had +come through,"_ and it was for me to hope for the best. I was bound +to do this, in charity, for I, too, was religious, and had been in the +church full three years, although now I was not more than sixteen years +old. Slaveholders may, sometimes, have confidence in the piety of some +of their slaves; but the slaves seldom have confidence in the piety of +their masters. _"He cant go to heaven with our blood in his skirts_," +is a settled point in the creed of every slave; rising superior to all +teaching to the contrary, and standing forever as a fixed fact. The +highest evidence the slaveholder can give the slave of his acceptance +with God, is the emancipation of his slaves. This is proof that he is +willing to give up all to God, and for the sake of God. Not to do this, +was, in my estimation, and in the opinion of all the slaves, an evidence +of half-heartedness, and wholly inconsistent with the idea of genuine +conversion. I had read, also, somewhere in the Methodist Discipline, the +following question and answer: + +"_Question_. What shall be done for the extirpation of slavery? + +"_Answer_. We declare that we are much as ever convinced of the great +evil of slavery; therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any +official station in our church." + + +These words sounded in my ears for a long time, and{153} encouraged me +to hope. But, as I have before said, I was doomed to disappointment. +Master Thomas seemed to be aware of my hopes and expectations concerning +him. I have thought, before now, that he looked at me in answer to my +glances, as much as to say, "I will teach you, young man, that, though I +have parted with my sins, I have not parted with my sense. I shall hold +my slaves, and go to heaven too." + +Possibly, to convince us that we must not presume _too much_ upon his +recent conversion, he became rather more rigid and stringent in his +exactions. There always was a scarcity of good nature about the man; but +now his whole countenance was _soured_ over with the seemings of piety. +His religion, therefore, neither made him emancipate his slaves, nor +caused him to treat them with greater humanity. If religion had any +effect on his character at all, it made him more cruel and hateful in +all his ways. The natural wickedness of his heart had not been removed, +but only reinforced, by the profession of religion. Do I judge him +harshly? God forbid. Facts _are_ facts. Capt. Auld made the greatest +profession of piety. His house was, literally, a house of prayer. In the +morning, and in the evening, loud prayers and hymns were heard there, in +which both himself and his wife joined; yet, _no more meal_ was brought +from the mill, _no more attention_ was paid to the moral welfare of the +kitchen; and nothing was done to make us feel that the heart of Master +Thomas was one whit better than it was before he went into the little +pen, opposite to the preachers' stand, on the camp ground. + +Our hopes (founded on the discipline) soon vanished; for the authorities +let him into the church _at once_, and before he was out of his term +of _probation_, I heard of his leading class! He distinguished himself +greatly among the brethren, and was soon an exhorter. His progress was +almost as rapid as the growth of the fabled vine of Jack's bean. No man +was more active than he, in revivals. He would go many miles to assist +in carrying them on, and in getting outsiders interested in religion. +His house being{154} one of the holiest, if not the happiest in St. +Michael's, became the "preachers' home." These preachers evidently liked +to share Master Thomas's hospitality; for while he _starved us_, +he _stuffed_ them. Three or four of these ambassadors of the +gospel--according to slavery--have been there at a time; all living on +the fat of the land, while we, in the kitchen, were nearly starving. Not +often did we get a smile of recognition from these holy men. They seemed +almost as unconcerned about our getting to heaven, as they were about +our getting out of slavery. To this general charge there was one +exception--the Rev. GEORGE COOKMAN. Unlike Rev. Messrs. Storks, Ewry, +Hickey, Humphrey and Cooper (all whom were on the St. Michael's circuit) +he kindly took an interest in our temporal and spiritual welfare. Our +souls and our bodies were all alike sacred in his sight; and he really +had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery feeling mingled with his +colonization ideas. There was not a slave in our neighborhood that did +not love, and almost venerate, Mr. Cookman. It was pretty generally +believed that he had been chiefly instrumental in bringing one of the +largest slaveholders--Mr. Samuel Harrison--in that neighborhood, to +emancipate all his slaves, and, indeed, the general impression was, that +Mr. Cookman had labored faithfully with slaveholders, whenever he met +them, to induce them to emancipate their bondmen, and that he did this +as a religious duty. When this good man was at our house, we were all +sure to be called in to prayers in the morning; and he was not slow in +making inquiries as to the state of our minds, nor in giving us a word +of exhortation and of encouragement. Great was the sorrow of all the +slaves, when this faithful preacher of the gospel was removed from the +Talbot county circuit. He was an eloquent preacher, and possessed what +few ministers, south of Mason Dixon's line, possess, or _dare_ to show, +viz: a warm and philanthropic heart. The Mr. Cookman, of whom I speak, +was an Englishman by birth, and perished while on his way to England, on +board the ill-fated "President". Could the thousands of slaves{155} in +Maryland know the fate of the good man, to whose words of comfort they +were so largely indebted, they would thank me for dropping a tear on +this page, in memory of their favorite preacher, friend and benefactor. + +But, let me return to Master Thomas, and to my experience, after his +conversion. In Baltimore, I could, occasionally, get into a Sabbath +school, among the free children, and receive lessons, with the rest; +but, having already learned both to read and to write, I was more of +a teacher than a pupil, even there. When, however, I went back to the +Eastern Shore, and was at the house of Master Thomas, I was neither +allowed to teach, nor to be taught. The whole community--with but +a single exception, among the whites--frowned upon everything like +imparting instruction either to slaves or to free colored persons. That +single exception, a pious young man, named Wilson, asked me, one day, if +I would like to assist him in teaching a little Sabbath school, at the +house of a free colored man in St. Michael's, named James Mitchell. The +idea was to me a delightful one, and I told him I would gladly devote as +much of my Sabbath as I could command, to that most laudable work. +Mr. Wilson soon mustered up a dozen old spelling books, and a few +testaments; and we commenced operations, with some twenty scholars, in +our Sunday school. Here, thought I, is something worth living for; here +is an excellent chance for usefulness; and I shall soon have a company +of young friends, lovers of knowledge, like some of my Baltimore +friends, from whom I now felt parted forever. + +Our first Sabbath passed delightfully, and I spent the week after +very joyously. I could not go to Baltimore, but I could make a little +Baltimore here. At our second meeting, I learned that there was some +objection to the existence of the Sabbath school; and, sure enough, we +had scarcely got at work--_good work_, simply teaching a few colored +children how to read the gospel of the Son of God--when in rushed a +mob, headed by Mr. Wright Fairbanks and Mr. Garrison West--two +class-leaders{156} --and Master Thomas; who, armed with sticks and +other missiles, drove us off, and commanded us never to meet for such +a purpose again. One of this pious crew told me, that as for my part, I +wanted to be another Nat Turner; and if I did not look out, I should +get as many balls into me, as Nat did into him. Thus ended the infant +Sabbath school, in the town of St. Michael's. The reader will not be +surprised when I say, that the breaking up of my Sabbath school, +by these class-leaders, and professedly holy men, did not serve to +strengthen my religious convictions. The cloud over my St. Michael's +home grew heavier and blacker than ever. + +It was not merely the agency of Master Thomas, in breaking up and +destroying my Sabbath school, that shook my confidence in the power of +southern religion to make men wiser or better; but I saw in him all the +cruelty and meanness, _after_ his conversion, which he had exhibited +before he made a profession of religion. His cruelty and meanness were +especially displayed in his treatment of my unfortunate cousin, Henny, +whose lameness made her a burden to him. I have no extraordinary +personal hard usage toward myself to complain of, against him, but I +have seen him tie up the lame and maimed woman, and whip her in a manner +most brutal, and shocking; and then, with blood-chilling blasphemy, +he would quote the passage of scripture, "That servant which knew his +lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his +will, shall be beaten with many stripes." Master would keep this +lacerated woman tied up by her wrists, to a bolt in the joist, three, +four and five hours at a time. He would tie her up early in the morning, +whip her with a cowskin before breakfast; leave her tied up; go to his +store, and, returning to his dinner, repeat the castigation; laying on +the rugged lash, on flesh already made raw by repeated blows. He seemed +desirous to get the poor girl out of existence, or, at any rate, off his +hands. In proof of this, he afterwards gave her away to his sister Sarah +(Mrs. Cline) but, as in the case of Master{157} Hugh, Henny was soon +returned on his hands. Finally, upon a pretense that he could do nothing +with her (I use his own words) he "set her adrift, to take care of +herself." Here was a recently converted man, holding, with tight grasp, +the well-framed, and able bodied slaves left him by old master--the +persons, who, in freedom, could have taken care of themselves; yet, +turning loose the only cripple among them, virtually to starve and die. + +No doubt, had Master Thomas been asked, by some pious northern brother, +_why_ he continued to sustain the relation of a slaveholder, to those +whom he retained, his answer would have been precisely the same as many +other religious slaveholders have returned to that inquiry, viz: "I hold +my slaves for their own good." + +Bad as my condition was when I lived with Master Thomas, I was soon +to experience a life far more goading and bitter. The many differences +springing up between myself and Master Thomas, owing to the clear +perception I had of his character, and the boldness with which I +defended myself against his capricious complaints, led him to declare +that I was unsuited to his wants; that my city life had affected me +perniciously; that, in fact, it had almost ruined me for every good +purpose, and had fitted me for everything that was bad. One of my +greatest faults, or offenses, was that of letting his horse get away, +and go down to the farm belonging to his father-in-law. The animal had a +liking for that farm, with which I fully sympathized. Whenever I let it +out, it would go dashing down the road to Mr. Hamilton's, as if going +on a grand frolic. My horse gone, of course I must go after it. The +explanation of our mutual attachment to the place is the same; the +horse found there good pasturage, and I found there plenty of bread. Mr. +Hamilton had his faults, but starving his slaves was not among them. He +gave food, in abundance, and that, too, of an excellent quality. In +Mr. Hamilton's cook--Aunt Mary--I found a most generous and considerate +friend. She never allowed me to go there without giving me bread +enough{158} to make good the deficiencies of a day or two. Master Thomas +at last resolved to endure my behavior no longer; he could neither keep +me, nor his horse, we liked so well to be at his father-in-law's farm. I +had now lived with him nearly nine months, and he had given me a number +of severe whippings, without any visible improvement in my character, or +my conduct; and now he was resolved to put me out--as he said--"_to be +broken._" + +There was, in the Bay Side, very near the camp ground, where my master +got his religious impressions, a man named Edward Covey, who enjoyed +the execrated reputation, of being a first rate hand at breaking young +Negroes. This Covey was a poor man, a farm renter; and this reputation +(hateful as it was to the slaves and to all good men) was, at the same +time, of immense advantage to him. It enabled him to get his farm tilled +with very little expense, compared with what it would have cost him +without this most extraordinary reputation. Some slaveholders thought it +an advantage to let Mr. Covey have the government of their slaves a year +or two, almost free of charge, for the sake of the excellent training +such slaves got under his happy management! Like some horse breakers, +noted for their skill, who ride the best horses in the country without +expense, Mr. Covey could have under him, the most fiery bloods of the +neighborhood, for the simple reward of returning them to their owners, +_well broken_. Added to the natural fitness of Mr. Covey for the duties +of his profession, he was said to "enjoy religion," and was as strict +in the cultivation of piety, as he was in the cultivation of his farm. I +was made aware of his character by some who had been under his hand; and +while I could not look forward to going to him with any pleasure, I was +glad to get away from St. Michael's. I was sure of getting enough to eat +at Covey's, even if I suffered in other respects. _This_, to a hungry +man, is not a prospect to be regarded with indifference. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. _Covey, the Negro Breaker_ + +JOURNEY TO MY NEW MASTER'S--MEDITATIONS BY THE WAY--VIEW OF COVEY'S +RESIDENCE--THE FAMILY--MY AWKWARDNESS AS A FIELD HAND--A CRUEL +BEATING--WHY IT WAS GIVEN--DESCRIPTION OF COVEY--FIRST ADVENTURE AT OX +DRIVING--HAIR BREADTH ESCAPES--OX AND MAN ALIKE PROPERTY--COVEY'S MANNER +OF PROCEEDING TO WHIP--HARD LABOR BETTER THAN THE WHIP FOR BREAKING +DOWN THE SPIRIT--CUNNING AND TRICKERY OF COVEY--FAMILY WORSHIP--SHOCKING +CONTEMPT FOR CHASTITY--I AM BROKEN DOWN--GREAT MENTAL AGITATION IN +CONTRASTING THE FREEDOM OF THE SHIPS WITH HIS OWN SLAVERY--ANGUISH +BEYOND DESCRIPTION. + + +The morning of the first of January, 1834, with its chilling wind and +pinching frost, quite in harmony with the winter in my own mind, found +me, with my little bundle of clothing on the end of a stick, swung +across my shoulder, on the main road, bending my way toward Covey's, +whither I had been imperiously ordered by Master Thomas. The latter had +been as good as his word, and had committed me, without reserve, to the +mastery of Mr. Edward Covey. Eight or ten years had now passed since +I had been taken from my grandmother's cabin, in Tuckahoe; and these +years, for the most part, I had spent in Baltimore, where--as the reader +has already seen--I was treated with comparative tenderness. I was now +about to sound profounder depths in slave life. The rigors of a field, +less tolerable than the field of battle, awaited me. My new master was +notorious for his fierce and savage disposition, and my only consolation +in going to live{160} with him was, the certainty of finding him +precisely as represented by common fame. There was neither joy in my +heart, nor elasticity in my step, as I started in search of the tyrant's +home. Starvation made me glad to leave Thomas Auld's, and the cruel lash +made me dread to go to Covey's. Escape was impossible; so, heavy and +sad, I paced the seven miles, which separated Covey's house from St. +Michael's--thinking much by the solitary way--averse to my condition; +but _thinking_ was all I could do. Like a fish in a net, allowed to play +for a time, I was now drawn rapidly to the shore, secured at all points. +"I am," thought I, "but the sport of a power which makes no account, +either of my welfare or of my happiness. By a law which I can clearly +comprehend, but cannot evade nor resist, I am ruthlessly snatched from +the hearth of a fond grandmother, and hurried away to the home of a +mysterious 'old master;' again I am removed from there, to a master in +Baltimore; thence am I snatched away to the Eastern Shore, to be valued +with the beasts of the field, and, with them, divided and set apart for +a possessor; then I am sent back to Baltimore; and by the time I have +formed new attachments, and have begun to hope that no more rude shocks +shall touch me, a difference arises between brothers, and I am again +broken up, and sent to St. Michael's; and now, from the latter place, +I am footing my way to the home of a new master, where, I am given to +understand, that, like a wild young working animal, I am to be broken to +the yoke of a bitter and life-long bondage." + +With thoughts and reflections like these, I came in sight of a small +wood-colored building, about a mile from the main road, which, from the +description I had received, at starting, I easily recognized as my new +home. The Chesapeake bay--upon the jutting banks of which the little +wood-colored house was standing--white with foam, raised by the heavy +north-west wind; Poplar Island, covered with a thick, black pine forest, +standing out amid this half ocean; and Kent Point, stretching its sandy, +desert-like shores out into the foam-cested bay--were all in{161} sight, +and deepened the wild and desolate aspect of my new home. + +The good clothes I had brought with me from Baltimore were now worn +thin, and had not been replaced; for Master Thomas was as little careful +to provide us against cold, as against hunger. Met here by a north wind, +sweeping through an open space of forty miles, I was glad to make any +port; and, therefore, I speedily pressed on to the little wood-colored +house. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Covey; Miss Kemp (a +broken-backed woman) a sister of Mrs. Covey; William Hughes, cousin to +Edward Covey; Caroline, the cook; Bill Smith, a hired man; and myself. +Bill Smith, Bill Hughes, and myself, were the working force of the farm, +which consisted of three or four hundred acres. I was now, for the first +time in my life, to be a field hand; and in my new employment I found +myself even more awkward than a green country boy may be supposed to be, +upon his first entrance into the bewildering scenes of city life; and my +awkwardness gave me much trouble. Strange and unnatural as it may seem, +I had been at my new home but three days, before Mr. Covey (my brother +in the Methodist church) gave me a bitter foretaste of what was in +reserve for me. I presume he thought, that since he had but a single +year in which to complete his work, the sooner he began, the better. +Perhaps he thought that by coming to blows at once, we should mutually +better understand our relations. But to whatever motive, direct or +indirect, the cause may be referred, I had not been in his possession +three whole days, before he subjected me to a most brutal chastisement. +Under his heavy blows, blood flowed freely, and wales were left on +my back as large as my little finger. The sores on my back, from this +flogging, continued for weeks, for they were kept open by the rough and +coarse cloth which I wore for shirting. The occasion and details of this +first chapter of my experience as a field hand, must be told, that the +reader may see how unreasonable, as well as how cruel, my new master, +Covey, was.{162} The whole thing I found to be characteristic of the +man; and I was probably treated no worse by him than scores of lads who +had previously been committed to him, for reasons similar to those +which induced my master to place me with him. But, here are the facts +connected with the affair, precisely as they occurred. + +On one of the coldest days of the whole month of January, 1834, I was +ordered, at day break, to get a load of wood, from a forest about two +miles from the house. In order to perform this work, Mr. Covey gave me +a pair of unbroken oxen, for, it seems, his breaking abilities had +not been turned in this direction; and I may remark, in passing, that +working animals in the south, are seldom so well trained as in the +north. In due form, and with all proper ceremony, I was introduced +to this huge yoke of unbroken oxen, and was carefully told which was +"Buck," and which was "Darby"--which was the "in hand," and which was +the "off hand" ox. The master of this important ceremony was no less a +person than Mr. Covey, himself; and the introduction was the first of +the kind I had ever had. My life, hitherto, had led me away from horned +cattle, and I had no knowledge of the art of managing them. What was +meant by the "in ox," as against the "off ox," when both were equally +fastened to one cart, and under one yoke, I could not very easily +divine; and the difference, implied by the names, and the peculiar +duties of each, were alike _Greek_ to me. Why was not the "off ox" +called the "in ox?" Where and what is the reason for this distinction in +names, when there is none in the things themselves? After initiating +me into the _"woa," "back" "gee," "hither"_--the entire spoken language +between oxen and driver--Mr. Covey took a rope, about ten feet long and +one inch thick, and placed one end of it around the horns of the "in +hand ox," and gave the other end to me, telling me that if the oxen +started to run away, as the scamp knew they would, I must hold on to +the rope and stop them. I need not tell any one who is acquainted with +either the strength of the disposition of an untamed ox, that this +order{163} was about as unreasonable as a command to shoulder a mad +bull! I had never driven oxen before, and I was as awkward, as a +driver, as it is possible to conceive. It did not answer for me to plead +ignorance, to Mr. Covey; there was something in his manner that quite +forbade that. He was a man to whom a slave seldom felt any disposition +to speak. Cold, distant, morose, with a face wearing all the marks of +captious pride and malicious sternness, he repelled all advances. Covey +was not a large man; he was only about five feet ten inches in height, +I should think; short necked, round shoulders; of quick and wiry motion, +of thin and wolfish visage; with a pair of small, greenish-gray eyes, +set well back under a forehead without dignity, and constantly in +motion, and floating his passions, rather than his thoughts, in +sight, but denying them utterance in words. The creature presented +an appearance altogether ferocious and sinister, disagreeable and +forbidding, in the extreme. When he spoke, it was from the corner of his +mouth, and in a sort of light growl, like a dog, when an attempt is made +to take a bone from him. The fellow had already made me believe him even +_worse_ than he had been presented. With his directions, and without +stopping to question, I started for the woods, quite anxious to perform +my first exploit in driving, in a creditable manner. The distance from +the house to the woods gate a full mile, I should think--was passed over +with very little difficulty; for although the animals ran, I was fleet +enough, in the open field, to keep pace with them; especially as they +pulled me along at the end of the rope; but, on reaching the woods, I +was speedily thrown into a distressing plight. The animals took fright, +and started off ferociously into the woods, carrying the cart, full +tilt, against trees, over stumps, and dashing from side to side, in a +manner altogether frightful. As I held the rope, I expected every moment +to be crushed between the cart and the huge trees, among which they were +so furiously dashing. After running thus for several minutes, my oxen +were, finally, brought to a stand, by a tree, against which they dashed +{164} themselves with great violence, upsetting the cart, and entangling +themselves among sundry young saplings. By the shock, the body of the +cart was flung in one direction, and the wheels and tongue in another, +and all in the greatest confusion. There I was, all alone, in a thick +wood, to which I was a stranger; my cart upset and shattered; my oxen +entangled, wild, and enraged; and I, poor soul! but a green hand, to set +all this disorder right. I knew no more of oxen than the ox driver is +supposed to know of wisdom. After standing a few moments surveying the +damage and disorder, and not without a presentiment that this trouble +would draw after it others, even more distressing, I took one end of the +cart body, and, by an extra outlay of strength, I lifted it toward +the axle-tree, from which it had been violently flung; and after much +pulling and straining, I succeeded in getting the body of the cart in +its place. This was an important step out of the difficulty, and its +performance increased my courage for the work which remained to be done. +The cart was provided with an ax, a tool with which I had become pretty +well acquainted in the ship yard at Baltimore. With this, I cut down the +saplings by which my oxen were entangled, and again pursued my journey, +with my heart in my mouth, lest the oxen should again take it into their +senseless heads to cut up a caper. My fears were groundless. Their spree +was over for the present, and the rascals now moved off as soberly as +though their behavior had been natural and exemplary. On reaching the +part of the forest where I had been, the day before, chopping wood, I +filled the cart with a heavy load, as a security against another running +away. But, the neck of an ox is equal in strength to iron. It defies +all ordinary burdens, when excited. Tame and docile to a proverb, when +_well_ trained, the ox is the most sullen and intractable of animals +when but half broken to the yoke. + +I now saw, in my situation, several points of similarity with that of +the oxen. They were property, so was I; they were to be{165} broken, +so was I. Covey was to break me, I was to break them; break and be +broken--such is life. + +Half the day already gone, and my face not yet homeward! It required +only two day's experience and observation to teach me, that such +apparent waste of time would not be lightly overlooked by Covey. I +therefore hurried toward home; but, on reaching the lane gate, I met +with the crowning disaster for the day. This gate was a fair specimen +of southern handicraft. There were two huge posts, eighteen inches in +diameter, rough hewed and square, and the heavy gate was so hung on +one of these, that it opened only about half the proper distance. On +arriving here, it was necessary for me to let go the end of the rope on +the horns of the "in hand ox;" and now as soon as the gate was open, and +I let go of it to get the rope, again, off went my oxen--making nothing +of their load--full tilt; and in doing so they caught the huge gate +between the wheel and the cart body, literally crushing it to splinters, +and coming only within a few inches of subjecting me to a similar +crushing, for I was just in advance of the wheel when it struck the +left gate post. With these two hair-breadth escape, I thought I could +sucessfully(sic) explain to Mr. Covey the delay, and avert apprehended +punishment. I was not without a faint hope of being commended for the +stern resolution which I had displayed in accomplishing the difficult +task--a task which, I afterwards learned, even Covey himself would not +have undertaken, without first driving the oxen for some time in the +open field, preparatory to their going into the woods. But, in this I +was disappointed. On coming to him, his countenance assumed an aspect of +rigid displeasure, and, as I gave him a history of the casualties of +my trip, his wolfish face, with his greenish eyes, became intensely +ferocious. "Go back to the woods again," he said, muttering something +else about wasting time. I hastily obeyed; but I had not gone far on my +way, when I saw him coming after me. My oxen now behaved themselves +with singular{166} propriety, opposing their present conduct to my +representation of their former antics. I almost wished, now that Covey +was coming, they would do something in keeping with the character I had +given them; but no, they had already had their spree, and they could +afford now to be extra good, readily obeying my orders, and seeming to +understand them quite as well as I did myself. On reaching the woods, my +tormentor--who seemed all the way to be remarking upon the good +behavior of his oxen--came up to me, and ordered me to stop the cart, +accompanying the same with the threat that he would now teach me how +to break gates, and idle away my time, when he sent me to the woods. +Suiting the action to the word, Covey paced off, in his own wiry +fashion, to a large, black gum tree, the young shoots of which are +generally used for ox _goads_, they being exceedingly tough. Three of +these _goads_, from four to six feet long, he cut off, and trimmed +up, with his large jack-knife. This done, he ordered me to take off my +clothes. To this unreasonable order I made no reply, but sternly refused +to take off my clothing. "If you will beat me," thought I, "you shall do +so over my clothes." After many threats, which made no impression on me, +he rushed at me with something of the savage fierceness of a wolf, tore +off the few and thinly worn clothes I had on, and proceeded to wear out, +on my back, the heavy goads which he had cut from the gum tree. This +flogging was the first of a series of floggings; and though very severe, +it was less so than many which came after it, and these, for offenses +far lighter than the gate breaking. + +I remained with Mr. Covey one year (I cannot say I _lived_ with him) and +during the first six months that I was there, I was whipped, either with +sticks or cowskins, every week. Aching bones and a sore back were my +constant companions. Frequent as the lash was used, Mr. Covey thought +less of it, as a means of breaking down my spirit, than that of hard +and long continued labor. He worked me steadily, up to the point of +my powers of endurance. From the dawn of day in the morning, till the +darkness{167} was complete in the evening, I was kept at hard work, in +the field or the woods. At certain seasons of the year, we were all kept +in the field till eleven and twelve o'clock at night. At these times, +Covey would attend us in the field, and urge us on with words or blows, +as it seemed best to him. He had, in his life, been an overseer, and he +well understood the business of slave driving. There was no deceiving +him. He knew just what a man or boy could do, and he held both to strict +account. When he pleased, he would work himself, like a very Turk, +making everything fly before him. It was, however, scarcely necessary +for Mr. Covey to be really present in the field, to have his work go on +industriously. He had the faculty of making us feel that he was always +present. By a series of adroitly managed surprises, which he practiced, +I was prepared to expect him at any moment. His plan was, never to +approach the spot where his hands were at work, in an open, manly and +direct manner. No thief was ever more artful in his devices than this +man Covey. He would creep and crawl, in ditches and gullies; hide behind +stumps and bushes, and practice so much of the cunning of the serpent, +that Bill Smith and I--between ourselves--never called him by any other +name than _"the snake."_ We fancied that in his eyes and his gait we +could see a snakish resemblance. One half of his proficiency in the +art of Negro breaking, consisted, I should think, in this species of +cunning. We were never secure. He could see or hear us nearly all the +time. He was, to us, behind every stump, tree, bush and fence on the +plantation. He carried this kind of trickery so far, that he would +sometimes mount his horse, and make believe he was going to St. +Michael's; and, in thirty minutes afterward, you might find his horse +tied in the woods, and the snake-like Covey lying flat in the ditch, +with his head lifted above its edge, or in a fence corner, watching +every movement of the slaves! I have known him walk up to us and give us +special orders, as to our work, in advance, as if he were leaving home +with a view to being absent several days; and before he got half way +to the{168} house, he would avail himself of our inattention to his +movements, to turn short on his heels, conceal himself behind a fence +corner or a tree, and watch us until the going down of the sun. Mean and +contemptible as is all this, it is in keeping with the character which +the life of a slaveholder is calculated to produce. There is no earthly +inducement, in the slave's condition, to incite him to labor faithfully. +The fear of punishment is the sole motive for any sort of industry, with +him. Knowing this fact, as the slaveholder does, and judging the slave +by himself, he naturally concludes the slave will be idle whenever the +cause for this fear is absent. Hence, all sorts of petty deceptions are +practiced, to inspire this fear. + +But, with Mr. Covey, trickery was natural. Everything in the shape of +learning or religion, which he possessed, was made to conform to this +semi-lying propensity. He did not seem conscious that the practice had +anything unmanly, base or contemptible about it. It was a part of an +important system, with him, essential to the relation of master +and slave. I thought I saw, in his very religious devotions, this +controlling element of his character. A long prayer at night made up for +the short prayer in the morning; and few men could seem more devotional +than he, when he had nothing else to do. + +Mr. Covey was not content with the cold style of family worship, adopted +in these cold latitudes, which begin and end with a simple prayer. No! +the voice of praise, as well as of prayer, must be heard in his house, +night and morning. At first, I was called upon to bear some part in +these exercises; but the repeated flogging given me by Covey, turned the +whole thing into mockery. He was a poor singer, and mainly relied on me +for raising the hymn for the family, and when I failed to do so, he was +thrown into much confusion. I do not think that he ever abused me on +account of these vexations. His religion was a thing altogether apart +from his worldly concerns. He knew nothing of it as a holy principle, +directing and controlling his daily life,{169} making the latter conform +to the requirements of the gospel. One or two facts will illustrate his +character better than a volume of generalties(sic). + +I have already said, or implied, that Mr. Edward Covey was a poor man. +He was, in fact, just commencing to lay the foundation of his fortune, +as fortune is regarded in a slave state. The first condition of wealth +and respectability there, being the ownership of human property, every +nerve is strained, by the poor man, to obtain it, and very little regard +is had to the manner of obtaining it. In pursuit of this object, pious +as Mr. Covey was, he proved himself to be as unscrupulous and base as +the worst of his neighbors. In the beginning, he was only able--as he +said--"to buy one slave;" and, scandalous and shocking as is the fact, +he boasted that he bought her simply "_as a breeder_." But the worst +is not told in this naked statement. This young woman (Caroline was her +name) was virtually compelled by Mr. Covey to abandon herself to the +object for which he had purchased her; and the result was, the birth of +twins at the end of the year. At this addition to his human stock, both +Edward Covey and his wife, Susan, were ecstatic with joy. No one dreamed +of reproaching the woman, or of finding fault with the hired man--Bill +Smith--the father of the children, for Mr. Covey himself had locked the +two up together every night, thus inviting the result. + +But I will pursue this revolting subject no further. No better +illustration of the unchaste and demoralizing character of slavery can +be found, than is furnished in the fact that this professedly Christian +slaveholder, amidst all his prayers and hymns, was shamelessly and +boastfully encouraging, and actually compelling, in his own house, +undisguised and unmitigated fornication, as a means of increasing his +human stock. I may remark here, that, while this fact will be read with +disgust and shame at the north, it will be _laughed at_, as smart and +praiseworthy in Mr. Covey, at the south; for a man is no more condemned +there for buying a woman and devoting her to this life of dishonor,{170} +than for buying a cow, and raising stock from her. The same rules +are observed, with a view to increasing the number and quality of the +former, as of the latter. + +I will here reproduce what I said of my own experience in this wretched +place, more than ten years ago: + + +If at any one time of my life, more than another, I was made to drink +the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six +months of my stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked all weathers. It was +never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, snow, or hail too +hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more +the order of the day than the night. The longest days were too short +for him, and the shortest nights were too long for him. I was somewhat +unmanageable when I first went there; but a few months of his discipline +tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul +and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; my intellect languished; +the disposition to read departed; the cheerful spark that lingered about +my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a +man transformed into a brute! + +Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beast-like +stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree. At times, I +would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, +accompanied with a faint beam of hope, flickered for a moment, and then +vanished. I sank down again, mourning over my wretched condition. I was +sometimes prompted to take my life, and that of Covey, but was prevented +by a combination of hope and fear. My sufferings on this plantation seem +now like a dream rather than a stern reality. + +Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake bay, whose broad +bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable +globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to +the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and +torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the +deep stillness of a summer's Sabbath, stood all alone upon the banks +of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the +countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of +these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel utterance; +and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour out my soul's +complaint in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the moving multitude of +ships: + +"You are loosed from your moorings, and free; I am fast in my chains, +and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly +before the bloody whip! You are freedom's swift-winged angels, that fly +around the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O, that I were free! +O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting +wing! Alas! betwixt me{171} and you the turbid waters roll. Go on, go +on. O that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was +I born a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone; she hides +in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. +O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why +am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught, or get +clear, I'll try it. I had as well die with ague as with fever. I have +only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing. +Only think of it; one hundred miles straight north, and I am free! Try +it? Yes! God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die +a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into +freedom. The steamboats steered in a north-east coast from North Point. +I will do the same; and when I get to the head of the bay, I will turn +my canoe adrift, and walk straight through Delaware into Pennsylvania. +When I get there, I shall not be required to have a pass; I will travel +without being disturbed. Let but the first opportunity offer, and come +what will, I am off. Meanwhile, I will try to bear up under the yoke. +I am not the only slave in the world. Why should I fret? I can bear as +much as any of them. Besides, I am but a boy, and all boys are bound +to some one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my +happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming." + +I shall never be able to narrate the mental experience through which it +was my lot to pass during my stay at Covey's. I was completely wrecked, +changed and bewildered; goaded almost to madness at one time, and at +another reconciling myself to my wretched condition. Everything in the +way of kindness, which I had experienced at Baltimore; all my former +hopes and aspirations for usefulness in the world, and the happy moments +spent in the exercises of religion, contrasted with my then present lot, +but increased my anguish. + +I suffered bodily as well as mentally. I had neither sufficient time +in which to eat or to sleep, except on Sundays. The overwork, and the +brutal chastisements of which I was the victim, combined with that +ever-gnawing and soul-devouring thought--"_I am a slave--a slave for +life--a slave with no rational ground to hope for freedom_"--rendered me +a living embodiment of mental and physical wretchedness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. _Another Pressure of the Tyrant's Vice_ + +EXPERIENCE AT COVEY'S SUMMED UP--FIRST SIX MONTHS SEVERER THAN +THE SECOND--PRELIMINARIES TO THE CHANCE--REASONS FOR NARRATING THE +CIRCUMSTANCES--SCENE IN TREADING YARD--TAKEN ILL--UNUSUAL BRUTALITY +OF COVEY--ESCAPE TO ST. MICHAEL'S--THE PURSUIT--SUFFERING IN THE +WOODS--DRIVEN BACK AGAIN TO COVEY'S--BEARING OF MASTER THOMAS--THE SLAVE +IS NEVER SICK--NATURAL TO EXPECT SLAVES TO FEIGN SICKNESS--LAZINESS OF +SLAVEHOLDERS. + + +The foregoing chapter, with all its horrid incidents and shocking +features, may be taken as a fair representation of the first six months +of my life at Covey's. The reader has but to repeat, in his own mind, +once a week, the scene in the woods, where Covey subjected me to his +merciless lash, to have a true idea of my bitter experience there, +during the first period of the breaking process through which Mr. Covey +carried me. I have no heart to repeat each separate transaction, in +which I was victim of his violence and brutality. Such a narration would +fill a volume much larger than the present one. I aim only to give the +reader a truthful impression of my slave life, without unnecessarily +affecting him with harrowing details. + +As I have elsewhere intimated that my hardships were much greater during +the first six months of my stay at Covey's, than during the remainder +of the year, and as the change in my condition was owing to causes which +may help the reader to a better understanding of human nature, when +subjected to the terrible extremities of slavery, I will narrate the +circumstances of this{173} change, although I may seem thereby +to applaud my own courage. You have, dear reader, seen me humbled, +degraded, broken down, enslaved, and brutalized, and you understand how +it was done; now let us see the converse of all this, and how it was +brought about; and this will take us through the year 1834. + +On one of the hottest days of the month of August, of the year just +mentioned, had the reader been passing through Covey's farm, he might +have seen me at work, in what is there called the "treading yard"--a +yard upon which wheat is trodden out from the straw, by the horses' +feet. I was there, at work, feeding the "fan," or rather bringing wheat +to the fan, while Bill Smith was feeding. Our force consisted of Bill +Hughes, Bill Smith, and a slave by the name of Eli; the latter having +been hired for this occasion. The work was simple, and required strength +and activity, rather than any skill or intelligence, and yet, to one +entirely unused to such work, it came very hard. The heat was intense +and overpowering, and there was much hurry to get the wheat, trodden out +that day, through the fan; since, if that work was done an hour before +sundown, the hands would have, according to a promise of Covey, that +hour added to their night's rest. I was not behind any of them in the +wish to complete the day's work before sundown, and, hence, I struggled +with all my might to get the work forward. The promise of one hour's +repose on a week day, was sufficient to quicken my pace, and to spur me +on to extra endeavor. Besides, we had all planned to go fishing, and I +certainly wished to have a hand in that. But I was disappointed, and +the day turned out to be one of the bitterest I ever experienced. About +three o'clock, while the sun was pouring down his burning rays, and not +a breeze was stirring, I broke down; my strength failed me; I was seized +with a violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness, and +trembling in every limb. Finding what was coming, and feeling it would +never do to stop work, I nerved myself up, and staggered on until I fell +by the side of the wheat fan, feeling that the earth had fallen{174} +upon me. This brought the entire work to a dead stand. There was work +for four; each one had his part to perform, and each part depended on +the other, so that when one stopped, all were compelled to stop. Covey, +who had now become my dread, as well as my tormentor, was at the house, +about a hundred yards from where I was fanning, and instantly, upon +hearing the fan stop, he came down to the treading yard, to inquire into +the cause of our stopping. Bill Smith told him I was sick, and that I +was unable longer to bring wheat to the fan. + +I had, by this time, crawled away, under the side of a post-and-rail +fence, in the shade, and was exceeding ill. The intense heat of the sun, +the heavy dust rising from the fan, the stooping, to take up the wheat +from the yard, together with the hurrying, to get through, had caused a +rush of blood to my head. In this condition, Covey finding out where I +was, came to me; and, after standing over me a while, he asked me +what the matter was. I told him as well as I could, for it was with +difficulty that I could speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the +side, which jarred my whole frame, and commanded me to get up. The man +had obtained complete control over me; and if he had commanded me to do +any possible thing, I should, in my then state of mind, have endeavored +to comply. I made an effort to rise, but fell back in the attempt, +before gaining my feet. The brute now gave me another heavy kick, and +again told me to rise. I again tried to rise, and succeeded in gaining +my feet; but upon stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding +the fan, I again staggered and fell to the ground; and I must have so +fallen, had I been sure that a hundred bullets would have pierced me, +as the consequence. While down, in this sad condition, and perfectly +helpless, the merciless Negro breaker took up the hickory slab, with +which Hughes had been striking off the wheat to a level with the sides +of the half bushel measure (a very hard weapon) and with the sharp edge +of it, he dealt me a heavy blow on my head which made a large gash, and +caused the blood to run freely, saying,{175} at the same time, "If _you +have got the headache, I'll cure you_." This done, he ordered me again +to rise, but I made no effort to do so; for I had made up my mind that +it was useless, and that the heartless monster might now do his worst; +he could but kill me, and that might put me out of my misery. Finding me +unable to rise, or rather despairing of my doing so, Covey left me, +with a view to getting on with the work without me. I was bleeding +very freely, and my face was soon covered with my warm blood. Cruel and +merciless as was the motive that dealt that blow, dear reader, the wound +was fortunate for me. Bleeding was never more efficacious. The pain in +my head speedily abated, and I was soon able to rise. Covey had, as I +have said, now left me to my fate; and the question was, shall I return +to my work, or shall I find my way to St. Michael's, and make Capt. Auld +acquainted with the atrocious cruelty of his brother Covey, and beseech +him to get me another master? Remembering the object he had in view, +in placing me under the management of Covey, and further, his cruel +treatment of my poor crippled cousin, Henny, and his meanness in the +matter of feeding and clothing his slaves, there was little ground +to hope for a favorable reception at the hands of Capt. Thomas Auld. +Nevertheless, I resolved to go straight to Capt. Auld, thinking that, if +not animated by motives of humanity, he might be induced to interfere +on my behalf from selfish considerations. "He cannot," thought I, "allow +his property to be thus bruised and battered, marred and defaced; and +I will go to him, and tell him the simple truth about the matter." In +order to get to St. Michael's, by the most favorable and direct road, +I must walk seven miles; and this, in my sad condition, was no easy +performance. I had already lost much blood; I was exhausted by over +exertion; my sides were sore from the heavy blows planted there by the +stout boots of Mr. Covey; and I was, in every way, in an unfavorable +plight for the journey. I however watched my chance, while the cruel +and cunning Covey was looking in an opposite direction, and started{176} +off, across the field, for St. Michael's. This was a daring step; if it +failed, it would only exasperate Covey, and increase the rigors of my +bondage, during the remainder of my term of service under him; but the +step was taken, and I must go forward. I succeeded in getting nearly +half way across the broad field, toward the woods, before Mr. Covey +observed me. I was still bleeding, and the exertion of running had +started the blood afresh. _"Come back! Come back!"_ vociferated Covey, +with threats of what he would do if I did not return instantly. But, +disregarding his calls and his threats, I pressed on toward the woods +as fast as my feeble state would allow. Seeing no signs of my stopping, +Covey caused his horse to be brought out and saddled, as if he intended +to pursue me. The race was now to be an unequal one; and, thinking I +might be overhauled by him, if I kept the main road, I walked nearly the +whole distance in the woods, keeping far enough from the road to +avoid detection and pursuit. But, I had not gone far, before my little +strength again failed me, and I laid down. The blood was still oozing +from the wound in my head; and, for a time, I suffered more than I can +describe. There I was, in the deep woods, sick and emaciated, pursued by +a wretch whose character for revolting cruelty beggars all opprobrious +speech--bleeding, and almost bloodless. I was not without the fear of +bleeding to death. The thought of dying in the woods, all alone, and +of being torn to pieces by the buzzards, had not yet been rendered +tolerable by my many troubles and hardships, and I was glad when the +shade of the trees, and the cool evening breeze, combined with my matted +hair to stop the flow of blood. After lying there about three quarters +of an hour, brooding over the singular and mournful lot to which I was +doomed, my mind passing over the whole scale or circle of belief +and unbelief, from faith in the overruling providence of God, to the +blackest atheism, I again took up my journey toward St. Michael's, more +weary and sad than in the morning when I left Thomas Auld's for the home +of Mr. Covey. I was bare-footed and bare-headed, and in{177} my shirt +sleeves. The way was through bogs and briers, and I tore my feet often +during the journey. I was full five hours in going the seven or eight +miles; partly, because of the difficulties of the way, and partly, +because of the feebleness induced by my illness, bruises and loss +of blood. On gaining my master's store, I presented an appearance of +wretchedness and woe, fitted to move any but a heart of stone. From the +crown of my head to the sole of my feet, there were marks of blood. My +hair was all clotted with dust and blood, and the back of my shirt was +literally stiff with the same. Briers and thorns had scarred and torn +my feet and legs, leaving blood marks there. Had I escaped from a den +of tigers, I could not have looked worse than I did on reaching St. +Michael's. In this unhappy plight, I appeared before my professedly +_Christian_ master, humbly to invoke the interposition of his power and +authority, to protect me from further abuse and violence. I had begun to +hope, during the latter part of my tedious journey toward St. Michael's, +that Capt. Auld would now show himself in a nobler light than I had ever +before seen him. I was disappointed. I had jumped from a sinking ship +into the sea; I had fled from the tiger to something worse. I told him +all the circumstances, as well as I could; how I was endeavoring to +please Covey; how hard I was at work in the present instance; how +unwilling I sunk down under the heat, toil and pain; the brutal manner +in which Covey had kicked me in the side; the gash cut in my head; my +hesitation about troubling him (Capt. Auld) with complaints; but, that +now I felt it would not be best longer to conceal from him the outrages +committed on me from time to time by Covey. At first, master Thomas +seemed somewhat affected by the story of my wrongs, but he soon +repressed his feelings and became cold as iron. It was impossible--as I +stood before him at the first--for him to seem indifferent. I distinctly +saw his human nature asserting its conviction against the slave system, +which made cases like mine _possible;_ but, as I have said, humanity +fell before the systematic tyranny of slavery. He first walked{178} the +floor, apparently much agitated by my story, and the sad spectacle +I presented; but, presently, it was _his_ turn to talk. He began +moderately, by finding excuses for Covey, and ending with a full +justification of him, and a passionate condemnation of me. "He had no +doubt I deserved the flogging. He did not believe I was sick; I was only +endeavoring to get rid of work. My dizziness was laziness, and Covey did +right to flog me, as he had done." After thus fairly annihilating me, +and rousing himself by his own eloquence, he fiercely demanded what I +wished _him_ to do in the case! + +With such a complete knock-down to all my hopes, as he had given me, and +feeling, as I did, my entire subjection to his power, I had very little +heart to reply. I must not affirm my innocence of the allegations which +he had piled up against me; for that would be impudence, and would +probably call down fresh violence as well as wrath upon me. The guilt +of a slave is always, and everywhere, presumed; and the innocence of the +slaveholder or the slave employer, is always asserted. The word of the +slave, against this presumption, is generally treated as impudence, +worthy of punishment. "Do you contradict me, you rascal?" is a final +silencer of counter statements from the lips of a slave. + +Calming down a little in view of my silence and hesitation, and, +perhaps, from a rapid glance at the picture of misery I presented, he +inquired again, "what I would have him do?" Thus invited a second time, +I told Master Thomas I wished him to allow me to get a new home and to +find a new master; that, as sure as I went back to live with Mr. Covey +again, I should be killed by him; that he would never forgive my coming +to him (Capt. Auld) with a complaint against him (Covey); that, since I +had lived with him, he almost crushed my spirit, and I believed that +he would ruin me for future service; that my life was not safe in his +hands. This, Master Thomas _(my brother in the church)_ regarded as +"nonsence(sic)." "There was no danger of Mr. Covey's killing me; he was +a good man, industrious and religious, and he would not think of{179} +removing me from that home; besides," said he and this I found was the +most distressing thought of all to him--"if you should leave Covey now, +that your year has but half expired, I should lose your wages for the +entire year. You belong to Mr. Covey for one year, and you _must go +back_ to him, come what will. You must not trouble me with any more +stories about Mr. Covey; and if you do not go immediately home, I will +get hold of you myself." This was just what I expected, when I found he +had _prejudged_ the case against me. "But, Sir," I said, "I am sick and +tired, and I cannot get home to-night." At this, he again relented, and +finally he allowed me to remain all night at St. Michael's; but said I +must be off early in the morning, and concluded his directions by making +me swallow a huge dose of _epsom salts_--about the only medicine ever +administered to slaves. + +It was quite natural for Master Thomas to presume I was feigning +sickness to escape work, for he probably thought that were _he_ in the +place of a slave with no wages for his work, no praise for well doing, +no motive for toil but the lash--he would try every possible scheme by +which to escape labor. I say I have no doubt of this; the reason is, +that there are not, under the whole heavens, a set of men who cultivate +such an intense dread of labor as do the slaveholders. The charge of +laziness against the slave is ever on their lips, and is the standing +apology for every species of cruelty and brutality. These men literally +"bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's +shoulders; but they, themselves, will not move them with one of their +fingers." + +My kind readers shall have, in the next chapter--what they were led, +perhaps, to expect to find in this--namely: an account of my partial +disenthrallment from the tyranny of Covey, and the marked change which +it brought about. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. _The Last Flogging_ + +A SLEEPLESS NIGHT--RETURN TO COVEY'S--PURSUED BY COVEY--THE +CHASE DEFEATED--VENGEANCE POSTPONED--MUSINGS IN THE WOODS--THE +ALTERNATIVE--DEPLORABLE SPECTACLE--NIGHT IN THE WOODS--EXPECTED +ATTACK--ACCOSTED BY SANDY, A FRIEND, NOT A HUNTER--SANDY'S +HOSPITALITY--THE "ASH CAKE" SUPPER--THE INTERVIEW WITH SANDY--HIS +ADVICE--SANDY A CONJURER AS WELL AS A CHRISTIAN--THE MAGIC ROOT--STRANGE +MEETING WITH COVEY--HIS MANNER--COVEY'S SUNDAY FACE--MY DEFENSIVE +RESOLVE--THE FIGHT--THE VICTORY, AND ITS RESULTS. + + +Sleep itself does not always come to the relief of the weary in body, +and the broken in spirit; especially when past troubles only foreshadow +coming disasters. The last hope had been extinguished. My master, who +I did not venture to hope would protect me as _a man_, had even now +refused to protect me as _his property;_ and had cast me back, covered +with reproaches and bruises, into the hands of a stranger to that mercy +which was the soul of the religion he professed. May the reader never +spend such a night as that allotted to me, previous to the morning which +was to herald my return to the den of horrors from which I had made a +temporary escape. + +I remained all night--sleep I did not--at St. Michael's; and in the +morning (Saturday) I started off, according to the order of Master +Thomas, feeling that I had no friend on earth, and doubting if I had one +in heaven. I reached Covey's about nine o'clock; and just as I stepped +into the field, before I had reached the house, Covey, true to his +snakish habits, darted out at me{181} from a fence corner, in which +he had secreted himself, for the purpose of securing me. He was amply +provided with a cowskin and a rope; and he evidently intended to _tie +me up_, and to wreak his vengeance on me to the fullest extent. I should +have been an easy prey, had he succeeded in getting his hands upon me, +for I had taken no refreshment since noon on Friday; and this, together +with the pelting, excitement, and the loss of blood, had reduced my +strength. I, however, darted back into the woods, before the ferocious +hound could get hold of me, and buried myself in a thicket, where he +lost sight of me. The corn-field afforded me cover, in getting to the +woods. But for the tall corn, Covey would have overtaken me, and made me +his captive. He seemed very much chagrined that he did not catch me, +and gave up the chase, very reluctantly; for I could see his angry +movements, toward the house from which he had sallied, on his foray. + +Well, now I am clear of Covey, and of his wrathful lash, for present. +I am in the wood, buried in its somber gloom, and hushed in its solemn +silence; hid from all human eyes; shut in with nature and nature's God, +and absent from all human contrivances. Here was a good place to pray; +to pray for help for deliverance--a prayer I had often made before. But +how could I pray? Covey could pray--Capt. Auld could pray--I would fain +pray; but doubts (arising partly from my own neglect of the means of +grace, and partly from the sham religion which everywhere prevailed, +cast in my mind a doubt upon all religion, and led me to the conviction +that prayers were unavailing and delusive) prevented my embracing the +opportunity, as a religious one. Life, in itself, had almost become +burdensome to me. All my outward relations were against me; I must stay +here and starve (I was already hungry) or go home to Covey's, and have +my flesh torn to pieces, and my spirit humbled under the cruel lash of +Covey. This was the painful alternative presented to me. The day was +long and irksome. My physical condition was deplorable. I was weak, from +the toils of the previous day, and from the want of{182} food and rest; +and had been so little concerned about my appearance, that I had not yet +washed the blood from my garments. I was an object of horror, even to +myself. Life, in Baltimore, when most oppressive, was a paradise to +this. What had I done, what had my parents done, that such a life as +this should be mine? That day, in the woods, I would have exchanged my +manhood for the brutehood of an ox. + +Night came. I was still in the woods, unresolved what to do. Hunger had +not yet pinched me to the point of going home, and I laid myself down in +the leaves to rest; for I had been watching for hunters all day, but +not being molested during the day, I expected no disturbance during the +night. I had come to the conclusion that Covey relied upon hunger to +drive me home; and in this I was quite correct--the facts showed that he +had made no effort to catch me, since morning. + +During the night, I heard the step of a man in the woods. He was coming +toward the place where I lay. A person lying still has the advantage +over one walking in the woods, in the day time, and this advantage is +much greater at night. I was not able to engage in a physical struggle, +and I had recourse to the common resort of the weak. I hid myself in the +leaves to prevent discovery. But, as the night rambler in the woods drew +nearer, I found him to be a _friend_, not an enemy; it was a slave of +Mr. William Groomes, of Easton, a kind hearted fellow, named "Sandy." +Sandy lived with Mr. Kemp that year, about four miles from St. +Michael's. He, like myself had been hired out by the year; but, unlike +myself, had not been hired out to be broken. Sandy was the husband of a +free woman, who lived in the lower part of _"Potpie Neck,"_ and he was +now on his way through the woods, to see her, and to spend the Sabbath +with her. + +As soon as I had ascertained that the disturber of my solitude was not +an enemy, but the good-hearted Sandy--a man as famous among the slaves +of the neighborhood for his good nature, as for his good sense I came +out from my hiding place, and made{183} myself known to him. I explained +the circumstances of the past two days, which had driven me to the +woods, and he deeply compassionated my distress. It was a bold thing +for him to shelter me, and I could not ask him to do so; for, had I +been found in his hut, he would have suffered the penalty of thirty-nine +lashes on his bare back, if not something worse. But Sandy was too +generous to permit the fear of punishment to prevent his relieving a +brother bondman from hunger and exposure; and, therefore, on his own +motion, I accompanied him to his home, or rather to the home of his +wife--for the house and lot were hers. His wife was called up--for it +was now about midnight--a fire was made, some Indian meal was soon mixed +with salt and water, and an ash cake was baked in a hurry to relieve +my hunger. Sandy's wife was not behind him in kindness--both seemed to +esteem it a privilege to succor me; for, although I was hated by Covey +and by my master, I was loved by the colored people, because _they_ +thought I was hated for my knowledge, and persecuted because I was +feared. I was the _only_ slave _now_ in that region who could read and +write. There had been one other man, belonging to Mr. Hugh Hamilton, who +could read (his name was "Jim"), but he, poor fellow, had, shortly after +my coming into the neighborhood, been sold off to the far south. I saw +Jim ironed, in the cart, to be carried to Easton for sale--pinioned +like a yearling for the slaughter. My knowledge was now the pride of +my brother slaves; and, no doubt, Sandy felt something of the general +interest in me on that account. The supper was soon ready, and though I +have feasted since, with honorables, lord mayors and aldermen, over the +sea, my supper on ash cake and cold water, with Sandy, was the meal, of +all my life, most sweet to my taste, and now most vivid in my memory. + +Supper over, Sandy and I went into a discussion of what was _possible_ +for me, under the perils and hardships which now overshadowed my path. +The question was, must I go back to Covey, or must I now tempt to run +away? Upon a careful survey, the latter was found to be impossible; for +I was on a narrow neck of land,{184} every avenue from which would bring +me in sight of pursuers. There was the Chesapeake bay to the right, +and "Pot-pie" river to the left, and St. Michael's and its neighborhood +occupying the only space through which there was any retreat. + +I found Sandy an old advisor. He was not only a religious man, but he +professed to believe in a system for which I have no name. He was a +genuine African, and had inherited some of the so-called magical powers, +said to be possessed by African and eastern nations. He told me that he +could help me; that, in those very woods, there was an herb, which in +the morning might be found, possessing all the powers required for my +protection (I put his thoughts in my own language); and that, if I would +take his advice, he would procure me the root of the herb of which he +spoke. He told me further, that if I would take that root and wear it +on my right side, it would be impossible for Covey to strike me a blow; +that with this root about my person, no white man could whip me. He said +he had carried it for years, and that he had fully tested its virtues. +He had never received a blow from a slaveholder since he carried it; and +he never expected to receive one, for he always meant to carry that root +as a protection. He knew Covey well, for Mrs. Covey was the daughter of +Mr. Kemp; and he (Sandy) had heard of the barbarous treatment to which I +was subjected, and he wanted to do something for me. + +Now all this talk about the root, was to me, very absurd and ridiculous, +if not positively sinful. I at first rejected the idea that the simple +carrying a root on my right side (a root, by the way, over which I +walked every time I went into the woods) could possess any such magic +power as he ascribed to it, and I was, therefore, not disposed to +cumber my pocket with it. I had a positive aversion to all pretenders +to _"divination."_ It was beneath one of my intelligence to countenance +such dealings with the devil, as this power implied. But, with all my +learning--it was really precious little--Sandy was more than a match +for me. "My book learning," he said, "had not kept Covey off me" (a +powerful{185} argument just then) and he entreated me, with flashing +eyes, to try this. If it did me no good, it could do me no harm, and it +would cost me nothing, any way. Sandy was so earnest, and so confident +of the good qualities of this weed, that, to please him, rather than +from any conviction of its excellence, I was induced to take it. He had +been to me the good Samaritan, and had, almost providentially, found me, +and helped me when I could not help myself; how did I know but that the +hand of the Lord was in it? With thoughts of this sort, I took the roots +from Sandy, and put them in my right hand pocket. + +This was, of course, Sunday morning. Sandy now urged me to go home, with +all speed, and to walk up bravely to the house, as though nothing had +happened. I saw in Sandy too deep an insight into human nature, with all +his superstition, not to have some respect for his advice; and perhaps, +too, a slight gleam or shadow of his superstition had fallen upon me. +At any rate, I started off toward Covey's, as directed by Sandy. Having, +the previous night, poured my griefs into Sandy's ears, and got him +enlisted in my behalf, having made his wife a sharer in my sorrows, +and having, also, become well refreshed by sleep and food, I moved off, +quite courageously, toward the much dreaded Covey's. Singularly enough, +just as I entered his yard gate, I met him and his wife, dressed in +their Sunday best--looking as smiling as angels--on their way to church. +The manner of Covey astonished me. There was something really benignant +in his countenance. He spoke to me as never before; told me that the +pigs had got into the lot, and he wished me to drive them out; inquired +how I was, and seemed an altered man. This extraordinary conduct of +Covey, really made me begin to think that Sandy's herb had more virtue +in it than I, in my pride, had been willing to allow; and, had the day +been other than Sunday, I should have attributed Covey's altered manner +solely to the magic power of the root. I suspected, however, that the +_Sabbath_, and not the _root_, was the real explanation of Covey's +manner. His religion hindered him from breaking the{186} Sabbath, but +not from breaking my skin. He had more respect for the _day_ than for +the _man_, for whom the day was mercifully given; for while he would cut +and slash my body during the week, he would not hesitate, on Sunday, to +teach me the value of my soul, or the way of life and salvation by Jesus +Christ. + +All went well with me till Monday morning; and then, whether the root +had lost its virtue, or whether my tormentor had gone deeper into the +black art than myself (as was sometimes said of him), or whether he had +obtained a special indulgence, for his faithful Sabbath day's worship, +it is not necessary for me to know, or to inform the reader; but, this +I _may_ say--the pious and benignant smile which graced Covey's face on +_Sunday_, wholly disappeared on _Monday_. Long before daylight, I was +called up to go and feed, rub, and curry the horses. I obeyed the call, +and would have so obeyed it, had it been made at an earilier(sic) +hour, for I had brought my mind to a firm resolve, during that Sunday's +reflection, viz: to obey every order, however unreasonable, if it were +possible, and, if Mr. Covey should then undertake to beat me, to defend +and protect myself to the best of my ability. My religious views on the +subject of resisting my master, had suffered a serious shock, by the +savage persecution to which I had been subjected, and my hands were no +longer tied by my religion. Master Thomas's indifference had served the +last link. I had now to this extent "backslidden" from this point in the +slave's religious creed; and I soon had occasion to make my fallen state +known to my Sunday-pious brother, Covey. + +Whilst I was obeying his order to feed and get the horses ready for the +field, and when in the act of going up the stable loft for the purpose +of throwing down some blades, Covey sneaked into the stable, in his +peculiar snake-like way, and seizing me suddenly by the leg, he brought +me to the stable floor, giving my newly mended body a fearful jar. I +now forgot my roots, and remembered my pledge to _stand up in my own +defense_. The brute was endeavoring skillfully to get a slip-knot on my +legs, before I could{187} draw up my feet. As soon as I found what he +was up to, I gave a sudden spring (my two day's rest had been of much +service to me,) and by that means, no doubt, he was able to bring me +to the floor so heavily. He was defeated in his plan of tying me. While +down, he seemed to think he had me very securely in his power. He little +thought he was--as the rowdies say--"in" for a "rough and tumble" +fight; but such was the fact. Whence came the daring spirit necessary +to grapple with a man who, eight-and-forty hours before, could, with +his slightest word have made me tremble like a leaf in a storm, I do +not know; at any rate, _I was resolved to fight_, and, what was better +still, I was actually hard at it. The fighting madness had come upon +me, and I found my strong fingers firmly attached to the throat of +my cowardly tormentor; as heedless of consequences, at the moment, as +though we stood as equals before the law. The very color of the man +was forgotten. I felt as supple as a cat, and was ready for the snakish +creature at every turn. Every blow of his was parried, though I dealt +no blows in turn. I was strictly on the _defensive_, preventing him from +injuring me, rather than trying to injure him. I flung him on the ground +several times, when he meant to have hurled me there. I held him so +firmly by the throat, that his blood followed my nails. He held me, and +I held him. + +All was fair, thus far, and the contest was about equal. My resistance +was entirely unexpected, and Covey was taken all aback by it, for he +trembled in every limb. _"Are you going to resist_, you scoundrel?" +said he. To which, I returned a polite _"Yes sir;"_ steadily gazing my +interrogator in the eye, to meet the first approach or dawning of the +blow, which I expected my answer would call forth. But, the conflict did +not long remain thus equal. Covey soon cried out lustily for help; not +that I was obtaining any marked advantage over him, or was injuring +him, but because he was gaining none over me, and was not able, single +handed, to conquer me. He called for his cousin Hughs, to come to his +assistance, and now the scene was changed. I was compelled to{188} +give blows, as well as to parry them; and, since I was, in any case, to +suffer for resistance, I felt (as the musty proverb goes) that "I might +as well be hanged for an old sheep as a lamb." I was still _defensive_ +toward Covey, but _aggressive_ toward Hughs; and, at the first approach +of the latter, I dealt a blow, in my desperation, which fairly sickened +my youthful assailant. He went off, bending over with pain, and +manifesting no disposition to come within my reach again. The poor +fellow was in the act of trying to catch and tie my right hand, and +while flattering himself with success, I gave him the kick which sent +him staggering away in pain, at the same time that I held Covey with a +firm hand. + +Taken completely by surprise, Covey seemed to have lost his usual +strength and coolness. He was frightened, and stood puffing and blowing, +seemingly unable to command words or blows. When he saw that poor Hughes +was standing half bent with pain--his courage quite gone the cowardly +tyrant asked if I "meant to persist in my resistance." I told him "_I +did mean to resist, come what might_;" that I had been by him treated +like a _brute_, during the last six months; and that I should stand it +_no longer_. With that, he gave me a shake, and attempted to drag me +toward a stick of wood, that was lying just outside the stable door. He +meant to knock me down with it; but, just as he leaned over to get the +stick, I seized him with both hands by the collar, and, with a vigorous +and sudden snatch, I brought my assailant harmlessly, his full length, +on the _not_ overclean ground--for we were now in the cow yard. He had +selected the place for the fight, and it was but right that he should +have all the advantges(sic) of his own selection. + +By this time, Bill, the hiredman, came home. He had been to Mr. +Hemsley's, to spend the Sunday with his nominal wife, and was coming +home on Monday morning, to go to work. Covey and I had been skirmishing +from before daybreak, till now, that the sun was almost shooting his +beams over the eastern woods, and we were still at it. I could not see +where the matter was to terminate. He evidently was afraid to let me +go, lest I should again{189} make off to the woods; otherwise, he would +probably have obtained arms from the house, to frighten me. Holding me, +Covey called upon Bill for assistance. The scene here, had something +comic about it. "Bill," who knew _precisely_ what Covey wished him to +do, affected ignorance, and pretended he did not know what to do. "What +shall I do, Mr. Covey," said Bill. "Take hold of him--take hold of him!" +said Covey. With a toss of his head, peculiar to Bill, he said, "indeed, +Mr. Covey I want to go to work." _"This is_ your work," said Covey; +"take hold of him." Bill replied, with spirit, "My master hired me here, +to work, and _not_ to help you whip Frederick." It was now my turn +to speak. "Bill," said I, "don't put your hands on me." To which he +replied, "My GOD! Frederick, I ain't goin' to tech ye," and Bill walked +off, leaving Covey and myself to settle our matters as best we might. + +But, my present advantage was threatened when I saw Caroline (the +slave-woman of Covey) coming to the cow yard to milk, for she was a +powerful woman, and could have mastered me very easily, exhausted as I +now was. As soon as she came into the yard, Covey attempted to rally her +to his aid. Strangely--and, I may add, fortunately--Caroline was in no +humor to take a hand in any such sport. We were all in open rebellion, +that morning. Caroline answered the command of her master to _"take hold +of me,"_ precisely as Bill had answered, but in _her_, it was at greater +peril so to answer; she was the slave of Covey, and he could do what he +pleased with her. It was _not_ so with Bill, and Bill knew it. Samuel +Harris, to whom Bill belonged, did not allow his slaves to be beaten, +unless they were guilty of some crime which the law would punish. But, +poor Caroline, like myself, was at the mercy of the merciless Covey; +nor did she escape the dire effects of her refusal. He gave her several +sharp blows. + +Covey at length (two hours had elapsed) gave up the contest. Letting me +go, he said--puffing and blowing at a great rate--"Now, you scoundrel, +go to your work; I would not have whipped you half so much as I have had +you not resisted." The fact was,{190} _he had not whipped me at all_. +He had not, in all the scuffle, drawn a single drop of blood from me. I +had drawn blood from him; and, even without this satisfaction, I should +have been victorious, because my aim had not been to injure him, but to +prevent his injuring me. + +During the whole six months that I lived with Covey, after this +transaction, he never laid on me the weight of his finger in anger. +He would, occasionally, say he did not want to have to get hold of me +again--a declaration which I had no difficulty in believing; and I had +a secret feeling, which answered, "You need not wish to get hold of me +again, for you will be likely to come off worse in a second fight than +you did in the first." + +Well, my dear reader, this battle with Mr. Covey--undignified as it was, +and as I fear my narration of it is--was the turning point in my _"life +as a slave_." It rekindled in my breast the smouldering embers of +liberty; it brought up my Baltimore dreams, and revived a sense of my +own manhood. I was a changed being after that fight. I was _nothing_ +before; I WAS A MAN NOW. It recalled to life my crushed self-respect and +my self-confidence, and inspired me with a renewed determination to be +A FREEMAN. A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of +humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot _honor_ a +helpless man, although it can _pity_ him; and even this it cannot do +long, if the signs of power do not arise. + +He can only understand the effect of this combat on my spirit, who has +himself incurred something, hazarded something, in repelling the unjust +and cruel aggressions of a tyrant. Covey was a tyrant, and a cowardly +one, withal. After resisting him, I felt as I had never felt before. It +was a resurrection from the dark and pestiferous tomb of slavery, to +the heaven of comparative freedom. I was no longer a servile coward, +trembling under the frown of a brother worm of the dust, but, my +long-cowed spirit was roused to an attitude of manly independence. I had +reached the point, at which I was _not afraid to die_. This{191} spirit +made me a freeman in _fact_, while I remained a slave in _form_. When +a slave cannot be flogged he is more than half free. He has a domain as +broad as his own manly heart to defend, and he is really _"a power on +earth_." While slaves prefer their lives, with flogging, to instant +death, they will always find Christians enough, like unto Covey, to +accommodate that preference. From this time, until that of my escape +from slavery, I was never fairly whipped. Several attempts were made +to whip me, but they were always unsuccessful. Bruises I did get, as I +shall hereafter inform the reader; but the case I have been describing, +was the end of the brutification to which slavery had subjected me. + +The reader will be glad to know why, after I had so grievously offended +Mr. Covey, he did not have me taken in hand by the authorities; indeed, +why the law of Maryland, which assigns hanging to the slave who resists +his master, was not put in force against me; at any rate, why I was +not taken up, as is usual in such cases, and publicly whipped, for an +example to other slaves, and as a means of deterring me from committing +the same offense again. I confess, that the easy manner in which I got +off, for a long time, a surprise to me, and I cannot, even now, fully +explain the cause. + +The only explanation I can venture to suggest, is the fact, that Covey +was, probably, ashamed to have it known and confessed that he had been +mastered by a boy of sixteen. Mr. Covey enjoyed the unbounded and very +valuable reputation, of being a first rate overseer and _Negro breaker_. +By means of this reputation, he was able to procure his hands for _very +trifling_ compensation, and with very great ease. His interest and +his pride mutually suggested the wisdom of passing the matter by, in +silence. The story that he had undertaken to whip a lad, and had been +resisted, was, of itself, sufficient to damage him; for his bearing +should, in the estimation of slaveholders, be of that imperial order +that should make such an occurrence _impossible_. I judge from these +circumstances, that Covey deemed it best to{192} give me the go-by. It +is, perhaps, not altogether creditable to my natural temper, that, after +this conflict with Mr. Covey, I did, at times, purposely aim to provoke +him to an attack, by refusing to keep with the other hands in the field, +but I could never bully him to another battle. I had made up my mind to +do him serious damage, if he ever again attempted to lay violent hands +on me. + + _Hereditary bondmen, know ye not + Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?_ + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. _New Relations and Duties_ + +CHANGE OF MASTERS--BENEFITS DERIVED BY THE CHANGE--FAME OF THE FIGHT +WITH COVEY--RECKLESS UNCONCERN--MY ABHORRENCE OF SLAVERY--ABILITY +TO READ A CAUSE OF PREJUDICE--THE HOLIDAYS--HOW SPENT--SHARP HIT AT +SLAVERY--EFFECTS OF HOLIDAYS--A DEVICE OF SLAVERY--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN +COVEY AND FREELAND--AN IRRELIGIOUS MASTER PREFERRED TO A RELIGIOUS +ONE--CATALOGUE OF FLOGGABLE OFFENSES--HARD LIFE AT COVEY'S +USEFUL--IMPROVED CONDITION NOT FOLLOWED BY CONTENTMENT--CONGENIAL +SOCIETY AT FREELAND'S--SABBATH SCHOOL INSTITUTED--SECRECY +NECESSARY--AFFECTIONATE RELATIONS OF TUTOR AND PUPILS--CONFIDENCE +AND FRIENDSHIP AMONG SLAVES--I DECLINE PUBLISHING PARTICULARS OF +CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FRIENDS--SLAVERY THE INVITER OF VENGEANCE. + + +My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas day, +1834. I gladly left the snakish Covey, although he was now as gentle as +a lamb. My home for the year 1835 was already secured--my next master +was already selected. There is always more or less excitement about the +matter of changing hands, but I had become somewhat reckless. I cared +very little into whose hands I fell--I meant to fight my way. Despite of +Covey, too, the report got abroad, that I was hard to whip; that I was +guilty of kicking back; that though generally a good tempered Negro, +I sometimes "_got the devil in me_." These sayings were rife in Talbot +county, and they distinguished me among my servile brethren. Slaves, +generally, will fight each other, and die at each other's hands; but +there are few who are not held in awe by a white man. Trained from the +cradle up, to think and{194} feel that their masters are superior, and +invested with a sort of sacredness, there are few who can outgrow or +rise above the control which that sentiment exercises. I had now got +free from it, and the thing was known. One bad sheep will spoil a +whole flock. Among the slaves, I was a bad sheep. I hated slavery, +slaveholders, and all pertaining to them; and I did not fail to inspire +others with the same feeling, wherever and whenever opportunity was +presented. This made me a marked lad among the slaves, and a suspected +one among the slaveholders. A knowledge of my ability to read and write, +got pretty widely spread, which was very much against me. + +The days between Christmas day and New Year's, are allowed the slaves as +holidays. During these days, all regular work was suspended, and there +was nothing to do but to keep fires, and look after the stock. This time +was regarded as our own, by the grace of our masters, and we, therefore +used it, or abused it, as we pleased. Those who had families at a +distance, were now expected to visit them, and to spend with them the +entire week. The younger slaves, or the unmarried ones, were expected to +see to the cattle, and attend to incidental duties at home. The holidays +were variously spent. The sober, thinking and industrious ones of our +number, would employ themselves in manufacturing corn brooms, mats, +horse collars and baskets, and some of these were very well made. +Another class spent their time in hunting opossums, coons, rabbits, and +other game. But the majority spent the holidays in sports, ball playing, +wrestling, boxing, running foot races, dancing, and drinking whisky; and +this latter mode of spending the time was generally most agreeable to +their masters. A slave who would work during the holidays, was thought, +by his master, undeserving of holidays. Such an one had rejected the +favor of his master. There was, in this simple act of continued work, an +accusation against slaves; and a slave could not help thinking, that if +he made three dollars during the holidays, he might make three +hundred during the year. Not to be drunk during the holidays,{195} was +disgraceful; and he was esteemed a lazy and improvident man, who could +not afford to drink whisky during Christmas. + +The fiddling, dancing and _"jubilee beating_," was going on in all +directions. This latter performance is strictly southern. It supplies +the place of a violin, or of other musical instruments, and is played +so easily, that almost every farm has its "Juba" beater. The performer +improvises as he beats, and sings his merry songs, so ordering the words +as to have them fall pat with the movement of his hands. Among a mass +of nonsense and wild frolic, once in a while a sharp hit is given to the +meanness of slaveholders. Take the following, for an example: + + _We raise de wheat, + Dey gib us de corn; + We bake de bread, + Dey gib us de cruss; + We sif de meal, + Dey gib us de huss; + We peal de meat, + Dey gib us de skin, + And dat's de way + Dey takes us in. + We skim de pot, + Dey gib us the liquor, + And say dat's good enough for nigger. + Walk over! walk over! + Tom butter and de fat; + Poor nigger you can't get over dat; + Walk over_! + + +This is not a bad summary of the palpable injustice and fraud of +slavery, giving--as it does--to the lazy and idle, the comforts which +God designed should be given solely to the honest laborer. But to the +holiday's. + +Judging from my own observation and experience, I believe these holidays +to be among the most effective means, in the hands of slaveholders, of +keeping down the spirit of insurrection among the slaves. + +To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to{196} have +their minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty +of which they are deprived. A certain degree of attainable good must be +kept before them. These holidays serve the purpose of keeping the minds +of the slaves occupied with prospective pleasure, within the limits +of slavery. The young man can go wooing; the married man can visit his +wife; the father and mother can see their children; the industrious and +money loving can make a few dollars; the great wrestler can win laurels; +the young people can meet, and enjoy each other's society; the drunken +man can get plenty of whisky; and the religious man can hold prayer +meetings, preach, pray and exhort during the holidays. Before the +holidays, these are pleasures in prospect; after the holidays, they +become pleasures of memory, and they serve to keep out thoughts and +wishes of a more dangerous character. Were slaveholders at once +to abandon the practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, +periodically, and to keep them, the year round, closely confined to the +narrow circle of their homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze +with insurrections. These holidays are conductors or safety valves to +carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the human mind, +when reduced to the condition of slavery. But for these, the rigors of +bondage would become too severe for endurance, and the slave would +be forced up to dangerous desperation. Woe to the slaveholder when +he undertakes to hinder or to prevent the operation of these electric +conductors. A succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, +than the insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in +different parts of the south, from such interference. + +Thus, the holidays, became part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrongs +and inhumanity of slavery. Ostensibly, they are institutions of +benevolence, designed to mitigate the rigors of slave life, but, +practically, they are a fraud, instituted by human selfishness, the +better to secure the ends of injustice and oppression. The slave's +happiness is not the end sought, but, rather, the master's{197} safety. +It is not from a generous unconcern for the slave's labor that this +cessation from labor is allowed, but from a prudent regard to the safety +of the slave system. I am strengthened in this opinion, by the fact, +that most slaveholders like to have their slaves spend the holidays in +such a manner as to be of no real benefit to the slaves. It is plain, +that everything like rational enjoyment among the slaves, is frowned +upon; and only those wild and low sports, peculiar to semi-civilized +people, are encouraged. All the license allowed, appears to have no +other object than to disgust the slaves with their temporary freedom, +and to make them as glad to return to their work, as they were to +leave it. By plunging them into exhausting depths of drunkenness and +dissipation, this effect is almost certain to follow. I have known +slaveholders resort to cunning tricks, with a view of getting their +slaves deplorably drunk. A usual plan is, to make bets on a slave, that +he can drink more whisky than any other; and so to induce a rivalry +among them, for the mastery in this degradation. The scenes, brought +about in this way, were often scandalous and loathsome in the extreme. +Whole multitudes might be found stretched out in brutal drunkenness, at +once helpless and disgusting. Thus, when the slave asks for a few +hours of virtuous freedom, his cunning master takes advantage of +his ignorance, and cheers him with a dose of vicious and revolting +dissipation, artfully labeled with the name of LIBERTY. We were induced +to drink, I among the rest, and when the holidays were over, we all +staggered up from our filth and wallowing, took a long breath, and went +away to our various fields of work; feeling, upon the whole, rather glad +to go from that which our masters artfully deceived us into the belief +was freedom, back again to the arms of slavery. It was not what we had +taken it to be, nor what it might have been, had it not been abused by +us. It was about as well to be a slave to _master_, as to be a slave to +_rum_ and _whisky._ + +I am the more induced to take this view of the holiday system,{198} +adopted by slaveholders, from what I know of their treatment of slaves, +in regard to other things. It is the commonest thing for them to try +to disgust their slaves with what they do not want them to have, or to +enjoy. A slave, for instance, likes molasses; he steals some; to cure +him of the taste for it, his master, in many cases, will go away to +town, and buy a large quantity of the _poorest_ quality, and set it +before his slave, and, with whip in hand, compel him to eat it, until +the poor fellow is made to sicken at the very thought of molasses. The +same course is often adopted to cure slaves of the disagreeable and +inconvenient practice of asking for more food, when their allowance +has failed them. The same disgusting process works well, too, in other +things, but I need not cite them. When a slave is drunk, the slaveholder +has no fear that he will plan an insurrection; no fear that he will +escape to the north. It is the sober, thinking slave who is dangerous, +and needs the vigilance of his master, to keep him a slave. But, to +proceed with my narrative. + +On the first of January, 1835, I proceeded from St. Michael's to Mr. +William Freeland's, my new home. Mr. Freeland lived only three miles +from St. Michael's, on an old worn out farm, which required much labor +to restore it to anything like a self-supporting establishment. + +I was not long in finding Mr. Freeland to be a very different man +from Mr. Covey. Though not rich, Mr. Freeland was what may be called a +well-bred southern gentleman, as different from Covey, as a well-trained +and hardened Negro breaker is from the best specimen of the first +families of the south. Though Freeland was a slaveholder, and shared +many of the vices of his class, he seemed alive to the sentiment of +honor. He had some sense of justice, and some feelings of humanity. He +was fretful, impulsive and passionate, but I must do him the justice +to say, he was free from the mean and selfish characteristics which +distinguished the creature from which I had now, happily, escaped. +He was open, frank, imperative, and practiced no concealments,{199} +disdaining to play the spy. In all this, he was the opposite of the +crafty Covey. + +Among the many advantages gained in my change from Covey's to +Freeland's--startling as the statement may be--was the fact that +the latter gentleman made no profession of religion. I assert _most +unhesitatingly_, that the religion of the south--as I have observed +it and proved it--is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes; the +justifier of the most appalling barbarity; a sanctifier of the most +hateful frauds; and a secure shelter, under which the darkest, foulest, +grossest, and most infernal abominations fester and flourish. Were +I again to be reduced to the condition of a slave, _next_ to that +calamity, I should regard the fact of being the slave of a religious +slaveholder, the greatest that could befall me. For all slaveholders +with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have +found them, almost invariably, the vilest, meanest and basest of +their class. Exceptions there may be, but this is true of religious +slaveholders, _as a class_. It is not for me to explain the fact. Others +may do that; I simply state it as a fact, and leave the theological, +and psychological inquiry, which it raises, to be decided by others +more competent than myself. Religious slaveholders, like religious +persecutors, are ever extreme in their malice and violence. Very near my +new home, on an adjoining farm, there lived the Rev. Daniel Weeden, who +was both pious and cruel after the real Covey pattern. Mr. Weeden was +a local preacher of the Protestant Methodist persuasion, and a most +zealous supporter of the ordinances of religion, generally. This +Weeden owned a woman called "Ceal," who was a standing proof of his +mercilessness. Poor Ceal's back, always scantily clothed, was kept +literally raw, by the lash of this religious man and gospel minister. +The most notoriously wicked man--so called in distinction from church +members--could hire hands more easily than this brute. When sent out to +find a home, a slave would never enter the gates of the preacher Weeden, +while a sinful sinner needed a hand. Be{200} have ill, or behave well, +it was the known maxim of Weeden, that it is the duty of a master to use +the lash. If, for no other reason, he contended that this was essential +to remind a slave of his condition, and of his master's authority. The +good slave must be whipped, to be _kept_ good, and the bad slave must be +whipped, to be _made_ good. Such was Weeden's theory, and such was his +practice. The back of his slave-woman will, in the judgment, be the +swiftest witness against him. + +While I am stating particular cases, I might as well immortalize another +of my neighbors, by calling him by name, and putting him in print. +He did not think that a "chiel" was near, "taking notes," and will, +doubtless, feel quite angry at having his character touched off in the +ragged style of a slave's pen. I beg to introduce the reader to REV. +RIGBY HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins resides between Easton and St. Michael's, +in Talbot county, Maryland. The severity of this man made him a perfect +terror to the slaves of his neighborhood. The peculiar feature of his +government, was, his system of whipping slaves, as he said, _in advance_ +of deserving it. He always managed to have one or two slaves to whip +on Monday morning, so as to start his hands to their work, under the +inspiration of a new assurance on Monday, that his preaching about +kindness, mercy, brotherly love, and the like, on Sunday, did not +interfere with, or prevent him from establishing his authority, by the +cowskin. He seemed to wish to assure them, that his tears over poor, +lost and ruined sinners, and his pity for them, did not reach to the +blacks who tilled his fields. This saintly Hopkins used to boast, that +he was the best hand to manage a Negro in the county. He whipped for the +smallest offenses, by way of preventing the commission of large ones. + +The reader might imagine a difficulty in finding faults enough for +such frequent whipping. But this is because you have no idea how easy +a matter it is to offend a man who is on the look-out for offenses. The +man, unaccustomed to slaveholding, would be astonished to observe how +many _foggable_ offenses there are in{201} the slaveholder's catalogue +of crimes; and how easy it is to commit any one of them, even when the +slave least intends it. A slaveholder, bent on finding fault, will hatch +up a dozen a day, if he chooses to do so, and each one of these shall +be of a punishable description. A mere look, word, or motion, a mistake, +accident, or want of power, are all matters for which a slave may be +whipped at any time. Does a slave look dissatisfied with his condition? +It is said, that he has the devil in him, and it must be whipped out. +Does he answer _loudly_, when spoken to by his master, with an air of +self-consciousness? Then, must he be taken down a button-hole lower, by +the lash, well laid on. Does he forget, and omit to pull off his hat, +when approaching a white person? Then, he must, or may be, whipped for +his bad manners. Does he ever venture to vindicate his conduct, when +harshly and unjustly accused? Then, he is guilty of impudence, one of +the greatest crimes in the social catalogue of southern society. To +allow a slave to escape punishment, who has impudently attempted to +exculpate himself from unjust charges, preferred against him by some +white person, is to be guilty of great dereliction of duty. Does a slave +ever venture to suggest a better way of doing a thing, no matter what? +He is, altogether, too officious--wise above what is written--and he +deserves, even if he does not get, a flogging for his presumption. Does +he, while plowing, break a plow, or while hoeing, break a hoe, or while +chopping, break an ax? No matter what were the imperfections of the +implement broken, or the natural liabilities for breaking, the slave +can be whipped for carelessness. The _reverend_ slaveholder could always +find something of this sort, to justify him in using the lash several +times during the week. Hopkins--like Covey and Weeden--were shunned by +slaves who had the privilege (as many had) of finding their own masters +at the end of each year; and yet, there was not a man in all that +section of country, who made a louder profession of religion, than did +MR. RIGBY HOPKINS.{202} + +But, to continue the thread of my story, through my experience when at +Mr. William Freeland's. + +My poor, weather-beaten bark now reached smoother water, and gentler +breezes. My stormy life at Covey's had been of service to me. The things +that would have seemed very hard, had I gone direct to Mr. Freeland's, +from the home of Master Thomas, were now (after the hardships at +Covey's) "trifles light as air." I was still a field hand, and had come +to prefer the severe labor of the field, to the enervating duties of +a house servant. I had become large and strong; and had begun to take +pride in the fact, that I could do as much hard work as some of the +older men. There is much rivalry among slaves, at times, as to which can +do the most work, and masters generally seek to promote such rivalry. +But some of us were too wise to race with each other very long. Such +racing, we had the sagacity to see, was not likely to pay. We had our +times for measuring each other's strength, but we knew too much to keep +up the competition so long as to produce an extraordinary day's work. +We knew that if, by extraordinary exertion, a large quantity of work was +done in one day, the fact, becoming known to the master, might lead him +to require the same amount every day. This thought was enough to bring +us to a dead halt when over so much excited for the race. + +At Mr. Freeland's, my condition was every way improved. I was no longer +the poor scape-goat that I was when at Covey's, where every wrong thing +done was saddled upon me, and where other slaves were whipped over my +shoulders. Mr. Freeland was too just a man thus to impose upon me, or +upon any one else. + +It is quite usual to make one slave the object of especial abuse, and to +beat him often, with a view to its effect upon others, rather than with +any expectation that the slave whipped will be improved by it, but +the man with whom I now was, could descend to no such meanness and +wickedness. Every man here was held individually responsible for his own +conduct. + +This was a vast improvement on the rule at Covey's. There, I{203} +was the general pack horse. Bill Smith was protected, by a positive +prohibition made by his rich master, and the command of the rich +slaveholder is LAW to the poor one; Hughes was favored, because of +his relationship to Covey; and the hands hired temporarily, escaped +flogging, except as they got it over my poor shoulders. Of course, this +comparison refers to the time when Covey _could_ whip me. + +Mr. Freeland, like Mr. Covey, gave his hands enough to eat, but, unlike +Mr. Covey, he gave them time to take their meals; he worked us hard +during the day, but gave us the night for rest--another advantage to be +set to the credit of the sinner, as against that of the saint. We were +seldom in the field after dark in the evening, or before sunrise in the +morning. Our implements of husbandry were of the most improved pattern, +and much superior to those used at Covey's. + +Nothwithstanding the improved condition which was now mine, and the many +advantages I had gained by my new home, and my new master, I was still +restless and discontented. I was about as hard to please by a master, +as a master is by slave. The freedom from bodily torture and unceasing +labor, had given my mind an increased sensibility, and imparted to it +greater activity. I was not yet exactly in right relations. "How be it, +that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and +afterward that which is spiritual." When entombed at Covey's, shrouded +in darkness and physical wretchedness, temporal wellbeing was the grand +_desideratum;_ but, temporal wants supplied, the spirit puts in its +claims. Beat and cuff your slave, keep him hungry and spiritless, and he +will follow the chain of his master like a dog; but, feed and clothe +him well--work him moderately--surround him with physical comfort--and +dreams of freedom intrude. Give him a _bad_ master, and he aspires to a +_good_ master; give him a good master, and he wishes to become his _own_ +master. Such is human nature. You may hurl a man so low, beneath +the level of his kind, that he loses all just ideas of his natural +position;{204} but elevate him a little, and the clear conception of +rights arises to life and power, and leads him onward. Thus elevated, +a little, at Freeland's, the dreams called into being by that good man, +Father Lawson, when in Baltimore, began to visit me; and shoots from +the tree of liberty began to put forth tender buds, and dim hopes of the +future began to dawn. + +I found myself in congenial society, at Mr. Freeland's. There were Henry +Harris, John Harris, Handy Caldwell, and Sandy Jenkins. [6] + +Henry and John were brothers, and belonged to Mr. Freeland. They were +both remarkably bright and intelligent, though neither of them could +read. Now for mischief! I had not been long at Freeland's before I +was up to my old tricks. I early began to address my companions on the +subject of education, and the advantages of intelligence over ignorance, +and, as far as I dared, I tried to show the agency of ignorance in +keeping men in slavery. Webster's spelling book and the _Columbian +Orator_ were looked into again. As summer came on, and the long Sabbath +days stretched themselves over our idleness, I became uneasy, and wanted +a Sabbath school, in which to exercise my gifts, and to impart the +little knowledge of letters which I possessed, to my brother slaves. A +house was hardly necessary in the summer time; I could hold my school +under the shade of an old oak tree, as well as any where else. The thing +was, to get the scholars, and to have them thoroughly imbued with the +desire to learn. Two such boys were quickly secured, in Henry and John, +and from them the contagion spread. I was not long bringing around +me twenty or thirty young men, who enrolled themselves, gladly, in my +Sabbath school, and were willing to meet me regularly, under the +trees or elsewhere, for the purpose of learning to read. It was{205} +surprising with what ease they provided themselves with spelling +books. These were mostly the cast off books of their young masters or +mistresses. I taught, at first, on our own farm. All were impressed with +the necessity of keeping the matter as private as possible, for the fate +of the St. Michael's attempt was notorious, and fresh in the minds of +all. Our pious masters, at St. Michael's, must not know that a few of +their dusky brothers were learning to read the word of God, lest they +should come down upon us with the lash and chain. We might have met to +drink whisky, to wrestle, fight, and to do other unseemly things, with +no fear of interruption from the saints or sinners of St. Michael's. + +But, to meet for the purpose of improving the mind and heart, by +learning to read the sacred scriptures, was esteemed a most dangerous +nuisance, to be instantly stopped. The slaveholders of St. Michael's, +like slaveholders elsewhere, would always prefer to see the slaves +engaged in degrading sports, rather than to see them acting like moral +and accountable beings. + +Had any one asked a religious white man, in St. Michael's, twenty years +ago, the names of three men in that town, whose lives were most after +the pattern of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the first three would +have been as follows: + + GARRISON WEST, _Class Leader_. + WRIGHT FAIRBANKS, _Class Leader_. + THOMAS AULD, _Class Leader_. + +And yet, these were men who ferociously rushed in upon my Sabbath +school, at St. Michael's, armed with mob-like missiles, and I must say, +I thought him a Christian, until he took part in bloody by the lash. +This same Garrison West was my class leader, and I must say, I thought +him a Christian, until he took part in breaking up my school. He led me +no more after that. The plea for this outrage was then, as it is now and +at all times--the danger to good order. If the slaves learnt to read, +they would learn something else, and something worse. The peace of +slavery would be disturbed; slave rule would be endangered. I leave the +reader to{206} characterize a system which is endangered by such causes. +I do not dispute the soundness of the reasoning. It is perfectly sound; +and, if slavery be _right_, Sabbath schools for teaching slaves to read +the bible are _wrong_, and ought to be put down. These Christian class +leaders were, to this extent, consistent. They had settled the question, +that slavery is _right_, and, by that standard, they determined that +Sabbath schools are wrong. To be sure, they were Protestant, and held to +the great Protestant right of every man to _"search the scriptures"_ for +himself; but, then, to all general rules, there are _exceptions_. How +convenient! What crimes may not be committed under the doctrine of the +last remark. But, my dear, class leading Methodist brethren, did not +condescend to give me a reason for breaking up the Sabbath school at St. +Michael's; it was enough that they had determined upon its destruction. +I am, however, digressing. + +After getting the school cleverly into operation, the second time +holding it in the woods, behind the barn, and in the shade of trees--I +succeeded in inducing a free colored man, who lived several miles from +our house, to permit me to hold my school in a room at his house. He, +very kindly, gave me this liberty; but he incurred much peril in doing +so, for the assemblage was an unlawful one. I shall not mention, +here, the name of this man; for it might, even now, subject him to +persecution, although the offenses were committed more than twenty years +ago. I had, at one time, more than forty scholars, all of the right +sort; and many of them succeeded in learning to read. I have met several +slaves from Maryland, who were once my scholars; and who obtained their +freedom, I doubt not, partly in consequence of the ideas imparted to +them in that school. I have had various employments during my short +life; but I look back to _none_ with more satisfaction, than to that +afforded by my Sunday school. An attachment, deep and lasting, sprung +up between me and my persecuted pupils, which made parting from them +intensely grievous; and,{207} when I think that most of these dear souls +are yet shut up in this abject thralldom, I am overwhelmed with grief. + +Besides my Sunday school, I devoted three evenings a week to my fellow +slaves, during the winter. Let the reader reflect upon the fact, that, +in this christian country, men and women are hiding from professors of +religion, in barns, in the woods and fields, in order to learn to read +the _holy bible_. Those dear souls, who came to my Sabbath school, came +_not_ because it was popular or reputable to attend such a place, for +they came under the liability of having forty stripes laid on their +naked backs. Every moment they spend in my school, they were under this +terrible liability; and, in this respect, I was sharer with them. Their +minds had been cramped and starved by their cruel masters; the light of +education had been completely excluded; and their hard earnings had +been taken to educate their master's children. I felt a delight in +circumventing the tyrants, and in blessing the victims of their curses. + +The year at Mr. Freeland's passed off very smoothly, to outward seeming. +Not a blow was given me during the whole year. To the credit of Mr. +Freeland--irreligious though he was--it must be stated, that he was the +best master I ever had, until I became my own master, and assumed for +myself, as I had a right to do, the responsibility of my own existence +and the exercise of my own powers. For much of the happiness--or +absence of misery--with which I passed this year with Mr. Freeland, I +am indebted to the genial temper and ardent friendship of my brother +slaves. They were, every one of them, manly, generous and brave, yes; I +say they were brave, and I will add, fine looking. It is seldom the lot +of mortals to have truer and better friends than were the slaves on this +farm. It is not uncommon to charge slaves with great treachery toward +each other, and to believe them incapable of confiding in each other; +but I must say, that I never loved, esteemed, or confided in men, more +than I did in these. They were as true as steel, and no band of brothers +could have been more{208} loving. There were no mean advantages taken +of each other, as is sometimes the case where slaves are situated as we +were; no tattling; no giving each other bad names to Mr. Freeland; and +no elevating one at the expense of the other. We never undertook to do +any thing, of any importance, which was likely to affect each other, +without mutual consultation. We were generally a unit, and moved +together. Thoughts and sentiments were exchanged between us, which might +well be called very incendiary, by oppressors and tyrants; and perhaps +the time has not even now come, when it is safe to unfold all the flying +suggestions which arise in the minds of intelligent slaves. Several of +my friends and brothers, if yet alive, are still in some part of +the house of bondage; and though twenty years have passed away, the +suspicious malice of slavery might punish them for even listening to my +thoughts. + +The slaveholder, kind or cruel, is a slaveholder still--the every +hour violator of the just and inalienable rights of man; and he is, +therefore, every hour silently whetting the knife of vengeance for his +own throat. He never lisps a syllable in commendation of the fathers +of this republic, nor denounces any attempted oppression of himself, +without inviting the knife to his own throat, and asserting the rights +of rebellion for his own slaves. + +The year is ended, and we are now in the midst of the Christmas +holidays, which are kept this year as last, according to the general +description previously given. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. _The Run-Away Plot_ + +NEW YEAR'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS--AGAIN BOUGHT BY FREELAND--NO +AMBITION TO BE A SLAVE--KINDNESS NO COMPENSATION FOR SLAVERY--INCIPIENT +STEPS TOWARD ESCAPE--CONSIDERATIONS LEADING THERETO--IRRECONCILABLE +HOSTILITY TO SLAVERY--SOLEMN VOW TAKEN--PLAN DIVULGED TO THE +SLAVES--_Columbian Orator--_SCHEME GAINS FAVOR, DESPITE PRO-SLAVERY +PREACHING--DANGER OF DISCOVERY--SKILL OF SLAVEHOLDERS IN READING +THE MINDS OF THEIR SLAVES--SUSPICION AND COERCION--HYMNS WITH +DOUBLE MEANING--VALUE, IN DOLLARS, OF OUR COMPANY--PRELIMINARY +CONSULTATION--PASS-WORD--CONFLICTS OF HOPE AND FEAR--DIFFICULTIES TO BE +OVERCOME--IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY--SURVEY OF IMAGINARY DIFFICULTIES--EFFECT +ON OUR MINDS--PATRICK HENRY--SANDY BECOMES A DREAMER--ROUTE TO THE NORTH +LAID OUT--OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED--FRAUDS PRACTICED ON FREEMEN--PASSES +WRITTEN--ANXIETIES AS THE TIME DREW NEAR--DREAD OF FAILURE--APPEALS +TO COMRADES--STRANGE PRESENTIMENT--COINCIDENCE--THE BETRAYAL +DISCOVERED--THE MANNER OF ARRESTING US--RESISTANCE MADE BY HENRY +HARRIS--ITS EFFECT--THE UNIQUE SPEECH OF MRS. FREELAND--OUR SAD +PROCESSION TO PRISON--BRUTAL JEERS BY THE MULTITUDE ALONG THE +ROAD--PASSES EATEN--THE DENIAL--SANDY TOO WELL LOVED TO BE +SUSPECTED--DRAGGED BEHIND HORSES--THE JAIL A RELIEF--A NEW SET OF +TORMENTORS--SLAVE-TRADERS--JOHN, CHARLES AND HENRY RELEASED--ALONE IN +PRISON--I AM TAKEN OUT, AND SENT TO BALTIMORE. + + +I am now at the beginning of the year 1836, a time favorable for serious +thoughts. The mind naturally occupies itself with the mysteries of life +in all its phases--the ideal, the real and the actual. Sober people +look both ways at the beginning of the year, surveying the errors of the +past, and providing against possible errors of the future. I, too, +was thus exercised. I had little pleasure{210} in retrospect, and the +prospect was not very brilliant. "Notwithstanding," thought I, "the many +resolutions and prayers I have made, in behalf of freedom, I am, this +first day of the year 1836, still a slave, still wandering in the depths +of spirit-devouring thralldom. My faculties and powers of body and soul +are not my own, but are the property of a fellow mortal, in no sense +superior to me, except that he has the physical power to compel me to +be owned and controlled by him. By the combined physical force of the +community, I am his slave--a slave for life." With thoughts like these, +I was perplexed and chafed; they rendered me gloomy and disconsolate. +The anguish of my mind may not be written. + +At the close of the year 1835, Mr. Freeland, my temporary master, had +bought me of Capt. Thomas Auld, for the year 1836. His promptness in +securing my services, would have been flattering to my vanity, had I +been ambitious to win the reputation of being a valuable slave. Even as +it was, I felt a slight degree of complacency at the circumstance. It +showed he was as well pleased with me as a slave, as I was with him as +a master. I have already intimated my regard for Mr. Freeland, and I may +say here, in addressing northern readers--where is no selfish motive for +speaking in praise of a slaveholder--that Mr. Freeland was a man of many +excellent qualities, and to me quite preferable to any master I ever +had. + +But the kindness of the slavemaster only gilds the chain of slavery, and +detracts nothing from its weight or power. The thought that men are made +for other and better uses than slavery, thrives best under the gentle +treatment of a kind master. But the grim visage of slavery can assume +no smiles which can fascinate the partially enlightened slave, into a +forgetfulness of his bondage, nor of the desirableness of liberty. + +I was not through the first month of this, my second year with the kind +and gentlemanly Mr. Freeland, before I was earnestly considering and +advising plans for gaining that freedom, which,{211} when I was but +a mere child, I had ascertained to be the natural and inborn right of +every member of the human family. The desire for this freedom had been +benumbed, while I was under the brutalizing dominion of Covey; and +it had been postponed, and rendered inoperative, by my truly pleasant +Sunday school engagements with my friends, during the year 1835, at Mr. +Freeland's. It had, however, never entirely subsided. I hated slavery, +always, and the desire for freedom only needed a favorable breeze, to +fan it into a blaze, at any moment. The thought of only being a creature +of the _present_ and the _past_, troubled me, and I longed to have a +_future_--a future with hope in it. To be shut up entirely to the past +and present, is abhorrent to the human mind; it is to the soul--whose +life and happiness is unceasing progress--what the prison is to the +body; a blight and mildew, a hell of horrors. The dawning of this, +another year, awakened me from my temporary slumber, and roused into +life my latent, but long cherished aspirations for freedom. I was now +not only ashamed to be contented in slavery, but ashamed to _seem_ to be +contented, and in my present favorable condition, under the mild rule +of Mr. F., I am not sure that some kind reader will not condemn me for +being over ambitious, and greatly wanting in proper humility, when I say +the truth, that I now drove from me all thoughts of making the best of +my lot, and welcomed only such thoughts as led me away from the house +of bondage. The intense desires, now felt, _to be free_, quickened by my +present favorable circumstances, brought me to the determination to act, +as well as to think and speak. Accordingly, at the beginning of this +year 1836, I took upon me a solemn vow, that the year which had now +dawned upon me should not close, without witnessing an earnest attempt, +on my part, to gain my liberty. This vow only bound me to make my escape +individually; but the year spent with Mr. Freeland had attached me, as +with "hooks of steel," to my brother slaves. The most affectionate and +confiding friendship existed between us; and I felt it my duty to give +them an opportunity to share in my{212} virtuous determination by +frankly disclosing to them my plans and purposes. Toward Henry and John +Harris, I felt a friendship as strong as one man can feel for another; +for I could have died with and for them. To them, therefore, with a +suitable degree of caution, I began to disclose my sentiments and plans; +sounding them, the while on the subject of running away, provided a +good chance should offer. I scarcely need tell the reader, that I did my +_very best_ to imbue the minds of my dear friends with my own views and +feelings. Thoroughly awakened, now, and with a definite vow upon me, all +my little reading, which had any bearing on the subject of human rights, +was rendered available in my communications with my friends. That (to +me) gem of a book, the _Columbian Orator_, with its eloquent orations +and spicy dialogues, denouncing oppression and slavery--telling of what +had been dared, done and suffered by men, to obtain the inestimable boon +of liberty--was still fresh in my memory, and whirled into the ranks of +my speech with the aptitude of well trained soldiers, going through the +drill. The fact is, I here began my public speaking. I canvassed, +with Henry and John, the subject of slavery, and dashed against it the +condemning brand of God's eternal justice, which it every hour violates. +My fellow servants were neither indifferent, dull, nor inapt. Our +feelings were more alike than our opinions. All, however, were ready to +act, when a feasible plan should be proposed. "Show us _how_ the thing +is to be done," said they, "and all is clear." + +We were all, except Sandy, quite free from slaveholding priestcraft. It +was in vain that we had been taught from the pulpit at St. Michael's, +the duty of obedience to our masters; to recognize God as the author of +our enslavement; to regard running away an offense, alike against God +and man; to deem our enslavement a merciful and beneficial arrangement; +to esteem our condition, in this country, a paradise to that from which +we had been snatched in Africa; to consider our hard hands and dark +color as God's mark of displeasure, and as pointing us out as the +proper{213} subjects of slavery; that the relation of master and slave +was one of reciprocal benefits; that our work was not more serviceable +to our masters, than our master's thinking was serviceable to us. I +say, it was in vain that the pulpit of St. Michael's had constantly +inculcated these plausible doctrine. Nature laughed them to scorn. For +my own part, I had now become altogether too big for my chains. Father +Lawson's solemn words, of what I ought to be, and might be, in the +providence of God, had not fallen dead on my soul. I was fast +verging toward manhood, and the prophecies of my childhood were still +unfulfilled. The thought, that year after year had passed away, and +my resolutions to run away had failed and faded--that I was _still a +slave_, and a slave, too, with chances for gaining my freedom diminished +and still diminishing--was not a matter to be slept over easily; nor did +I easily sleep over it. + +But here came a new trouble. Thoughts and purposes so incendiary as +those I now cherished, could not agitate the mind long, without danger +of making themselves manifest to scrutinizing and unfriendly beholders. +I had reason to fear that my sable face might prove altogether too +transparent for the safe concealment of my hazardous enterprise. Plans +of greater moment have leaked through stone walls, and revealed their +projectors. But, here was no stone wall to hide my purpose. I would +have given my poor, tell tale face for the immoveable countenance of +an Indian, for it was far from being proof against the daily, searching +glances of those with whom I met. + +It is the interest and business of slaveholders to study human nature, +with a view to practical results, and many of them attain astonishing +proficiency in discerning the thoughts and emotions of slaves. They have +to deal not with earth, wood, or stone, but with _men;_ and, by every +regard they have for their safety and prosperity, they must study to +know the material on which they are at work. So much intellect as the +slaveholder has around him, requires watching. Their safety depends upon +their vigilance. Conscious of the injustice and wrong they are every +hour{214} perpetrating, and knowing what they themselves would do if +made the victims of such wrongs, they are looking out for the first +signs of the dread retribution of justice. They watch, therefore, +with skilled and practiced eyes, and have learned to read, with great +accuracy, the state of mind and heart of the slaves, through his sable +face. These uneasy sinners are quick to inquire into the matter, +where the slave is concerned. Unusual sobriety, apparent abstraction, +sullenness and indifference--indeed, any mood out of the common +way--afford ground for suspicion and inquiry. Often relying on their +superior position and wisdom, they hector and torture the slave into a +confession, by affecting to know the truth of their accusations. "You +have got the devil in you," say they, "and we will whip him out of +you." I have often been put thus to the torture, on bare suspicion. This +system has its disadvantages as well as their opposite. The slave +is sometimes whipped into the confession of offenses which he never +committed. The reader will see that the good old rule--"a man is to +be held innocent until proved to be guilty"--does not hold good on the +slave plantation. Suspicion and torture are the approved methods of +getting at the truth, here. It was necessary for me, therefore, to keep +a watch over my deportment, lest the enemy should get the better of me. + +But with all our caution and studied reserve, I am not sure that Mr. +Freeland did not suspect that all was not right with us. It _did_ seem +that he watched us more narrowly, after the plan of escape had been +conceived and discussed amongst us. Men seldom see themselves as +others see them; and while, to ourselves, everything connected with our +contemplated escape appeared concealed, Mr. Freeland may have, with the +peculiar prescience of a slaveholder, mastered the huge thought which +was disturbing our peace in slavery. + +I am the more inclined to think that he suspected us, because, prudent +as we were, as I now look back, I can see that we did many silly things, +very well calculated to awaken suspicion. We were,{215} at times, +remarkably buoyant, singing hymns and making joyous exclamations, almost +as triumphant in their tone as if we reached a land of freedom and +safety. A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing of + + _O Canaan, sweet Canaan, + I am bound for the land of Canaan,_ + +something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the +_north_--and the north was our Canaan. + + _I thought I heard them say, + There were lions in the way, + I don't expect to Star + Much longer here._ + + _Run to Jesus--shun the danger-- + I don't expect to stay + Much longer here_. + +was a favorite air, and had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it +meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but, in +the lips of _our_ company, it simply meant, a speedy pilgrimage toward a +free state, and deliverance from all the evils and dangers of slavery. + +I had succeeded in winning to my (what slaveholders would call +wicked) scheme, a company of five young men, the very flower of the +neighborhood, each one of whom would have commanded one thousand dollars +in the home market. At New Orleans, they would have brought fifteen +hundred dollars a piece, and, perhaps, more. The names of our party were +as follows: Henry Harris; John Harris, brother to Henry; Sandy Jenkins, +of root memory; Charles Roberts, and Henry Bailey. I was the youngest, +but one, of the party. I had, however, the advantage of them all, in +experience, and in a knowledge of letters. This gave me great influence +over them. Perhaps not one of them, left to himself, would have dreamed +of escape as a possible thing. Not one of them was self-moved in the +matter. They all wanted to be free; but the serious thought of running +away, had not entered into{216} their minds, until I won them to the +undertaking. They all were tolerably well off--for slaves--and had dim +hopes of being set free, some day, by their masters. If any one is to +blame for disturbing the quiet of the slaves and slave-masters of +the neighborhood of St. Michael's, _I am the man_. I claim to be the +instigator of the high crime (as the slaveholders regard it) and I kept +life in it, until life could be kept in it no longer. + +Pending the time of our contemplated departure out of our Egypt, we met +often by night, and on every Sunday. At these meetings we talked the +matter over; told our hopes and fears, and the difficulties discovered +or imagined; and, like men of sense, we counted the cost of the +enterprise to which we were committing ourselves. + +These meetings must have resembled, on a small scale, the meetings of +revolutionary conspirators, in their primary condition. We were plotting +against our (so called) lawful rulers; with this difference that we +sought our own good, and not the harm of our enemies. We did not seek +to overthrow them, but to escape from them. As for Mr. Freeland, we +all liked him, and would have gladly remained with him, _as freeman_. +LIBERTY was our aim; and we had now come to think that we had a right to +liberty, against every obstacle even against the lives of our enslavers. + +We had several words, expressive of things, important to us, which we +understood, but which, even if distinctly heard by an outsider, +would convey no certain meaning. I have reasons for suppressing these +_pass-words_, which the reader will easily divine. I hated the secrecy; +but where slavery is powerful, and liberty is weak, the latter is driven +to concealment or to destruction. + +The prospect was not always a bright one. At times, we were almost +tempted to abandon the enterprise, and to get back to that comparative +peace of mind, which even a man under the gallows might feel, when all +hope of escape had vanished. Quiet bondage was felt to be better than +the doubts, fears and uncertainties, which now so sadly perplexed and +disturbed us.{217} + +The infirmities of humanity, generally, were represented in our little +band. We were confident, bold and determined, at times; and, again, +doubting, timid and wavering; whistling, like the boy in the graveyard, +to keep away the spirits. + +To look at the map, and observe the proximity of Eastern Shore, +Maryland, to Delaware and Pennsylvania, it may seem to the reader quite +absurd, to regard the proposed escape as a formidable undertaking. But +to _understand_, some one has said a man must _stand under_. The +real distance was great enough, but the imagined distance was, to our +ignorance, even greater. Every slaveholder seeks to impress his slave +with a belief in the boundlessness of slave territory, and of his own +almost illimitable power. We all had vague and indistinct notions of the +geography of the country. + +The distance, however, is not the chief trouble. The nearer are the +lines of a slave state and the borders of a free one, the greater the +peril. Hired kidnappers infest these borders. Then, too, we knew that +merely reaching a free state did not free us; that, wherever caught, +we could be returned to slavery. We could see no spot on this side the +ocean, where we could be free. We had heard of Canada, the real Canaan +of the American bondmen, simply as a country to which the wild goose and +the swan repaired at the end of winter, to escape the heat of summer, +but not as the home of man. I knew something of theology, but nothing of +geography. I really did not, at that time, know that there was a state +of New York, or a state of Massachusetts. I had heard of Pennsylvania, +Delaware and New Jersey, and all the southern states, but was ignorant +of the free states, generally. New York city was our northern limit, and +to go there, and be forever harassed with the liability of being hunted +down and returned to slavery--with the certainty of being treated ten +times worse than we had ever been treated before was a prospect far from +delightful, and it might well cause some hesitation about engaging in +the enterprise. The case, sometimes, to our excited visions,{218} stood +thus: At every gate through which we had to pass, we saw a watchman; at +every ferry, a guard; on every bridge, a sentinel; and in every wood, a +patrol or slave-hunter. We were hemmed in on every side. The good to +be sought, and the evil to be shunned, were flung in the balance, and +weighed against each other. On the one hand, there stood slavery; a +stern reality, glaring frightfully upon us, with the blood of millions +in his polluted skirts--terrible to behold--greedily devouring our hard +earnings and feeding himself upon our flesh. Here was the evil from +which to escape. On the other hand, far away, back in the hazy distance, +where all forms seemed but shadows, under the flickering light of the +north star--behind some craggy hill or snow-covered mountain--stood a +doubtful freedom, half frozen, beckoning us to her icy domain. This +was the good to be sought. The inequality was as great as that between +certainty and uncertainty. This, in itself, was enough to stagger us; +but when we came to survey the untrodden road, and conjecture the many +possible difficulties, we were appalled, and at times, as I have said, +were upon the point of giving over the struggle altogether. + +The reader can have little idea of the phantoms of trouble which flit, +in such circumstances, before the uneducated mind of the slave. Upon +either side, we saw grim death assuming a variety of horrid shapes. Now, +it was starvation, causing us, in a strange and friendless land, to eat +our own flesh. Now, we were contending with the waves (for our journey +was in part by water) and were drowned. Now, we were hunted by dogs, and +overtaken and torn to pieces by their merciless fangs. We were stung by +scorpions--chased by wild beasts--bitten by snakes; and, worst of +all, after having succeeded in swimming rivers--encountering wild +beasts--sleeping in the woods--suffering hunger, cold, heat and +nakedness--we supposed ourselves to be overtaken by hired kidnappers, +who, in the name of the law, and for their thrice accursed reward, +would, perchance, fire upon us--kill some, wound others, and capture +all. This dark picture,{219} drawn by ignorance and fear, at times +greatly shook our determination, and not unfrequently caused us to + + _Rather bear those ills we had + Than fly to others which we knew not of_. + + +I am not disposed to magnify this circumstance in my experience, and yet +I think I shall seem to be so disposed, to the reader. No man can tell +the intense agony which is felt by the slave, when wavering on the point +of making his escape. All that he has is at stake; and even that which +he has not, is at stake, also. The life which he has, may be lost, and +the liberty which he seeks, may not be gained. + +Patrick Henry, to a listening senate, thrilled by his magic eloquence, +and ready to stand by him in his boldest flights, could say, GIVE ME +LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH, and this saying was a sublime one, even for +a freeman; but, incomparably more sublime, is the same sentiment, when +_practically_ asserted by men accustomed to the lash and chain--men +whose sensibilities must have become more or less deadened by their +bondage. With us it was a _doubtful_ liberty, at best, that we sought; +and a certain, lingering death in the rice swamps and sugar fields, +if we failed. Life is not lightly regarded by men of sane minds. It is +precious, alike to the pauper and to the prince--to the slave, and to +his master; and yet, I believe there was not one among us, who would not +rather have been shot down, than pass away life in hopeless bondage. + +In the progress of our preparations, Sandy, the root man, became +troubled. He began to have dreams, and some of them were very +distressing. One of these, which happened on a Friday night, was, to +him, of great significance; and I am quite ready to confess, that I felt +somewhat damped by it myself. He said, "I dreamed, last night, that I +was roused from sleep, by strange noises, like the voices of a swarm of +angry birds, that caused a roar as they passed, which fell upon my ear +like a coming gale{220} over the tops of the trees. Looking up to see +what it could mean," said Sandy, "I saw you, Frederick, in the claws of +a huge bird, surrounded by a large number of birds, of all colors and +sizes. These were all picking at you, while you, with your arms, seemed +to be trying to protect your eyes. Passing over me, the birds flew in a +south-westerly direction, and I watched them until they were clean +out of sight. Now, I saw this as plainly as I now see you; and furder, +honey, watch de Friday night dream; dare is sumpon in it, shose you +born; dare is, indeed, honey." + +I confess I did not like this dream; but I threw off concern about it, +by attributing it to the general excitement and perturbation consequent +upon our contemplated plan of escape. I could not, however, shake off +its effect at once. I felt that it boded me no good. Sandy was unusually +emphatic and oracular, and his manner had much to do with the impression +made upon me. + +The plan of escape which I recommended, and to which my comrades +assented, was to take a large canoe, owned by Mr. Hamilton, and, on +the Saturday night previous to the Easter holidays, launch out into the +Chesapeake bay, and paddle for its head--a distance of seventy miles +with all our might. Our course, on reaching this point, was, to turn the +canoe adrift, and bend our steps toward the north star, till we reached +a free state. + +There were several objections to this plan. One was, the danger from +gales on the bay. In rough weather, the waters of the Chesapeake are +much agitated, and there is danger, in a canoe, of being swamped by the +waves. Another objection was, that the canoe would soon be missed; the +absent persons would, at once, be suspected of having taken it; and +we should be pursued by some of the fast sailing bay craft out of St. +Michael's. Then, again, if we reached the head of the bay, and turned +the canoe adrift, she might prove a guide to our track, and bring the +land hunters after us. + +These and other objections were set aside, by the stronger ones which +could be urged against every other plan that could then be{221 PASSES +WRITTEN} suggested. On the water, we had a chance of being regarded as +fishermen, in the service of a master. On the other hand, by taking +the land route, through the counties adjoining Delaware, we should be +subjected to all manner of interruptions, and many very disagreeable +questions, which might give us serious trouble. Any white man is +authorized to stop a man of color, on any road, and examine him, and +arrest him, if he so desires. + +By this arrangement, many abuses (considered such even by slaveholders) +occur. Cases have been known, where freemen have been called upon to +show their free papers, by a pack of ruffians--and, on the presentation +of the papers, the ruffians have torn them up, and seized their victim, +and sold him to a life of endless bondage. + +The week before our intended start, I wrote a pass for each of our +party, giving them permission to visit Baltimore, during the Easter +holidays. The pass ran after this manner: + + + This is to certify, that I, the undersigned, have given the + bearer, my servant, John, full liberty to go to Baltimore, to + spend the Easter holidays. + W.H. + Near St. Michael's, Talbot county, Maryland + + +Although we were not going to Baltimore, and were intending to land +east of North Point, in the direction where I had seen the Philadelphia +steamers go, these passes might be made useful to us in the lower part +of the bay, while steering toward Baltimore. These were not, however, to +be shown by us, until all other answers failed to satisfy the +inquirer. We were all fully alive to the importance of being calm and +self-possessed, when accosted, if accosted we should be; and we more +times than one rehearsed to each other how we should behave in the hour +of trial. + +These were long, tedious days and nights. The suspense was painful, in +the extreme. To balance probabilities, where life and liberty hang on +the result, requires steady nerves. I panted for action, and was glad +when the day, at the close of which we were to start, dawned upon us. +Sleeping, the night before, was{222} out of the question. I probably +felt more deeply than any of my companions, because I was the instigator +of the movement. The responsibility of the whole enterprise rested on my +shoulders. The glory of success, and the shame and confusion of failure, +could not be matters of indifference to me. Our food was prepared; +our clothes were packed up; we were all ready to go, and impatient for +Saturday morning--considering that the last morning of our bondage. + +I cannot describe the tempest and tumult of my brain, that morning. +The reader will please to bear in mind, that, in a slave state, an +unsuccessful runaway is not only subjected to cruel torture, and sold +away to the far south, but he is frequently execrated by the other +slaves. He is charged with making the condition of the other +slaves intolerable, by laying them all under the suspicion of their +masters--subjecting them to greater vigilance, and imposing greater +limitations on their privileges. I dreaded murmurs from this quarter. +It is difficult, too, for a slavemaster to believe that slaves escaping +have not been aided in their flight by some one of their fellow slaves. +When, therefore, a slave is missing, every slave on the place is closely +examined as to his knowledge of the undertaking; and they are sometimes +even tortured, to make them disclose what they are suspected of knowing +of such escape. + +Our anxiety grew more and more intense, as the time of our intended +departure for the north drew nigh. It was truly felt to be a matter +of life and death with us; and we fully intended to _fight_ as well as +_run_, if necessity should occur for that extremity. But the trial hour +was not yet to come. It was easy to resolve, but not so easy to act. I +expected there might be some drawing back, at the last. It was natural +that there should be; therefore, during the intervening time, I lost no +opportunity to explain away difficulties, to remove doubts, to dispel +fears, and to inspire all with firmness. It was too late to look back; +and _now_ was the time to go forward. Like most other men, we had done +the talking part of our{223} work, long and well; and the time had come +to _act_ as if we were in earnest, and meant to be as true in action +as in words. I did not forget to appeal to the pride of my comrades, by +telling them that, if after having solemnly promised to go, as they had +done, they now failed to make the attempt, they would, in effect, brand +themselves with cowardice, and might as well sit down, fold their arms, +and acknowledge themselves as fit only to be _slaves_. This detestable +character, all were unwilling to assume. Every man except Sandy (he, +much to our regret, withdrew) stood firm; and at our last meeting we +pledged ourselves afresh, and in the most solemn manner, that, at the +time appointed, we _would_ certainly start on our long journey for a +free country. This meeting was in the middle of the week, at the end of +which we were to start. + +Early that morning we went, as usual, to the field, but with hearts that +beat quickly and anxiously. Any one intimately acquainted with us, might +have seen that all was not well with us, and that some monster lingered +in our thoughts. Our work that morning was the same as it had been for +several days past--drawing out and spreading manure. While thus engaged, +I had a sudden presentiment, which flashed upon me like lightning in a +dark night, revealing to the lonely traveler the gulf before, and the +enemy behind. I instantly turned to Sandy Jenkins, who was near me, and +said to him, _"Sandy, we are betrayed;_ something has just told me so." +I felt as sure of it, as if the officers were there in sight. +Sandy said, "Man, dat is strange; but I feel just as you do." If my +mother--then long in her grave--had appeared before me, and told me that +we were betrayed, I could not, at that moment, have felt more certain of +the fact. + +In a few minutes after this, the long, low and distant notes of the horn +summoned us from the field to breakfast. I felt as one may be supposed +to feel before being led forth to be executed for some great offense. I +wanted no breakfast; but I went with the other slaves toward the house, +for form's sake. My feelings were{224} not disturbed as to the right of +running away; on that point I had no trouble, whatever. My anxiety arose +from a sense of the consequences of failure. + +In thirty minutes after that vivid presentiment came the apprehended +crash. On reaching the house, for breakfast, and glancing my eye toward +the lane gate, the worst was at once made known. The lane gate off Mr. +Freeland's house, is nearly a half mile from the door, and shaded by the +heavy wood which bordered the main road. I was, however, able to descry +four white men, and two colored men, approaching. The white men were +on horseback, and the colored men were walking behind, and seemed to be +tied. _"It is all over with us,"_ thought I, _"we are surely betrayed_." +I now became composed, or at least comparatively so, and calmly awaited +the result. I watched the ill-omened company, till I saw them enter the +gate. Successful flight was impossible, and I made up my mind to stand, +and meet the evil, whatever it might be; for I was not without a slight +hope that things might turn differently from what I at first expected. +In a few moments, in came Mr. William Hamilton, riding very rapidly, and +evidently much excited. He was in the habit of riding very slowly, and +was seldom known to gallop his horse. This time, his horse was nearly +at full speed, causing the dust to roll thick behind him. Mr. Hamilton, +though one of the most resolute men in the whole neighborhood, was, +nevertheless, a remarkably mild spoken man; and, even when greatly +excited, his language was cool and circumspect. He came to the door, and +inquired if Mr. Freeland was in. I told him that Mr. Freeland was at the +barn. Off the old gentleman rode, toward the barn, with unwonted speed. +Mary, the cook, was at a loss to know what was the matter, and I did +not profess any skill in making her understand. I knew she would have +united, as readily as any one, in cursing me for bringing trouble into +the family; so I held my peace, leaving matters to develop themselves, +without my assistance. In a few moments, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Freeland +came down from the barn to the house; and, just as they{225} made their +appearance in the front yard, three men (who proved to be constables) +came dashing into the lane, on horseback, as if summoned by a sign +requiring quick work. A few seconds brought them into the front yard, +where they hastily dismounted, and tied their horses. This done, they +joined Mr. Freeland and Mr. Hamilton, who were standing a short distance +from the kitchen. A few moments were spent, as if in consulting how to +proceed, and then the whole party walked up to the kitchen door. There +was now no one in the kitchen but myself and John Harris. Henry and +Sandy were yet at the barn. Mr. Freeland came inside the kitchen door, +and with an agitated voice, called me by name, and told me to come +forward; that there was some gentlemen who wished to see me. I +stepped toward them, at the door, and asked what they wanted, when the +constables grabbed me, and told me that I had better not resist; that +I had been in a scrape, or was said to have been in one; that they were +merely going to take me where I could be examined; that they were going +to carry me to St. Michael's, to have me brought before my master. They +further said, that, in case the evidence against me was not true, I +should be acquitted. I was now firmly tied, and completely at the mercy +of my captors. Resistance was idle. They were five in number, armed +to the very teeth. When they had secured me, they next turned to John +Harris, and, in a few moments, succeeded in tying him as firmly as they +had already tied me. They next turned toward Henry Harris, who had now +returned from the barn. "Cross your hands," said the constables, to +Henry. "I won't" said Henry, in a voice so firm and clear, and in a +manner so determined, as for a moment to arrest all proceedings. "Won't +you cross your hands?" said Tom Graham, the constable. "_No I won't_," +said Henry, with increasing emphasis. Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Freeland, and +the officers, now came near to Henry. Two of the constables drew out +their shining pistols, and swore by the name of God, that he should +cross his hands, or they would shoot him down. Each of these hired +ruffians now cocked their pistols,{226} and, with fingers apparently +on the triggers, presented their deadly weapons to the breast of the +unarmed slave, saying, at the same time, if he did not cross his hands, +they would "blow his d--d heart out of him." + +_"Shoot! shoot me!"_ said Henry. "_You can't kill me but once_. +Shoot!--shoot! and be d--d. _I won't be tied_." This, the brave fellow +said in a voice as defiant and heroic in its tone, as was the language +itself; and, at the moment of saying this, with the pistols at his very +breast, he quickly raised his arms, and dashed them from the puny hands +of his assassins, the weapons flying in opposite directions. Now came +the struggle. All hands was now rushed upon the brave fellow, and, after +beating him for some time, they succeeded in overpowering and tying him. +Henry put me to shame; he fought, and fought bravely. John and I had +made no resistance. The fact is, I never see much use in fighting, +unless there is a reasonable probability of whipping somebody. Yet there +was something almost providential in the resistance made by the gallant +Henry. But for that resistance, every soul of us would have been hurried +off to the far south. Just a moment previous to the trouble with Henry, +Mr. Hamilton _mildly_ said--and this gave me the unmistakable clue to +the cause of our arrest--"Perhaps we had now better make a search for +those protections, which we understand Frederick has written for himself +and the rest." Had these passes been found, they would have been point +blank proof against us, and would have confirmed all the statements of +our betrayer. Thanks to the resistance of Henry, the excitement produced +by the scuffle drew all attention in that direction, and I succeeded +in flinging my pass, unobserved, into the fire. The confusion attendant +upon the scuffle, and the apprehension of further trouble, perhaps, +led our captors to forego, for the present, any search for _"those +protections" which Frederick was said to have written for his +companions_; so we were not yet convicted of the purpose to run away; +and it was evident that there was some doubt, on the part of all, +whether we had been guilty of such a purpose.{227} + +Just as we were all completely tied, and about ready to start toward St. +Michael's, and thence to jail, Mrs. Betsey Freeland (mother to William, +who was very much attached--after the southern fashion--to Henry and +John, they having been reared from childhood in her house) came to the +kitchen door, with her hands full of biscuits--for we had not had time +to take our breakfast that morning--and divided them between Henry and +John. This done, the lady made the following parting address to me, +looking and pointing her bony finger at me. "You devil! you yellow +devil! It was you that put it into the heads of Henry and John to run +away. But for _you_, you _long legged yellow devil_, Henry and John +would never have thought of running away." I gave the lady a look, which +called forth a scream of mingled wrath and terror, as she slammed the +kitchen door, and went in, leaving me, with the rest, in hands as harsh +as her own broken voice. + +Could the kind reader have been quietly riding along the main road to +or from Easton, that morning, his eye would have met a painful sight. +He would have seen five young men, guilty of no crime, save that of +preferring _liberty_ to a life of _bondage_, drawn along the public +highway--firmly bound together--tramping through dust and heat, +bare-footed and bare-headed--fastened to three strong horses, whose +riders were armed to the teeth, with pistols and daggers--on their way +to prison, like felons, and suffering every possible insult from the +crowds of idle, vulgar people, who clustered around, and heartlessly +made their failure the occasion for all manner of ribaldry and sport. +As I looked upon this crowd of vile persons, and saw myself and friends +thus assailed and persecuted, I could not help seeing the fulfillment of +Sandy's dream. I was in the hands of moral vultures, and firmly held +in their sharp talons, and was hurried away toward Easton, in a +south-easterly direction, amid the jeers of new birds of the same +feather, through every neighborhood we passed. It seemed to me (and this +shows the good understanding between the slaveholders and their allies) +that every body we met knew{228} the cause of our arrest, and were out, +awaiting our passing by, to feast their vindictive eyes on our misery +and to gloat over our ruin. Some said, _I ought to be hanged_, and +others, _I ought to be burnt_, others, I ought to have the _"hide"_ +taken from my back; while no one gave us a kind word or sympathizing +look, except the poor slaves, who were lifting their heavy hoes, and who +cautiously glanced at us through the post-and-rail fences, behind which +they were at work. Our sufferings, that morning, can be more easily +imagined than described. Our hopes were all blasted, at a blow. +The cruel injustice, the victorious crime, and the helplessness of +innocence, led me to ask, in my ignorance and weakness "Where now is the +God of justice and mercy? And why have these wicked men the power thus +to trample upon our rights, and to insult our feelings?" And yet, in +the next moment, came the consoling thought, _"The day of oppressor +will come at last."_ Of one thing I could be glad--not one of my dear +friends, upon whom I had brought this great calamity, either by word +or look, reproached me for having led them into it. We were a band of +brothers, and never dearer to each other than now. The thought which +gave us the most pain, was the probable separation which would now take +place, in case we were sold off to the far south, as we were likely +to be. While the constables were looking forward, Henry and I, being +fastened together, could occasionally exchange a word, without being +observed by the kidnappers who had us in charge. "What shall I do with +my pass?" said Henry. "Eat it with your biscuit," said I; "it won't do +to tear it up." We were now near St. Michael's. The direction concerning +the passes was passed around, and executed. _"Own nothing!"_ said I. +_"Own nothing!"_ was passed around and enjoined, and assented to. Our +confidence in each other was unshaken; and we were quite resolved to +succeed or fail together--as much after the calamity which had befallen +us, as before. + +On reaching St. Michael's, we underwent a sort of examination at my +master's store, and it was evident to my mind, that Master{229} Thomas +suspected the truthfulness of the evidence upon which they had acted +in arresting us; and that he only affected, to some extent, the +positiveness with which he asserted our guilt. There was nothing said by +any of our company, which could, in any manner, prejudice our cause; and +there was hope, yet, that we should be able to return to our homes--if +for nothing else, at least to find out the guilty man or woman who had +betrayed us. + +To this end, we all denied that we had been guilty of intended flight. +Master Thomas said that the evidence he had of our intention to run +away, was strong enough to hang us, in a case of murder. "But," said I, +"the cases are not equal. If murder were committed, some one must have +committed it--the thing is done! In our case, nothing has been done! We +have not run away. Where is the evidence against us? We were quietly +at our work." I talked thus, with unusual freedom, to bring out the +evidence against us, for we all wanted, above all things, to know the +guilty wretch who had betrayed us, that we might have something tangible +upon which to pour the execrations. From something which dropped, in the +course of the talk, it appeared that there was but one witness against +us--and that that witness could not be produced. Master Thomas would not +tell us _who_ his informant was; but we suspected, and suspected _one_ +person _only_. Several circumstances seemed to point SANDY out, as +our betrayer. His entire knowledge of our plans his participation +in them--his withdrawal from us--his dream, and his simultaneous +presentiment that we were betrayed--the taking us, and the leaving +him--were calculated to turn suspicion toward him; and yet, we could not +suspect him. We all loved him too well to think it _possible_ that he +could have betrayed us. So we rolled the guilt on other shoulders. + +We were literally dragged, that morning, behind horses, a distance of +fifteen miles, and placed in the Easton jail. We were glad to reach the +end of our journey, for our pathway had been the scene of insult and +mortification. Such is the power of public{230} opinion, that it +is hard, even for the innocent, to feel the happy consolations of +innocence, when they fall under the maledictions of this power. How +could we regard ourselves as in the right, when all about us denounced +us as criminals, and had the power and the disposition to treat us as +such. + +In jail, we were placed under the care of Mr. Joseph Graham, the sheriff +of the county. Henry, and John, and myself, were placed in one room, +and Henry Baily and Charles Roberts, in another, by themselves. This +separation was intended to deprive us of the advantage of concert, and +to prevent trouble in jail. + +Once shut up, a new set of tormentors came upon us. A swarm of imps, +in human shape the slave-traders, deputy slave-traders, and agents of +slave-traders--that gather in every country town of the state, watching +for chances to buy human flesh (as buzzards to eat carrion) flocked in +upon us, to ascertain if our masters had placed us in jail to be sold. +Such a set of debased and villainous creatures, I never saw before, +and hope never to see again. I felt myself surrounded as by a pack of +_fiends_, fresh from _perdition_. They laughed, leered, and grinned at +us; saying, "Ah! boys, we've got you, havn't we? So you were about +to make your escape? Where were you going to?" After taunting us, and +peering at us, as long as they liked, they one by one subjected us to +an examination, with a view to ascertain our value; feeling our arms +and legs, and shaking us by the shoulders to see if we were sound and +healthy; impudently asking us, "how we would like to have them for +masters?" To such questions, we were, very much to their annoyance, +quite dumb, disdaining to answer them. For one, I detested the +whisky-bloated gamblers in human flesh; and I believe I was as much +detested by them in turn. One fellow told me, "if he had me, he would +cut the devil out of me pretty quick." + +These Negro buyers are very offensive to the genteel southern Christian +public. They are looked upon, in respectable Maryland society, as +necessary, but detestable characters. As a class, they{231} are hardened +ruffians, made such by nature and by occupation. Their ears are made +quite familiar with the agonizing cry of outraged and woe-smitted +humanity. Their eyes are forever open to human misery. They walk amid +desecrated affections, insulted virtue, and blasted hopes. They +have grown intimate with vice and blood; they gloat over the wildest +illustrations of their soul-damning and earth-polluting business, and +are moral pests. Yes; they are a legitimate fruit of slavery; and it is +a puzzle to make out a case of greater villainy for them, than for the +slaveholders, who make such a class _possible_. They are mere hucksters +of the surplus slave produce of Maryland and Virginia coarse, cruel, and +swaggering bullies, whose very breathing is of blasphemy and blood. + +Aside from these slave-buyers, who infested the prison, from time to +time, our quarters were much more comfortable than we had any right to +expect they would be. Our allowance of food was small and coarse, but +our room was the best in the jail--neat and spacious, and with nothing +about it necessarily reminding us of being in prison, but its heavy +locks and bolts and the black, iron lattice-work at the windows. We +were prisoners of state, compared with most slaves who are put into that +Easton jail. But the place was not one of contentment. Bolts, bars and +grated windows are not acceptable to freedom-loving people of any color. +The suspense, too, was painful. Every step on the stairway was listened +to, in the hope that the comer would cast a ray of light on our fate. We +would have given the hair off our heads for half a dozen words with one +of the waiters in Sol. Lowe's hotel. Such waiters were in the way of +hearing, at the table, the probable course of things. We could see them +flitting about in their white jackets in front of this hotel, but could +speak to none of them. + +Soon after the holidays were over, contrary to all our expectations, +Messrs. Hamilton and Freeland came up to Easton; not to make a bargain +with the "Georgia traders," nor to send us up to Austin Woldfolk, as is +usual in the case of run-away salves,{232} but to release Charles, Henry +Harris, Henry Baily and John Harris, from prison, and this, too, without +the infliction of a single blow. I was now left entirely alone in +prison. The innocent had been taken, and the guilty left. My friends +were separated from me, and apparently forever. This circumstance caused +me more pain than any other incident connected with our capture and +imprisonment. Thirty-nine lashes on my naked and bleeding back, would +have been joyfully borne, in preference to this separation from these, +the friends of my youth. And yet, I could not but feel that I was the +victim of something like justice. Why should these young men, who were +led into this scheme by me, suffer as much as the instigator? I felt +glad that they were leased from prison, and from the dread prospect of a +life (or death I should rather say) in the rice swamps. It is due to +the noble Henry, to say, that he seemed almost as reluctant to leave the +prison with me in it, as he was to be tied and dragged to prison. But he +and the rest knew that we should, in all the likelihoods of the case, be +separated, in the event of being sold; and since we were now completely +in the hands of our owners, we all concluded it would be best to go +peaceably home. + +Not until this last separation, dear reader, had I touched those +profounder depths of desolation, which it is the lot of slaves often +to reach. I was solitary in the world, and alone within the walls of +a stone prison, left to a fate of life-long misery. I had hoped and +expected much, for months before, but my hopes and expectations were now +withered and blasted. The ever dreaded slave life in Georgia, Louisiana +and Alabama--from which escape is next to impossible now, in my +loneliness, stared me in the face. The possibility of ever becoming +anything but an abject slave, a mere machine in the hands of an owner, +had now fled, and it seemed to me it had fled forever. A life of living +death, beset with the innumerable horrors of the cotton field, and the +sugar plantation, seemed to be my doom. The fiends, who rushed into the +prison when we were first put there, continued to visit me,{233} and +to ply me with questions and with their tantalizing remarks. I was +insulted, but helpless; keenly alive to the demands of justice and +liberty, but with no means of asserting them. To talk to those imps +about justice and mercy, would have been as absurd as to reason with +bears and tigers. Lead and steel are the only arguments that they +understand. + +After remaining in this life of misery and despair about a week, which, +by the way, seemed a month, Master Thomas, very much to my surprise, +and greatly to my relief, came to the prison, and took me out, for the +purpose, as he said, of sending me to Alabama, with a friend of his, who +would emancipate me at the end of eight years. I was glad enough to get +out of prison; but I had no faith in the story that this friend of Capt. +Auld would emancipate me, at the end of the time indicated. Besides, +I never had heard of his having a friend in Alabama, and I took the +announcement, simply as an easy and comfortable method of shipping me +off to the far south. There was a little scandal, too, connected with +the idea of one Christian selling another to the Georgia traders, while +it was deemed every way proper for them to sell to others. I thought +this friend in Alabama was an invention, to meet this difficulty, for +Master Thomas was quite jealous of his Christian reputation, however +unconcerned he might be about his real Christian character. In these +remarks, however, it is possible that I do Master Thomas Auld injustice. +He certainly did not exhaust his power upon me, in the case, but acted, +upon the whole, very generously, considering the nature of my offense. +He had the power and the provocation to send me, without reserve, +into the very everglades of Florida, beyond the remotest hope of +emancipation; and his refusal to exercise that power, must be set down +to his credit. + +After lingering about St. Michael's a few days, and no friend from +Alabama making his appearance, to take me there, Master Thomas decided +to send me back again to Baltimore, to live with his brother Hugh, with +whom he was now at peace; possibly he{234} became so by his profession +of religion, at the camp-meeting in the Bay Side. Master Thomas told me +that he wished me to go to Baltimore, and learn a trade; and that, if I +behaved myself properly, he would _emancipate me at twenty-five!_ Thanks +for this one beam of hope in the future. The promise had but one fault; +it seemed too good to be true. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. _Apprenticeship Life_ + +NOTHING LOST BY THE ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY--COMRADES IN THEIR OLD +HOMES--REASONS FOR SENDING ME AWAY--RETURN TO BALTIMORE--CONTRAST +BETWEEN TOMMY AND THAT OF HIS COLORED COMPANION--TRIALS IN GARDINER'S +SHIP YARD--DESPERATE FIGHT--ITS CAUSES--CONFLICT BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK +LABOR--DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTRAGE--COLORED TESTIMONY NOTHING--CONDUCT OF +MASTER HUGH--SPIRIT OF SLAVERY IN BALTIMORE--MY CONDITION IMPROVES--NEW +ASSOCIATIONS--SLAVEHOLDER'S RIGHT TO TAKE HIS WAGES--HOW TO MAKE A +CONTENTED SLAVE. + + +Well! dear reader, I am not, as you may have already inferred, a loser +by the general upstir, described in the foregoing chapter. The little +domestic revolution, notwithstanding the sudden snub it got by the +treachery of somebody--I dare not say or think who--did not, after all, +end so disastrously, as when in the iron cage at Easton, I conceived it +would. The prospect, from that point, did look about as dark as any that +ever cast its gloom over the vision of the anxious, out-looking, human +spirit. "All is well that ends well." My affectionate comrades, Henry +and John Harris, are still with Mr. William Freeland. Charles Roberts +and Henry Baily are safe at their homes. I have not, therefore, any +thing to regret on their account. Their masters have mercifully forgiven +them, probably on the ground suggested in the spirited little speech of +Mrs. Freeland, made to me just before leaving for the jail--namely: that +they had been allured into the wicked scheme of making their escape, by +me; and that, but for me, they would never have dreamed of a thing so +shocking! My{236} friends had nothing to regret, either; for while they +were watched more closely on account of what had happened, they were, +doubtless, treated more kindly than before, and got new assurances that +they would be legally emancipated, some day, provided their behavior +should make them deserving, from that time forward. Not a blow, as I +learned, was struck any one of them. As for Master William Freeland, +good, unsuspecting soul, he did not believe that we were intending to +run away at all. Having given--as he thought--no occasion to his boys +to leave him, he could not think it probable that they had entertained a +design so grievous. This, however, was not the view taken of the matter +by "Mas' Billy," as we used to call the soft spoken, but crafty and +resolute Mr. William Hamilton. He had no doubt that the crime had been +meditated; and regarding me as the instigator of it, he frankly told +Master Thomas that he must remove me from that neighborhood, or he +would shoot me down. He would not have one so dangerous as "Frederick" +tampering with his slaves. William Hamilton was not a man whose threat +might be safely disregarded. I have no doubt that he would have proved +as good as his word, had the warning given not been promptly taken. He +was furious at the thought of such a piece of high-handed _theft_, as we +were about to perpetrate the stealing of our own bodies and souls! The +feasibility of the plan, too, could the first steps have been taken, was +marvelously plain. Besides, this was a _new_ idea, this use of the +bay. Slaves escaping, until now, had taken to the woods; they had never +dreamed of profaning and abusing the waters of the noble Chesapeake, by +making them the highway from slavery to freedom. Here was a broad road +of destruction to slavery, which, before, had been looked upon as a wall +of security by slaveholders. But Master Billy could not get Mr. Freeland +to see matters precisely as he did; nor could he get Master Thomas +so excited as he was himself. The latter--I must say it to his +credit--showed much humane feeling in his part of the transaction, and +atoned for much that had been harsh, cruel{237} and unreasonable in his +former treatment of me and others. His clemency was quite unusual and +unlooked for. "Cousin Tom" told me that while I was in jail, Master +Thomas was very unhappy; and that the night before his going up to +release me, he had walked the floor nearly all night, evincing great +distress; that very tempting offers had been made to him, by the +Negro-traders, but he had rejected them all, saying that _money could +not tempt him to sell me to the far south_. All this I can easily +believe, for he seemed quite reluctant to send me away, at all. He told +me that he only consented to do so, because of the very strong prejudice +against me in the neighborhood, and that he feared for my safety if I +remained there. + +Thus, after three years spent in the country, roughing it in the field, +and experiencing all sorts of hardships, I was again permitted to return +to Baltimore, the very place, of all others, short of a free state, +where I most desired to live. The three years spent in the country, had +made some difference in me, and in the household of Master Hugh. "Little +Tommy" was no longer _little_ Tommy; and I was not the slender lad +who had left for the Eastern Shore just three years before. The loving +relations between me and Mas' Tommy were broken up. He was no longer +dependent on me for protection, but felt himself a _man_, with other +and more suitable associates. In childhood, he scarcely considered me +inferior to himself certainly, as good as any other boy with whom he +played; but the time had come when his _friend_ must become his _slave_. +So we were cold, and we parted. It was a sad thing to me, that, loving +each other as we had done, we must now take different roads. To him, a +thousand avenues were open. Education had made him acquainted with +all the treasures of the world, and liberty had flung open the gates +thereunto; but I, who had attended him seven years, and had watched over +him with the care of a big brother, fighting his battles in the street, +and shielding him from harm, to an extent which had induced his mother +to say, "Oh! Tommy is always safe, when he is with{238} Freddy," must be +confined to a single condition. He could grow, and become a MAN; I could +grow, though I could _not_ become a man, but must remain, all my life, +a minor--a mere boy. Thomas Auld, Junior, obtained a situation on board +the brig "Tweed," and went to sea. I know not what has become of him; he +certainly has my good wishes for his welfare and prosperity. There were +few persons to whom I was more sincerely attached than to him, and there +are few in the world I would be more pleased to meet. + +Very soon after I went to Baltimore to live, Master Hugh succeeded in +getting me hired to Mr. William Gardiner, an extensive ship builder on +Fell's Point. I was placed here to learn to calk, a trade of which I +already had some knowledge, gained while in Mr. Hugh Auld's ship-yard, +when he was a master builder. Gardiner's, however, proved a very +unfavorable place for the accomplishment of that object. Mr. Gardiner +was, that season, engaged in building two large man-of-war vessels, +professedly for the Mexican government. These vessels were to be +launched in the month of July, of that year, and, in failure thereof, +Mr. G. would forfeit a very considerable sum of money. So, when I +entered the ship-yard, all was hurry and driving. There were in the yard +about one hundred men; of these about seventy or eighty were regular +carpenters--privileged men. Speaking of my condition here I wrote, years +ago--and I have now no reason to vary the picture as follows: + + +There was no time to learn any thing. Every man had to do that which he +knew how to do. In entering the ship-yard, my orders from Mr. Gardiner +were, to do whatever the carpenters commanded me to do. This was placing +me at the beck and call of about seventy-five men. I was to regard all +these as masters. Their word was to be my law. My situation was a most +trying one. At times I needed a dozen pair of hands. I was called a +dozen ways in the space of a single minute. Three or four voices would +strike my ear at the same moment. It was--"Fred., come help me to cant +this timber here." "Fred., come carry this timber yonder."--"Fred., +bring that roller here."--"Fred., go get a fresh can of water."--"Fred., +come help saw off the end of this timber."--"Fred., go quick and get the +crow bar."--"Fred., hold on the end of this fall."--"Fred., go to the +blacksmith's shop, and get a new punch."--{239} + +"Hurra, Fred.! run and bring me a cold chisel."--"I say, Fred., bear +a hand, and get up a fire as quick as lightning under that +steam-box."--"Halloo, nigger! come, turn this grindstone."--"Come, come! +move, move! and _bowse_ this timber forward."--"I say, darkey, blast +your eyes, why don't you heat up some pitch?"--"Halloo! halloo! halloo!" +(Three voices at the same time.) "Come here!--Go there!--Hold on where +you are! D--n you, if you move, I'll knock your brains out!" + + +Such, dear reader, is a glance at the school which was mine, during, +the first eight months of my stay at Baltimore. At the end of the +eight months, Master Hugh refused longer to allow me to remain with Mr. +Gardiner. The circumstance which led to his taking me away, was a brutal +outrage, committed upon me by the white apprentices of the ship-yard. +The fight was a desperate one, and I came out of it most shockingly +mangled. I was cut and bruised in sundry places, and my left eye was +nearly knocked out of its socket. The facts, leading to this barbarous +outrage upon me, illustrate a phase of slavery destined to become an +important element in the overthrow of the slave system, and I may, +therefore state them with some minuteness. That phase is this: _the +conflict of slavery with the interests of the white mechanics and +laborers of the south_. In the country, this conflict is not so +apparent; but, in cities, such as Baltimore, Richmond, New Orleans, +Mobile, &c., it is seen pretty clearly. The slaveholders, with a +craftiness peculiar to themselves, by encouraging the enmity of the +poor, laboring white man against the blacks, succeeds in making the +said white man almost as much a slave as the black slave himself. The +difference between the white slave, and the black slave, is this: the +latter belongs to _one_ slaveholder, and the former belongs to _all_ +the slaveholders, collectively. The white slave has taken from him, +by indirection, what the black slave has taken from him, directly, and +without ceremony. Both are plundered, and by the same plunderers. The +slave is robbed, by his master, of all his earnings, above what is +required for his bare physical necessities; and the white man is robbed +by the slave system, of the just results of his labor, because he is +flung into{240} competition with a class of laborers who work without +wages. The competition, and its injurious consequences, will, one day, +array the nonslaveholding white people of the slave states, against the +slave system, and make them the most effective workers against the great +evil. At present, the slaveholders blind them to this competition, by +keeping alive their prejudice against the slaves, _as men_--not +against them _as slaves_. They appeal to their pride, often denouncing +emancipation, as tending to place the white man, on an equality with +Negroes, and, by this means, they succeed in drawing off the minds of +the poor whites from the real fact, that, by the rich slave-master, +they are already regarded as but a single remove from equality with the +slave. The impression is cunningly made, that slavery is the only power +that can prevent the laboring white man from falling to the level of +the slave's poverty and degradation. To make this enmity deep and broad, +between the slave and the poor white man, the latter is allowed to abuse +and whip the former, without hinderance. But--as I have suggested--this +state of facts prevails _mostly_ in the country. In the city of +Baltimore, there are not unfrequent murmurs, that educating the slaves +to be mechanics may, in the end, give slavemasters power to dispense +with the services of the poor white man altogether. But, with +characteristic dread of offending the slaveholders, these poor, white +mechanics in Mr. Gardiner's ship-yard--instead of applying the natural, +honest remedy for the apprehended evil, and objecting at once to work +there by the side of slaves--made a cowardly attack upon the free +colored mechanics, saying _they_ were eating the bread which should be +eaten by American freemen, and swearing that they would not work with +them. The feeling was, _really_, against having their labor brought into +competition with that of the colored people at all; but it was too much +to strike directly at the interest of the slaveholders; and, therefore +proving their servility and cowardice they dealt their blows on the +poor, colored freeman, and aimed to prevent _him_ from serving himself, +in the evening of life, with the trade{241} with which he had served his +master, during the more vigorous portion of his days. Had they succeeded +in driving the black freemen out of the ship-yard, they would have +determined also upon the removal of the black slaves. The feeling was +very bitter toward all colored people in Baltimore, about this time +(1836), and they--free and slave suffered all manner of insult and +wrong. + +Until a very little before I went there, white and black ship carpenters +worked side by side, in the ship yards of Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Duncan, Mr. +Walter Price, and Mr. Robb. Nobody seemed to see any impropriety in it. +To outward seeming, all hands were well satisfied. Some of the blacks +were first rate workmen, and were given jobs requiring highest skill. +All at once, however, the white carpenters knocked off, and swore that +they would no longer work on the same stage with free Negroes. Taking +advantage of the heavy contract resting upon Mr. Gardiner, to have the +war vessels for Mexico ready to launch in July, and of the difficulty +of getting other hands at that season of the year, they swore they would +not strike another blow for him, unless he would discharge his free +colored workmen. + +Now, although this movement did not extend to me, _in form_, it did +reach me, _in fact_. The spirit which it awakened was one of malice and +bitterness, toward colored people _generally_, and I suffered with the +rest, and suffered severely. My fellow apprentices very soon began +to feel it to be degrading to work with me. They began to put on high +looks, and to talk contemptuously and maliciously of _"the Niggers;"_ +saying, that "they would take the country," that "they ought to be +killed." Encouraged by the cowardly workmen, who, knowing me to be a +slave, made no issue with Mr. Gardiner about my being there, these young +men did their utmost to make it impossible for me to stay. They seldom +called me to do any thing, without coupling the call with a curse, and +Edward North, the biggest in every thing, rascality included, ventured +to strike me, whereupon I picked him up, and threw{242} him into the +dock. Whenever any of them struck me, I struck back again, regardless +of consequences. I could manage any of them _singly_, and, while I could +keep them from combining, I succeeded very well. In the conflict +which ended my stay at Mr. Gardiner's, I was beset by four of them at +once--Ned North, Ned Hays, Bill Stewart, and Tom Humphreys. Two of them +were as large as myself, and they came near killing me, in broad day +light. The attack was made suddenly, and simultaneously. One came in +front, armed with a brick; there was one at each side, and one behind, +and they closed up around me. I was struck on all sides; and, while +I was attending to those in front, I received a blow on my head, from +behind, dealt with a heavy hand-spike. I was completely stunned by +the blow, and fell, heavily, on the ground, among the timbers. Taking +advantage of my fall, they rushed upon me, and began to pound me with +their fists. I let them lay on, for a while, after I came to myself, +with a view of gaining strength. They did me little damage, so far; +but, finally, getting tired of that sport, I gave a sudden surge, and, +despite their weight, I rose to my hands and knees. Just as I did this, +one of their number (I know not which) planted a blow with his boot in +my left eye, which, for a time, seemed to have burst my eyeball. When +they saw my eye completely closed, my face covered with blood, and I +staggering under the stunning blows they had given me, they left me. As +soon as I gathered sufficient strength, I picked up the hand-spike, +and, madly enough, attempted to pursue them; but here the carpenters +interfered, and compelled me to give up my frenzied pursuit. It was +impossible to stand against so many. + +Dear reader, you can hardly believe the statement, but it is true, and, +therefore, I write it down: not fewer than fifty white men stood by, and +saw this brutal and shameless outrage committed, and not a man of them +all interposed a single word of mercy. There were four against one, and +that one's face was beaten and battered most horribly, and no one said, +"that is enough;" but some cried out, "Kill him--kill him--kill the d--d +{243} nigger! knock his brains out--he struck a white person." I mention +this inhuman outcry, to show the character of the men, and the spirit of +the times, at Gardiner's ship yard, and, indeed, in Baltimore generally, +in 1836. As I look back to this period, I am almost amazed that I was +not murdered outright, in that ship yard, so murderous was the spirit +which prevailed there. On two occasions, while there, I came near losing +my life. I was driving bolts in the hold, through the keelson, with +Hays. In its course, the bolt bent. Hays cursed me, and said that it was +my blow which bent the bolt. I denied this, and charged it upon him. In +a fit of rage he seized an adze, and darted toward me. I met him with a +maul, and parried his blow, or I should have then lost my life. A son of +old Tom Lanman (the latter's double murder I have elsewhere charged upon +him), in the spirit of his miserable father, made an assault upon me, +but the blow with his maul missed me. After the united assault of North, +Stewart, Hays and Humphreys, finding that the carpenters were as bitter +toward me as the apprentices, and that the latter were probably set +on by the former, I found my only chances for life was in flight. I +succeeded in getting away, without an additional blow. To strike a white +man, was death, by Lynch law, in Gardiner's ship yard; nor was there +much of any other law toward colored people, at that time, in any other +part of Maryland. The whole sentiment of Baltimore was murderous. + +After making my escape from the ship yard, I went straight home, and +related the story of the outrage to Master Hugh Auld; and it is due to +him to say, that his conduct--though he was not a religious man--was +every way more humane than that of his brother, Thomas, when I went to +the latter in a somewhat similar plight, from the hands of _"Brother +Edward Covey."_ He listened attentively to my narration of the +circumstances leading to the ruffianly outrage, and gave many proofs +of his strong indignation at what was done. Hugh was a rough, but +manly-hearted fellow, and, at this time, his best nature showed itself. +{244} + +The heart of my once almost over-kind mistress, Sophia, was again melted +in pity toward me. My puffed-out eye, and my scarred and blood-covered +face, moved the dear lady to tears. She kindly drew a chair by me, and +with friendly, consoling words, she took water, and washed the blood +from my face. No mother's hand could have been more tender than hers. +She bound up my head, and covered my wounded eye with a lean piece of +fresh beef. It was almost compensation for the murderous assault, and +my suffering, that it furnished and occasion for the manifestation, once +more, of the orignally(sic) characteristic kindness of my mistress. Her +affectionate heart was not yet dead, though much hardened by time and by +circumstances. + +As for Master Hugh's part, as I have said, he was furious about it; +and he gave expression to his fury in the usual forms of speech in that +locality. He poured curses on the heads of the whole ship yard +company, and swore that he would have satisfaction for the outrage. +His indignation was really strong and healthy; but, unfortunately, it +resulted from the thought that his rights of property, in my person, had +not been respected, more than from any sense of the outrage committed on +me _as a man_. I inferred as much as this, from the fact that he could, +himself, beat and mangle when it suited him to do so. Bent on having +satisfaction, as he said, just as soon as I got a little the better +of my bruises, Master Hugh took me to Esquire Watson's office, on Bond +street, Fell's Point, with a view to procuring the arrest of those who +had assaulted me. He related the outrage to the magistrate, as I had +related it to him, and seemed to expect that a warrant would, at once, +be issued for the arrest of the lawless ruffians. + +Mr. Watson heard it all, and instead of drawing up his warrant, he +inquired.-- + +"Mr. Auld, who saw this assault of which you speak?" + +"It was done, sir, in the presence of a ship yard full of hands." + +"Sir," said Watson, "I am sorry, but I cannot move in this matter except +upon the oath of white witnesses."{245} + +"But here's the boy; look at his head and face," said the excited Master +Hugh; _"they_ show _what_ has been done." + +But Watson insisted that he was not authorized to do anything, unless +_white_ witnesses of the transaction would come forward, and testify +to what had taken place. He could issue no warrant on my word, against +white persons; and, if I had been killed in the presence of a _thousand +blacks_, their testimony, combined would have been insufficient to +arrest a single murderer. Master Hugh, for once, was compelled to say, +that this state of things was _too bad;_ and he left the office of the +magistrate, disgusted. + +Of course, it was impossible to get any white man to testify against my +assailants. The carpenters saw what was done; but the actors were but +the agents of their malice, and only what the carpenters sanctioned. +They had cried, with one accord, _"Kill the nigger!" "Kill the nigger!"_ +Even those who may have pitied me, if any such were among them, lacked +the moral courage to come and volunteer their evidence. The slightest +manifestation of sympathy or justice toward a person of color, was +denounced as abolitionism; and the name of abolitionist, subjected its +bearer to frightful liabilities. "D--n _abolitionists,"_ and _"Kill the +niggers,"_ were the watch-words of the foul-mouthed ruffians of those +days. Nothing was done, and probably there would not have been any thing +done, had I been killed in the affray. The laws and the morals of +the Christian city of Baltimore, afforded no protection to the sable +denizens of that city. + +Master Hugh, on finding he could get no redress for the cruel wrong, +withdrew me from the employment of Mr. Gardiner, and took me into his +own family, Mrs. Auld kindly taking care of me, and dressing my wounds, +until they were healed, and I was ready to go again to work. + +While I was on the Eastern Shore, Master Hugh had met with reverses, +which overthrew his business; and he had given up ship building in his +own yard, on the City Block, and was now acting as foreman of Mr. Walter +Price. The best he could now do for me,{246} was to take me into Mr. +Price's yard, and afford me the facilities there, for completing the +trade which I had began to learn at Gardiner's. Here I rapidly became +expert in the use of my calking tools; and, in the course of a single +year, I was able to command the highest wages paid to journeymen calkers +in Baltimore. + +The reader will observe that I was now of some pecuniary value to my +master. During the busy season, I was bringing six and seven dollars per +week. I have, sometimes, brought him as much as nine dollars a week, for +the wages were a dollar and a half per day. + +After learning to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own +contracts, and collected my own earnings; giving Master Hugh no trouble +in any part of the transactions to which I was a party. + +Here, then, were better days for the Eastern Shore _slave_. I was +now free from the vexatious assalts(sic) of the apprentices at Mr. +Gardiner's; and free from the perils of plantation life, and once more +in a favorable condition to increase my little stock of education, which +had been at a dead stand since my removal from Baltimore. I had, on the +Eastern Shore, been only a teacher, when in company with other slaves, +but now there were colored persons who could instruct me. Many of +the young calkers could read, write and cipher. Some of them had high +notions about mental improvement; and the free ones, on Fell's Point, +organized what they called the _"East Baltimore Mental Improvement +Society."_ To this society, notwithstanding it was intended that only +free persons should attach themselves, I was admitted, and was, several +times, assigned a prominent part in its debates. I owe much to the +society of these young men. + +The reader already knows enough of the _ill_ effects of good treatment +on a slave, to anticipate what was now the case in my improved +condition. It was not long before I began to show signs of disquiet with +slavery, and to look around for means to get out of that condition by +the shortest route. I was living among _free_{247} _men;_ and was, in +all respects, equal to them by nature and by attainments. _Why should +I be a slave?_ There was _no_ reason why I should be the thrall of any +man. + +Besides, I was now getting--as I have said--a dollar and fifty cents per +day. I contracted for it, worked for it, earned it, collected it; it +was paid to me, and it was _rightfully_ my own; and yet, upon every +returning Saturday night, this money--my own hard earnings, every cent +of it--was demanded of me, and taken from me by Master Hugh. He did not +earn it; he had no hand in earning it; why, then, should he have it? I +owed him nothing. He had given me no schooling, and I had received from +him only my food and raiment; and for these, my services were supposed +to pay, from the first. The right to take my earnings, was the right of +the robber. He had the power to compel me to give him the fruits of my +labor, and this power was his only right in the case. I became more and +more dissatisfied with this state of things; and, in so becoming, I only +gave proof of the same human nature which every reader of this chapter +in my life--slaveholder, or nonslaveholder--is conscious of possessing. + +To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is +necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as +possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect +no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be +able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must +not depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his +master's will. The whole relationship must not only demonstrate, to +his mind, its necessity, but its absolute rightfulness. If there be one +crevice through which a single drop can fall, it will certainly rust off +the slave's chain. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. _My Escape from Slavery_ + +CLOSING INCIDENTS OF "MY LIFE AS A SLAVE"--REASONS WHY FULL PARTICULARS +OF THE MANNER OF MY ESCAPE WILL NOT BE GIVEN--CRAFTINESS AND MALICE OF +SLAVEHOLDERS--SUSPICION OF AIDING A SLAVE'S ESCAPE ABOUT AS DANGEROUS +AS POSITIVE EVIDENCE--WANT OF WISDOM SHOWN IN PUBLISHING DETAILS OF THE +ESCAPE OF THE FUGITIVES--PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS REACH THE MASTERS, NOT +THE SLAVES--SLAVEHOLDERS STIMULATED TO GREATER WATCHFULNESS--MY +CONDITION--DISCONTENT--SUSPICIONS IMPLIED BY MASTER HUGH'S MANNER, WHEN +RECEIVING MY WAGES--HIS OCCASIONAL GENEROSITY!--DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY +OF ESCAPE--EVERY AVENUE GUARDED--PLAN TO OBTAIN MONEY--I AM ALLOWED +TO HIRE MY TIME--A GLEAM OF HOPE--ATTENDS CAMP-MEETING, WITHOUT +PERMISSION--ANGER OF MASTER HUGH THEREAT--THE RESULT--MY PLANS OF ESCAPE +ACCELERATED THERBY--THE DAY FOR MY DEPARTURE FIXED--HARASSED BY DOUBTS +AND FEARS--PAINFUL THOUGHTS OF SEPARATION FROM FRIENDS--THE ATTEMPT +MADE--ITS SUCCESS. + + +I will now make the kind reader acquainted with the closing incidents of +my "Life as a Slave," having already trenched upon the limit allotted to +my "Life as a Freeman." Before, however, proceeding with this narration, +it is, perhaps, proper that I should frankly state, in advance, my +intention to withhold a part of the(sic) connected with my escape from +slavery. There are reasons for this suppression, which I trust the +reader will deem altogether valid. It may be easily conceived, that a +full and complete statement of all facts pertaining to the flight of a +bondman, might implicate and embarrass some who may have, wittingly or +unwittingly, assisted him; and no one can wish me to involve any +man or{249} woman who has befriended me, even in the liability of +embarrassment or trouble. + +Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the rattlesnake, +his malice retains its poison long; and, although it is now nearly +seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well to be careful, in +dealing with the circumstances relating to it. Were I to give but a +shadowy outline of the process adopted, with characteristic aptitude, +the crafty and malicious among the slaveholders might, possibly, hit +upon the track I pursued, and involve some one in suspicion which, in +a slave state, is about as bad as positive evidence. The colored man, +there, must not only shun evil, but shun the very _appearance_ of evil, +or be condemned as a criminal. A slaveholding community has a peculiar +taste for ferreting out offenses against the slave system, justice +there being more sensitive in its regard for the peculiar rights of +this system, than for any other interest or institution. By stringing +together a train of events and circumstances, even if I were not very +explicit, the means of escape might be ascertained, and, possibly, +those means be rendered, thereafter, no longer available to the +liberty-seeking children of bondage I have left behind me. No +antislavery man can wish me to do anything favoring such results, and +no slaveholding reader has any right to expect the impartment of such +information. + +While, therefore, it would afford me pleasure, and perhaps would +materially add to the interest of my story, were I at liberty to gratify +a curiosity which I know to exist in the minds of many, as to the manner +of my escape, I must deprive myself of this pleasure, and the curious of +the gratification, which such a statement of facts would afford. I would +allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations that evil minded +men might suggest, rather than exculpate myself by explanation, and +thereby run the hazards of closing the slightest avenue by which a +brother in suffering might clear himself of the chains and fetters of +slavery. + +The practice of publishing every new invention by which a{250} slave is +known to have escaped from slavery, has neither wisdom nor necessity +to sustain it. Had not Henry Box Brown and his friends attracted +slaveholding attention to the manner of his escape, we might have had a +thousand _Box Browns_ per annum. The singularly original plan adopted by +William and Ellen Crafts, perished with the first using, because every +slaveholder in the land was apprised of it. The _salt water slave_ +who hung in the guards of a steamer, being washed three days and +three nights--like another Jonah--by the waves of the sea, has, by the +publicity given to the circumstance, set a spy on the guards of every +steamer departing from southern ports. + +I have never approved of the very public manner, in which some of our +western friends have conducted what _they_ call the _"Under-ground +Railroad,"_ but which, I think, by their open declarations, has been +made, most emphatically, the _"Upper_-ground Railroad." Its stations are +far better known to the slaveholders than to the slaves. I honor those +good men and women for their noble daring, in willingly subjecting +themselves to persecution, by openly avowing their participation in the +escape of slaves; nevertheless, the good resulting from such avowals, +is of a very questionable character. It may kindle an enthusiasm, very +pleasant to inhale; but that is of no practical benefit to themselves, +nor to the slaves escaping. Nothing is more evident, than that such +disclosures are a positive evil to the slaves remaining, and seeking to +escape. In publishing such accounts, the anti-slavery man addresses +the slaveholder, _not the slave;_ he stimulates the former to greater +watchfulness, and adds to his facilities for capturing his slave. We owe +something to the slaves, south of Mason and Dixon's line, as well as to +those north of it; and, in discharging the duty of aiding the latter, on +their way to freedom, we should be careful to do nothing which would be +likely to hinder the former, in making their escape from slavery. +Such is my detestation of slavery, that I would keep the merciless +slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the +slave. He{251} should be left to imagine himself surrounded by myriads +of invisible tormentors, ever ready to snatch, from his infernal grasp, +his trembling prey. In pursuing his victim, let him be left to feel his +way in the dark; let shades of darkness, commensurate with his crime, +shut every ray of light from his pathway; and let him be made to feel, +that, at every step he takes, with the hellish purpose of reducing a +brother man to slavery, he is running the frightful risk of having his +hot brains dashed out by an invisible hand. + +But, enough of this. I will now proceed to the statement of those facts, +connected with my escape, for which I am alone responsible, and for +which no one can be made to suffer but myself. + +My condition in the year (1838) of my escape, was, comparatively, a free +and easy one, so far, at least, as the wants of the physical man were +concerned; but the reader will bear in mind, that my troubles from the +beginning, have been less physical than mental, and he will thus be +prepared to find, after what is narrated in the previous chapters, that +slave life was adding nothing to its charms for me, as I grew older, and +became better acquainted with it. The practice, from week to week, of +openly robbing me of all my earnings, kept the nature and character of +slavery constantly before me. I could be robbed by _indirection_, but +this was _too_ open and barefaced to be endured. I could see no reason +why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of my honest toil +into the purse of any man. The thought itself vexed me, and the manner +in which Master Hugh received my wages, vexed me more than the original +wrong. Carefully counting the money and rolling it out, dollar by +dollar, he would look me in the face, as if he would search my heart as +well as my pocket, and reproachfully ask me, "_Is that all_?"--implying +that I had, perhaps, kept back part of my wages; or, if not so, the +demand was made, possibly, to make me feel, that, after all, I was +an "unprofitable servant." Draining me of the last cent of my hard +earnings, he would, however, occasionally--when I brought{252} home an +extra large sum--dole out to me a sixpence or a shilling, with a view, +perhaps, of kindling up my gratitude; but this practice had the opposite +effect--it was an admission of _my right to the whole sum_. The fact, +that he gave me any part of my wages, was proof that he suspected that +I had a right _to the whole of them_. I always felt uncomfortable, after +having received anything in this way, for I feared that the giving me +a few cents, might, possibly, ease his conscience, and make him feel +himself a pretty honorable robber, after all! + +Held to a strict account, and kept under a close watch--the old +suspicion of my running away not having been entirely removed--escape +from slavery, even in Baltimore, was very difficult. The railroad from +Baltimore to Philadelphia was under regulations so stringent, that even +_free_ colored travelers were almost excluded. They must have _free_ +papers; they must be measured and carefully examined, before they were +allowed to enter the cars; they only went in the day time, even when so +examined. The steamboats were under regulations equally stringent. All +the great turnpikes, leading northward, were beset with kidnappers, a +class of men who watched the newspapers for advertisements for runaway +slaves, making their living by the accursed reward of slave hunting. + +My discontent grew upon me, and I was on the look-out for means of +escape. With money, I could easily have managed the matter, and, +therefore, I hit upon the plan of soliciting the privilege of hiring my +time. It is quite common, in Baltimore, to allow slaves this privilege, +and it is the practice, also, in New Orleans. A slave who is considered +trustworthy, can, by paying his master a definite sum regularly, at the +end of each week, dispose of his time as he likes. It so happened that I +was not in very good odor, and I was far from being a trustworthy +slave. Nevertheless, I watched my opportunity when Master Thomas came to +Baltimore (for I was still his property, Hugh only acted as his agent) +in the spring of 1838, to purchase his spring supply of goods,{253} and +applied to him, directly, for the much-coveted privilege of hiring my +time. This request Master Thomas unhesitatingly refused to grant; and he +charged me, with some sternness, with inventing this stratagem to make +my escape. He told me, "I could go _nowhere_ but he could catch me; and, +in the event of my running away, I might be assured he should spare no +pains in his efforts to recapture me." He recounted, with a good deal of +eloquence, the many kind offices he had done me, and exhorted me to be +contented and obedient. "Lay out no plans for the future," said he. "If +you behave yourself properly, I will take care of you." Now, kind and +considerate as this offer was, it failed to soothe me into repose. In +spite of Master Thomas, and, I may say, in spite of myself, also, I +continued to think, and worse still, to think almost exclusively about +the injustice and wickedness of slavery. No effort of mine or of his +could silence this trouble-giving thought, or change my purpose to run +away. + +About two months after applying to Master Thomas for the privilege of +hiring my time, I applied to Master Hugh for the same liberty, +supposing him to be unacquainted with the fact that I had made a similar +application to Master Thomas, and had been refused. My boldness in +making this request, fairly astounded him at the first. He gazed at me +in amazement. But I had many good reasons for pressing the matter; and, +after listening to them awhile, he did not absolutely refuse, but told +me he would think of it. Here, then, was a gleam of hope. Once master of +my own time, I felt sure that I could make, over and above my obligation +to him, a dollar or two every week. Some slaves have made enough, in +this way, to purchase their freedom. It is a sharp spur to industry; and +some of the most enterprising colored men in Baltimore hire themselves +in this way. After mature reflection--as I must suppose it was Master +Hugh granted me the privilege in question, on the following terms: I was +to be allowed all my time; to make all bargains for work; to find my own +employment, and to collect my own wages; and,{254} in return for this +liberty, I was required, or obliged, to pay him three dollars at the +end of each week, and to board and clothe myself, and buy my own calking +tools. A failure in any of these particulars would put an end to my +privilege. This was a hard bargain. The wear and tear of clothing, +the losing and breaking of tools, and the expense of board, made it +necessary for me to earn at least six dollars per week, to keep even +with the world. All who are acquainted with calking, know how uncertain +and irregular that employment is. It can be done to advantage only in +dry weather, for it is useless to put wet oakum into a seam. Rain or +shine, however, work or no work, at the end of each week the money must +be forthcoming. + +Master Hugh seemed to be very much pleased, for a time, with this +arrangement; and well he might be, for it was decidedly in his favor. +It relieved him of all anxiety concerning me. His money was sure. He had +armed my love of liberty with a lash and a driver, far more efficient +than any I had before known; and, while he derived all the benefits of +slaveholding by the arrangement, without its evils, I endured all the +evils of being a slave, and yet suffered all the care and anxiety of +a responsible freeman. "Nevertheless," thought I, "it is a valuable +privilege another step in my career toward freedom." It was something +even to be permitted to stagger under the disadvantages of liberty, and +I was determined to hold on to the newly gained footing, by all proper +industry. I was ready to work by night as well as by day; and being +in the enjoyment of excellent health, I was able not only to meet my +current expenses, but also to lay by a small sum at the end of each +week. All went on thus, from the month of May till August; then--for +reasons which will become apparent as I proceed--my much valued liberty +was wrested from me. + +During the week previous to this (to me) calamitous event, I had made +arrangements with a few young friends, to accompany them, on Saturday +night, to a camp-meeting, held about twelve miles from Baltimore. On +the evening of our intended start for{255} the camp-ground, something +occurred in the ship yard where I was at work, which detained me +unusually late, and compelled me either to disappoint my young friends, +or to neglect carrying my weekly dues to Master Hugh. Knowing that I had +the money, and could hand it to him on another day, I decided to go to +camp-meeting, and to pay him the three dollars, for the past week, on my +return. Once on the camp-ground, I was induced to remain one day longer +than I had intended, when I left home. But, as soon as I returned, I +went straight to his house on Fell street, to hand him his (my) money. +Unhappily, the fatal mistake had been committed. I found him exceedingly +angry. He exhibited all the signs of apprehension and wrath, which +a slaveholder may be surmised to exhibit on the supposed escape of a +favorite slave. "You rascal! I have a great mind to give you a severe +whipping. How dare you go out of the city without first asking and +obtaining my permission?" "Sir," said I, "I hired my time and paid you +the price you asked for it. I did not know that it was any part of the +bargain that I should ask you when or where I should go." + +"You did not know, you rascal! You are bound to show yourself here every +Saturday night." After reflecting, a few moments, he became somewhat +cooled down; but, evidently greatly troubled, he said, "Now, you +scoundrel! you have done for yourself; you shall hire your time no +longer. The next thing I shall hear of, will be your running away. Bring +home your tools and your clothes, at once. I'll teach you how to go off +in this way." + +Thus ended my partial freedom. I could hire my time no longer; and I +obeyed my master's orders at once. The little taste of liberty which I +had had--although as the reader will have seen, it was far from being +unalloyed--by no means enhanced my contentment with slavery. Punished +thus by Master Hugh, it was now my turn to punish him. "Since," thought +I, "you _will_ make a slave of me, I will await your orders in all +things;" and, instead of going to look for work on Monday morning, as +I had{256} formerly done, I remained at home during the entire week, +without the performance of a single stroke of work. Saturday night came, +and he called upon me, as usual, for my wages. I, of course, told him I +had done no work, and had no wages. Here we were at the point of coming +to blows. His wrath had been accumulating during the whole week; for +he evidently saw that I was making no effort to get work, but was most +aggravatingly awaiting his orders, in all things. As I look back to this +behavior of mine, I scarcely know what possessed me, thus to trifle with +those who had such unlimited power to bless or to blast me. Master Hugh +raved and swore his determination to _"get hold of me;"_ but, wisely +for _him_, and happily for _me_, his wrath only employed those very +harmless, impalpable missiles, which roll from a limber tongue. In my +desperation, I had fully made up my mind to measure strength with Master +Hugh, in case he should undertake to execute his threats. I am glad +there was no necessity for this; for resistance to him could not have +ended so happily for me, as it did in the case of Covey. He was not +a man to be safely resisted by a slave; and I freely own, that in my +conduct toward him, in this instance, there was more folly than wisdom. +Master Hugh closed his reproofs, by telling me that, hereafter, I need +give myself no uneasiness about getting work; that he "would, himself, +see to getting work for me, and enough of it, at that." This threat I +confess had some terror in it; and, on thinking the matter over, during +the Sunday, I resolved, not only to save him the trouble of getting me +work, but that, upon the third day of September, I would attempt to +make my escape from slavery. The refusal to allow me to hire my time, +therefore, hastened the period of flight. I had three weeks, now, in +which to prepare for my journey. + +Once resolved, I felt a certain degree of repose, and on Monday, instead +of waiting for Master Hugh to seek employment for me, I was up by break +of day, and off to the ship yard of Mr. Butler, on the City Block, near +the draw-bridge. I was a favorite{257} with Mr. B., and, young as I was, +I had served as his foreman on the float stage, at calking. Of course, I +easily obtained work, and, at the end of the week--which by the way was +exceedingly fine I brought Master Hugh nearly nine dollars. The effect +of this mark of returning good sense, on my part, was excellent. He was +very much pleased; he took the money, commended me, and told me I might +have done the same thing the week before. It is a blessed thing that +the tyrant may not always know the thoughts and purposes of his victim. +Master Hugh little knew what my plans were. The going to camp-meeting +without asking his permission--the insolent answers made to his +reproaches--the sulky deportment the week after being deprived of the +privilege of hiring my time--had awakened in him the suspicion that I +might be cherishing disloyal purposes. My object, therefore, in working +steadily, was to remove suspicion, and in this I succeeded admirably. He +probably thought I was never better satisfied with my condition, than +at the very time I was planning my escape. The second week passed, and +again I carried him my full week's wages--_nine dollars;_ and so well +pleased was he, that he gave me TWENTY-FIVE CENTS! and "bade me make +good use of it!" I told him I would, for one of the uses to which I +meant to put it, was to pay my fare on the underground railroad. + +Things without went on as usual; but I was passing through the same +internal excitement and anxiety which I had experienced two years and +a half before. The failure, in that instance, was not calculated to +increase my confidence in the success of this, my second attempt; and I +knew that a second failure could not leave me where my first did--I must +either get to the _far north_, or be sent to the _far south_. Besides +the exercise of mind from this state of facts, I had the painful +sensation of being about to separate from a circle of honest and warm +hearted friends, in Baltimore. The thought of such a separation, where +the hope of ever meeting again is excluded, and where there can be no +correspondence, is very painful. It is my opinion, that thousands would +escape from{258} slavery who now remain there, but for the strong cords +of affection that bind them to their families, relatives and friends. +The daughter is hindered from escaping, by the love she bears her +mother, and the father, by the love he bears his children; and so, to +the end of the chapter. I had no relations in Baltimore, and I saw no +probability of ever living in the neighborhood of sisters and brothers; +but the thought of leaving my friends, was among the strongest +obstacles to my running away. The last two days of the week--Friday and +Saturday--were spent mostly in collecting my things together, for my +journey. Having worked four days that week, for my master, I handed him +six dollars, on Saturday night. I seldom spent my Sundays at home; and, +for fear that something might be discovered in my conduct, I kept up +my custom, and absented myself all day. On Monday, the third day of +September, 1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to +the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence +from childhood. + +How I got away--in what direction I traveled--whether by land or by +water; whether with or without assistance--must, for reasons already +mentioned, remain unexplained. + + + + + + +LIFE as a FREEMAN + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. _Liberty Attained_ + +TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM--A WANDERER IN NEW YORK--FEELINGS +ON REACHING THAT CITY--AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE MET--UNFAVORABLE +IMPRESSIONS--LONELINESS AND INSECURITY--APOLOGY FOR SLAVES WHO RETURN +TO THEIR MASTERS--COMPELLED TO TELL MY CONDITION--SUCCORED BY A +SAILOR--DAVID RUGGLES--THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD--MARRIAGE--BAGGAGE TAKEN +FROM ME--KINDNESS OF NATHAN JOHNSON--MY CHANGE OF NAME--DARK NOTIONS OF +NORTHERN CIVILIZATION--THE CONTRAST--COLORED PEOPLE IN NEW BEDFORD--AN +INCIDENT ILLUSTRATING THEIR SPIRIT--A COMMON LABORER--DENIED WORK AT +MY TRADE--THE FIRST WINTER AT THE NORTH--REPULSE AT THE DOORS OF THE +CHURCH--SANCTIFIED HATE--THE _Liberator_ AND ITS EDITOR. + + +There is no necessity for any extended notice of the incidents of this +part of my life. There is nothing very striking or peculiar about my +career as a freeman, when viewed apart from my life as a slave. The +relation subsisting between my early experience and that which I am +now about to narrate, is, perhaps, my best apology for adding another +chapter to this book. + +Disappearing from the kind reader, in a flying cloud or balloon +(pardon the figure), driven by the wind, and knowing not where I should +land--whether in slavery or in freedom--it is proper that I should +remove, at once, all anxiety, by frankly making known where I alighted. +The flight was a bold and perilous one; but here I am, in the great city +of New York, safe and sound, without loss of blood or bone. In less than +a week after leaving Baltimore, I was walking amid the hurrying throng, +and gazing upon the dazzling wonders of Broadway. The dreams{262} of +my childhood and the purposes of my manhood were now fulfilled. A free +state around me, and a free earth under my feet! What a moment was this +to me! A whole year was pressed into a single day. A new world burst +upon my agitated vision. I have often been asked, by kind friends to +whom I have told my story, how I felt when first I found myself beyond +the limits of slavery; and I must say here, as I have often said to +them, there is scarcely anything about which I could not give a more +satisfactory answer. It was a moment of joyous excitement, which no +words can describe. In a letter to a friend, written soon after reaching +New York. I said I felt as one might be supposed to feel, on escaping +from a den of hungry lions. But, in a moment like that, sensations are +too intense and too rapid for words. Anguish and grief, like darkness +and rain, may be described, but joy and gladness, like the rainbow of +promise, defy alike the pen and pencil. + +For ten or fifteen years I had been dragging a heavy chain, with a +huge block attached to it, cumbering my every motion. I had felt myself +doomed to drag this chain and this block through life. All efforts, +before, to separate myself from the hateful encumbrance, had only seemed +to rivet me the more firmly to it. Baffled and discouraged at times, I +had asked myself the question, May not this, after all, be God's work? +May He not, for wise ends, have doomed me to this lot? A contest had +been going on in my mind for years, between the clear consciousness of +right and the plausible errors of superstition; between the wisdom of +manly courage, and the foolish weakness of timidity. The contest was now +ended; the chain was severed; God and right stood vindicated. I was A +FREEMAN, and the voice of peace and joy thrilled my heart. + +Free and joyous, however, as I was, joy was not the only sensation I +experienced. It was like the quick blaze, beautiful at the first, but +which subsiding, leaves the building charred and desolate. I was soon +taught that I was still in an enemy's land. A sense of loneliness and +insecurity oppressed me sadly. I had{263} been but a few hours in New +York, before I was met in the streets by a fugitive slave, well known to +me, and the information I got from him respecting New York, did nothing +to lessen my apprehension of danger. The fugitive in question was +"Allender's Jake," in Baltimore; but, said he, I am "WILLIAM DIXON," in +New York! I knew Jake well, and knew when Tolly Allender and Mr. Price +(for the latter employed Master Hugh as his foreman, in his shipyard on +Fell's Point) made an attempt to recapture Jake, and failed. Jake told +me all about his circumstances, and how narrowly he escaped being taken +back to slavery; that the city was now full of southerners, returning +from the springs; that the black people in New York were not to be +trusted; that there were hired men on the lookout for fugitives from +slavery, and who, for a few dollars, would betray me into the hands of +the slave-catchers; that I must trust no man with my secret; that I must +not think of going either on the wharves to work, or to a boarding-house +to board; and, worse still, this same Jake told me it was not in his +power to help me. He seemed, even while cautioning me, to be fearing +lest, after all, I might be a party to a second attempt to recapture +him. Under the inspiration of this thought, I must suppose it was, he +gave signs of a wish to get rid of me, and soon left me his whitewash +brush in hand--as he said, for his work. He was soon lost to sight among +the throng, and I was alone again, an easy prey to the kidnappers, if +any should happen to be on my track. + +New York, seventeen years ago, was less a place of safety for a runaway +slave than now, and all know how unsafe it now is, under the new +fugitive slave bill. I was much troubled. I had very little money enough +to buy me a few loaves of bread, but not enough to pay board, outside a +lumber yard. I saw the wisdom of keeping away from the ship yards, for +if Master Hugh pursued me, he would naturally expect to find me looking +for work among the calkers. For a time, every door seemed closed against +me. A sense of my loneliness and helplessness crept over me,{264} +and covered me with something bordering on despair. In the midst of +thousands of my fellowmen, and yet a perfect stranger! In the midst of +human brothers, and yet more fearful of them than of hungry wolves! +I was without home, without friends, without work, without money, and +without any definite knowledge of which way to go, or where to look for +succor. + +Some apology can easily be made for the few slaves who have, after +making good their escape, turned back to slavery, preferring the actual +rule of their masters, to the life of loneliness, apprehension, hunger, +and anxiety, which meets them on their first arrival in a free state. It +is difficult for a freeman to enter into the feelings of such fugitives. +He cannot see things in the same light with the slave, because he does +not, and cannot, look from the same point from which the slave does. +"Why do you tremble," he says to the slave "you are in a free state;" +but the difficulty is, in realizing that he is in a free state, the +slave might reply. A freeman cannot understand why the slave-master's +shadow is bigger, to the slave, than the might and majesty of a free +state; but when he reflects that the slave knows more about the slavery +of his master than he does of the might and majesty of the free state, +he has the explanation. The slave has been all his life learning the +power of his master--being trained to dread his approach--and only a few +hours learning the power of the state. The master is to him a stern and +flinty reality, but the state is little more than a dream. He has been +accustomed to regard every white man as the friend of his master, and +every colored man as more or less under the control of his master's +friends--the white people. It takes stout nerves to stand up, in such +circumstances. A man, homeless, shelterless, breadless, friendless, and +moneyless, is not in a condition to assume a very proud or joyous tone; +and in just this condition was I, while wandering about the streets of +New York city and lodging, at least one night, among the barrels on one +of its wharves. I was not only free from slavery, but I was free from +home, as well. The reader{265} will easily see that I had something more +than the simple fact of being free to think of, in this extremity. + +I kept my secret as long as I could, and at last was forced to go in +search of an honest man--a man sufficiently _human_ not to betray me +into the hands of slave-catchers. I was not a bad reader of the human +face, nor long in selecting the right man, when once compelled to +disclose the facts of my condition to some one. + +I found my man in the person of one who said his name was Stewart. He +was a sailor, warm-hearted and generous, and he listened to my story +with a brother's interest. I told him I was running for my freedom--knew +not where to go--money almost gone--was hungry--thought it unsafe to go +the shipyards for work, and needed a friend. Stewart promptly put me in +the way of getting out of my trouble. He took me to his house, and went +in search of the late David Ruggles, who was then the secretary of the +New York Vigilance Committee, and a very active man in all anti-slavery +works. Once in the hands of Mr. Ruggles, I was comparatively safe. I was +hidden with Mr. Ruggles several days. In the meantime, my intended wife, +Anna, came on from Baltimore--to whom I had written, informing her of my +safe arrival at New York--and, in the presence of Mrs. Mitchell and Mr. +Ruggles, we were married, by Rev. James W. C. Pennington. + +Mr. Ruggles [7] was the first officer on the under-ground railroad with +whom I met after reaching the north, and, indeed, the first of whom I +ever heard anything. Learning that I was a calker by trade, he promptly +decided that New Bedford was the proper{266} place to send me. "Many +ships," said he, "are there fitted out for the whaling business, and you +may there find work at your trade, and make a good living." Thus, in +one fortnight after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, +regularly entered upon the exercise of the rights, responsibilities, and +duties of a freeman. + +I may mention a little circumstance which annoyed me on reaching New +Bedford. I had not a cent of money, and lacked two dollars toward paying +our fare from Newport, and our baggage not very costly--was taken by the +stage driver, and held until I could raise the money to redeem it. This +difficulty was soon surmounted. Mr. Nathan Johnson, to whom we had a +line from Mr. Ruggles, not only received us kindly and hospitably, but, +on being informed about our baggage, promptly loaned me two dollars with +which to redeem my little property. I shall ever be deeply grateful, +both to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson, for the lively interest they were +pleased to take in me, in this hour of my extremest need. They not only +gave myself and wife bread and shelter, but taught us how to begin +to secure those benefits for ourselves. Long may they live, and may +blessings attend them in this life and in that which is to come! + +Once initiated into the new life of freedom, and assured by Mr. Johnson +that New Bedford was a safe place, the comparatively unimportant matter, +as to what should be my name, came up for considertion(sic). It was +necessary to have a name in my new relations. The name given me by +my beloved mother was no less pretentious than "Frederick Augustus +Washington Bailey." I had, however, before leaving Maryland, dispensed +with the _Augustus Washington_, and retained the name _Frederick +Bailey_. Between Baltimore and New Bedford, however, I had several +different names, the better to avoid being overhauled by the hunters, +which I had good reason to believe would be put on my track. Among +honest men an honest man may well be content with one name, and +to acknowledge it at all times and in all{267} places; but toward +fugitives, Americans are not honest. When I arrived at New Bedford, my +name was Johnson; and finding that the Johnson family in New Bedford +were already quite numerous--sufficiently so to produce some confusion +in attempts to distinguish one from another--there was the more reason +for making another change in my name. In fact, "Johnson" had been +assumed by nearly every slave who had arrived in New Bedford from +Maryland, and this, much to the annoyance of the original "Johnsons" +(of whom there were many) in that place. Mine host, unwilling to have +another of his own name added to the community in this unauthorized way, +after I spent a night and a day at his house, gave me my present name. +He had been reading the "Lady of the Lake," and was pleased to regard me +as a suitable person to wear this, one of Scotland's many famous names. +Considering the noble hospitality and manly character of Nathan Johnson, +I have felt that he, better than I, illustrated the virtues of the +great Scottish chief. Sure I am, that had any slave-catcher entered his +domicile, with a view to molest any one of his household, he would have +shown himself like him of the "stalwart hand." + +The reader will be amused at my ignorance, when I tell the notions I had +of the state of northern wealth, enterprise, and civilization. Of wealth +and refinement, I supposed the north had none. My _Columbian Orator_, +which was almost my only book, had not done much to enlighten me +concerning northern society. The impressions I had received were all +wide of the truth. New Bedford, especially, took me by surprise, in +the solid wealth and grandeur there exhibited. I had formed my notions +respecting the social condition of the free states, by what I had seen +and known of free, white, non-slaveholding people in the slave states. +Regarding slavery as the basis of wealth, I fancied that no people +could become very wealthy without slavery. A free white man, holding +no slaves, in the country, I had known to be the most ignorant and +poverty-stricken of men, and the laugh{268} ing stock even of slaves +themselves--called generally by them, in derision, _"poor white trash_." +Like the non-slaveholders at the south, in holding no slaves, I suppose +the northern people like them, also, in poverty and degradation. Judge, +then, of my amazement and joy, when I found--as I did find--the very +laboring population of New Bedford living in better houses, more +elegantly furnished--surrounded by more comfort and refinement--than a +majority of the slaveholders on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. There was +my friend, Mr. Johnson, himself a colored man (who at the south would +have been regarded as a proper marketable commodity), who lived in a +better house--dined at a richer board--was the owner of more books--the +reader of more newspapers--was more conversant with the political and +social condition of this nation and the world--than nine-tenths of +all the slaveholders of Talbot county, Maryland. Yet Mr. Johnson was a +working man, and his hands were hardened by honest toil. Here, then, +was something for observation and study. Whence the difference? The +explanation was soon furnished, in the superiority of mind over +simple brute force. Many pages might be given to the contrast, and in +explanation of its causes. But an incident or two will suffice to show +the reader as to how the mystery gradually vanished before me. + +My first afternoon, on reaching New Bedford, was spent in visiting the +wharves and viewing the shipping. The sight of the broad brim and the +plain, Quaker dress, which met me at every turn, greatly increased my +sense of freedom and security. "I am among the Quakers," thought I, +"and am safe." Lying at the wharves and riding in the stream, were +full-rigged ships of finest model, ready to start on whaling voyages. +Upon the right and the left, I was walled in by large granite-fronted +warehouses, crowded with the good things of this world. On the wharves, +I saw industry without bustle, labor without noise, and heavy toil +without the whip. There was no loud singing, as in southern ports, where +ships are loading or unloading--no loud cursing or{269} swearing--but +everything went on as smoothly as the works of a well adjusted machine. +How different was all this from the nosily fierce and clumsily absurd +manner of labor-life in Baltimore and St. Michael's! One of the first +incidents which illustrated the superior mental character of northern +labor over that of the south, was the manner of unloading a ship's +cargo of oil. In a southern port, twenty or thirty hands would have been +employed to do what five or six did here, with the aid of a single ox +attached to the end of a fall. Main strength, unassisted by skill, is +slavery's method of labor. An old ox, worth eighty dollars, was doing, +in New Bedford, what would have required fifteen thousand dollars worth +of human bones and muscles to have performed in a southern port. I found +that everything was done here with a scrupulous regard to economy, +both in regard to men and things, time and strength. The maid servant, +instead of spending at least a tenth part of her time in bringing and +carrying water, as in Baltimore, had the pump at her elbow. The wood was +dry, and snugly piled away for winter. Woodhouses, in-door pumps, sinks, +drains, self-shutting gates, washing machines, pounding barrels, were +all new things, and told me that I was among a thoughtful and sensible +people. To the ship-repairing dock I went, and saw the same wise +prudence. The carpenters struck where they aimed, and the calkers wasted +no blows in idle flourishes of the mallet. I learned that men went from +New Bedford to Baltimore, and bought old ships, and brought them here +to repair, and made them better and more valuable than they ever were +before. Men talked here of going whaling on a four _years'_ voyage with +more coolness than sailors where I came from talked of going a four +_months'_ voyage. + +I now find that I could have landed in no part of the United States, +where I should have found a more striking and gratifying contrast to the +condition of the free people of color in Baltimore, than I found here in +New Bedford. No colored man is really free in a slaveholding state. +He wears the badge of bondage while{270} nominally free, and is often +subjected to hardships to which the slave is a stranger; but here in New +Bedford, it was my good fortune to see a pretty near approach to freedom +on the part of the colored people. I was taken all aback when Mr. +Johnson--who lost no time in making me acquainted with the fact--told me +that there was nothing in the constitution of Massachusetts to prevent a +colored man from holding any office in the state. There, in New Bedford, +the black man's children--although anti-slavery was then far from +popular--went to school side by side with the white children, and +apparently without objection from any quarter. To make me at home, +Mr. Johnson assured me that no slaveholder could take a slave from +New Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their +lives, before such an outrage could be perpetrated. The colored people +themselves were of the best metal, and would fight for liberty to the +death. + +Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, I was told the following story, +which was said to illustrate the spirit of the colored people in that +goodly town: A colored man and a fugitive slave happened to have a +little quarrel, and the former was heard to threaten the latter with +informing his master of his whereabouts. As soon as this threat became +known, a notice was read from the desk of what was then the only colored +church in the place, stating that business of importance was to be then +and there transacted. Special measures had been taken to secure +the attendance of the would-be Judas, and had proved successful. +Accordingly, at the hour appointed, the people came, and the betrayer +also. All the usual formalities of public meetings were scrupulously +gone through, even to the offering prayer for Divine direction in the +duties of the occasion. The president himself performed this part of +the ceremony, and I was told that he was unusually fervent. Yet, at +the close of his prayer, the old man (one of the numerous family of +Johnsons) rose from his knees, deliberately surveyed his audience, and +then said, in a tone of solemn resolution, _"Well, friends, we have got +him here, and I would now_{271} _recommend that you young men should +just take him outside the door and kill him."_ With this, a large body +of the congregation, who well understood the business they had come +there to transact, made a rush at the villain, and doubtless would have +killed him, had he not availed himself of an open sash, and made good +his escape. He has never shown his head in New Bedford since that time. +This little incident is perfectly characteristic of the spirit of the +colored people in New Bedford. A slave could not be taken from that town +seventeen years ago, any more than he could be so taken away now. The +reason is, that the colored people in that city are educated up to the +point of fighting for their freedom, as well as speaking for it. + +Once assured of my safety in New Bedford, I put on the habiliments of a +common laborer, and went on the wharf in search of work. I had no notion +of living on the honest and generous sympathy of my colored brother, +Johnson, or that of the abolitionists. My cry was like that of Hood's +laborer, "Oh! only give me work." Happily for me, I was not long in +searching. I found employment, the third day after my arrival in New +Bedford, in stowing a sloop with a load of oil for the New York market. +It was new, hard, and dirty work, even for a calker, but I went at +it with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was now my own master--a +tremendous fact--and the rapturous excitement with which I seized the +job, may not easily be understood, except by some one with an experience +like mine. The thoughts--"I can work! I can work for a living; I am not +afraid of work; I have no Master Hugh to rob me of my earnings"--placed +me in a state of independence, beyond seeking friendship or support +of any man. That day's work I considered the real starting point of +something like a new existence. Having finished this job and got my pay +for the same, I went next in pursuit of a job at calking. It so happened +that Mr. Rodney French, late mayor of the city of New Bedford, had a +ship fitting out for sea, and to which there was a large job of calking +and coppering to be done. I applied to that{272} noblehearted man for +employment, and he promptly told me to go to work; but going on the +float-stage for the purpose, I was informed that every white man would +leave the ship if I struck a blow upon her. "Well, well," thought +I, "this is a hardship, but yet not a very serious one for me." The +difference between the wages of a calker and that of a common day +laborer, was an hundred per cent in favor of the former; but then I was +free, and free to work, though not at my trade. I now prepared myself +to do anything which came to hand in the way of turning an honest penny; +sawed wood--dug cellars--shoveled coal--swept chimneys with Uncle Lucas +Debuty--rolled oil casks on the wharves--helped to load and unload +vessels--worked in Ricketson's candle works--in Richmond's brass +foundery, and elsewhere; and thus supported myself and family for three +years. + +The first winter was unusually severe, in consequence of the high prices +of food; but even during that winter we probably suffered less than many +who had been free all their lives. During the hardest of the winter, I +hired out for nine dolars(sic) a month; and out of this rented two rooms +for nine dollars per quarter, and supplied my wife--who was unable +to work--with food and some necessary articles of furniture. We were +closely pinched to bring our wants within our means; but the jail stood +over the way, and I had a wholesome dread of the consequences of running +in debt. This winter past, and I was up with the times--got plenty of +work--got well paid for it--and felt that I had not done a foolish thing +to leave Master Hugh and Master Thomas. I was now living in a new +world, and was wide awake to its advantages. I early began to attend the +meetings of the colored people of New Bedford, and to take part in them. +I was somewhat amazed to see colored men drawing up resolutions and +offering them for consideration. Several colored young men of New +Bedford, at that period, gave promise of great usefulness. They were +educated, and possessed what seemed to me, at the time, very superior +talents. Some of them have been cut down by death, and{273} others have +removed to different parts of the world, and some remain there now, and +justify, in their present activities, my early impressions of them. + +Among my first concerns on reaching New Bedford, was to become united +with the church, for I had never given up, in reality, my religious +faith. I had become lukewarm and in a backslidden state, but I was still +convinced that it was my duty to join the Methodist church. I was not +then aware of the powerful influence of that religious body in favor +of the enslavement of my race, nor did I see how the northern churches +could be responsible for the conduct of southern churches; neither did +I fully understand how it could be my duty to remain separate from the +church, because bad men were connected with it. The slaveholding church, +with its Coveys, Weedens, Aulds, and Hopkins, I could see through at +once, but I could not see how Elm Street church, in New Bedford, could +be regarded as sanctioning the Christianity of these characters in the +church at St. Michael's. I therefore resolved to join the Methodist +church in New Bedford, and to enjoy the spiritual advantage of public +worship. The minister of the Elm Street Methodist church, was the Rev. +Mr. Bonney; and although I was not allowed a seat in the body of +the house, and was proscribed on account of my color, regarding this +proscription simply as an accommodation of the uncoverted congregation +who had not yet been won to Christ and his brotherhood, I was willing +thus to be proscribed, lest sinners should be driven away form the +saving power of the gospel. Once converted, I thought they would be +sure to treat me as a man and a brother. "Surely," thought I, "these +Christian people have none of this feeling against color. They, at +least, have renounced this unholy feeling." Judge, then, dear reader, of +my astonishment and mortification, when I found, as soon I did find, all +my charitable assumptions at fault. + +An opportunity was soon afforded me for ascertaining the exact position +of Elm Street church on that subject. I had a chance of seeing the +religious part of the congregation by themselves; and{274} although +they disowned, in effect, their black brothers and sisters, before the +world, I did think that where none but the saints were assembled, and +no offense could be given to the wicked, and the gospel could not be +"blamed," they would certainly recognize us as children of the same +Father, and heirs of the same salvation, on equal terms with themselves. + +The occasion to which I refer, was the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, +that most sacred and most solemn of all the ordinances of the Christian +church. Mr. Bonney had preached a very solemn and searching discourse, +which really proved him to be acquainted with the inmost secerts(sic) +of the human heart. At the close of his discourse, the congregation +was dismissed, and the church remained to partake of the sacrament. I +remained to see, as I thought, this holy sacrament celebrated in the +spirit of its great Founder. + +There were only about a half dozen colored members attached to the Elm +Street church, at this time. After the congregation was dismissed, +these descended from the gallery, and took a seat against the wall most +distant from the altar. Brother Bonney was very animated, and sung very +sweetly, "Salvation 'tis a joyful sound," and soon began to administer +the sacrament. I was anxious to observe the bearing of the colored +members, and the result was most humiliating. During the whole ceremony, +they looked like sheep without a shepherd. The white members went +forward to the altar by the bench full; and when it was evident that +all the whites had been served with the bread and wine, Brother +Bonney--pious Brother Bonney--after a long pause, as if inquiring +whether all the whites members had been served, and fully assuring +himself on that important point, then raised his voice to an unnatural +pitch, and looking to the corner where his black sheep seemed penned, +beckoned with his hand, exclaiming, "Come forward, colored friends! come +forward! You, too, have an interest in the blood of Christ. God is no +respecter of persons. Come forward, and take this holy sacrament +to your{275} comfort." The colored members poor, slavish souls went +forward, as invited. I went out, and have never been in that church +since, although I honestly went there with a view to joining that body. +I found it impossible to respect the religious profession of any who +were under the dominion of this wicked prejudice, and I could not, +therefore, feel that in joining them, I was joining a Christian church, +at all. I tried other churches in New Bedford, with the same result, and +finally, I attached myself to a small body of colored Methodists, known +as the Zion Methodists. Favored with the affection and confidence of the +members of this humble communion, I was soon made a classleader and a +local preacher among them. Many seasons of peace and joy I experienced +among them, the remembrance of which is still precious, although I could +not see it to be my duty to remain with that body, when I found that it +consented to the same spirit which held my brethren in chains. + +In four or five months after reaching New Bedford, there came a young +man to me, with a copy of the _Liberator_, the paper edited by WILLIAM +LLOYD GARRISON, and published by ISAAC KNAPP, and asked me to subscribe +for it. I told him I had but just escaped from slavery, and was of +course very poor, and remarked further, that I was unable to pay for it +then; the agent, however, very willingly took me as a subscriber, and +appeared to be much pleased with securing my name to his list. From this +time I was brought in contact with the mind of William Lloyd Garrison. +His paper took its place with me next to the bible. + +The _Liberator_ was a paper after my own heart. It detested slavery +exposed hypocrisy and wickedness in high places--made no truce with +the traffickers in the bodies and souls of men; it preached human +brotherhood, denounced oppression, and, with all the solemnity of God's +word, demanded the complete emancipation of my race. I not only liked--I +_loved_ this paper, and its editor. He seemed a match for all the +oponents(sic) of emancipation, whether they spoke in the name of the +law, or the gospel.{276} His words were few, full of holy fire, and +straight to the point. Learning to love him, through his paper, I was +prepared to be pleased with his presence. Something of a hero worshiper, +by nature, here was one, on first sight, to excite my love and +reverence. + +Seventeen years ago, few men possessed a more heavenly countenance than +William Lloyd Garrison, and few men evinced a more genuine or a more +exalted piety. The bible was his text book--held sacred, as the word of +the Eternal Father--sinless perfection--complete submission to insults +and injuries--literal obedience to the injunction, if smitten on one +side to turn the other also. Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all +days were Sabbaths, and to be kept holy. All sectarism false and +mischievous--the regenerated, throughout the world, members of one body, +and the HEAD Christ Jesus. Prejudice against color was rebellion against +God. Of all men beneath the sky, the slaves, because most neglected and +despised, were nearest and dearest to his great heart. Those ministers +who defended slavery from the bible, were of their "father the devil"; +and those churches which fellowshiped slaveholders as Christians, were +synagogues of Satan, and our nation was a nation of liars. Never loud or +noisy--calm and serene as a summer sky, and as pure. "You are the man, +the Moses, raised up by God, to deliver his modern Israel from bondage," +was the spontaneous feeling of my heart, as I sat away back in the +hall and listened to his mighty words; mighty in truth--mighty in their +simple earnestness. + +I had not long been a reader of the _Liberator_, and listener to its +editor, before I got a clear apprehension of the principles of the +anti-slavery movement. I had already the spirit of the movement, and +only needed to understand its principles and measures. These I got +from the _Liberator_, and from those who believed in that paper. My +acquaintance with the movement increased my hope for the ultimate +freedom of my race, and I united with it from a sense of delight, as +well as duty.{277} + +Every week the _Liberator_ came, and every week I made myself master +of its contents. All the anti-slavery meetings held in New Bedford I +promptly attended, my heart burning at every true utterance against +the slave system, and every rebuke of its friends and supporters. Thus +passed the first three years of my residence in New Bedford. I had not +then dreamed of the posibility(sic) of my becoming a public advocate +of the cause so deeply imbedded in my heart. It was enough for me to +listen--to receive and applaud the great words of others, and only +whisper in private, among the white laborers on the wharves, and +elsewhere, the truths which burned in my breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. _Introduced to the Abolitionists_ + +FIRST SPEECH AT NANTUCKET--MUCH SENSATION--EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH OF +MR. GARRISON--AUTHOR BECOMES A PUBLIC LECTURER--FOURTEEN YEARS +EXPERIENCE--YOUTHFUL ENTHUSIASM--A BRAND NEW FACT--MATTER OF MY AUTHOR'S +SPEECH--COULD NOT FOLLOW THE PROGRAMME--FUGITIVE SLAVESHIP DOUBTED--TO +SETTLE ALL DOUBT I WRITE MY EXPERIENCE OF SLAVERY--DANGER OF RECAPTURE +INCREASED. + + +In the summer of 1841, a grand anti-slavery convention was held in +Nantucket, under the auspices of Mr. Garrison and his friends. Until +now, I had taken no holiday since my escape from slavery. Having +worked very hard that spring and summer, in Richmond's brass +foundery--sometimes working all night as well as all day--and needing a +day or two of rest, I attended this convention, never supposing that I +should take part in the proceedings. Indeed, I was not aware that any +one connected with the convention even so much as knew my name. I +was, however, quite mistaken. Mr. William C. Coffin, a prominent +abolitionst(sic) in those days of trial, had heard me speaking to +my colored friends, in the little school house on Second street, New +Bedford, where we worshiped. He sought me out in the crowd, and invited +me to say a few words to the convention. Thus sought out, and thus +invited, I was induced to speak out the feelings inspired by the +occasion, and the fresh recollection of the scenes through which I had +passed as a slave. My speech on this occasion is about the only one I +ever made, of which I do not remember a single connected sentence. It +was{279 EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH OF MR. GARRISON} with the utmost difficulty +that I could stand erect, or that I could command and articulate two +words without hesitation and stammering. I trembled in every limb. I +am not sure that my embarrassment was not the most effective part of +my speech, if speech it could be called. At any rate, this is about the +only part of my performance that I now distinctly remember. But excited +and convulsed as I was, the audience, though remarkably quiet before, +became as much excited as myself. Mr. Garrison followed me, taking me +as his text; and now, whether I had made an eloquent speech in behalf of +freedom or not, his was one never to be forgotten by those who heard it. +Those who had heard Mr. Garrison oftenest, and had known him longest, +were astonished. It was an effort of unequaled power, sweeping down, +like a very tornado, every opposing barrier, whether of sentiment or +opinion. For a moment, he possessed that almost fabulous inspiration, +often referred to but seldom attained, in which a public meeting +is transformed, as it were, into a single individuality--the orator +wielding a thousand heads and hearts at once, and by the simple majesty +of his all controlling thought, converting his hearers into the express +image of his own soul. That night there were at least one thousand +Garrisonians in Nantucket! A(sic) the close of this great meeting, I +was duly waited on by Mr. John A. Collins--then the general agent of +the Massachusetts anti-slavery society--and urgently solicited by him +to become an agent of that society, and to publicly advocate its +anti-slavery principles. I was reluctant to take the proffered position. +I had not been quite three years from slavery--was honestly distrustful +of my ability--wished to be excused; publicity exposed me to discovery +and arrest by my master; and other objections came up, but Mr. Collins +was not to be put off, and I finally consented to go out for three +months, for I supposed that I should have got to the end of my story and +my usefulness, in that length of time. + +Here opened upon me a new life a life for which I had had no +preparation. I was a "graduate from the peculiar institution,"{280} Mr. +Collins used to say, when introducing me, _"with my diploma written +on my back!"_ The three years of my freedom had been spent in the +hard school of adversity. My hands had been furnished by nature with +something like a solid leather coating, and I had bravely marked out for +myself a life of rough labor, suited to the hardness of my hands, as a +means of supporting myself and rearing my children. + +Now what shall I say of this fourteen years' experience as a public +advocate of the cause of my enslaved brothers and sisters? The time +is but as a speck, yet large enough to justify a pause for +retrospection--and a pause it must only be. + +Young, ardent, and hopeful, I entered upon this new life in the full +gush of unsuspecting enthusiasm. The cause was good; the men engaged in +it were good; the means to attain its triumph, good; Heaven's blessing +must attend all, and freedom must soon be given to the pining millions +under a ruthless bondage. My whole heart went with the holy cause, and +my most fervent prayer to the Almighty Disposer of the hearts of men, +were continually offered for its early triumph. "Who or what," thought +I, "can withstand a cause so good, so holy, so indescribably glorious. +The God of Israel is with us. The might of the Eternal is on our side. +Now let but the truth be spoken, and a nation will start forth at +the sound!" In this enthusiastic spirit, I dropped into the ranks of +freedom's friends, and went forth to the battle. For a time I was +made to forget that my skin was dark and my hair crisped. For a time I +regretted that I could not have shared the hardships and dangers endured +by the earlier workers for the slave's release. I soon, however, found +that my enthusiasm had been extravagant; that hardships and dangers were +not yet passed; and that the life now before me, had shadows as well as +sunbeams. + +Among the first duties assigned me, on entering the ranks, was to +travel, in company with Mr. George Foster, to secure subscribers to +the _Anti-slavery Standard_ and the _Liberator_. With{281 MATTER OF +THE SPEECH} him I traveled and lectured through the eastern counties +of Massachusetts. Much interest was awakened--large meetings assembled. +Many came, no doubt, from curiosity to hear what a Negro +could say in his own cause. I was generally introduced as a +_"chattel"--_a_"thing"_--a piece of southern _"property"_--the chairman +assuring the audience that _it_ could speak. Fugitive slaves, at that +time, were not so plentiful as now; and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I +had the advantage of being a _"brand new fact"_--the first one out. Up +to that time, a colored man was deemed a fool who confessed himself +a runaway slave, not only because of the danger to which he exposed +himself of being retaken, but because it was a confession of a very +_low_ origin! Some of my colored friends in New Bedford thought very +badly of my wisdom for thus exposing and degrading myself. The only +precaution I took, at the beginning, to prevent Master Thomas from +knowing where I was, and what I was about, was the withholding my former +name, my master's name, and the name of the state and county from which +I came. During the first three or four months, my speeches were almost +exclusively made up of narrations of my own personal experience as a +slave. "Let us have the facts," said the people. So also said Friend +George Foster, who always wished to pin me down to my simple +narrative. "Give us the facts," said Collins, "we will take care of the +philosophy." Just here arose some embarrassment. It was impossible for +me to repeat the same old story month after month, and to keep up my +interest in it. It was new to the people, it is true, but it was an old +story to me; and to go through with it night after night, was a task +altogether too mechanical for my nature. "Tell your story, Frederick," +would whisper my then revered friend, William Lloyd Garrison, as I +stepped upon the platform. I could not always obey, for I was now +reading and thinking. New views of the subject were presented to my +mind. It did not entirely satisfy me to _narrate_ wrongs; I felt like +_denouncing_ them. I could not always curb my moral indignation{282} +for the perpetrators of slaveholding villainy, long enough for a +circumstantial statement of the facts which I felt almost everybody must +know. Besides, I was growing, and needed room. "People won't believe +you ever was a slave, Frederick, if you keep on this way," said Friend +Foster. "Be yourself," said Collins, "and tell your story." It was said +to me, "Better have a _little_ of the plantation manner of speech than +not; 'tis not best that you seem too learned." These excellent friends +were actuated by the best of motives, and were not altogether wrong in +their advice; and still I must speak just the word that seemed to _me_ +the word to be spoken _by_ me. + +At last the apprehended trouble came. People doubted if I had ever been +a slave. They said I did not talk like a slave, look like a slave, nor +act like a slave, and that they believed I had never been south of +Mason and Dixon's line. "He don't tell us where he came from--what his +master's name was--how he got away--nor the story of his experience. +Besides, he is educated, and is, in this, a contradiction of all the +facts we have concerning the ignorance of the slaves." Thus, I was in +a pretty fair way to be denounced as an impostor. The committee of the +Massachusetts anti-slavery society knew all the facts in my case, and +agreed with me in the prudence of keeping them private. They, therefore, +never doubted my being a genuine fugitive; but going down the aisles +of the churches in which I spoke, and hearing the free spoken Yankees +saying, repeatedly, _"He's never been a slave, I'll warrant ye_," I +resolved to dispel all doubt, at no distant day, by such a revelation of +facts as could not be made by any other than a genuine fugitive. + +In a little less than four years, therefore, after becoming a public +lecturer, I was induced to write out the leading facts connected with my +experience in slavery, giving names of persons, places, and dates--thus +putting it in the power of any who doubted, to ascertain the truth or +falsehood of my story of being a fugitive slave. This statement soon +became known in Maryland,{283} and I had reason to believe that an +effort would be made to recapture me. + +It is not probable that any open attempt to secure me as a slave could +have succeeded, further than the obtainment, by my master, of the money +value of my bones and sinews. Fortunately for me, in the four years of +my labors in the abolition cause, I had gained many friends, who would +have suffered themselves to be taxed to almost any extent to save me +from slavery. It was felt that I had committed the double offense +of running away, and exposing the secrets and crimes of slavery +and slaveholders. There was a double motive for seeking my +reenslavement--avarice and vengeance; and while, as I have said, there +was little probability of successful recapture, if attempted openly, +I was constantly in danger of being spirited away, at a moment when my +friends could render me no assistance. In traveling about from place to +place--often alone I was much exposed to this sort of attack. Any +one cherishing the design to betray me, could easily do so, by simply +tracing my whereabouts through the anti-slavery journals, for my +meetings and movements were promptly made known in advance. My true +friends, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips, had no faith in the power of +Massachusetts to protect me in my right to liberty. Public sentiment +and the law, in their opinion, would hand me over to the tormentors. Mr. +Phillips, especially, considered me in danger, and said, when I showed +him the manuscript of my story, if in my place, he would throw it into +the fire. Thus, the reader will observe, the settling of one difficulty +only opened the way for another; and that though I had reached a free +state, and had attained position for public usefulness, I ws(sic) still +tormented with the liability of losing my liberty. How this liability +was dispelled, will be related, with other incidents, in the next +chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. _Twenty-One Months in Great Britain_ + + +GOOD ARISING OUT OF UNPROPITIOUS EVENTS--DENIED CABIN +PASSAGE--PROSCRIPTION TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT--THE HUTCHINSON FAMILY--THE +MOB ON BOARD THE "CAMBRIA"--HAPPY INTRODUCTION TO THE BRITISH +PUBLIC--LETTER ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON--TIME AND +LABORS WHILE ABROAD--FREEDOM PURCHASED--MRS. HENRY RICHARDSON--FREE +PAPERS--ABOLITIONISTS DISPLEASED WITH THE RANSOM--HOW MY ENERGIES +WERE DIRECTED--RECEPTION SPEECH IN LONDON--CHARACTER OF THE SPEECH +DEFENDED--CIRCUMSTANCES EXPLAINED--CAUSES CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUCCESS OF +MY MISSION--FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND--TESTIMONIAL. + + +The allotments of Providence, when coupled with trouble and anxiety, +often conceal from finite vision the wisdom and goodness in which +they are sent; and, frequently, what seemed a harsh and invidious +dispensation, is converted by after experience into a happy and +beneficial arrangement. Thus, the painful liability to be returned again +to slavery, which haunted me by day, and troubled my dreams by night, +proved to be a necessary step in the path of knowledge and usefulness. +The writing of my pamphlet, in the spring of 1845, endangered my +liberty, and led me to seek a refuge from republican slavery in +monarchical England. A rude, uncultivated fugitive slave was driven, by +stern necessity, to that country to which young American gentlemen go +to increase their stock of knowledge, to seek pleasure, to have their +rough, democratic manners softened by contact with English aristocratic +refinement. On applying for a passage to England, on board the +"Cambria", of the Cunard line, my friend, James N. Buffum, of{285} +Lynn, Massachusetts, was informed that I could not be received on board +as a cabin passenger. American prejudice against color triumphed over +British liberality and civilization, and erected a color test and +condition for crossing the sea in the cabin of a British vessel. The +insult was keenly felt by my white friends, but to me, it was common, +expected, and therefore, a thing of no great consequence, whether I went +in the cabin or in the steerage. Moreover, I felt that if I could not go +into the first cabin, first-cabin passengers could come into the second +cabin, and the result justified my anticipations to the fullest extent. +Indeed, I soon found myself an object of more general interest than +I wished to be; and so far from being degraded by being placed in the +second cabin, that part of the ship became the scene of as much pleasure +and refinement, during the voyage, as the cabin itself. The Hutchinson +Family, celebrated vocalists--fellow-passengers--often came to my rude +forecastle deck, and sung their sweetest songs, enlivening the place +with eloquent music, as well as spirited conversation, during the +voyage. In two days after leaving Boston, one part of the ship was about +as free to me as another. My fellow-passengers not only visited me, but +invited me to visit them, on the saloon deck. My visits there, however, +were but seldom. I preferred to live within my privileges, and keep +upon my own premises. I found this quite as much in accordance with good +policy, as with my own feelings. The effect was, that with the majority +of the passengers, all color distinctions were flung to the winds, and +I found myself treated with every mark of respect, from the beginning to +the end of the voyage, except in a single instance; and in that, I came +near being mobbed, for complying with an invitation given me by the +passengers, and the captain of the "Cambria," to deliver a lecture on +slavery. Our New Orleans and Georgia passengers were pleased to regard +my lecture as an insult offered to them, and swore I should not speak. +They went so far as to threaten to throw me overboard, and but for +the firmness of Captain Judkins,{286} probably would have (under the +inspiration of _slavery_ and _brandy_) attempted to put their threats +into execution. I have no space to describe this scene, although its +tragic and comic peculiarities are well worth describing. An end was put +to the _melee_, by the captain's calling the ship's company to put the +salt water mobocrats in irons. At this determined order, the gentlemen +of the lash scampered, and for the rest of the voyage conducted +themselves very decorously. + +This incident of the voyage, in two days after landing at Liverpool, +brought me at once before the British public, and that by no act of my +own. The gentlemen so promptly snubbed in their meditated violence, flew +to the press to justify their conduct, and to denounce me as a worthless +and insolent Negro. This course was even less wise than the conduct +it was intended to sustain; for, besides awakening something like a +national interest in me, and securing me an audience, it brought out +counter statements, and threw the blame upon themselves, which they had +sought to fasten upon me and the gallant captain of the ship. + +Some notion may be formed of the difference in my feelings and +circumstances, while abroad, from the following extract from one of a +series of letters addressed by me to Mr. Garrison, and published in the +_Liberator_. It was written on the first day of January, 1846: + + +MY DEAR FRIEND GARRISON: Up to this time, I have given no direct +expression of the views, feelings, and opinions which I have formed, +respecting the character and condition of the people of this land. I +have refrained thus, purposely. I wish to speak advisedly, and in order +to do this, I have waited till, I trust, experience has brought my +opinions to an intelligent maturity. I have been thus careful, not +because I think what I say will have much effect in shaping the opinions +of the world, but because whatever of influence I may possess, whether +little or much, I wish it to go in the right direction, and according +to truth. I hardly need say that, in speaking of Ireland, I shall +be influenced by no prejudices in favor of America. I think my +circumstances all forbid that. I have no end to serve, no creed to +uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to none. +I have no protection at home, or resting-place abroad. The land of +my birth welcomes me to her shores only as a slave, and spurns with +contempt the idea of treating me differently; so that I am an outcast +from the society of my childhood, and an outlaw in the{287} land of my +birth. "I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers +were." That men should be patriotic, is to me perfectly natural; and +as a philosophical fact, I am able to give it an _intellectual_ +recognition. But no further can I go. If ever I had any patriotism, or +any capacity for the feeling, it was whipped out of me long since, by +the lash of the American soul-drivers. + +In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue +sky, her grand old woods, her fertile fields, her beautiful rivers, +her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon +checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all +is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery, and wrong; +when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of +my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that +her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged +sisters; I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to reproach +myself that anything could fall from my lips in praise of such a land. +America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent on +compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst +enemies. May God give her repentance, before it is too late, is the +ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor, and wait, +believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of +justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity. + +My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the people +of this land have been very great. I have traveled almost from the Hill +of Howth to the Giant's Causeway, and from the Giant's Causway, to Cape +Clear. During these travels, I have met with much in the chara@@ and +condition of the people to approve, and much to condemn; much that +@@thrilled me with pleasure, and very much that has filled me with +pain. I @@ @@t, in this letter, attempt to give any description of +those scenes which have given me pain. This I will do hereafter. I have +enough, and more than your subscribers will be disposed to read at one +time, of the bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have spent +some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. I +seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life. The warm and +generous cooperation extended to me by the friends of my despised race; +the prompt and liberal manner with which the press has rendered me its +aid; the glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have flocked to hear +the cruel wrongs of my down-trodden and long-enslaved fellow-countrymen +portrayed; the deep sympathy for the slave, and the strong abhorrence of +the slaveholder, everywhere evinced; the cordiality with which members +and ministers of various religious bodies, and of various shades of +religious opinion, have embraced me, and lent me their aid; the kind of +hospitality constantly proffered to me by persons of the highest rank +in society; the spirit of freedom that seems to animate all with whom I +come in contact, and the entire absence of everything that looked like +prejudice against me, on account of the color of my skin--contrasted so +strongly with my long and bitter experience in the United States, that +I look with wonder and amazement on the transition. In the southern part +of the United States, I was a slave, thought of{288} and spoken of +as property; in the language of the LAW, "_held, taken, reputed, and +adjudged to be a chattel in the hands of my owners and possessors, +and their executors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents, +constructions, and purposes whatsoever_." (Brev. Digest, 224). In the +northern states, a fugitive slave, liable to be hunted at any moment, +like a felon, and to be hurled into the terrible jaws of slavery--doomed +by an inveterate prejudice against color to insult and outrage on every +hand (Massachusetts out of the question)--denied the privileges and +courtesies common to others in the use of the most humble means of +conveyance--shut out from the cabins on steamboats--refused admission +to respectable hotels--caricatured, scorned, scoffed, mocked, and +maltreated with impunity by any one (no matter how black his heart), so +he has a white skin. But now behold the change! Eleven days and a half +gone, and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. +Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. +Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, +grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a +man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, +claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab--I am +seated beside white people--I reach the hotel--I enter the same door--I +am shown into the same parlor--I dine at the same table and no one is +offended. No delicate nose grows deformed in my presence. I find no +difficulty here in obtaining admission into any place of worship, +instruction, or amusement, on equal terms with people as white as any +I ever saw in the United States. I meet nothing to remind me of my +complexion. I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the +kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church, I am +met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, "_We don't allow +niggers in here_!" + +I remember, about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the +south-west corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long desired to +see such a collection as I understood was being exhibited there. Never +having had an opportunity while a slave, I resolved to seize this, my +first, since my escape. I went, and as I approached the entrance to +gain admission, I was met and told by the door-keeper, in a harsh and +contemptuous tone, "_We don't allow niggers in here_." I also remember +attending a revival meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson's meeting-house, +at New Bedford, and going up the broad aisle to find a seat, I was met +by a good deacon, who told me, in a pious tone, "_We don't allow niggers +in here_!" Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, from the south, I had +a strong desire to attend the Lyceum, but was told, "_They don't allow +niggers in here_!" While passing from New York to Boston, on the steamer +Massachusetts, on the night of the 9th of December, 1843, when chilled +almost through with the cold, I went into the cabin to get a little +warm. I was soon touched upon the shoulder, and told, "_We don't allow +niggers in here_!" On arriving in Boston, from an anti-slavery tour, +hungry and tired, I went into an eating-house, near my friend, Mr. +Campbell's to get some refreshments. I was met by a lad in a white +apron, "_We don't allow niggers in here_!"{289} A week or two before +leaving the United States, I had a meeting appointed at Weymouth, the +home of that glorious band of true abolitionists, the Weston family, and +others. On attempting to take a seat in the omnibus to that place, I +was told by the driver (and I never shall forget his fiendish hate). "_I +don't allow niggers in here_!" Thank heaven for the respite I now +enjoy! I had been in Dublin but a few days, when a gentleman of great +respectability kindly offered to conduct me through all the public +buildings of that beautiful city; and a little afterward, I found myself +dining with the lord mayor of Dublin. What a pity there was not some +American democratic Christian at the door of his splendid mansion, to +bark out at my approach, "_They don't allow niggers in here_!" The truth +is, the people here know nothing of the republican Negro hate prevalent +in our glorious land. They measure and esteem men according to their +moral and intellectual worth, and not according to the color of their +skin. Whatever may be said of the aristocracies here, there is none +based on the color of a man's skin. This species of aristocracy belongs +preeminently to "the land of the free, and the home of the brave." I +have never found it abroad, in any but Americans. It sticks to them +wherever they go. They find it almost as hard to get rid of, as to get +rid of their skins. + +The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my friend, +Buffum, and several other friends, I went to Eaton Hall, the residence +of the Marquis of Westminster, one of the most splendid buildings +in England. On approaching the door, I found several of our American +passengers, who came out with us in the "Cambria," waiting for +admission, as but one party was allowed in the house at a time. We all +had to wait till the company within came out. And of all the faces, +expressive of chagrin, those of the Americans were preeminent. They +looked as sour as vinegar, and as bitter as gall, when they found I was +to be admitted on equal terms with themselves. When the door was opened, +I walked in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, and from +all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the servants that +showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin. As I walked +through the building, the statuary did not fall down, the pictures did +not leap from their places, the doors did not refuse to open, and the +servants did not say, "_We don't allow niggers in here_!" + +A happy new-year to you, and all the friends of freedom. + + +My time and labors, while abroad were divided between England, Ireland, +Scotland, and Wales. Upon this experience alone, I might write a book +twice the size of this, _My Bondage and My Freedom_. I visited and +lectured in nearly all the large towns and cities in the United +Kingdom, and enjoyed many favorable opportunities for observation and +information. But books on England are abundant, and the public may, +therefore, dismiss any fear that I am meditating another infliction in +that line;{290} though, in truth, I should like much to write a book +on those countries, if for nothing else, to make grateful mention of the +many dear friends, whose benevolent actions toward me are ineffaceably +stamped upon my memory, and warmly treasured in my heart. To these +friends I owe my freedom in the United States. On their own motion, +without any solicitation from me (Mrs. Henry Richardson, a clever lady, +remarkable for her devotion to every good work, taking the lead), they +raised a fund sufficient to purchase my freedom, and actually paid it +over, and placed the papers [8] of my manumission in my hands, before +{291} they would tolerate the idea of my returning to this, my native +country. To this commercial transaction I owe my exemption from the +democratic operation of the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. But for this, +I might at any time become a victim of this most cruel and scandalous +enactment, and be doomed to end my life, as I began it, a slave. The sum +paid for my freedom was one hundred and fifty pounds sterling. + +Some of my uncompromising anti-slavery friends in this country failed +to see the wisdom of this arrangement, and were not pleased that I +consented to it, even by my silence. They thought it a violation of +anti-slavery principles--conceding a right of property in man--and a +wasteful expenditure of money. On the other hand, viewing it simply in +the light of a ransom, or as money extorted by a robber, and my liberty +of more value than one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, I could not +see either a violation of the laws of morality, or those of economy, in +the transaction. + +It is true, I was not in the possession of my claimants, and could have +easily remained in England, for the same friends who had so generously +purchased my freedom, would have assisted me in establishing myself in +that country. To this, however, I could not consent. I felt that I had a +duty to perform--and that was, to labor and suffer with the oppressed +in my native land. Considering, therefore, all the circumstances--the +fugitive slave bill included--I think the very best thing was done in +letting Master Hugh have the hundred and fifty pounds sterling, and +leaving me free to return to my appropriate field of labor. Had I been +a private person, having no other relations or duties than those of a +personal and family nature, I should never have consented to the +payment of so large a sum for the privilege of living securely under +our glorious republican form of government. I could have remained in +England, or have gone to some other country; and perhaps I could even +have lived unobserved in this. But to this I could not consent. I had +already become some{292} what notorious, and withal quite as unpopular +as notorious; and I was, therefore, much exposed to arrest and +recapture. + +The main object to which my labors in Great Britain were directed, was +the concentration of the moral and religious sentiment of its people +against American slavery. England is often charged with having +established slavery in the United States, and if there were no other +justification than this, for appealing to her people to lend their moral +aid for the abolition of slavery, I should be justified. My speeches in +Great Britain were wholly extemporaneous, and I may not always have been +so guarded in my expressions, as I otherwise should have been. I was ten +years younger then than now, and only seven years from slavery. I cannot +give the reader a better idea of the nature of my discourses, than by +republishing one of them, delivered in Finsbury chapel, London, to an +audience of about two thousand persons, and which was published in the +_London Universe_, at the time. [9] + +Those in the United States who may regard this speech as being harsh +in its spirit and unjust in its statements, because delivered before +an audience supposed to be anti-republican in their principles and +feelings, may view the matter differently, when they learn that the case +supposed did not exist. It so happened that the great mass of the people +in England who attended and patronized my anti-slavery meetings, were, +in truth, about as good republicans as the mass of Americans, and with +this decided advantage over the latter--they are lovers of republicanism +for all men, for black men as well as for white men. They are the people +who sympathize with Louis Kossuth and Mazzini, and with the oppressed +and enslaved, of every color and nation, the world over. They constitute +the democratic element in British politics, and are as much opposed to +the union of church and state as we, in America, are to such an union. +At the meeting where this speech was delivered, Joseph Sturge--a +world-wide philanthropist,{293} and a member of the society of +Friends--presided, and addressed the meeting. George William Alexander, +another Friend, who has spent more than an Ameriacn(sic) fortune in +promoting the anti-slavery cause in different sections of the world, was +on the platform; and also Dr. Campbell (now of the _British Banner_) who +combines all the humane tenderness of Melanchthon, with the +directness and boldness of Luther. He is in the very front ranks of +non-conformists, and looks with no unfriendly eye upon America. George +Thompson, too, was there; and America will yet own that he did a +true man's work in relighting the rapidly dying-out fire of true +republicanism in the American heart, and be ashamed of the treatment he +met at her hands. Coming generations in this country will applaud the +spirit of this much abused republican friend of freedom. There were +others of note seated on the platform, who would gladly ingraft upon +English institutions all that is purely republican in the institutions +of America. Nothing, therefore, must be set down against this speech +on the score that it was delivered in the presence of those who +cannot appreciate the many excellent things belonging to our system +of government, and with a view to stir up prejudice against republican +institutions. + +Again, let it also be remembered--for it is the simple truth--that +neither in this speech, nor in any other which I delivered in England, +did I ever allow myself to address Englishmen as against Americans. +I took my stand on the high ground of human brotherhood, and spoke to +Englishmen as men, in behalf of men. Slavery is a crime, not against +Englishmen, but against God, and all the members of the human family; +and it belongs to the whole human family to seek its suppression. In a +letter to Mr. Greeley, of the New York Tribune, written while abroad, I +said: + + +I am, nevertheless aware that the wisdom of exposing the sins of one +nation in the ear of another, has been seriously questioned by good and +clear-sighted people, both on this and on your side of the Atlantic. And +the{294} thought is not without weight on my own mind. I am satisfied +that there are many evils which can be best removed by confining our +efforts to the immediate locality where such evils exist. This, however, +is by no means the case with the system of slavery. It is such a giant +sin--such a monstrous aggregation of iniquity--so hardening to the human +heart--so destructive to the moral sense, and so well calculated +to beget a character, in every one around it, favorable to its own +continuance,--that I feel not only at liberty, but abundantly justified, +in appealing to the whole world to aid in its removal. + + +But, even if I had--as has been often charged--labored to bring American +institutions generally into disrepute, and had not confined my labors +strictly within the limits of humanity and morality, I should not have +been without illustrious examples to support me. Driven into semi-exile +by civil and barbarous laws, and by a system which cannot be thought of +without a shudder, I was fully justified in turning, if possible, the +tide of the moral universe against the heaven-daring outrage. + +Four circumstances greatly assisted me in getting the question of +American slavery before the British public. First, the mob on board +the "Cambria," already referred to, which was a sort of national +announcement of my arrival in England. Secondly, the highly +reprehensible course pursued by the Free Church of Scotland, in +soliciting, receiving, and retaining money in its sustentation fund for +supporting the gospel in Scotland, which was evidently the ill-gotten +gain of slaveholders and slave-traders. Third, the great Evangelical +Alliance--or rather the attempt to form such an alliance, which should +include slaveholders of a certain description--added immensely to the +interest felt in the slavery question. About the same time, there was +the World's Temperance Convention, where I had the misfortune to come +in collision with sundry American doctors of divinity--Dr. Cox among the +number--with whom I had a small controversy. + +It has happened to me--as it has happened to most other men engaged in a +good cause--often to be more indebted to my enemies than to my own skill +or to the assistance of my friends, for whatever success has attended my +labors. Great surprise was{295} expressed by American newspapers, north +and south, during my stay in Great Britain, that a person so illiterate +and insignificant as myself could awaken an interest so marked in +England. These papers were not the only parties surprised. I was myself +not far behind them in surprise. But the very contempt and scorn, the +systematic and extravagant disparagement of which I was the object, +served, perhaps, to magnify my few merits, and to render me of some +account, whether deserving or not. A man is sometimes made great, by +the greatness of the abuse a portion of mankind may think proper to heap +upon him. Whether I was of as much consequence as the English papers +made me out to be, or not, it was easily seen, in England, that I could +not be the ignorant and worthless creature, some of the American +papers would have them believe I was. Men, in their senses, do not take +bowie-knives to kill mosquitoes, nor pistols to shoot flies; and the +American passengers who thought proper to get up a mob to silence me, +on board the "Cambria," took the most effective method of telling the +British public that I had something to say. + +But to the second circumstance, namely, the position of the Free Church +of Scotland, with the great Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish +at its head. That church, with its leaders, put it out of the power of +the Scotch people to ask the old question, which we in the north have +often most wickedly asked--"_What have we to do with slavery_?" That +church had taken the price of blood into its treasury, with which to +build _free_ churches, and to pay _free_ church ministers for preaching +the gospel; and, worse still, when honest John Murray, of Bowlien +Bay--now gone to his reward in heaven--with William Smeal, Andrew +Paton, Frederick Card, and other sterling anti-slavery men in Glasgow, +denounced the transaction as disgraceful and shocking to the religious +sentiment of Scotland, this church, through its leading divines, instead +of repenting and seeking to mend the mistake into which it had fallen, +made it a flagrant sin, by undertaking to defend, in the name of God +and the bible, the principle not only{296} of taking the money of +slave-dealers to build churches, but of holding fellowship with the +holders and traffickers in human flesh. This, the reader will see, +brought up the whole question of slavery, and opened the way to its full +discussion, without any agency of mine. I have never seen a people more +deeply moved than were the people of Scotland, on this very question. +Public meeting succeeded public meeting. Speech after speech, pamphlet +after pamphlet, editorial after editorial, sermon after sermon, soon +lashed the conscientious Scotch people into a perfect _furore_. "SEND +BACK THE MONEY!" was indignantly cried out, from Greenock to Edinburgh, +and from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. George Thompson, of London, Henry C. +Wright, of the United States, James N. Buffum, of Lynn, Massachusetts, +and myself were on the anti-slavery side; and Doctors Chalmers, +Cunningham, and Candlish on the other. In a conflict where the latter +could have had even the show of right, the truth, in our hands as +against them, must have been driven to the wall; and while I believe we +were able to carry the conscience of the country against the action of +the Free Church, the battle, it must be confessed, was a hard-fought +one. Abler defenders of the doctrine of fellowshiping slaveholders as +christians, have not been met with. In defending this doctrine, it was +necessary to deny that slavery is a sin. If driven from this position, +they were compelled to deny that slaveholders were responsible for the +sin; and if driven from both these positions, they must deny that it +is a sin in such a sense, and that slaveholders are sinners in such +a sense, as to make it wrong, in the circumstances in which they were +placed, to recognize them as Christians. Dr. Cunningham was the most +powerful debater on the slavery side of the question; Mr. Thompson was +the ablest on the anti-slavery side. A scene occurred between these two +men, a parallel to which I think I never witnessed before, and I know +I never have since. The scene was caused by a single exclamation on the +part of Mr. Thompson. + +The general assembly of the Free Church was in progress at{297} Cannon +Mills, Edinburgh. The building would hold about twenty-five hundred +persons; and on this occasion it was densely packed, notice having been +given that Doctors Cunningham and Candlish would speak, that day, in +defense of the relations of the Free Church of Scotland to slavery +in America. Messrs. Thompson, Buffum, myself, and a few anti-slavery +friends, attended, but sat at such a distance, and in such a position, +that, perhaps we were not observed from the platform. The excitement was +intense, having been greatly increased by a series of meetings held by +Messrs. Thompson, Wright, Buffum, and myself, in the most splendid +hall in that most beautiful city, just previous to the meetings of the +general assembly. "SEND BACK THE MONEY!" stared at us from every street +corner; "SEND BACK THE MONEY!" in large capitals, adorned the broad +flags of the pavement; "SEND BACK THE MONEY!" was the chorus of the +popular street songs; "SEND BACK THE MONEY!" was the heading of leading +editorials in the daily newspapers. This day, at Cannon Mills, the great +doctors of the church were to give an answer to this loud and stern +demand. Men of all parties and all sects were most eager to hear. +Something great was expected. The occasion was great, the men great, and +great speeches were expected from them. + +In addition to the outside pressure upon Doctors Cunningham and +Candlish, there was wavering in their own ranks. The conscience of the +church itself was not at ease. A dissatisfaction with the position of +the church touching slavery, was sensibly manifest among the members, +and something must be done to counteract this untoward influence. The +great Dr. Chalmers was in feeble health, at the time. His most potent +eloquence could not now be summoned to Cannon Mills, as formerly. He +whose voice was able to rend asunder and dash down the granite walls +of the established church of Scotland, and to lead a host in solemn +procession from it, as from a doomed city, was now old and enfeebled. +Besides, he had said his word on this very question; and his word had +not silenced the clamor without, nor stilled{298} the anxious heavings +within. The occasion was momentous, and felt to be so. The church was +in a perilous condition. A change of some sort must take place in +her condition, or she must go to pieces. To stand where she did, was +impossible. The whole weight of the matter fell on Cunningham and +Candlish. No shoulders in the church were broader than theirs; and I +must say, badly as I detest the principles laid down and defended by +them, I was compelled to acknowledge the vast mental endowments of the +men. Cunningham rose; and his rising was the signal for almost tumultous +applause. You will say this was scarcely in keeping with the solemnity +of the occasion, but to me it served to increase its grandeur and +gravity. The applause, though tumultuous, was not joyous. It seemed +to me, as it thundered up from the vast audience, like the fall of +an immense shaft, flung from shoulders already galled by its crushing +weight. It was like saying, "Doctor, we have borne this burden long +enough, and willingly fling it upon you. Since it was you who brought it +upon us, take it now, and do what you will with it, for we are too weary +to bear it.{no close "} + +Doctor Cunningham proceeded with his speech, abounding in logic, +learning, and eloquence, and apparently bearing down all opposition; +but at the moment--the fatal moment--when he was just bringing all his +arguments to a point, and that point being, that neither Jesus Christ +nor his holy apostles regarded slaveholding as a sin, George Thompson, +in a clear, sonorous, but rebuking voice, broke the deep stillness of +the audience, exclaiming, HEAR! HEAR! HEAR! The effect of this simple +and common exclamation is almost incredible. It was as if a granite wall +had been suddenly flung up against the advancing current of a mighty +river. For a moment, speaker and audience were brought to a dead +silence. Both the doctor and his hearers seemed appalled by the +audacity, as well as the fitness of the rebuke. At length a shout went +up to the cry of "_Put him out_!" Happily, no one attempted to execute +this cowardly order, and the doctor proceeded with his discourse. +Not, however, as before, did the{299} learned doctor proceed. The +exclamation of Thompson must have reechoed itself a thousand times in +his memory, during the remainder of his speech, for the doctor never +recovered from the blow. + +The deed was done, however; the pillars of the church--_the proud, Free +Church of Scotland_--were committed and the humility of repentance +was absent. The Free Church held on to the blood-stained money, and +continued to justify itself in its position--and of course to apologize +for slavery--and does so till this day. She lost a glorious opportunity +for giving her voice, her vote, and her example to the cause of +humanity; and to-day she is staggering under the curse of the enslaved, +whose blood is in her skirts. The people of Scotland are, to this day, +deeply grieved at the course pursued by the Free Church, and would +hail, as a relief from a deep and blighting shame, the "sending back the +money" to the slaveholders from whom it was gathered. + +One good result followed the conduct of the Free Church; it furnished +an occasion for making the people of Scotland thoroughly acquainted with +the character of slavery, and for arraying against the system the moral +and religious sentiment of that country. Therefore, while we did +not succeed in accomplishing the specific object of our mission, +namely--procure the sending back of the money--we were amply justified +by the good which really did result from our labors. + +Next comes the Evangelical Alliance. This was an attempt to form a union +of all evangelical Christians throughout the world. Sixty or seventy +American divines attended, and some of them went there merely to weave +a world-wide garment with which to clothe evangelical slaveholders. +Foremost among these divines, was the Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, moderator +of the New School Presbyterian General Assembly. He and his friends +spared no pains to secure a platform broad enough to hold American +slaveholders, and in this partly succeeded. But the question of slavery +is too large a question to be finally disposed of, even by the{300} +Evangelical Alliance. We appealed from the judgment of the Alliance, +to the judgment of the people of Great Britain, and with the happiest +effect. This controversy with the Alliance might be made the subject of +extended remark, but I must forbear, except to say, that this effort to +shield the Christian character of slaveholders greatly served to open a +way to the British ear for anti-slavery discussion, and that it was well +improved. + +The fourth and last circumstance that assisted me in getting before +the British public, was an attempt on the part of certain doctors +of divinity to silence me on the platform of the World's Temperance +Convention. Here I was brought into point blank collison with Rev. +Dr. Cox, who made me the subject not only of bitter remark in the +convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter published in the New +York Evangelist and other American papers. I replied to the doctor as +well as I could, and was successful in getting a respectful hearing +before the British public, who are by nature and practice ardent lovers +of fair play, especially in a conflict between the weak and the strong. + +Thus did circumstances favor me, and favor the cause of which I strove +to be the advocate. After such distinguished notice, the public in both +countries was compelled to attach some importance to my labors. By the +very ill usage I received at the hands of Dr. Cox and his party, by the +mob on board the "Cambria," by the attacks made upon me in the American +newspapers, and by the aspersions cast upon me through the organs of the +Free Church of Scotland, I became one of that class of men, who, for the +moment, at least, "have greatness forced upon them." People became the +more anxious to hear for themselves, and to judge for themselves, of the +truth which I had to unfold. While, therefore, it is by no means easy +for a stranger to get fairly before the British public, it was my lot to +accomplish it in the easiest manner possible. + +Having continued in Great Britain and Ireland nearly two years, and +being about to return to America--not as I left it, a{301} slave, but +a freeman--leading friends of the cause of emancipation in that country +intimated their intention to make me a testimonial, not only on grounds +of personal regard to myself, but also to the cause to which they were +so ardently devoted. How far any such thing could have succeeded, I +do not know; but many reasons led me to prefer that my friends should +simply give me the means of obtaining a printing press and printing +materials, to enable me to start a paper, devoted to the interests of +my enslaved and oppressed people. I told them that perhaps the greatest +hinderance to the adoption of abolition principles by the people of the +United States, was the low estimate, everywhere in that country, +placed upon the Negro, as a man; that because of his assumed natural +inferiority, people reconciled themselves to his enslavement and +oppression, as things inevitable, if not desirable. The grand thing to +be done, therefore, was to change the estimation in which the colored +people of the United States were held; to remove the prejudice which +depreciated and depressed them; to prove them worthy of a higher +consideration; to disprove their alleged inferiority, and demonstrate +their capacity for a more exalted civilization than slavery and +prejudice had assigned to them. I further stated, that, in my judgment, +a tolerably well conducted press, in the hands of persons of the +despised race, by calling out the mental energies of the race itself; by +making them acquainted with their own latent powers; by enkindling among +them the hope that for them there is a future; by developing their moral +power; by combining and reflecting their talents--would prove a most +powerful means of removing prejudice, and of awakening an interest +in them. I further informed them--and at that time the statement was +true--that there was not, in the United States, a single newspaper +regularly published by the colored people; that many attempts had been +made to establish such papers; but that, up to that time, they had all +failed. These views I laid before my friends. The result was, nearly two +thousand five hundred dollars were speedily{302} raised toward starting +my paper. For this prompt and generous assistance, rendered upon my bare +suggestion, without any personal efforts on my part, I shall never +cease to feel deeply grateful; and the thought of fulfilling the noble +expectations of the dear friends who gave me this evidence of their +confidence, will never cease to be a motive for persevering exertion. + +Proposing to leave England, and turning my face toward America, in +the spring of 1847, I was met, on the threshold, with something which +painfully reminded me of the kind of life which awaited me in my native +land. For the first time in the many months spent abroad, I was met with +proscription on account of my color. A few weeks before departing from +England, while in London, I was careful to purchase a ticket, and secure +a berth for returning home, in the "Cambria"--the steamer in which I +left the United States--paying therefor the round sum of forty pounds +and nineteen shillings sterling. This was first cabin fare. But on going +aboard the Cambria, I found that the Liverpool agent had ordered my +berth to be given to another, and had forbidden my entering the saloon! +This contemptible conduct met with stern rebuke from the British press. +For, upon the point of leaving England, I took occasion to expose the +disgusting tyranny, in the columns of the London _Times_. That journal, +and other leading journals throughout the United Kingdom, held up the +outrage to unmitigated condemnation. So good an opportunity for calling +out a full expression of British sentiment on the subject, had not +before occurred, and it was most fully embraced. The result was, that +Mr. Cunard came out in a letter to the public journals, assuring them +of his regret at the outrage, and promising that the like should never +occur again on board his steamers; and the like, we believe, has never +since occurred on board the steamships of the Cunard line. + +It is not very pleasant to be made the subject of such insults; but if +all such necessarily resulted as this one did, I should be very happy +to bear, patiently, many more than I have borne, of{303} the same sort. +Albeit, the lash of proscription, to a man accustomed to equal social +position, even for a time, as I was, has a sting for the soul hardly +less severe than that which bites the flesh and draws the blood from the +back of the plantation slave. It was rather hard, after having enjoyed +nearly two years of equal social privileges in England, often dining +with gentlemen of great literary, social, political, and religious +eminence never, during the whole time, having met with a single word, +look, or gesture, which gave me the slightest reason to think my color +was an offense to anybody--now to be cooped up in the stern of the +"Cambria," and denied the right to enter the saloon, lest my dark +presence should be deemed an offense to some of my democratic +fellow-passengers. The reader will easily imagine what must have been my +feelings. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. _Various Incidents_ + +NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE--UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION--THE OBJECTIONS TO IT--THEIR +PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED--MOTIVES FOR COMING TO ROCHESTER--DISCIPLE OF MR. +GARRISON--CHANGE OF OPINION--CAUSES LEADING TO IT--THE CONSEQUENCES OF +THE CHANGE--PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR--AMUSING CONDESCENSION--"JIM CROW +CARS"--COLLISIONS WITH CONDUCTORS AND BRAKEMEN--TRAINS ORDERED NOT TO +STOP AT LYNN--AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE--SEPARATE TABLES FOR MASTER AND +MAN--PREJUDICE UNNATURAL--ILLUSTRATIONS--IN HIGH COMPANY--ELEVATION OF +THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR--PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE. + + +I have now given the reader an imperfect sketch of nine years' +experience in freedom--three years as a common laborer on the wharves of +New Bedford, four years as a lecturer in New England, and two years of +semi-exile in Great Britain and Ireland. A single ray of light remains +to be flung upon my life during the last eight years, and my story will +be done. + +A trial awaited me on my return from England to the United States, for +which I was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans for my then future +usefulness as an anti-slavery advocate were all settled. My friends in +England had resolved to raise a given sum to purchase for me a press and +printing materials; and I already saw myself wielding my pen, as well as +my voice, in the great work of renovating the public mind, and +building up a public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery +and oppression to the grave, and restore to "liberty and the pursuit of +happiness" the people with whom I had suffered, both as a{305} slave +and as a freeman. Intimation had reached my friends in Boston of what +I intended to do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find them +favorably disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was +mistaken. I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my starting +a paper, and for several reasons. First, the paper was not needed; +secondly, it would interfere with my usefulness as a lecturer; thirdly, +I was better fitted to speak than to write; fourthly, the paper could +not succeed. This opposition, from a quarter so highly esteemed, and to +which I had been accustomed to look for advice and direction, caused +me not only to hesitate, but inclined me to abandon the enterprise. All +previous attempts to establish such a journal having failed, I felt +that probably I should but add another to the list of failures, and +thus contribute another proof of the mental and moral deficiencies of my +race. Very much that was said to me in respect to my imperfect literary +acquirements, I felt to be most painfully true. The unsuccessful +projectors of all the previous colored newspapers were my superiors in +point of education, and if they failed, how could I hope for success? +Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the undertaking. Some of my +English friends greatly encouraged me to go forward, and I shall never +cease to be grateful for their words of cheer and generous deeds. + +I can easily pardon those who have denounced me as ambitious and +presumptuous, in view of my persistence in this enterprise. I was but +nine years from slavery. In point of mental experience, I was but nine +years old. That one, in such circumstances, should aspire to establish +a printing press, among an educated people, might well be considered, +if not ambitious, quite silly. My American friends looked at me with +astonishment! "A wood-sawyer" offering himself to the public as an +editor! A slave, brought up in the very depths of ignorance, assuming to +instruct the highly civilized people of the north in the principles of +liberty, justice, and humanity! The thing looked absurd. Nevertheless, +I{306} persevered. I felt that the want of education, great as it was, +could be overcome by study, and that knowledge would come by experience; +and further (which was perhaps the most controlling consideration). +I thought that an intelligent public, knowing my early history, would +easily pardon a large share of the deficiencies which I was sure that +my paper would exhibit. The most distressing thing, however, was the +offense which I was about to give my Boston friends, by what seemed to +them a reckless disregard of their sage advice. I am not sure that I +was not under the influence of something like a slavish adoration of my +Boston friends, and I labored hard to convince them of the wisdom of +my undertaking, but without success. Indeed, I never expect to succeed, +although time has answered all their original objections. The paper +has been successful. It is a large sheet, costing eighty dollars per +week--has three thousand subscribers--has been published regularly +nearly eight years--and bids fair to stand eight years longer. At any +rate, the eight years to come are as full of promise as were the eight +that are past. + +It is not to be concealed, however, that the maintenance of such a +journal, under the circumstances, has been a work of much difficulty; +and could all the perplexity, anxiety, and trouble attending it, have +been clearly foreseen, I might have shrunk from the undertaking. As it +is, I rejoice in having engaged in the enterprise, and count it joy to +have been able to suffer, in many ways, for its success, and for the +success of the cause to which it has been faithfully devoted. I look +upon the time, money, and labor bestowed upon it, as being amply +rewarded, in the development of my own mental and moral energies, and in +the corresponding development of my deeply injured and oppressed people. + +From motives of peace, instead of issuing my paper in Boston, among +my New England friends, I came to Rochester, western New York, among +strangers, where the circulation of my paper could not interfere with +the local circulation of the _Liberator_ and the _Standard;_ for at +that time I was, on the anti-slavery question,{307 CHANGE OF VIEWS} a +faithful disciple of William Lloyd Garrison, and fully committed to his +doctrine touching the pro-slavery character of the constitution of the +United States, and the _non-voting principle_, of which he is the known +and distinguished advocate. With Mr. Garrison, I held it to be the +first duty of the non-slaveholding states to dissolve the union with +the slaveholding states; and hence my cry, like his, was, "No union +with slaveholders." With these views, I came into western New York; and +during the first four years of my labor here, I advocated them with pen +and tongue, according to the best of my ability. + +About four years ago, upon a reconsideration of the whole subject, I +became convinced that there was no necessity for dissolving the "union +between the northern and southern states;" that to seek this dissolution +was no part of my duty as an abolitionist; that to abstain from voting, +was to refuse to exercise a legitimate and powerful means for abolishing +slavery; and that the constitution of the United States not only +contained no guarantees in favor of slavery, but, on the contrary, it +is, in its letter and spirit, an anti-slavery instrument, demanding the +abolition of slavery as a condition of its own existence, as the supreme +law of the land. + +Here was a radical change in my opinions, and in the action logically +resulting from that change. To those with whom I had been in agreement +and in sympathy, I was now in opposition. What they held to be a great +and important truth, I now looked upon as a dangerous error. A very +painful, and yet a very natural, thing now happened. Those who could not +see any honest reasons for changing their views, as I had done, could +not easily see any such reasons for my change, and the common punishment +of apostates was mine. + +The opinions first entertained were naturally derived and honestly +entertained, and I trust that my present opinions have the same claims +to respect. Brought directly, when I escaped from slavery, into contact +with a class of abolitionists regarding the{308} constitution as a +slaveholding instrument, and finding their views supported by the united +and entire history of every department of the government, it is +not strange that I assumed the constitution to be just what their +interpretation made it. I was bound, not only by their superior +knowledge, to take their opinions as the true ones, in respect to the +subject, but also because I had no means of showing their unsoundness. +But for the responsibility of conducting a public journal, and the +necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite views from abolitionists +in this state, I should in all probability have remained as firm in my +disunion views as any other disciple of William Lloyd Garrison. + +My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject, and +to study, with some care, not only the just and proper rules of legal +interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and +duties of civil government, and also the relations which human beings +sustain to it. By such a course of thought and reading, I was +conducted to the conclusion that the constitution of the United +States--inaugurated "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, +insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote +the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty"--could not well +have been designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system +of rapine and murder, like slavery; especially, as not one word can be +found in the constitution to authorize such a belief. Then, again, if +the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern the meaning of all +its parts and details, as they clearly should, the constitution of our +country is our warrant for the abolition of slavery in every state in +the American Union. I mean, however, not to argue, but simply to state +my views. It would require very many pages of a volume like this, to +set forth the arguments demonstrating the unconstitutionality and the +complete illegality of slavery in our land; and as my experience, and +not my arguments, is within the scope and contemplation of this volume, +I omit the latter and proceed with the former.{309} + +I will now ask the kind reader to go back a little in my story, while I +bring up a thread left behind for convenience sake, but which, small +as it is, cannot be properly omitted altogether; and that thread is +American prejudice against color, and its varied illustrations in my own +experience. + +When I first went among the abolitionists of New England, and began +to travel, I found this prejudice very strong and very annoying. The +abolitionists themselves were not entirely free from it, and I could +see that they were nobly struggling against it. In their eagerness, +sometimes, to show their contempt for the feeling, they proved that they +had not entirely recovered from it; often illustrating the saying, +in their conduct, that a man may "stand up so straight as to lean +backward." When it was said to me, "Mr. Douglass, I will walk to +meeting with you; I am not afraid of a black man," I could not help +thinking--seeing nothing very frightful in my appearance--"And why +should you be?" The children at the north had all been educated +to believe that if they were bad, the old _black_ man--not the old +_devil_--would get them; and it was evidence of some courage, for any so +educated to get the better of their fears. + +The custom of providing separate cars for the accommodation of colored +travelers, was established on nearly all the railroads of New England, a +dozen years ago. Regarding this custom as fostering the spirit of caste, +I made it a rule to seat myself in the cars for the accommodation of +passengers generally. Thus seated, I was sure to be called upon to +betake myself to the "_Jim Crow car_." Refusing to obey, I was often +dragged out of my seat, beaten, and severely bruised, by conductors and +brakemen. Attempting to start from Lynn, one day, for Newburyport, on +the Eastern railroad, I went, as my custom was, into one of the best +railroad carriages on the road. The seats were very luxuriant and +beautiful. I was soon waited upon by the conductor, and ordered out; +whereupon I demanded the reason for my invidious removal. After a good +deal of parleying, I was told that it was because I{310} was black. This +I denied, and appealed to the company to sustain my denial; but they +were evidently unwilling to commit themselves, on a point so delicate, +and requiring such nice powers of discrimination, for they remained as +dumb as death. I was soon waited on by half a dozen fellows of the +baser sort (just such as would volunteer to take a bull-dog out of a +meeting-house in time of public worship), and told that I must move out +of that seat, and if I did not, they would drag me out. I refused +to move, and they clutched me, head, neck, and shoulders. But, in +anticipation of the stretching to which I was about to be subjected, +I had interwoven myself among the seats. In dragging me out, on this +occasion, it must have cost the company twenty-five or thirty dollars, +for I tore up seats and all. So great was the excitement in Lynn, on +the subject, that the superintendent, Mr. Stephen A. Chase, ordered the +trains to run through Lynn without stopping, while I remained in that +town; and this ridiculous farce was enacted. For several days the trains +went dashing through Lynn without stopping. At the same time that they +excluded a free colored man from their cars, this same company +allowed slaves, in company with their masters and mistresses, to ride +unmolested. + +After many battles with the railroad conductors, and being roughly +handled in not a few instances, proscription was at last abandoned; and +the "Jim Crow car"--set up for the degradation of colored people--is +nowhere found in New England. This result was not brought about without +the intervention of the people, and the threatened enactment of a law +compelling railroad companies to respect the rights of travelers. Hon. +Charles Francis Adams performed signal service in the Massachusetts +legislature, in bringing this reformation; and to him the colored +citizens of that state are deeply indebted. + +Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice +against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet amusement. +A half-cured subject of it is sometimes driven into awkward straits, +especially if he happens to get a genuine specimen of the race into his +house.{311} + +In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and lecturing, in company with +William A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana. Anti-slavery +friends were not very abundant in Indiana, at that time, and beds were +not more plentiful than friends. We often slept out, in preference +to sleeping in the houses, at some points. At the close of one of our +meetings, we were invited home with a kindly-disposed old farmer, who, +in the generous enthusiasm of the moment, seemed to have forgotten that +he had but one spare bed, and that his guests were an ill-matched pair. +All went on pretty well, till near bed time, when signs of uneasiness +began to show themselves, among the unsophisticated sons and daughters. +White is remarkably fine looking, and very evidently a born gentleman; +the idea of putting us in the same bed was hardly to be tolerated; and +yet, there we were, and but the one bed for us, and that, by the way, +was in the same room occupied by the other members of the family. White, +as well as I, perceived the difficulty, for yonder slept the old folks, +there the sons, and a little farther along slept the daughters; and +but one other bed remained. Who should have this bed, was the puzzling +question. There was some whispering between the old folks, some confused +looks among the young, as the time for going to bed approached. +After witnessing the confusion as long as I liked, I relieved the +kindly-disposed family by playfully saying, "Friend White, having got +entirely rid of my prejudice against color, I think, as a proof of it, +I must allow you to sleep with me to-night." White kept up the joke, by +seeming to esteem himself the favored party, and thus the difficulty was +removed. If we went to a hotel, and called for dinner, the landlord was +sure to set one table for White and another for me, always taking him to +be master, and me the servant. Large eyes were generally made when the +order was given to remove the dishes from my table to that of White's. +In those days, it was thought strange that a white man and a colored +man could dine peaceably at the same table, and in some parts the +strangeness of such a sight has not entirely subsided. + +Some people will have it that there is a natural, an inherent, and{312} +an invincible repugnance in the breast of the white race toward +dark-colored people; and some very intelligent colored men think that +their proscription is owing solely to the color which nature has given +them. They hold that they are rated according to their color, and that +it is impossible for white people ever to look upon dark races of +men, or men belonging to the African race, with other than feelings +of aversion. My experience, both serious and mirthful, combats this +conclusion. Leaving out of sight, for a moment, grave facts, to this +point, I will state one or two, which illustrate a very interesting +feature of American character as well as American prejudice. Riding from +Boston to Albany, a few years ago, I found myself in a large car, well +filled with passengers. The seat next to me was about the only vacant +one. At every stopping place we took in new passengers, all of whom, +on reaching the seat next to me, cast a disdainful glance upon it, and +passed to another car, leaving me in the full enjoyment of a hole form. +For a time, I did not know but that my riding there was prejudicial to +the interest of the railroad company. A circumstance occurred, however, +which gave me an elevated position at once. Among the passengers on this +train was Gov. George N. Briggs. I was not acquainted with him, and had +no idea that I was known to him, however, I was, for upon observing me, +the governor left his place, and making his way toward me, respectfully +asked the privilege of a seat by my side; and upon introducing himself, +we entered into a conversation very pleasant and instructive to me. The +despised seat now became honored. His excellency had removed all the +prejudice against sitting by the side of a Negro; and upon his leaving +it, as he did, on reaching Pittsfield, there were at least one dozen +applicants for the place. The governor had, without changing my skin a +single shade, made the place respectable which before was despicable. + +A similar incident happened to me once on the Boston and New Bedford +railroad, and the leading party to it has since been governor of the +state of Massachusetts. I allude to Col. John Henry{313} Clifford. Lest +the reader may fancy I am aiming to elevate myself, by claiming too much +intimacy with great men, I must state that my only acquaintance with +Col. Clifford was formed while I was _his hired servant_, during the +first winter of my escape from slavery. I owe it him to say, that +in that relation I found him always kind and gentlemanly. But to the +incident. I entered a car at Boston, for New Bedford, which, with the +exception of a single seat was full, and found I must occupy this, or +stand up, during the journey. Having no mind to do this, I stepped up to +the man having the next seat, and who had a few parcels on the seat, and +gently asked leave to take a seat by his side. My fellow-passenger gave +me a look made up of reproach and indignation, and asked me why I should +come to that particular seat. I assured him, in the gentlest manner, +that of all others this was the seat for me. Finding that I was actually +about to sit down, he sang out, "O! stop, stop! and let me get out!" +Suiting the action to the word, up the agitated man got, and sauntered +to the other end of the car, and was compelled to stand for most of +the way thereafter. Halfway to New Bedford, or more, Col. Clifford, +recognizing me, left his seat, and not having seen me before since I had +ceased to wait on him (in everything except hard arguments against his +pro-slavery position), apparently forgetful of his rank, manifested, +in greeting me, something of the feeling of an old friend. This +demonstration was not lost on the gentleman whose dignity I had, an hour +before, most seriously offended. Col. Clifford was known to be about +the most aristocratic gentleman in Bristol county; and it was evidently +thought that I must be somebody, else I should not have been thus +noticed, by a person so distinguished. Sure enough, after Col. Clifford +left me, I found myself surrounded with friends; and among the number, +my offended friend stood nearest, and with an apology for his rudeness, +which I could not resist, although it was one of the lamest ever +offered. With such facts as these before me--and I have many of them--I +am inclined to think that pride and fashion have much to do with{314} +the treatment commonly extended to colored people in the United States. +I once heard a very plain man say (and he was cross-eyed, and awkwardly +flung together in other respects) that he should be a handsome man when +public opinion shall be changed. + +Since I have been editing and publishing a journal devoted to the +cause of liberty and progress, I have had my mind more directed to the +condition and circumstances of the free colored people than when I was +the agent of an abolition society. The result has been a corresponding +change in the disposition of my time and labors. I have felt it to be +a part of my mission--under a gracious Providence to impress my sable +brothers in this country with the conviction that, notwithstanding the +ten thousand discouragements and the powerful hinderances, which beset +their existence in this country--notwithstanding the blood-written +history of Africa, and her children, from whom we have descended, or the +clouds and darkness (whose stillness and gloom are made only more awful +by wrathful thunder and lightning) now overshadowing them--progress is +yet possible, and bright skies shall yet shine upon their pathway; and +that "Ethiopia shall yet reach forth her hand unto God." + +Believing that one of the best means of emancipating the slaves of the +south is to improve and elevate the character of the free colored people +of the north I shall labor in the future, as I have labored in the past, +to promote the moral, social, religious, and intellectual elevation of +the free colored people; never forgetting my own humble orgin(sic), nor +refusing, while Heaven lends me ability, to use my voice, my pen, or +my vote, to advocate the great and primary work of the universal and +unconditional emancipation of my entire race. + + + + + +RECEPTION SPEECH [10]. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, +1846 + + +Mr. Douglass rose amid loud cheers, and said: I feel exceedingly glad of +the opportunity now afforded me of presenting the claims of my brethren +in bonds in the United States, to so many in London and from various +parts of Britain, who have assembled here on the present occasion. I +have nothing to commend me to your consideration in the way of learning, +nothing in the way of education, to entitle me to your attention; and +you are aware that slavery is a very bad school for rearing teachers of +morality and religion. Twenty-one years of my life have been spent in +slavery--personal slavery--surrounded by degrading influences, such +as can exist nowhere beyond the pale of slavery; and it will not be +strange, if under such circumstances, I should betray, in what I have +to say to you, a deficiency of that refinement which is seldom or ever +found, except among persons that have experienced superior advantages to +those which I have enjoyed. But I will take it for granted that you know +something about the degrading influences of slavery, and that you will +not expect great things from me this evening, but simply such facts as I +may be able to advance immediately in connection with my own experience +of slavery. + +Now, what is this system of slavery? This is the subject of my lecture +this evening--what is the character of this institution? I am about +to answer the inquiry, what is American slavery? I do this the more +readily, since I have found persons in this country who have identified +the term slavery with that which I think it is not, and in some +instances, I have feared, in so doing, have rather (unwittingly, I +know) detracted much from the horror with which the term slavery is +contemplated. It is common{318} in this country to distinguish every bad +thing by the name of slavery. Intemperance is slavery; to be deprived of +the right to vote is slavery, says one; to have to work hard is slavery, +says another; and I do not know but that if we should let them go on, +they would say that to eat when we are hungry, to walk when we desire to +have exercise, or to minister to our necessities, or have necessities at +all, is slavery. I do not wish for a moment to detract from the horror +with which the evil of intemperance is contemplated--not at all; nor do +I wish to throw the slightest obstruction in the way of any political +freedom that any class of persons in this country may desire to obtain. +But I am here to say that I think the term slavery is sometimes abused +by identifying it with that which it is not. Slavery in the United +States is the granting of that power by which one man exercises and +enforces a right of property in the body and soul of another. The +condition of a slave is simply that of the brute beast. He is a piece +of property--a marketable commodity, in the language of the law, to be +bought or sold at the will and caprice of the master who claims him to +be his property; he is spoken of, thought of, and treated as property. +His own good, his conscience, his intellect, his affections, are all set +aside by the master. The will and the wishes of the master are the law +of the slave. He is as much a piece of property as a horse. If he is +fed, he is fed because he is property. If he is clothed, it is with a +view to the increase of his value as property. Whatever of comfort is +necessary to him for his body or soul that is inconsistent with his +being property, is carefully wrested from him, not only by public +opinion, but by the law of the country. He is carefully deprived of +everything that tends in the slightest degree to detract from his +value as property. He is deprived of education. God has given him an +intellect; the slaveholder declares it shall not be cultivated. If +his moral perception leads him in a course contrary to his value +as property, the slaveholder declares he shall not exercise it. The +marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one-sixth of the +population of democratic America is denied its privileges by the law +of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, +boasting of its humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its +love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three +millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?--what must be +the condition of that people? I need not lift up the veil by giving you +any experience of my own. Every one that can put two ideas together, +must see the most fearful results from such a state of things as I +have just mentioned. If any of these three millions find for themselves +companions, and prove themselves honest, upright, virtuous persons to +each other, yet in these{319} cases--few as I am bound to confess they +are--the virtuous live in constant apprehension of being torn asunder +by the merciless men-stealers that claim them as their property. This +is American slavery; no marriage--no education--the light of the gospel +shut out from the dark mind of the bondman--and he forbidden by law to +learn to read. If a mother shall teach her children to read, the law in +Louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the neck. If the father +attempt to give his son a knowledge of letters, he may be punished by +the whip in one instance, and in another be killed, at the discretion +of the court. Three millions of people shut out from the light of +knowledge! It is easy for you to conceive the evil that must result from +such a state of things. + +I now come to the physical evils of slavery. I do not wish to dwell at +length upon these, but it seems right to speak of them, not so much to +influence your minds on this question, as to let the slaveholders of +America know that the curtain which conceals their crimes is being +lifted abroad; that we are opening the dark cell, and leading the +people into the horrible recesses of what they are pleased to call their +domestic institution. We want them to know that a knowledge of their +whippings, their scourgings, their brandings, their chainings, is not +confined to their plantations, but that some Negro of theirs has broken +loose from his chains--has burst through the dark incrustation of +slavery, and is now exposing their deeds of deep damnation to the gaze +of the christian people of England. + +The slaveholders resort to all kinds of cruelty. If I were disposed, +I have matter enough to interest you on this question for five or six +evenings, but I will not dwell at length upon these cruelties. Suffice +it to say, that all of the peculiar modes of torture that were resorted +to in the West India islands, are resorted to, I believe, even more +frequently, in the United States of America. Starvation, the +bloody whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, cat-hauling, the +cat-o'-nine-tails, the dungeon, the blood-hound, are all in requisition +to keep the slave in his condition as a slave in the United States. If +any one has a doubt upon this point, I would ask him to read the chapter +on slavery in Dickens's _Notes on America_. If any man has a doubt upon +it, I have here the "testimony of a thousand witnesses," which I can +give at any length, all going to prove the truth of my statement. +The blood-hound is regularly trained in the United States, and +advertisements are to be found in the southern papers of the Union, from +persons advertising themselves as blood-hound trainers, and offering to +hunt down slaves at fifteen dollars a piece, recommending their +hounds as the fleetest in the neighborhood, never known to fail.{320} +Advertisements are from time to time inserted, stating that slaves have +escaped with iron collars about their necks, with bands of iron about +their feet, marked with the lash, branded with red-hot irons, the +initials of their master's name burned into their flesh; and the masters +advertise the fact of their being thus branded with their own signature, +thereby proving to the world, that, however damning it may appear to +non-slavers, such practices are not regarded discreditable among the +slaveholders themselves. Why, I believe if a man should brand his horse +in this country--burn the initials of his name into any of his cattle, +and publish the ferocious deed here--that the united execrations of +Christians in Britain would descend upon him. Yet in the United States, +human beings are thus branded. As Whittier says-- + + ... _Our countrymen in chains, + The whip on woman's shrinking flesh, + Our soil yet reddening with the stains + Caught from her scourgings warm and fresh_. + + +The slave-dealer boldly publishes his infamous acts to the world. Of all +things that have been said of slavery to which exception has been taken +by slaveholders, this, the charge of cruelty, stands foremost, and yet +there is no charge capable of clearer demonstration, than that of the +most barbarous inhumanity on the part of the slaveholders toward their +slaves. And all this is necessary; it is necessary to resort to these +cruelties, in order to _make the slave a slave_, and to _keep him a +slave_. Why, my experience all goes to prove the truth of what you will +call a marvelous proposition, that the better you treat a slave, the +more you destroy his value _as a slave_, and enhance the probability of +his eluding the grasp of the slaveholder; the more kindly you treat him, +the more wretched you make him, while you keep him in the condition of +a slave. My experience, I say, confirms the truth of this proposition. +When I was treated exceedingly ill; when my back was being scourged +daily; when I was whipped within an inch of my life--_life_ was all I +cared for. "Spare my life," was my continual prayer. When I was looking +for the blow about to be inflicted upon my head, I was not thinking +of my liberty; it was my life. But, as soon as the blow was not to be +feared, then came the longing for liberty. If a slave has a bad master, +his ambition is to get a better; when he gets a better, he aspires +to have the best; and when he gets the best, he aspires to be his own +master. But the slave must be brutalized to keep him as a slave. The +slaveholder feels this necessity. I admit this necessity. If it be right +to hold slaves at all, it is right to hold{321} them in the only way in +which they can be held; and this can be done only by shutting out the +light of education from their minds, and brutalizing their persons. The +whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the blood-hound, the +stocks, and all the other bloody paraphernalia of the slave system, are +indispensably necessary to the relation of master and slave. The slave +must be subjected to these, or he ceases to be a slave. Let him know +that the whip is burned; that the fetters have been turned to some +useful and profitable employment; that the chain is no longer for his +limbs; that the blood-hound is no longer to be put upon his track; that +his master's authority over him is no longer to be enforced by taking +his life--and immediately he walks out from the house of bondage and +asserts his freedom as a man. The slaveholder finds it necessary to have +these implements to keep the slave in bondage; finds it necessary to +be able to say, "Unless you do so and so; unless you do as I bid you--I +will take away your life!" + +Some of the most awful scenes of cruelty are constantly taking place in +the middle states of the Union. We have in those states what are called +the slave-breeding states. Allow me to speak plainly. Although it is +harrowing to your feelings, it is necessary that the facts of the case +should be stated. We have in the United States slave-breeding states. +The very state from which the minister from our court to yours comes, is +one of these states--Maryland, where men, women, and children are reared +for the market, just as horses, sheep, and swine are raised for the +market. Slave-rearing is there looked upon as a legitimate trade; the +law sanctions it, public opinion upholds it, the church does not condemn +it. It goes on in all its bloody horrors, sustained by the auctioneer's +block. If you would see the cruelties of this system, hear the following +narrative. Not long since the following scene occurred. A slave-woman +and a slaveman had united themselves as man and wife in the absence of +any law to protect them as man and wife. They had lived together by the +permission, not by right, of their master, and they had reared a family. +The master found it expedient, and for his interest, to sell them. He +did not ask them their wishes in regard to the matter at all; they were +not consulted. The man and woman were brought to the auctioneer's block, +under the sound of the hammer. The cry was raised, "Here goes; who bids +cash?" Think of it--a man and wife to be sold! The woman was placed +on the auctioneer's block; her limbs, as is customary, were brutally +exposed to the purchasers, who examined her with all the freedom with +which they would examine a horse. There stood the husband, powerless; no +right to his wife; the master's right preeminent. She was sold. He was +next{322} brought to the auctioneer's block. His eyes followed his wife +in the distance; and he looked beseechingly, imploringly, to the man +that had bought his wife, to buy him also. But he was at length bid +off to another person. He was about to be separated forever from her +he loved. No word of his, no work of his, could save him from this +separation. He asked permission of his new master to go and take the +hand of his wife at parting. It was denied him. In the agony of his soul +he rushed from the man who had just bought him, that he might take a +farewell of his wife; but his way was obstructed, he was struck over the +head with a loaded whip, and was held for a moment; but his agony was +too great. When he was let go, he fell a corpse at the feet of his +master. His heart was broken. Such scenes are the everyday fruits of +American slavery. Some two years since, the Hon. Seth. M. Gates, an +anti-slavery gentleman of the state of New York, a representative in +the congress of the United States, told me he saw with his own eyes +the following circumstances. In the national District of Columbia, over +which the star-spangled emblem is constantly waving, where orators +are ever holding forth on the subject of American liberty, American +democracy, American republicanism, there are two slave prisons. When +going across a bridge, leading to one of these prisons, he saw a +young woman run out, bare-footed and bare-headed, and with very little +clothing on. She was running with all speed to the bridge he was +approaching. His eye was fixed upon her, and he stopped to see what was +the matter. He had not paused long before he saw three men run out after +her. He now knew what the nature of the case was; a slave escaping from +her chains--a young woman, a sister--escaping from the bondage in which +she had been held. She made her way to the bridge, but had not reached, +ere from the Virginia side there came two slaveholders. As soon as they +saw them, her pursuers called out, "Stop her!" True to their Virginian +instincts, they came to the rescue of their brother kidnappers, across +the bridge. The poor girl now saw that there was no chance for her. +It was a trying time. She knew if she went back, she must be a slave +forever--she must be dragged down to the scenes of pollution which the +slaveholders continually provide for most of the poor, sinking, wretched +young women, whom they call their property. She formed her resolution; +and just as those who were about to take her, were going to put hands +upon her, to drag her back, she leaped over the balustrades of the +bridge, and down she went to rise no more. She chose death, rather than +to go back into the hands of those christian slaveholders from whom she +had escaped. + +Can it be possible that such things as these exist in the United +States?{323} Are not these the exceptions? Are any such scenes as this +general? Are not such deeds condemned by the law and denounced by public +opinion? Let me read to you a few of the laws of the slaveholding states +of America. I think no better exposure of slavery can be made than is +made by the laws of the states in which slavery exists. I prefer reading +the laws to making any statement in confirmation of what I have said +myself; for the slaveholders cannot object to this testimony, since it +is the calm, the cool, the deliberate enactment of their wisest heads, +of their most clear-sighted, their own constituted representatives. "If +more than seven slaves together are found in any road without a white +person, twenty lashes a piece; for visiting a plantation without a +written pass, ten lashes; for letting loose a boat from where it is +made fast, thirty-nine lashes for the first offense; and for the second, +shall have cut off from his head one ear; for keeping or carrying a +club, thirty-nine lashes; for having any article for sale, without a +ticket from his master, ten lashes; for traveling in any other than the +most usual and accustomed road, when going alone to any place, forty +lashes; for traveling in the night without a pass, forty lashes." I am +afraid you do not understand the awful character of these lashes. You +must bring it before your mind. A human being in a perfect state of +nudity, tied hand and foot to a stake, and a strong man standing behind +with a heavy whip, knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh, +and leaving the warm blood dripping to the feet; and for these trifles. +"For being found in another person's negro-quarters, forty lashes; for +hunting with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes; for being on horseback +without the written permission of his master, twenty-five lashes; for +riding or going abroad in the night, or riding horses in the day time, +without leave, a slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded in the cheek +with the letter R. or otherwise punished, such punishment not extending +to life, or so as to render him unfit for labor." The laws referred to, +may be found by consulting _Brevard's Digest; Haywood's Manual; Virginia +Revised Code; Prince's Digest; Missouri Laws; Mississippi Revised Code_. +A man, for going to visit his brethren, without the permission of his +master--and in many instances he may not have that permission; his +master, from caprice or other reasons, may not be willing to allow +it--may be caught on his way, dragged to a post, the branding-iron +heated, and the name of his master or the letter R branded into his +cheek or on his forehead. They treat slaves thus, on the principle that +they must punish for light offenses, in order to prevent the commission +of larger ones. I wish you to mark that in the single state of Virginia +there are seventy-one crimes for which a colored man may be executed; +while there are only three of{324} these crimes, which, when committed +by a white man, will subject him to that punishment. There are many of +these crimes which if the white man did not commit, he would be regarded +as a scoundrel and a coward. In the state of Maryland, there is a law to +this effect: that if a slave shall strike his master, he may be hanged, +his head severed from his body, his body quartered, and his head and +quarters set up in the most prominent places in the neighborhood. If a +colored woman, in the defense of her own virtue, in defense of her own +person, should shield herself from the brutal attacks of her tyrannical +master, or make the slightest resistance, she may be killed on the spot. +No law whatever will bring the guilty man to justice for the crime. + +But you will ask me, can these things be possible in a land professing +Christianity? Yes, they are so; and this is not the worst. No; a darker +feature is yet to be presented than the mere existence of these facts. +I have to inform you that the religion of the southern states, at +this time, is the great supporter, the great sanctioner of the bloody +atrocities to which I have referred. While America is printing tracts +and bibles; sending missionaries abroad to convert the heathen; +expending her money in various ways for the promotion of the gospel in +foreign lands--the slave not only lies forgotten, uncared for, but is +trampled under foot by the very churches of the land. What have we in +America? Why, we have slavery made part of the religion of the land. +Yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender of this cursed +_institution_, as it is called. Ministers of religion come forward and +torture the hallowed pages of inspired wisdom to sanction the bloody +deed. They stand forth as the foremost, the strongest defenders of this +"institution." As a proof of this, I need not do more than state the +general fact, that slavery has existed under the droppings of the +sanctuary of the south for the last two hundred years, and there has +not been any war between the _religion_ and the _slavery_ of the south. +Whips, chains, gags, and thumb-screws have all lain under the droppings +of the sanctuary, and instead of rusting from off the limbs of the +bondman, those droppings have served to preserve them in all their +strength. Instead of preaching the gospel against this tyranny, rebuke, +and wrong, ministers of religion have sought, by all and every means, to +throw in the back-ground whatever in the bible could be construed +into opposition to slavery, and to bring forward that which they could +torture into its support. This I conceive to be the darkest feature of +slavery, and the most difficult to attack, because it is identified with +religion, and exposes those who denounce it to the charge of infidelity. +Yes, those with whom I have been laboring, namely, the old{325} +organization anti-slavery society of America, have been again and again +stigmatized as infidels, and for what reason? Why, solely in consequence +of the faithfulness of their attacks upon the slaveholding religion of +the southern states, and the northern religion that sympathizes with it. +I have found it difficult to speak on this matter without persons coming +forward and saying, "Douglass, are you not afraid of injuring the +cause of Christ? You do not desire to do so, we know; but are you not +undermining religion?" This has been said to me again and again, even +since I came to this country, but I cannot be induced to leave off +these exposures. I love the religion of our blessed Savior. I love that +religion that comes from above, in the "wisdom of God," which is first +pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy +and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. I love that +religion that sends its votaries to bind up the wounds of him that has +fallen among thieves. I love that religion that makes it the duty of its +disciples to visit the father less and the widow in their affliction. I +love that religion that is based upon the glorious principle, of love +to God and love to man; which makes its followers do unto others as they +themselves would be done by. If you demand liberty to yourself, it says, +grant it to your neighbors. If you claim a right to think for yourself, +it says, allow your neighbors the same right. If you claim to act for +yourself, it says, allow your neighbors the same right. It is because I +love this religion that I hate the slaveholding, the woman-whipping, the +mind-darkening, the soul-destroying religion that exists in the southern +states of America. It is because I regard the one as good, and pure, and +holy, that I cannot but regard the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. +Loving the one I must hate the other; holding to the one I must reject +the other. + +I may be asked, why I am so anxious to bring this subject before the +British public--why I do not confine my efforts to the United States? My +answer is, first, that slavery is the common enemy of mankind, and all +mankind should be made acquainted with its abominable character. My next +answer is, that the slave is a man, and, as such, is entitled to your +sympathy as a brother. All the feelings, all the susceptibilities, +all the capacities, which you have, he has. He is a part of the human +family. He has been the prey--the common prey--of Christendom for the +last three hundred years, and it is but right, it is but just, it is +but proper, that his wrongs should be known throughout the world. I have +another reason for bringing this matter before the British public, and +it is this: slavery is a system of wrong, so blinding to all around, so +hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the morals, so deleterious +to religion, so{326} sapping to all the principles of justice in its +immediate vicinity, that the community surrounding it lack the moral +stamina necessary to its removal. It is a system of such gigantic evil, +so strong, so overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is equal to +its removal. It requires the humanity of Christianity, the morality of +the world to remove it. Hence, I call upon the people of Britain to +look at this matter, and to exert the influence I am about to show they +possess, for the removal of slavery from America. I can appeal to them, +as strongly by their regard for the slaveholder as for the slave, to +labor in this cause. I am here, because you have an influence on America +that no other nation can have. You have been drawn together by the power +of steam to a marvelous extent; the distance between London and +Boston is now reduced to some twelve or fourteen days, so that the +denunciations against slavery, uttered in London this week, may be heard +in a fortnight in the streets of Boston, and reverberating amidst the +hills of Massachusetts. There is nothing said here against slavery that +will not be recorded in the United States. I am here, also, because the +slaveholders do not want me to be here; they would rather that I were +not here. I have adopted a maxim laid down by Napoleon, never to occupy +ground which the enemy would like me to occupy. The slaveholders would +much rather have me, if I will denounce slavery, denounce it in the +northern states, where their friends and supporters are, who will stand +by and mob me for denouncing it. They feel something as the man felt, +when he uttered his prayer, in which he made out a most horrible case +for himself, and one of his neighbors touched him and said, "My +friend, I always had the opinion of you that you have now expressed for +yourself--that you are a very great sinner." Coming from himself, it +was all very well, but coming from a stranger it was rather cutting. The +slaveholders felt that when slavery was denounced among themselves, it +was not so bad; but let one of the slaves get loose, let him summon +the people of Britain, and make known to them the conduct of the +slaveholders toward their slaves, and it cuts them to the quick, and +produces a sensation such as would be produced by nothing else. The +power I exert now is something like the power that is exerted by the man +at the end of the lever; my influence now is just in proportion to the +distance that I am from the United States. My exposure of slavery abroad +will tell more upon the hearts and consciences of slaveholders, than +if I was attacking them in America; for almost every paper that I now +receive from the United States, comes teeming with statements about this +fugitive Negro, calling him a "glib-tongued scoundrel," and saying that +he is running out against the institutions and people of America. I +deny the charge that I am saying a word against the institutions of +America,{327} or the people, as such. What I have to say is against +slavery and slaveholders. I feel at liberty to speak on this subject. +I have on my back the marks of the lash; I have four sisters and one +brother now under the galling chain. I feel it my duty to cry aloud +and spare not. I am not averse to having the good opinion of my fellow +creatures. I am not averse to being kindly regarded by all men; but I +am bound, even at the hazard of making a large class of religionists in +this country hate me, oppose me, and malign me as they have done--I am +bound by the prayers, and tears, and entreaties of three millions of +kneeling bondsmen, to have no compromise with men who are in any shape +or form connected with the slaveholders of America. I expose slavery +in this country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of +those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. Expose +slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is to +the root of a tree; it must die under it. All the slaveholder asks of +me is silence. He does not ask me to go abroad and preach _in favor_ +of slavery; he does not ask any one to do that. He would not say that +slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances. The +slaveholders want total darkness on the subject. They want the hatchway +shut down, that the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing +human hopes and happiness, destroying the bondman at will, and having no +one to reprove or rebuke him. Slavery shrinks from the light; it +hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds should be +reproved. To tear off the mask from this abominable system, to expose +it to the light of heaven, aye, to the heat of the sun, that it may burn +and wither it out of existence, is my object in coming to this country. +I want the slaveholder surrounded, as by a wall of anti-slavery fire, so +that he may see the condemnation of himself and his system glaring +down in letters of light. I want him to feel that he has no sympathy +in England, Scotland, or Ireland; that he has none in Canada, none +in Mexico, none among the poor wild Indians; that the voice of +the civilized, aye, and savage world is against him. I would have +condemnation blaze down upon him in every direction, till, stunned and +overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is compelled to let go the +grasp he holds upon the persons of his victims, and restore them to +their long-lost rights. + + + + +Dr. Campbell's Reply + + +From Rev. Dr. Campbell's brilliant reply we extract the following: +FREDERICK DOUGLASS, "the beast of burden," the portion of "goods and +chattels," the representative of three millions of men, has been +raised{328} up! Shall I say the _man?_ If there is a man on earth, he is +a man. My blood boiled within me when I heard his address tonight, and +thought that he had left behind him three millions of such men. + +We must see more of this man; we must have more of this man. One would +have taken a voyage round the globe some forty years back--especially +since the introduction of steam--to have heard such an exposure of +slavery from the lips of a slave. It will be an era in the individual +history of the present assembly. Our children--our boys and girls--I +have tonight seen the delightful sympathy of their hearts evinced +by their heaving breasts, while their eyes sparkled with wonder and +admiration, that this black man--this slave--had so much logic, so much +wit, so much fancy, so much eloquence. He was something more than a man, +according to their little notions. Then, I say, we must hear him again. +We have got a purpose to accomplish. He has appealed to the pulpit of +England. The English pulpit is with him. He has appealed to the press of +England; the press of England is conducted by English hearts, and that +press will do him justice. About ten days hence, and his second master, +who may well prize "such a piece of goods," will have the pleasure of +reading his burning words, and his first master will bless himself that +he has got quit of him. We have to create public opinion, or rather, not +to create it, for it is created already; but we have to foster it; and +when tonight I heard those magnificent words--the words of Curran, by +which my heart, from boyhood, has ofttimes been deeply moved--I rejoice +to think that they embody an instinct of an Englishman's nature. I +heard, with inexpressible delight, how they told on this mighty mass of +the citizens of the metropolis. + +Britain has now no slaves; we can therefore talk to the other nations +now, as we could not have talked a dozen years ago. I want the whole of +the London ministry to meet Douglass. For as his appeal is to England, +and throughout England, I should rejoice in the idea of churchmen and +dissenters merging all sectional distinctions in this cause. Let us have +a public breakfast. Let the ministers meet him; let them hear him; let +them grasp his hand; and let him enlist their sympathies on behalf of +the slave. Let him inspire them with abhorrence of the man-stealer--the +slaveholder. No slaveholding American shall ever my cross my door. +No slaveholding or slavery-supporting minister shall ever pollute my +pulpit. While I have a tongue to speak, or a hand to write, I will, +to the utmost of my power, oppose these slaveholding men. We must have +Douglass amongst us to aid in fostering public opinion. + +The great conflict with slavery must now take place in America; and{329} +while they are adding other slave states to the Union, our business +is to step forward and help the abolitionists there. It is a pleasing +circumstance that such a body of men has risen in America, and whilst we +hurl our thunders against her slavers, let us make a distinction between +those who advocate slavery and those who oppose it. George Thompson has +been there. This man, Frederick Douglass, has been there, and has been +compelled to flee. I wish, when he first set foot on our shores, he had +made a solemn vow, and said, "Now that I am free, and in the sanctuary +of freedom, I will never return till I have seen the emancipation of my +country completed." He wants to surround these men, the slaveholders, +as by a wall of fire; and he himself may do much toward kindling it. +Let him travel over the island--east, west, north, and south--everywhere +diffusing knowledge and awakening principle, till the whole nation +become a body of petitioners to America. He will, he must, do it. He +must for a season make England his home. He must send for his wife. He +must send for his children. I want to see the sons and daughters of +such a sire. We, too, must do something for him and them worthy of the +English name. I do not like the idea of a man of such mental dimensions, +such moral courage, and all but incomparable talent, having his own +small wants, and the wants of a distant wife and children, supplied by +the poor profits of his publication, the sketch of his life. Let the +pamphlet be bought by tens of thousands. But we will do something more +for him, shall we not? + +It only remains that we pass a resolution of thanks to Frederick +Douglass, the slave that was, the man that is! He that was covered with +chains, and that is now being covered with glory, and whom we will send +back a gentleman. + + + + +LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. [11]. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld + + +SIR--The long and intimate, though by no means friendly, relation which +unhappily subsisted between you and myself, leads me to hope that you +will easily account for the great liberty which I now take in addressing +you in this open and public manner. The same fact may remove any +disagreeable surprise which you may experience on again finding your +name coupled with mine, in any other way than in an advertisement, +accurately describing my person, and offering a large sum for my arrest. +In thus dragging you again before the public, I am aware that I shall +subject myself to no inconsiderable amount of censure. I shall probably +be charged with an unwarrantable, if not a wanton and reckless disregard +of the rights and properties of private life. There are those north as +well as south who entertain a much higher respect for rights which are +merely conventional, than they do for rights which are personal and +essential. Not a few there are in our country, who, while they have no +scruples against robbing the laborer of the hard earned results of his +patient industry, will be shocked by the extremely indelicate manner of +bringing your name before the public. Believing this to be the case, and +wishing to meet every reasonable or plausible objection to my conduct, +I will frankly state the ground upon which I justfy(sic) myself in this +instance, as well as on former occasions when I have thought proper to +mention your name in public. All will agree that a man guilty of theft, +robbery, or murder, has forfeited the right to concealment and private +life; that the community have a right to subject such persons to the +most complete exposure. However much they may desire retirement, and +aim to conceal themselves and their movements from the popular gaze, +the public have a right to ferret them out, and bring their conduct +before{331} the proper tribunals of the country for investigation. Sir, +you will undoubtedly make the proper application of these generally +admitted principles, and will easily see the light in which you are +regarded by me; I will not therefore manifest ill temper, by calling you +hard names. I know you to be a man of some intelligence, and can readily +determine the precise estimate which I entertain of your character. I +may therefore indulge in language which may seem to others indirect and +ambiguous, and yet be quite well understood by yourself. + +I have selected this day on which to address you, because it is the +anniversary of my emancipation; and knowing no better way, I am led to +this as the best mode of celebrating that truly important events. Just +ten years ago this beautiful September morning, yon bright sun beheld me +a slave--a poor degraded chattel--trembling at the sound of your voice, +lamenting that I was a man, and wishing myself a brute. The hopes which +I had treasured up for weeks of a safe and successful escape from your +grasp, were powerfully confronted at this last hour by dark clouds of +doubt and fear, making my person shake and my bosom to heave with the +heavy contest between hope and fear. I have no words to describe to you +the deep agony of soul which I experienced on that never-to-be-forgotten +morning--for I left by daylight. I was making a leap in the dark. The +probabilities, so far as I could by reason determine them, were stoutly +against the undertaking. The preliminaries and precautions I had adopted +previously, all worked badly. I was like one going to war without +weapons--ten chances of defeat to one of victory. One in whom I had +confided, and one who had promised me assistance, appalled by fear at +the trial hour, deserted me, thus leaving the responsibility of success +or failure solely with myself. You, sir, can never know my feelings. As +I look back to them, I can scarcely realize that I have passed through +a scene so trying. Trying, however, as they were, and gloomy as was +the prospect, thanks be to the Most High, who is ever the God of the +oppressed, at the moment which was to determine my whole earthly career, +His grace was sufficient; my mind was made up. I embraced the golden +opportunity, took the morning tide at the flood, and a free man, young, +active, and strong, is the result. + +I have often thought I should like to explain to you the grounds upon +which I have justified myself in running away from you. I am almost +ashamed to do so now, for by this time you may have discovered them +yourself. I will, however, glance at them. When yet but a child about +six years old, I imbibed the determination to run away. The very first +mental{332} effort that I now remember on my part, was an attempt to +solve the mystery--why am I a slave? and with this question my youthful +mind was troubled for many days, pressing upon me more heavily at times +than others. When I saw the slave-driver whip a slave-woman, cut the +blood out of her neck, and heard her piteous cries, I went away into the +corner of the fence, wept and pondered over the mystery. I had, through +some medium, I know not what, got some idea of God, the Creator of all +mankind, the black and the white, and that he had made the blacks to +serve the whites as slaves. How he could do this and be _good_, I +could not tell. I was not satisfied with this theory, which made God +responsible for slavery, for it pained me greatly, and I have wept over +it long and often. At one time, your first wife, Mrs. Lucretia, heard me +sighing and saw me shedding tears, and asked of me the matter, but I +was afraid to tell her. I was puzzled with this question, till one night +while sitting in the kitchen, I heard some of the old slaves talking of +their parents having been stolen from Africa by white men, and were sold +here as slaves. The whole mystery was solved at once. Very soon after +this, my Aunt Jinny and Uncle Noah ran away, and the great noise made +about it by your father-in-law, made me for the first time acquainted +with the fact, that there were free states as well as slave states. From +that time, I resolved that I would some day run away. The morality of +the act I dispose of as follows: I am myself; you are yourself; we are +two distinct persons, equal persons. What you are, I am. You are a man, +and so am I. God created both, and made us separate beings. I am not by +nature bond to you, or you to me. Nature does not make your existence +depend upon me, or mine to depend upon yours. I cannot walk upon your +legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe for you, or you for me; I must +breathe for myself, and you for yourself. We are distinct persons, and +are each equally provided with faculties necessary to our individual +existence. In leaving you, I took nothing but what belonged to me, and +in no way lessened your means for obtaining an _honest_ living. Your +faculties remained yours, and mine became useful to their rightful +owner. I therefore see no wrong in any part of the transaction. It is +true, I went off secretly; but that was more your fault than mine. Had +I let you into the secret, you would have defeated the enterprise +entirely; but for this, I should have been really glad to have made you +acquainted with my intentions to leave. + +You may perhaps want to know how I like my present condition. I am free +to say, I greatly prefer it to that which I occupied in Maryland. I +am, however, by no means prejudiced against the state as such. Its +geography, climate, fertility, and products, are such as to make it +a very{333} desirable abode for any man; and but for the existence of +slavery there, it is not impossible that I might again take up my abode +in that state. It is not that I love Maryland less, but freedom more. +You will be surprised to learn that people at the north labor under the +strange delusion that if the slaves were emancipated at the south, +they would flock to the north. So far from this being the case, in +that event, you would see many old and familiar faces back again to the +south. The fact is, there are few here who would not return to the south +in the event of emancipation. We want to live in the land of our birth, +and to lay our bones by the side of our fathers; and nothing short of an +intense love of personal freedom keeps us from the south. For the sake +of this, most of us would live on a crust of bread and a cup of cold +water. + +Since I left you, I have had a rich experience. I have occupied stations +which I never dreamed of when a slave. Three out of the ten years since +I left you, I spent as a common laborer on the wharves of New Bedford, +Massachusetts. It was there I earned my first free dollar. It was mine. +I could spend it as I pleased. I could buy hams or herring with it, +without asking any odds of anybody. That was a precious dollar to me. +You remember when I used to make seven, or eight, or even nine dollars +a week in Baltimore, you would take every cent of it from me every +Saturday night, saying that I belonged to you, and my earnings also. I +never liked this conduct on your part--to say the best, I thought it a +little mean. I would not have served you so. But let that pass. I was a +little awkward about counting money in New England fashion when I first +landed in New Bedford. I came near betraying myself several times. I +caught myself saying phip, for fourpence; and at one time a man actually +charged me with being a runaway, whereupon I was silly enough to become +one by running away from him, for I was greatly afraid he might adopt +measures to get me again into slavery, a condition I then dreaded more +than death. + +I soon learned, however, to count money, as well as to make it, and got +on swimmingly. I married soon after leaving you; in fact, I was engaged +to be married before I left you; and instead of finding my companion a +burden, she was truly a helpmate. She went to live at service, and I to +work on the wharf, and though we toiled hard the first winter, we never +lived more happily. After remaining in New Bedford for three years, I +met with William Lloyd Garrison, a person of whom you have _possibly_ +heard, as he is pretty generally known among slaveholders. He put it +into my head that I might make myself serviceable to the cause of the +slave, by devoting a portion of my time to telling my own sorrows, and +those of other slaves, which had come under my observation. This{334} +was the commencement of a higher state of existence than any to which I +had ever aspired. I was thrown into society the most pure, enlightened, +and benevolent, that the country affords. Among these I have +never forgotten you, but have invariably made you the topic of +conversation--thus giving you all the notoriety I could do. I need not +tell you that the opinion formed of you in these circles is far from +being favorable. They have little respect for your honesty, and less for +your religion. + +But I was going on to relate to you something of my interesting +experience. I had not long enjoyed the excellent society to which I +have referred, before the light of its excellence exerted a beneficial +influence on my mind and heart. Much of my early dislike of white +persons was removed, and their manners, habits, and customs, so +entirely unlike what I had been used to in the kitchen-quarters on +the plantations of the south, fairly charmed me, and gave me a strong +disrelish for the coarse and degrading customs of my former condition. I +therefore made an effort so to improve my mind and deportment, as to be +somewhat fitted to the station to which I seemed almost providentially +called. The transition from degradation to respectability was indeed +great, and to get from one to the other without carrying some marks of +one's former condition, is truly a difficult matter. I would not have +you think that I am now entirely clear of all plantation peculiarities, +but my friends here, while they entertain the strongest dislike to them, +regard me with that charity to which my past life somewhat entitles me, +so that my condition in this respect is exceedingly pleasant. So far +as my domestic affairs are concerned, I can boast of as comfortable a +dwelling as your own. I have an industrious and neat companion, and four +dear children--the oldest a girl of nine years, and three fine boys, the +oldest eight, the next six, and the youngest four years old. The three +oldest are now going regularly to school--two can read and write, and +the other can spell, with tolerable correctness, words of two syllables. +Dear fellows! they are all in comfortable beds, and are sound asleep, +perfectly secure under my own roof. There are no slaveholders here +to rend my heart by snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother's +dearest hopes by tearing them from her bosom. These dear children are +ours--not to work up into rice, sugar, and tobacco, but to watch over, +regard, and protect, and to rear them up in the nurture and admonition +of the gospel--to train them up in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and, +as far as we can, to make them useful to the world and to themselves. +Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of +hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children. It is then +that my feelings rise above my control. I meant to have said more with +respect to my own prosperity and happiness, but thoughts and feel{335} +ings which this recital has quickened, unfit me to proceed further in +that direction. The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly +terror before me; the wails of millions pierce my heart and chill my +blood. I remember the chain, the gag, the bloody whip; the death-like +gloom overshadowing the broken spirit of the fettered bondman; the +appalling liability of his being torn away from wife and children, +and sold like a beast in the market. Say not that this is a picture of +fancy. You well know that I wear stripes on my back, inflicted by your +direction; and that you, while we were brothers in the same church, +caused this right hand, with which I am now penning this letter, to be +closely tied to my left, and my person dragged, at the pistol's mouth, +fifteen miles, from the Bay Side to Easton, to be sold like a beast +in the market, for the alleged crime of intending to escape from your +possession. All this, and more, you remember, and know to be perfectly +true, not only of yourself, but of nearly all of the slaveholders around +you. + +At this moment, you are probably the guilty holder of at least three of +my own dear sisters, and my only brother, in bondage. These you regard +as your property. They are recorded on your ledger, or perhaps have been +sold to human flesh-mongers, with a view to filling our own ever-hungry +purse. Sir, I desire to know how and where these dear sisters are. Have +you sold them? or are they still in your possession? What has become +of them? are they living or dead? And my dear old grandmother, whom you +turned out like an old horse to die in the woods--is she still alive? +Write and let me know all about them. If my grandmother be still alive, +she is of no service to you, for by this time she must be nearly eighty +years old--too old to be cared for by one to whom she has ceased to be +of service; send her to me at Rochester, or bring her to Philadelphia, +and it shall be the crowning happiness of my life to take care of her +in her old age. Oh! she was to me a mother and a father, so far as hard +toil for my comfort could make her such. Send me my grandmother! that I +may watch over and take care of her in her old age. And my sisters--let +me know all about them. I would write to them, and learn all I want to +know of them, without disturbing you in any way, but that, through your +unrighteous conduct, they have been entirely deprived of the power +to read and write. You have kept them in utter ignorance, and have +therefore robbed them of the sweet enjoyments of writing or receiving +letters from absent friends and relatives. Your wickedness and cruelty, +committed in this respect on your fellow-creatures, are greater than all +the stripes you have laid upon my back or theirs. It is an outrage upon +the soul, a war upon the immortal spirit, and one for which you must +give account at the bar of our common Father and Creator.{336} + +The responsibility which you have assumed in this regard is truly awful, +and how you could stagger under it these many years is marvelous. Your +mind must have become darkened, your heart hardened, your conscience +seared and petrified, or you would have long since thrown off the +accursed load, and sought relief at the hands of a sin-forgiving God. +How, let me ask, would you look upon me, were I, some dark night, in +company with a band of hardened villains, to enter the precincts of +your elegant dwelling, and seize the person of your own lovely daughter, +Amanda, and carry her off from your family, friends, and all the loved +ones of her youth--make her my slave--compel her to work, and I take her +wages--place her name on my ledger as property--disregard her personal +rights--fetter the powers of her immortal soul by denying her the right +and privilege of learning to read and write--feed her coarsely--clothe +her scantily, and whip her on the naked back occasionally; more, and +still more horrible, leave her unprotected--a degraded victim to the +brutal lust of fiendish overseers, who would pollute, blight, and +blast her fair soul--rob her of all dignity--destroy her virtue, and +annihilate in her person all the graces that adorn the character of +virtuous womanhood? I ask, how would you regard me, if such were my +conduct? Oh! the vocabulary of the damned would not afford a word +sufficiently infernal to express your idea of my God-provoking +wickedness. Yet, sir, your treatment of my beloved sisters is in all +essential points precisely like the case I have now supposed. Damning as +would be such a deed on my part, it would be no more so than that which +you have committed against me and my sisters. + +I will now bring this letter to a close; you shall hear from me again +unless you let me hear from you. I intend to make use of you as a weapon +with which to assail the system of slavery--as a means of concentrating +public attention on the system, and deepening the horror of trafficking +in the souls and bodies of men. I shall make use of you as a means of +exposing the character of the American church and clergy--and as a means +of bringing this guilty nation, with yourself, to repentance. In doing +this, I entertain no malice toward you personally. There is no roof +under which you would be more safe than mine, and there is nothing in my +house which you might need for your comfort, which I would not readily +grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege to set you an example as +to how mankind ought to treat each other. + + _I am your fellow-man, but not your slave_. + + + + + +THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, +December 1, 1850 + + +More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery. +My childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities of the slave +system. I grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra headed +monster--not as a master--not as an idle spectator--not as the guest of +the slaveholder--but as A SLAVE, eating the bread and drinking the cup +of slavery with the most degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing +with them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot. In +consideration of these facts, I feel that I have a right to speak, and +to speak _strongly_. Yet, my friends, I feel bound to speak truly. + +Goading as have been the cruelties to which I have been +subjected--bitter as have been the trials through which I have +passed--exasperating as have been, and still are, the indignities +offered to my manhood--I find in them no excuse for the slightest +departure from truth in dealing with any branch of this subject. + +First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and social +relation of master and slave. A master is one--to speak in the +vocabulary of the southern states--who claims and exercises a right of +property in the person of a fellow-man. This he does with the force of +the law and the sanction of southern religion. The law gives the master +absolute power over the slave. He may work him, flog him, hire him +out, sell him, and, in certain contingencies, _kill_ him, with perfect +impunity. The slave is a human being, divested of all rights--reduced +to the level of a brute--a mere "chattel" in the eye of the law--placed +beyond the circle of human brotherhood--cut off from his kind--his +name, which the "recording angel" may have enrolled in heaven, among the +blest, is impiously inserted in a _master's ledger_, with horses, sheep, +and swine. In law, the slave has no wife, no children, no country, and +no home. He can own nothing, possess nothing, acquire nothing, but what +must belong to another. To{338} eat the fruit of his own toil, to clothe +his person with the work of his own hands, is considered stealing. He +toils that another may reap the fruit; he is industrious that another +may live in idleness; he eats unbolted meal that another may eat the +bread of fine flour; he labors in chains at home, under a burning sun +and biting lash, that another may ride in ease and splendor abroad; +he lives in ignorance that another may be educated; he is abused that +another may be exalted; he rests his toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp +ground that another may repose on the softest pillow; he is clad in +coarse and tattered raiment that another may be arrayed in purple and +fine linen; he is sheltered only by the wretched hovel that a master may +dwell in a magnificent mansion; and to this condition he is bound down +as by an arm of iron. + +From this monstrous relation there springs an unceasing stream of most +revolting cruelties. The very accompaniments of the slave system +stamp it as the offspring of hell itself. To ensure good behavior, the +slaveholder relies on the whip; to induce proper humility, he relies on +the whip; to rebuke what he is pleased to term insolence, he relies +on the whip; to supply the place of wages as an incentive to toil, he +relies on the whip; to bind down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute +and destroy his manhood, he relies on the whip, the chain, the gag, +the thumb-screw, the pillory, the bowie knife the pistol, and the +blood-hound. These are the necessary and unvarying accompaniments of +the system. Wherever slavery is found, these horrid instruments are also +found. Whether on the coast of Africa, among the savage tribes, or in +South Carolina, among the refined and civilized, slavery is the same, +and its accompaniments one and the same. It makes no difference whether +the slaveholder worships the God of the Christians, or is a follower of +Mahomet, he is the minister of the same cruelty, and the author of +the same misery. _Slavery_ is always _slavery;_ always the same foul, +haggard, and damning scourge, whether found in the eastern or in the +western hemisphere. + +There is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. The physical +cruelties are indeed sufficiently harassing and revolting; but they are +as a few grains of sand on the sea shore, or a few drops of water in the +great ocean, compared with the stupendous wrongs which it inflicts upon +the mental, moral, and religious nature of its hapless victims. It is +only when we contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being, +that we can adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slavery, +and the intense criminality of the slaveholder. I have said that the +slave was a man. "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How +infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! +In action{339} how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God! The +beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!" + +The slave is a man, "the image of God," but "a little lower than the +angels;" possessing a soul, eternal and indestructible; capable of +endless happiness, or immeasurable woe; a creature of hopes and fears, +of affections and passions, of joys and sorrows, and he is endowed with +those mysterious powers by which man soars above the things of time and +sense, and grasps, with undying tenacity, the elevating and sublimely +glorious idea of a God. It is _such_ a being that is smitten and +blasted. The first work of slavery is to mar and deface those +characteristics of its victims which distinguish _men_ from _things_, +and _persons_ from _property_. Its first aim is to destroy all sense +of high moral and religious responsibility. It reduces man to a mere +machine. It cuts him off from his Maker, it hides from him the laws of +God, and leaves him to grope his way from time to eternity in the dark, +under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, depraved, and +sinful fellow-man. As the serpent-charmer of India is compelled to +extract the deadly teeth of his venomous prey before he is able to +handle him with impunity, so the slaveholder must strike down the +conscience of the slave before he can obtain the entire mastery over his +victim. + +It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, deaden, +and destroy the central principle of human responsibility. Conscience +is, to the individual soul, and to society, what the law of gravitation +is to the universe. It holds society together; it is the basis of all +trust and confidence; it is the pillar of all moral rectitude. Without +it, suspicion would take the place of trust; vice would be more than a +match for virtue; men would prey upon each other, like the wild beasts +of the desert; and earth would become a _hell_. + +Nor is slavery more adverse to the conscience than it is to the mind. +This is shown by the fact, that in every state of the American Union, +where slavery exists, except the state of Kentucky, there are laws +absolutely prohibitory of education among the slaves. The crime +of teaching a slave to read is punishable with severe fines and +imprisonment, and, in some instances, with _death itself_. + +Nor are the laws respecting this matter a dead letter. Cases may occur +in which they are disregarded, and a few instances may be found where +slaves may have learned to read; but such are isolated cases, and only +prove the rule. The great mass of slaveholders look upon education among +the slaves as utterly subversive of the slave system. I well remember +when my mistress first announced to my master that she had dis{340} +covered that I could read. His face colored at once with surprise and +chagrin. He said that "I was ruined, and my value as a slave destroyed; +that a slave should know nothing but to obey his master; that to give a +negro an inch would lead him to take an ell; that having learned how to +read, I would soon want to know how to write; and that by-and-by I +would be running away." I think my audience will bear witness to the +correctness of this philosophy, and to the literal fulfillment of this +prophecy. + +It is perfectly well understood at the south, that to educate a slave +is to make him discontened(sic) with slavery, and to invest him with a +power which shall open to him the treasures of freedom; and since the +object of the slaveholder is to maintain complete authority over his +slave, his constant vigilance is exercised to prevent everything +which militates against, or endangers, the stability of his authority. +Education being among the menacing influences, and, perhaps, the most +dangerous, is, therefore, the most cautiously guarded against. + +It is true that we do not often hear of the enforcement of the law, +punishing as a crime the teaching of slaves to read, but this is not +because of a want of disposition to enforce it. The true reason or +explanation of the matter is this: there is the greatest unanimity of +opinion among the white population in the south in favor of the policy +of keeping the slave in ignorance. There is, perhaps, another reason why +the law against education is so seldom violated. The slave is too poor +to be able to offer a temptation sufficiently strong to induce a white +man to violate it; and it is not to be supposed that in a community +where the moral and religious sentiment is in favor of slavery, many +martyrs will be found sacrificing their liberty and lives by violating +those prohibitory enactments. + +As a general rule, then, darkness reigns over the abodes of the +enslaved, and "how great is that darkness!" + +We are sometimes told of the contentment of the slaves, and are +entertained with vivid pictures of their happiness. We are told that +they often dance and sing; that their masters frequently give them +wherewith to make merry; in fine, that they have little of which to +complain. I admit that the slave does sometimes sing, dance, and appear +to be merry. But what does this prove? It only proves to my mind, that +though slavery is armed with a thousand stings, it is not able entirely +to kill the elastic spirit of the bondman. That spirit will rise and +walk abroad, despite of whips and chains, and extract from the cup +of nature occasional drops of joy and gladness. No thanks to the +slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the{341} vivacious captive may +sometimes dance in his chains; his very mirth in such circumstances +stands before God as an accusing angel against his enslaver. + +It is often said, by the opponents of the anti-slavery cause, that the +condition of the people of Ireland is more deplorable than that of the +American slaves. Far be it from me to underrate the sufferings of the +Irish people. They have been long oppressed; and the same heart +that prompts me to plead the cause of the American bondman, makes it +impossible for me not to sympathize with the oppressed of all lands. Yet +I must say that there is no analogy between the two cases. The Irishman +is poor, but he is not a slave. He may be in rags, but he is not a +slave. He is still the master of his own body, and can say with the +poet, "The hand of Douglass is his own." "The world is all before +him, where to choose;" and poor as may be my opinion of the British +parliament, I cannot believe that it will ever sink to such a depth +of infamy as to pass a law for the recapture of fugitive Irishmen! The +shame and scandal of kidnapping will long remain wholly monopolized by +the American congress. The Irishman has not only the liberty to emigrate +from his country, but he has liberty at home. He can write, and speak, +and cooperate for the attainment of his rights and the redress of his +wrongs. + +The multitude can assemble upon all the green hills and fertile plains +of the Emerald Isle; they can pour out their grievances, and proclaim +their wants without molestation; and the press, that "swift-winged +messenger," can bear the tidings of their doings to the extreme bounds +of the civilized world. They have their "Conciliation Hall," on the +banks of the Liffey, their reform clubs, and their newspapers; they pass +resolutions, send forth addresses, and enjoy the right of petition. But +how is it with the American slave? Where may he assemble? Where is +his Conciliation Hall? Where are his newspapers? Where is his right of +petition? Where is his freedom of speech? his liberty of the press? and +his right of locomotion? He is said to be happy; happy men can speak. +But ask the slave what is his condition--what his state of mind--what he +thinks of enslavement? and you had as well address your inquiries to the +_silent dead_. There comes no _voice_ from the enslaved. We are left to +gather his feelings by imagining what ours would be, were our souls in +his soul's stead. + +If there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the slave +is dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave system as a +grand aggregation of human horrors. + +Most who are present, will have observed that leading men in this{342} +country have been putting forth their skill to secure quiet to the +nation. A system of measures to promote this object was adopted a few +months ago in congress. The result of those measures is known. Instead +of quiet, they have produced alarm; instead of peace, they have brought +us war; and so it must ever be. + +While this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions of +innocent men and women, it is as idle to think of having a sound and +lasting peace, as it is to think there is no God to take cognizance of +the affairs of men. There can be no peace to the wicked while slavery +continues in the land. It will be condemned; and while it is condemned +there will be agitation. Nature must cease to be nature; men must +become monsters; humanity must be transformed; Christianity must be +exterminated; all ideas of justice and the laws of eternal goodness must +be utterly blotted out from the human soul--ere a system so foul and +infernal can escape condemnation, or this guilty republic can have a +sound, enduring peace. + + + + +INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, +December 8, 1850 + + +The relation of master and slave has been called patriarchal, and only +second in benignity and tenderness to that of the parent and child. This +representation is doubtless believed by many northern people; and this +may account, in part, for the lack of interest which we find among +persons whom we are bound to believe to be honest and humane. What, +then, are the facts? Here I will not quote my own experience in slavery; +for this you might call one-sided testimony. I will not cite +the declarations of abolitionists; for these you might pronounce +exaggerations. I will not rely upon advertisements cut from newspapers; +for these you might call isolated cases. But I will refer you to the +laws adopted by the legislatures of the slave states. I give you such +evidence, because it cannot be invalidated nor denied. I hold in my hand +sundry extracts from the slave codes of our country, from which I will +quote. * * * + +Now, if the foregoing be an indication of kindness, _what is cruelty_? +If this be parental affection, _what is bitter malignity_? A more +atrocious and blood-thirsty string of laws could not well be conceived +of. And yet I am bound to say that they fall short of indicating the +horrible cruelties constantly practiced in the slave states. + +I admit that there are individual slaveholders less cruel and barbarous +than is allowed by law; but these form the exception. The majority of +slaveholders find it necessary, to insure obedience, at times, to avail +themselves of the utmost extent of the law, and many go beyond it. If +kindness were the rule, we should not see advertisements filling the +columns of almost every southern newspaper, offering large rewards for +fugitive slaves, and describing them as being branded with irons, +loaded with chains, and scarred by the whip. One of the most telling +testimonies against the pretended kindness of slaveholders, is the fact +that uncounted numbers of fugitives are now inhabiting the Dismal +Swamp, preferring{344} the untamed wilderness to their cultivated +homes--choosing rather to encounter hunger and thirst, and to roam with +the wild beasts of the forest, running the hazard of being hunted and +shot down, than to submit to the authority of _kind_ masters. + +I tell you, my friends, humanity is never driven to such an unnatural +course of life, without great wrong. The slave finds more of the milk of +human kindness in the bosom of the savage Indian, than in the heart +of his _Christian_ master. He leaves the man of the _bible_, and takes +refuge with the man of the _tomahawk_. He rushes from the praying +slaveholder into the paws of the bear. He quits the homes of men for +the haunts of wolves. He prefers to encounter a life of trial, however +bitter, or death, however terrible, to dragging out his existence under +the dominion of these _kind_ masters. + +The apologists for slavery often speak of the abuses of slavery; and +they tell us that they are as much opposed to those abuses as we are; +and that they would go as far to correct those abuses and to ameliorate +the condition of the slave as anybody. The answer to that view is, that +slavery is itself an abuse; that it lives by abuse; and dies by the +absence of abuse. Grant that slavery is right; grant that the relations +of master and slave may innocently exist; and there is not a single +outrage which was ever committed against the slave but what finds an +apology in the very necessity of the case. As we said by a slaveholder +(the Rev. A. G. Few) to the Methodist conference, "If the relation be +right, the means to maintain it are also right;" for without those +means slavery could not exist. Remove the dreadful scourge--the plaited +thong--the galling fetter--the accursed chain--and let the slaveholder +rely solely upon moral and religious power, by which to secure obedience +to his orders, and how long do you suppose a slave would remain on +his plantation? The case only needs to be stated; it carries its own +refutation with it. + +Absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man over the +body and soul of another man, without brutal chastisement and enormous +cruelty. + +To talk of _kindness_ entering into a relation in which one party is +robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of friends, +of society, of knowledge, and of all that makes this life desirable, is +most absurd, wicked, and preposterous. + +I have shown that slavery is wicked--wicked, in that it violates the +great law of liberty, written on every human heart--wicked, in that it +violates the first command of the decalogue--wicked, in that it +fosters the most disgusting licentiousness--wicked, in that it mars +and defaces{345} the image of God by cruel and barbarous +inflictions--wicked, in that it contravenes the laws of eternal justice, +and tramples in the dust all the humane and heavenly precepts of the New +Testament. + +The evils resulting from this huge system of iniquity are not confined +to the states south of Mason and Dixon's line. Its noxious influence can +easily be traced throughout our northern borders. It comes even as +far north as the state of New York. Traces of it may be seen even in +Rochester; and travelers have told me it casts its gloomy shadows across +the lake, approaching the very shores of Queen Victoria's dominions. + +The presence of slavery may be explained by--as it is the explanation +of--the mobocratic violence which lately disgraced New York, and +which still more recently disgraced the city of Boston. These violent +demonstrations, these outrageous invasions of human rights, faintly +indicate the presence and power of slavery here. It is a significant +fact, that while meetings for almost any purpose under heaven may be +held unmolested in the city of Boston, that in the same city, a meeting +cannot be peaceably held for the purpose of preaching the doctrine of +the American Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created +equal." The pestiferous breath of slavery taints the whole moral +atmosphere of the north, and enervates the moral energies of the whole +people. + +The moment a foreigner ventures upon our soil, and utters a natural +repugnance to oppression, that moment he is made to feel that there is +little sympathy in this land for him. If he were greeted with smiles +before, he meets with frowns now; and it shall go well with him if he +be not subjected to that peculiarly fining method of showing fealty to +slavery, the assaults of a mob. + +Now, will any man tell me that such a state of things is natural, and +that such conduct on the part of the people of the north, springs from a +consciousness of rectitude? No! every fibre of the human heart unites +in detestation of tyranny, and it is only when the human mind has become +familiarized with slavery, is accustomed to its injustice, and corrupted +by its selfishness, that it fails to record its abhorrence of slavery, +and does not exult in the triumphs of liberty. + +The northern people have been long connected with slavery; they have +been linked to a decaying corpse, which has destroyed the moral health. +The union of the government; the union of the north and south, in the +political parties; the union in the religious organizations of the land, +have all served to deaden the moral sense of the northern people, and to +impregnate them with sentiments and ideas forever in conflict with +what as a nation we call _genius of American institutions_. Rightly +viewed,{346} this is an alarming fact, and ought to rally all that is +pure, just, and holy in one determined effort to crush the monster of +corruption, and to scatter "its guilty profits" to the winds. In a high +moral sense, as well as in a national sense, the whole American people +are responsible for slavery, and must share, in its guilt and shame, +with the most obdurate men-stealers of the south. + +While slavery exists, and the union of these states endures, every +American citizen must bear the chagrin of hearing his country branded +before the world as a nation of liars and hypocrites; and behold his +cherished flag pointed at with the utmost scorn and derision. Even now +an American _abroad_ is pointed out in the crowd, as coming from a land +where men gain their fortunes by "the blood of souls," from a land of +slave markets, of blood-hounds, and slave-hunters; and, in some circles, +such a man is shunned altogether, as a moral pest. Is it not time, then, +for every American to awake, and inquire into his duty with respect to +this subject? + +Wendell Phillips--the eloquent New England orator--on his return from +Europe, in 1842, said, "As I stood upon the shores of Genoa, and saw +floating on the placid waters of the Mediterranean, the beautiful +American war ship Ohio, with her masts tapering proportionately aloft, +and an eastern sun reflecting her noble form upon the sparkling waters, +attracting the gaze of the multitude, my first impulse was of pride, to +think myself an American; but when I thought that the first time that +gallant ship would gird on her gorgeous apparel, and wake from beneath +her sides her dormant thunders, it would be in defense of the African +slave trade, I blushed in utter _shame_ for my country." + +Let me say again, _slavery is alike the sin and the shame of the +American people;_ it is a blot upon the American name, and the only +national reproach which need make an American hang his head in shame, in +the presence of monarchical governments. + +With this gigantic evil in the land, we are constantly told to look +_at home;_ if we say ought against crowned heads, we are pointed to our +enslaved millions; if we talk of sending missionaries and bibles +abroad, we are pointed to three millions now lying in worse than heathen +darkness; if we express a word of sympathy for Kossuth and his Hungarian +fugitive brethren, we are pointed to that horrible and hell-black +enactment, "the fugitive slave bill." + +Slavery blunts the edge of all our rebukes of tyranny abroad--the +criticisms that we make upon other nations, only call forth ridicule, +contempt, and scorn. In a word, we are made a reproach and a by-word +to a{347} mocking earth, and we must continue to be so made, so long as +slavery continues to pollute our soil. + +We have heard much of late of the virtue of patriotism, the love of +country, &c., and this sentiment, so natural and so strong, has been +impiously appealed to, by all the powers of human selfishness, to +cherish the viper which is stinging our national life away. In its name, +we have been called upon to deepen our infamy before the world, to +rivet the fetter more firmly on the limbs of the enslaved, and to become +utterly insensible to the voice of human woe that is wafted to us on +every southern gale. We have been called upon, in its name, to desecrate +our whole land by the footprints of slave-hunters, and even to engage +ourselves in the horrible business of kidnapping. + +I, too, would invoke the spirit of patriotism; not in a narrow and +restricted sense, but, I trust, with a broad and manly signification; +not to cover up our national sins, but to inspire us with sincere +repentance; not to hide our shame from the the(sic) world's gaze, but +utterly to abolish the cause of that shame; not to explain away our +gross inconsistencies as a nation, but to remove the hateful, jarring, +and incongruous elements from the land; not to sustain an egregious +wrong, but to unite all our energies in the grand effort to remedy that +wrong. + +I would invoke the spirit of patriotism, in the name of the law of +the living God, natural and revealed, and in the full belief that +"righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any +people." "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that +despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from the +holding of bribes, he shall dwell on high, his place of defense shall +be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, his water shall be +sure." + +We have not only heard much lately of patriotism, and of its aid being +invoked on the side of slavery and injustice, but the very prosperity of +this people has been called in to deafen them to the voice of duty, and +to lead them onward in the pathway of sin. Thus has the blessing of God +been converted into a curse. In the spirit of genuine patriotism, I warn +the American people, by all that is just and honorable, to BEWARE! + +I warn them that, strong, proud, and prosperous though we be, there is +a power above us that can "bring down high looks; at the breath of whose +mouth our wealth may take wings; and before whom every knee shall bow;" +and who can tell how soon the avenging angel may pass over our land, +and the sable bondmen now in chains, may become the instruments of our +nation's chastisement! Without appealing to any higher feeling, I would +warn the American people, and the American government,{348} to be wise +in their day and generation. I exhort them to remember the history of +other nations; and I remind them that America cannot always sit "as a +queen," in peace and repose; that prouder and stronger governments than +this have been shattered by the bolts of a just God; that the time may +come when those they now despise and hate, may be needed; when those +whom they now compel by oppression to be enemies, may be wanted as +friends. What has been, may be again. There is a point beyond which +human endurance cannot go. The crushed worm may yet turn under the heel +of the oppressor. I warn them, then, with all solemnity, and in the name +of retributive justice, _to look to their ways;_ for in an evil hour, +those sable arms that have, for the last two centuries, been engaged in +cultivating and adorning the fair fields of our country, may yet +become the instruments of terror, desolation, and death, throughout our +borders. + +It was the sage of the Old Dominion that said--while speaking of the +possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the slaveholders--"God +has no attribute that could take sides with the oppressor in such a +contest. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God _is just_, +and that his justice cannot sleep forever." Such is the warning voice of +Thomas Jefferson; and every day's experience since its utterance until +now, confirms its wisdom, and commends its truth. + + + + +WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at +Rochester, July 5, 1852 + + +Fellow-Citizens--Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon +to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your +national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom +and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, +extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble +offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express +devout gratitude for the blessings, resulting from your independence to +us? + +Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer +could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be +light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that +a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to +the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such +priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his +voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains +of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case +like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an +hart." + +But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the +disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious +anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable +distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice, +are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, +prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by +you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has +brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is _yours_, not +mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the +grand illuminated{350} temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you +in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you +mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there +is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous +to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, +were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation +in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a +peeled and woe-smitten people. + +"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we +remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst +thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a +song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one +of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? +If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If +I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." + +Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the mournful +wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day +rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I +do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children +of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my +tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly +over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be +treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach +before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN +SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the +slave's point of view. Standing there, identified with the American +bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with +all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked +blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. Whether we turn to the +declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the +conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is +false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to +be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding +slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is +outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the +constitution and the bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, +dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can +command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery--the great sin and +shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;" I will use +the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape +me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who +is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. +{351} + +But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this +circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a +favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and +denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would +be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there +is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would +you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this +country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? +That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders +themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. +They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the +slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if +committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him +to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will +subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the +acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible +being. The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact +that southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, +under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or +write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts +of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When +the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on +your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall +be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with +you that the slave is a man! + +For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro +race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, +and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, +constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, +copper, silver, and gold; that, while we are reading, writing, and +cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among +us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and +teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common +to other men--digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the +Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, +acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and +children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian's God, +and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave--we are +called upon to prove that we are men! + +Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the +rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must +I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for +republicans?{352} Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and +argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a +doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? +How should I look to-day in the presence of Americans, dividing and +subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to +freedom, speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and +affirmatively? To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to +offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the +canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for _him_. + +What! am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them +of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of +their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay +their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them +with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock +out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and +submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system, thus marked +with blood and stained with pollution, is wrong? No; I will not. I have +better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would +imply. + +What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that +God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? +There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be +divine. Who can reason on such a proposition! They that can, may! I +cannot. The time for such argument is past. + +At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is +needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, +I would to-day pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting +reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that +is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need +the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation +must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the +propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation +must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed +and denounced. + +What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day +that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross +injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your +celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your +national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty +and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; +your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and +hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade +and solemnity,{353} are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, +and hypocrisy--a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace +a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of +practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United +States, at this very hour. + +Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies +and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search +out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the +side of the every-day practices of this nation, and you will say with +me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America +reigns without a rival. + + + + +THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July +5, 1852 + + +Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers, is +especially prosperous just now. Ex-senator Benton tells us that the +price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the fact to show +that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of the peculiarities +of American institutions. It is carried on in all the large towns and +cities in one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every +year by dealers in this horrid traffic. In several states this trade +is a chief source of wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the +foreign slave trade) _"the internal slave trade_." It is, probably, +called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the +foreign slave trade is contemplated. That trade has long since been +denounced by this government as piracy. It has been denounced with +burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an execrable +traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation keeps a +squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere in this +country, it is safe to speak of this foreign slave trade as a most +inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws of God and of man. The +duty to extirpate and destroy it is admitted even by our _doctors +of divinity_. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have +consented that their colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this +country, and establish themselves on the western coast of Africa. It is, +however, a notable fact, that, while so much execration is poured out +by Americans, upon those engaged in the foreign slave trade, the men +engaged in the slave trade between the states pass without condemnation, +and their business is deemed honorable. + +Behold the practical operation of this internal slave trade--the +American slave trade sustained by American politics and American +religion! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for the +market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a man-drover. +They inhabit all our southern states. They perambulate the country, and +crowd the{355} highways of the nation with droves of human stock. You +will see one of these human-flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and +bowie-knife, driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, +from the Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched +people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. They +are food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark the sad +procession as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives +them. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries +on his affrighted captives. There, see the old man, with locks thinned +and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose +shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the +brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, +yes, weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she has been torn. +The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have nearly consumed their +strength. Suddenly you hear a quick snap, like the discharge of a rifle; +the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously; your ears are +saluted with a scream that seems to have torn its way to the center +of your soul. The crack you heard was the sound of the slave whip; the +scream you heard was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had +faltered under the weight of her child and her chains; that gash on her +shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to New Orleans. Attend +the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women rudely +and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. See +this drove sold and separated forever; and never forget the deep, sad +sobs that arose from that scattered multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, +under the sun, can you witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. +Yet this is but a glance at the American slave trade, as it exists at +this moment, in the ruling part of the United States. + +I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave trade +is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with +a sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot street, Fell's Point, +Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves the slave ships in the +basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of human flesh, +waiting for favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. There was, +at that time, a grand slave mart kept at the head of Pratt street, by +Austin Woldfolk. His agents were sent into every town and county in +Maryland, announcing their arrival through the papers, and on flaming +hand-bills, headed, "cash for negroes." These men were generally well +dressed, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to drink, to +treat, and to gamble. The fate{356} of many a slave has depended upon +the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from +the arms of its mothers by bargains arranged in a state of brutal +drunkenness. + +The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive them, +chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient number +have been collected here, a ship is chartered, for the purpose of +conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile or to New Orleans. From the +slave-prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the darkness +of night; for since the anti-slavery agitation a certain caution is +observed. + +In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by +the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the chained gangs +that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish heart was intense; and I +was often consoled, when speaking to my mistress in the morning, to +hear her say that the custom was very wicked; that she hated to hear the +rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to find +one who sympathized with me in my horror. + +Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is to-day in active operation +in this boasted republic. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of +dust raised on the highways of the south; I see the bleeding footsteps; +I hear the doleful wail of fettered humanity, on the way to the slave +markets, where the victims are to be sold like horses, sheep, and +swine, knocked off to the highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties +ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice, and rapacity of the +buyers and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight. + + _Is this the land your fathers loved? + The freedom which they toiled to win? + Is this the earth whereon they moved? + Are these the graves they slumber in?_ + + +But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of things +remains to be presented. By an act of the American congress, not yet +two years old, slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible +and revolting form. By that act, Mason and Dixon's line has been +obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the power to hold, +hunt, and sell men, women, and children as slaves, remains no longer a +mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United +States. The power is coextensive with the star-spangled banner and +American christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless +slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for the +sportsman's gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, +the liberty and person of every man are{357} put in peril. Your broad +republican domain is a hunting-ground for _men_. Not for thieves and +robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime. +Your law-makers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this +hellish sport. Your president, your secretary of state, your lords, +nobles, and ecclesiastics, enforce as a duty you owe to your free and +glorious country and to your God, that you do this accursed thing. Not +fewer than forty Americans have within the past two years been hunted +down, and without a moment's warning, hurried away in chains, and +consigned to slavery and excruciating torture. Some of these have had +wives and children dependent on them for bread; but of this no account +was made. The right of the hunter to his prey, stands superior to the +right of marriage, and to _all_ rights in this republic, the rights of +God included! For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, +nor religion. The fugitive slave law makes MERCY TO THEM A CRIME; and +bribes the judge who tries them. An American judge GETS TEN DOLLARS FOR +EVERY VICTIM HE CONSIGNS to slavery, and five, when he fails to do so. +The oath of an(sic) two villains is sufficient, under this hell-black +enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into the +remorseless jaws of slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring +no witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound +by the law to hear but _one side_, and that side is the side of +the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let it be +thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king hating, +people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats of justice are +filled with judges, who hold their office under an open and palpable +_bribe_, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a man's liberty, _to +hear only his accusers!_ + +In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the forms of +administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and +in diabolical intent, this fugitive slave law stands alone in the annals +of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if there be another nation on +the globe having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the +statute-book. If any man in this assembly thinks differently from me +in this matter, and feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly +confront him at any suitable time and place he may select. + + + + +THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S. +Society, in New York, May, 1853. + + +Sir, it is evident that there is in this country a purely slavery +party--a party which exists for no other earthly purpose but to promote +the interests of slavery. The presence of this party is felt everywhere +in the republic. It is known by no particular name, and has assumed no +definite shape; but its branches reach far and wide in the church and in +the state. This shapeless and nameless party is not intangible in other +and more important respects. That party, sir, has determined upon a +fixed, definite, and comprehensive policy toward the whole colored +population of the United States. What that policy is, it becomes us +as abolitionists, and especially does it become the colored people +themselves, to consider and to understand fully. We ought to know +who our enemies are, where they are, and what are their objects and +measures. Well, sir, here is my version of it--not original with me--but +mine because I hold it to be true. + +I understand this policy to comprehend five cardinal objects. They are +these: 1st. The complete suppression of all anti-slavery discussion. +2d. The expatriation of the entire free people of color from the United +States. 3d. The unending perpetuation of slavery in this republic. 4th. +The nationalization of slavery to the extent of making slavery respected +in every state of the Union. 5th. The extension of slavery over Mexico +and the entire South American states. + +Sir, these objects are forcibly presented to us in the stern logic of +passing events; in the facts which are and have been passing around us +during the last three years. The country has been and is now dividing +on these grand issues. In their magnitude, these issues cast all others +into the shade, depriving them of all life and vitality. Old party +ties are broken. Like is finding its like on either side of these great +issues, and the great battle is at hand. For the present, the best +representative of the slavery party in politics is the democratic party. +Its great head for the{359} present is President Pierce, whose boast it +was, before his election, that his whole life had been consistent with +the interests of slavery, that he is above reproach on that score. In +his inaugural address, he reassures the south on this point. Well, +the head of the slave power being in power, it is natural that the pro +slavery elements should cluster around the administration, and this +is rapidly being done. A fraternization is going on. The stringent +protectionists and the free-traders strike hands. The supporters of +Fillmore are becoming the supporters of Pierce. The silver-gray whig +shakes hands with the hunker democrat; the former only differing from +the latter in name. They are of one heart, one mind, and the union is +natural and perhaps inevitable. Both hate Negroes; both hate progress; +both hate the "higher law;" both hate William H. Seward; both hate the +free democratic party; and upon this hateful basis they are forming +a union of hatred. "Pilate and Herod are thus made friends." Even the +central organ of the whig party is extending its beggar hand for a +morsel from the table of slavery democracy, and when spurned from the +feast by the more deserving, it pockets the insult; when kicked on one +side it turns the other, and preseveres in its importunities. The fact +is, that paper comprehends the demands of the times; it understands +the age and its issues; it wisely sees that slavery and freedom are the +great antagonistic forces in the country, and it goes to its own side. +Silver grays and hunkers all understand this. They are, therefore, +rapidly sinking all other questions to nothing, compared with the +increasing demands of slavery. They are collecting, arranging, and +consolidating their forces for the accomplishment of their appointed +work. + +The keystone to the arch of this grand union of the slavery party of the +United States, is the compromise of 1850. In that compromise we have all +the objects of our slaveholding policy specified. It is, sir, favorable +to this view of the designs of the slave power, that both the whig and +the democratic party bent lower, sunk deeper, and strained harder, in +their conventions, preparatory to the late presidential election, to +meet the demands of the slavery party than at any previous time in +their history. Never did parties come before the northern people with +propositions of such undisguised contempt for the moral sentiment and +the religious ideas of that people. They virtually asked them to +unite in a war upon free speech, and upon conscience, and to drive +the Almighty presence from the councils of the nation. Resting their +platforms upon the fugitive slave bill, they boldly asked the people +for political power to execute the horrible and hell-black provisions of +that bill. The history of that election reveals, with great clearness, +the extent to which{360} slavery has shot its leprous distillment +through the life-blood of the nation. The party most thoroughly opposed +to the cause of justice and humanity, triumphed; while the party +suspected of a leaning toward liberty, was overwhelmingly defeated, some +say annihilated. + +But here is a still more important fact, illustrating the designs of +the slave power. It is a fact full of meaning, that no sooner did the +democratic slavery party come into power, than a system of legislation +was presented to the legislatures of the northern states, designed to +put the states in harmony with the fugitive slave law, and the malignant +bearing of the national government toward the colored inhabitants of +the country. This whole movement on the part of the states, bears +the evidence of having one origin, emanating from one head, and urged +forward by one power. It was simultaneous, uniform, and general, and +looked to one end. It was intended to put thorns under feet already +bleeding; to crush a people already bowed down; to enslave a people +already but half free; in a word, it was intended to discourage, +dishearten, and drive the free colored people out of the country. In +looking at the recent black law of Illinois, one is struck dumb with its +enormity. It would seem that the men who enacted that law, had not only +banished from their minds all sense of justice, but all sense of +shame. It coolly proposes to sell the bodies and souls of the blacks +to increase the intelligence and refinement of the whites; to rob every +black stranger who ventures among them, to increase their literary fund. + +While this is going on in the states, a pro-slavery, political board of +health is established at Washington. Senators Hale, Chase, and Sumner +are robbed of a part of their senatorial dignity and consequence +as representing sovereign states, because they have refused to be +inoculated with the slavery virus. Among the services which a senator +is expected by his state to perform, are many that can only be done +efficiently on committees; and, in saying to these honorable senators, +you shall not serve on the committees of this body, the slavery party +took the responsibility of robbing and insulting the states that sent +them. It is an attempt at Washington to decide for the states who shall +be sent to the senate. Sir, it strikes me that this aggression on the +part of the slave power did not meet at the hands of the proscribed +senators the rebuke which we had a right to expect would be +administered. It seems to me that an opportunity was lost, that the +great principle of senatorial equality was left undefended, at a time +when its vindication was sternly demanded. But it is not to the purpose +of my present statement to criticise the conduct of our friends. I am +persuaded that much ought to be left to the discretion of{361} anti +slavery men in congress, and charges of recreancy should never be made +but on the most sufficient grounds. For, of all the places in the world +where an anti-slavery man needs the confidence and encouragement of +friends, I take Washington to be that place. + +Let me now call attention to the social influences which are operating +and cooperating with the slavery party of the country, designed to +contribute to one or all of the grand objects aimed at by that party. +We see here the black man attacked in his vital interests; prejudice and +hate are excited against him; enmity is stirred up between him and other +laborers. The Irish people, warm-hearted, generous, and sympathizing +with the oppressed everywhere, when they stand upon their own green +island, are instantly taught, on arriving in this Christian country, to +hate and despise the colored people. They are taught to believe that we +eat the bread which of right belongs to them. The cruel lie is told the +Irish, that our adversity is essential to their prosperity. Sir, the +Irish-American will find out his mistake one day. He will find that in +assuming our avocation he also has assumed our degradation. But for +the present we are sufferers. The old employments by which we have +heretofore gained our livelihood, are gradually, and it may be +inevitably, passing into other hands. Every hour sees us elbowed out of +some employment to make room perhaps for some newly-arrived emigrants, +whose hunger and color are thought to give them a title to especial +favor. White men are becoming house-servants, cooks, and stewards, +common laborers, and flunkeys to our gentry, and, for aught I see, they +adjust themselves to their stations with all becoming obsequiousness. +This fact proves that if we cannot rise to the whites, the whites can +fall to us. Now, sir, look once more. While the colored people are +thus elbowed out of employment; while the enmity of emigrants is being +excited against us; while state after state enacts laws against us; +while we are hunted down, like wild game, and oppressed with a general +feeling of insecurity--the American colonization society--that old +offender against the best interests and slanderer of the colored +people--awakens to new life, and vigorously presses its scheme upon +the consideration of the people and the government. New papers are +started--some for the north and some for the south--and each in its +tone adapting itself to its latitude. Government, state and national, is +called upon for appropriations to enable the society to send us out of +the country by steam! They want steamers to carry letters and Negroes +to Africa. Evidently, this society looks upon our "extremity as its +opportunity," and we may expect that it will use the occasion well. They +do not deplore, but glory, in our misfortunes.{362} + +But, sir, I must hasten. I have thus briefly given my view of one aspect +of the present condition and future prospects of the colored people of +the United States. And what I have said is far from encouraging to my +afflicted people. I have seen the cloud gather upon the sable brows of +some who hear me. I confess the case looks black enough. Sir, I am not a +hopeful man. I think I am apt even to undercalculate the benefits of the +future. Yet, sir, in this seemingly desperate case, I do not despair for +my people. There is a bright side to almost every picture of this kind; +and ours is no exception to the general rule. If the influences against +us are strong, those for us are also strong. To the inquiry, will our +enemies prevail in the execution of their designs. In my God and in my +soul, I believe they _will not_. Let us look at the first object sought +for by the slavery party of the country, viz: the suppression of anti +slavery discussion. They desire to suppress discussion on this subject, +with a view to the peace of the slaveholder and the security of slavery. +Now, sir, neither the principle nor the subordinate objects here +declared, can be at all gained by the slave power, and for this reason: +It involves the proposition to padlock the lips of the whites, in order +to secure the fetters on the limbs of the blacks. The right of speech, +precious and priceless, _cannot, will not_, be surrendered to slavery. +Its suppression is asked for, as I have said, to give peace and security +to slaveholders. Sir, that thing cannot be done. God has interposed an +insuperable obstacle to any such result. "There can be _no peace_, +saith my God, to the wicked." Suppose it were possible to put down this +discussion, what would it avail the guilty slaveholder, pillowed as he +is upon heaving bosoms of ruined souls? He could not have a peaceful +spirit. If every anti-slavery tongue in the nation were silent--every +anti-slavery organization dissolved--every anti-slavery press +demolished--every anti slavery periodical, paper, book, pamphlet, or +what not, were searched out, gathered, deliberately burned to ashes, +and their ashes given to the four winds of heaven, still, still the +slaveholder could have _"no peace_." In every pulsation of his heart, in +every throb of his life, in every glance of his eye, in the breeze that +soothes, and in the thunder that startles, would be waked up an accuser, +whose cause is, "Thou art, verily, guilty concerning thy brother." + + + + +THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various +Anti-Slavery Bodies, in the Winter of 1855. + + +A grand movement on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for any +purpose, moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit and proper to +be studied. It is such, not only for those who eagerly participate in +it, but also for those who stand aloof from it--even for those by whom +it is opposed. I take the anti-slavery movement to be such an one, and +a movement as sublime and glorious in its character, as it is holy and +beneficent in the ends it aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it +safe to say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than +any other subject now before the American people. The late John C. +Calhoun--one of the mightiest men that ever stood up in the American +senate--did not deem it beneath him; and he probably studied it as +deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or William Lloyd +Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with the subject; and the +greatest efforts of his last years in the senate had direct reference +to this movement. His eagle eye watched every new development connected +with it; and he was ever prompt to inform the south of every important +step in its progress. He never allowed himself to make light of it; but +always spoke of it and treated it as a matter of grave import; and in +this he showed himself a master of the mental, moral, and religious +constitution of human society. Daniel Webster, too, in the better days +of his life, before he gave his assent to the fugitive slave bill, and +trampled upon all his earlier and better convictions--when his eye was +yet single--he clearly comprehended the nature of the elements involved +in this movement; and in his own majestic eloquence, warned the south, +and the country, to have a care how they attempted to put it down. He is +an illustration that it is easier to give, than to take, good advice. +To these two men--the greatest men to whom the nation has yet given +birth--may be traced the two great facts of the present--the south +triumphant, and the north humbled.{364} Their names may stand +thus--Calhoun and domination--Webster and degradation. Yet again. If +to the enemies of liberty this subject is one of engrossing interest, +vastly more so should it be such to freedom's friends. The latter, it +leads to the gates of all valuable knowledge--philanthropic, ethical, +and religious; for it brings them to the study of man, wonderfully and +fearfully made--the proper study of man through all time--the open book, +in which are the records of time and eternity. + +Of the existence and power of the anti-slavery movement, as a fact, you +need no evidence. The nation has seen its face, and felt the controlling +pressure of its hand. You have seen it moving in all directions, and in +all weathers, and in all places, appearing most where desired least, +and pressing hardest where most resisted. No place is exempt. The quiet +prayer meeting, and the stormy halls of national debate, share its +presence alike. It is a common intruder, and of course has the name +of being ungentlemanly. Brethren who had long sung, in the most +affectionate fervor, and with the greatest sense of security, + + _Together let us sweetly live--together let us die,_ + +have been suddenly and violently separated by it, and ranged in hostile +attitude toward each other. The Methodist, one of the most powerful +religious organizations of this country, has been rent asunder, and its +strongest bolts of denominational brotherhood started at a single surge. +It has changed the tone of the northern pulpit, and modified that of the +press. A celebrated divine, who, four years ago, was for flinging +his own mother, or brother, into the remorseless jaws of the +monster slavery, lest he should swallow up the Union, now recognizes +anti-slavery as a characteristic of future civilization. Signs and +wonders follow this movement; and the fact just stated is one of them. +Party ties are loosened by it; and men are compelled to take sides for +or against it, whether they will or not. Come from where he may, or come +for what he may, he is compelled to show his hand. What is this mighty +force? What is its history? and what is its destiny? Is it ancient or +modern, transient or permanent? Has it turned aside, like a stranger +and a sojourner, to tarry for a night? or has it come to rest with us +forever? Excellent chances are here for speculation; and some of them +are quite profound. We might, for instance, proceed to inquire not +only into the philosophy of the anti-slavery movement, but into the +philosophy of the law, in obedience to which that movement started into +existence. We might demand to know what is that law or power, which, at +different times, disposes the minds of men to this or that particular +object--now for peace, and now for war--now for free{365} dom, and now +for slavery; but this profound question I leave to the abolitionists of +the superior class to answer. The speculations which must precede +such answer, would afford, perhaps, about the same satisfaction as the +learned theories which have rained down upon the world, from time to +time, as to the origin of evil. I shall, therefore, avoid water in which +I cannot swim, and deal with anti-slavery as a fact, like any other fact +in the history of mankind, capable of being described and understood, +both as to its internal forces, and its external phases and relations. + +[After an eloquent, a full, and highly interesting exposition of the +nature, character, and history of the anti-slavery movement, from the +insertion of which want of space precludes us, he concluded in the +following happy manner.] + +Present organizations may perish, but the cause will go on. That cause +has a life, distinct and independent of the organizations patched up +from time to time to carry it forward. Looked at, apart from the bones +and sinews and body, it is a thing immortal. It is the very essence of +justice, liberty, and love. The moral life of human society, it cannot +die while conscience, honor, and humanity remain. If but one be filled +with it, the cause lives. Its incarnation in any one individual man, +leaves the whole world a priesthood, occupying the highest moral +eminence even that of disinterested benevolence. Whoso has ascended his +height, and has the grace to stand there, has the world at his feet, and +is the world's teacher, as of divine right. He may set in judgment on +the age, upon the civilization of the age, and upon the religion of the +age; for he has a test, a sure and certain test, by which to try all +institutions, and to measure all men. I say, he may do this, but this +is not the chief business for which he is qualified. The great work to +which he is called is not that of judgment. Like the Prince of Peace, he +may say, if I judge, I judge righteous judgment; still mainly, like him, +he may say, this is not his work. The man who has thoroughly embraced +the principles of justice, love, and liberty, like the true preacher of +Christianity, is less anxious to reproach the world of its sins, than +to win it to repentance. His great work on earth is to exemplify, and +to illustrate, and to ingraft those principles upon the living and +practical understandings of all men within the reach of his influence. +This is his work; long or short his years, many or few his adherents, +powerful or weak his instrumentalities, through good report, or through +bad report, this is his work. It is to snatch from the bosom of nature +the latent facts of each individual man's experience, and with steady +hand to hold them up fresh and glowing, enforcing, with all his power, +their acknowledgment and practical adoption. If there be but _one_{366} +such man in the land, no matter what becomes of abolition societies +and parties, there will be an anti-slavery cause, and an anti-slavery +movement. Fortunately for that cause, and fortunately for him by whom it +is espoused, it requires no extraordinary amount of talent to preach it +or to receive it when preached. The grand secret of its power is, that +each of its principles is easily rendered appreciable to the faculty +of reason in man, and that the most unenlightened conscience has no +difficulty in deciding on which side to register its testimony. It can +call its preachers from among the fishermen, and raise them to power. In +every human breast, it has an advocate which can be silent only when the +heart is dead. It comes home to every man's understanding, and appeals +directly to every man's conscience. A man that does not recognize and +approve for himself the rights and privileges contended for, in behalf +of the American slave, has not yet been found. In whatever else men may +differ, they are alike in the apprehension of their natural and personal +rights. The difference between abolitionists and those by whom they are +opposed, is not as to principles. All are agreed in respect to these. +The manner of applying them is the point of difference. + +The slaveholder himself, the daily robber of his equal brother, +discourses eloquently as to the excellency of justice, and the man +who employs a brutal driver to flay the flesh of his negroes, is not +offended when kindness and humanity are commended. Every time the +abolitionist speaks of justice, the anti-abolitionist assents says, yes, +I wish the world were filled with a disposition to render to every man +what is rightfully due him; I should then get what is due me. That's +right; let us have justice. By all means, let us have justice. Every +time the abolitionist speaks in honor of human liberty, he touches +a chord in the heart of the anti-abolitionist, which responds in +harmonious vibrations. Liberty--yes, that is evidently my right, and let +him beware who attempts to invade or abridge that right. Every time he +speaks of love, of human brotherhood, and the reciprocal duties of +man and man, the anti-abolitionist assents--says, yes, all right--all +true--we cannot have such ideas too often, or too fully expressed. So he +says, and so he feels, and only shows thereby that he is a man as well +as an anti-abolitionist. You have only to keep out of sight the +manner of applying your principles, to get them endorsed every time. +Contemplating himself, he sees truth with absolute clearness and +distinctness. He only blunders when asked to lose sight of himself. In +his own cause he can beat a Boston lawyer, but he is dumb when asked to +plead the cause of others. He knows very well whatsoever he would have +done unto himself, but is quite in doubt as to having the{367} same +thing done unto others. It is just here, that lions spring up in the +path of duty, and the battle once fought in heaven is refought on the +earth. So it is, so hath it ever been, and so must it ever be, when +the claims of justice and mercy make their demand at the door of human +selfishness. Nevertheless, there is that within which ever pleads for +the right and the just. + +In conclusion, I have taken a sober view of the present anti-slavery +movement. I am sober, but not hopeless. There is no denying, for it is +everywhere admitted, that the anti-slavery question is the great moral +and social question now before the American people. A state of things +has gradually been developed, by which that question has become the +first thing in order. It must be met. Herein is my hope. The great +idea of impartial liberty is now fairly before the American people. +Anti-slavery is no longer a thing to be prevented. The time for +prevention is past. This is great gain. When the movement was younger +and weaker--when it wrought in a Boston garret to human apprehension, it +might have been silently put out of the way. Things are different now. +It has grown too large--its friends are too numerous--its facilities too +abundant--its ramifications too extended--its power too omnipotent, to +be snuffed out by the contingencies of infancy. A thousand strong men +might be struck down, and its ranks still be invincible. One flash from +the heart-supplied intellect of Harriet Beecher Stowe could light a +million camp fires in front of the embattled host of slavery, which not +all the waters of the Mississippi, mingled as they are with blood, could +extinguish. The present will be looked to by after coming generations, +as the age of anti-slavery literature--when supply on the gallop could +not keep pace with the ever growing demand--when a picture of a Negro +on the cover was a help to the sale of a book--when conservative lyceums +and other American literary associations began first to select their +orators for distinguished occasions from the ranks of the previously +despised abolitionists. If the anti-slavery movement shall fail now, +it will not be from outward opposition, but from inward decay. Its +auxiliaries are everywhere. Scholars, authors, orators, poets, and +statesmen give it their aid. The most brilliant of American poets +volunteer in its service. Whittier speaks in burning verse to more than +thirty thousand, in the National Era. Your own Longfellow whispers, in +every hour of trial and disappointment, "labor and wait." James Russell +Lowell is reminding us that "men are more than institutions." Pierpont +cheers the heart of the pilgrim in search of liberty, by singing the +praises of "the north star." Bryant, too, is with us; and though chained +to the car of party, and dragged on amidst a whirl of{368} political +excitement, he snatches a moment for letting drop a smiling verse of +sympathy for the man in chains. The poets are with us. It would seem +almost absurd to say it, considering the use that has been made of them, +that we have allies in the Ethiopian songs; those songs that constitute +our national music, and without which we have no national music. They +are heart songs, and the finest feelings of human nature are expressed +in them. "Lucy Neal," "Old Kentucky Home," and "Uncle Ned," can make +the heart sad as well as merry, and can call forth a tear as well as a +smile. They awaken the sympathies for the slave, in which antislavery +principles take root, grow, and flourish. In addition to authors, poets, +and scholars at home, the moral sense of the civilized world is with +us. England, France, and Germany, the three great lights of modern +civilization, are with us, and every American traveler learns to regret +the existence of slavery in his country. The growth of intelligence, +the influence of commerce, steam, wind, and lightning are our allies. +It would be easy to amplify this summary, and to swell the vast +conglomeration of our material forces; but there is a deeper and truer +method of measuring the power of our cause, and of comprehending its +vitality. This is to be found in its accordance with the best elements +of human nature. It is beyond the power of slavery to annihilate +affinities recognized and established by the Almighty. The slave is +bound to mankind by the powerful and inextricable net-work of human +brotherhood. His voice is the voice of a man, and his cry is the cry +of a man in distress, and man must cease to be man before he can become +insensible to that cry. It is the righteous of the cause--the humanity +of the cause--which constitutes its potency. As one genuine bankbill is +worth more than a thousand counterfeits, so is one man, with right on +his side, worth more than a thousand in the wrong. "One may chase a +thousand, and put ten thousand to flight." It is, therefore, upon the +goodness of our cause, more than upon all other auxiliaries, that we +depend for its final triumph. + +Another source of congratulations is the fact that, amid all the efforts +made by the church, the government, and the people at large, to stay +the onward progress of this movement, its course has been onward, steady, +straight, unshaken, and unchecked from the beginning. Slavery has +gained victories large and numerous; but never as against this +movement--against a temporizing policy, and against northern timidity, +the slave power has been victorious; but against the spread and +prevalence in the country, of a spirit of resistance to its aggression, +and of sentiments favorable to its entire overthrow, it has yet +accomplished nothing. Every measure, yet devised and executed, having +for its object the suppression{369} of anti-slavery, has been as idle +and fruitless as pouring oil to extinguish fire. A general rejoicing +took place on the passage of "the compromise measures" of 1850. Those +measures were called peace measures, and were afterward termed by both +the great parties of the country, as well as by leading statesmen, a +final settlement of the whole question of slavery; but experience has +laughed to scorn the wisdom of pro-slavery statesmen; and their final +settlement of agitation seems to be the final revival, on a broader +and grander scale than ever before, of the question which they vainly +attempted to suppress forever. The fugitive slave bill has especially +been of positive service to the anti-slavery movement. It has +illustrated before all the people the horrible character of slavery +toward the slave, in hunting him down in a free state, and tearing +him away from wife and children, thus setting its claims higher +than marriage or parental claims. It has revealed the arrogant and +overbearing spirit of the slave states toward the free states; despising +their principles--shocking their feelings of humanity, not only by +bringing before them the abominations of slavery, but by attempting to +make them parties to the crime. It has called into exercise among the +colored people, the hunted ones, a spirit of manly resistance well +calculated to surround them with a bulwark of sympathy and respect +hitherto unknown. For men are always disposed to respect and defend +rights, when the victims of oppression stand up manfully for themselves. + +There is another element of power added to the anti-slavery movement, of +great importance; it is the conviction, becoming every day more general +and universal, that slavery must be abolished at the south, or it will +demoralize and destroy liberty at the north. It is the nature of +slavery to beget a state of things all around it favorable to its +own continuance. This fact, connected with the system of bondage, is +beginning to be more fully realized. The slave-holder is not satisfied +to associate with men in the church or in the state, unless he can +thereby stain them with the blood of his slaves. To be a slave-holder +is to be a propagandist from necessity; for slavery can only live by +keeping down the under-growth morality which nature supplies. Every +new-born white babe comes armed from the Eternal presence, to make war +on slavery. The heart of pity, which would melt in due time over +the brutal chastisements it sees inflicted on the helpless, must be +hardened. And this work goes on every day in the year, and every hour in +the day. + +What is done at home is being done also abroad here in the north. And +even now the question may be asked, have we at this moment a single +free state in the Union? The alarm at this point will become more +general.{370} The slave power must go on in its career of exactions. +Give, give, will be its cry, till the timidity which concedes shall give +place to courage, which shall resist. Such is the voice of experience, +such has been the past, such is the present, and such will be that +future, which, so sure as man is man, will come. Here I leave +the subject; and I leave off where I began, consoling myself +and congratulating the friends of freedom upon the fact that the +anti-slavery cause is not a new thing under the sun; not some moral +delusion which a few years' experience may dispel. It has appeared +among men in all ages, and summoned its advocates from all ranks. Its +foundations are laid in the deepest and holiest convictions, and from +whatever soul the demon, selfishness, is expelled, there will this cause +take up its abode. Old as the everlasting hills; immovable as the +throne of God; and certain as the purposes of eternal power, against all +hinderances, and against all delays, and despite all the mutations +of human instrumentalities, it is the faith of my soul, that this +anti-slavery cause will triumph. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[Footnote 1: Letter, Introduction to _Life of Frederick Douglass_, Boston, 1841.] + +[Footnote 2: One of these ladies, impelled by the same noble spirit which +carried Miss Nightingale to Scutari, has devoted her time, her untiring +energies, to a great extent her means, and her high literary abilities, +to the advancement and support of Frederick Douglass' Paper, the only +organ of the downtrodden, edited and published by one of themselves, in +the United States.] + +[Footnote 3: Mr. Stephen Myers, of Albany, deserves mention as one of the most +persevering among the colored editorial fraternity.] + +[Footnote 4: The German physiologists have even discovered vegetable +matter--starch--in the human body. See _Med. Chirurgical Rev_., Oct., +1854, p. 339.] + +[Footnote 5: Mr. Wm. H. Topp, of Albany.] + +[Footnote 6: This is the same man who gave me the roots to prevent my being +whipped by Mr. Covey. He was "a clever soul." We used frequently to talk +about the fight with Covey, and as often as we did so, he would claim my +success as the result of the roots which he gave me. This superstition +is very common among the more ignorant slaves. A slave seldom dies, but +that his death is attributed to trickery.] + +[Footnote 7: He was a whole-souled man, fully imbued with a love of his afflicted +and hunted people, and took pleasure in being to me, as was his wont, +"Eyes to the blind, and legs to the lame." This brave and devoted +man suffered much from the persecutions common to all who have been +prominent benefactors. He at last became blind, and needed a friend to +guide him, even as he had been a guide to others. Even in his blindness, +he exhibited his manly character. In search of health, he became a +physician. When hope of gaining is(sic) own was gone, he had hope +for others. Believing in hydropathy, he established, at Northampton, +Massachusetts, a large _"Water Cure,"_ and became one of the most +successful of all engaged in that mode of treatment.] + +[Footnote 8: The following is a copy of these curious papers, both of my transfer +from Thomas to Hugh Auld, and from Hugh to myself: + +"Know all men by these Presents, That I, Thomas Auld, of Talbot county, +and state of Maryland, for and in consideration of the sum of one +hundred dollars, current money, to me paid by Hugh Auld, of the city of +Baltimore, in the said state, at and before the sealing and delivery of +these presents, the receipt whereof, I, the said Thomas Auld, do hereby +acknowledge, have granted, bargained, and sold, and by these presents +do grant, bargain, and sell unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, +administrators, and assigns, ONE NEGRO MAN, by the name of FREDERICK +BAILY, or DOUGLASS, as he callls(sic) himself--he is now about +twenty-eight years of age--to have and to hold the said negro man for +life. And I, the said Thomas Auld, for myself my heirs, executors, +and administrators, all and singular, the said FREDERICK BAILY _alias_ +DOUGLASS, unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, administrators, +and assigns against me, the said Thomas Auld, my executors, and +administrators, and against ali and every other person or persons +whatsoever, shall and will warrant and forever defend by these presents. +In witness whereof, I set my hand and seal, this thirteenth day of +November, eighteen hundred and forty-six. + +THOMAS AULD + +"Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of Wrightson Jones. + +"JOHN C. LEAS. + +The authenticity of this bill of sale is attested by N. Harrington, a +justice of the peace of the state of Maryland, and for the county of +Talbot, dated same day as above. + +"To all whom it may concern: Be it known, that I, Hugh Auld, of the city +of Baltimore, in Baltimore county, in the state of Maryland, for divers +good causes and considerations, me thereunto moving, have released from +slavery, liberated, manumitted, and set free, and by these presents do +hereby release from slavery, liberate, manumit, and set free, MY NEGRO +MAN, named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called DOUGLASS, being of the +age of twenty-eight years, or thereabouts, and able to work and gain a +sufficient livelihood and maintenance; and him the said negro man named +FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called FREDERICK DOUGLASS, I do declare to be +henceforth free, manumitted, and discharged from all manner of servitude +to me, my executors, and administrators forever. + +"In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Auld, have hereunto set my hand +and seal the fifth of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred +and forty-six. + +Hugh Auld + +"Sealed and delivered in presence of T. Hanson Belt. + +"JAMES N. S. T. WRIGHT"] + +[Footnote 9: See Appendix to this volume, page 317.] + +[Footnote 10: Mr. Douglass' published speeches alone, would fill two volumes +of the size of this. Our space will only permit the insertion of the +extracts which follow; and which, for originality of thought, beauty and +force of expression, and for impassioned, indignatory eloquence, have +seldom been equaled.] + +[Footnote 11: It is not often that chattels address their owners. The following +letter is unique; and probably the only specimen of the kind extant. It +was written while in England.] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM *** + +***** This file should be named 202.txt or 202.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/202/ + +Produced by Mike Lough + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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These (in CAPS) are inside the +<brackets> along with the corresponding page number. + + +Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + +MY BONDAGE +and +MY FREEDOM +_By_ +FREDERICK DOUGLASS +_By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally +differenced from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, +necessarily excludes the idea of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING_. +COLERIDGE + + +Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick +Douglass in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the +Northern District of New York + + +TO +HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH, +AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF +ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER, +ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE, +AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND +GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP, +AND AS +A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of +HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES +OF AN +AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE, +BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER, +AND BY +DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE, +This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated, +BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND, +FREDERICK DOUGLAS. +ROCHESTER, N.Y. + + + + + CONTENTS + + EDITORS PREFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 + INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 + +LIFE AS A SLAVE? + + I--CHILDHOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + II--REMOVED FROM MY FIRST HOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 + III--PARENTAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + IV--A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SLAVE PLANTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + V--GRADUAL INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES OF SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . 61 + VI--TREATMENT OF SLAVES ON LLOYDS PLANTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + VII--LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + VIII--A CHAPTER OF HORRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + IX--PERSONAL TREATMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 + X--LIFE IN BALTIMORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 + XI--"A CHANGE CAME O'ER THE SPIRIT OF MY DREAM". . . . . . . . . . .118 + XII--RELIGIOUS NATURE AWAKENED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127 + XIII--THE VICISSITUDES OF SLAVE LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 + XIV--EXPERIENCE IN ST. MICHAEL'S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144 + XV--COVEY, THE NEGRO BREAKER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 + XVI--ANOTHER PRESSURE OF THE TYRANTS VICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . .172 + + +<xii> CONTENTS + + XVII--THE LAST FLOCCING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180 + XVIII--NEW RELATIONS AND DUTIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194 + XIX--THE RUN-AWAY PLOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209 + XX--APPRENTICESHIP LIFE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 + XXI--MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248 + +LIFE AS A FREEMAN + XXII--LIBERTY ATTAINED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .261 + XXIII--INTRODUCED TO THE ABOLITIONISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278 + XXIV--TWENTY-ONE MONTHS IN GREAT BRITAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . .284 + XXV--VARIOUS INCIDENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .304 + +APPENDIX + RECEPTION SPEECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318 + LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330 + THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .337 + INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343 + WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349 + THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .354 + THE SLAVERY PARTY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .358 + THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .363 + +MY BONDAGE +_and_ +MY FREEDOM + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + +If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of +ART, the history of its misfortune might be written in two very +simple words--TOO LATE. The nature and character of slavery have +been subjects of an almost endless variety of artistic +representation; and after the brilliant achievements in that +field, and while those achievements are yet fresh in the memory +of the million, he who would add another to the legion, must +possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize for +something worse than rashness. The reader is, therefore, +assured, with all due promptitude, that his attention is not +invited to a work of ART, but to a work of FACTS--Facts, terrible +and almost incredible, it may be yet FACTS, nevertheless. + +I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor +place in the whole volume; but that names and places are +literally given, and that every transaction therein described +actually transpired. + +Perhaps the best Preface to this volume is furnished in the +following letter of Mr. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent +solicitation for such a work: + + ROCHESTER, N. Y. _July_ 2, 1855. + +DEAR FRIEND: I have long entertained, as you very well know, a +somewhat positive repugnance to writing or speaking anything for +the public, which could, with any degree of plausibilty, make me +liable to the imputation of seeking personal notoriety, for its +own sake. Entertaining that feeling very sincerely, and +permitting its control, perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have often +<2>refused to narrate my personal experience in public anti- +slavery meetings, and in sympathizing circles, when urged to do +so by friends, with whose views and wishes, ordinarily, it were a +pleasure to comply. In my letters and speeches, I have generally +aimed to discuss the question of Slavery in the light of +fundamental principles, and upon facts, notorious and open to +all; making, I trust, no more of the fact of my own former +enslavement, than circumstances seemed absolutely to require. I +have never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow +as my own enslavement, but rather upon the indestructible and +unchangeable laws of human nature, every one of which is +perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system. I have +also felt that it was best for those having histories worth the +writing--or supposed to be so--to commit such work to hands other +than their own. To write of one's self, in such a manner as not +to incur the imputation of weakness, vanity, and egotism, is a +work within the ability of but few; and I have little reason to +believe that I belong to that fortunate few. + +These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly +urged me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as +a slave, and my life as a freeman. + +Nevertheless, I see, with you, many reasons for regarding my +autobiography as exceptional in its character, and as being, in +some sense, naturally beyond the reach of those reproaches which +honorable and sensitive minds dislike to incur. It is not to +illustrate any heroic achievements of a man, but to vindicate a +just and beneficent principle, in its application to the whole +human family, by letting in the light of truth upon a system, +esteemed by some as a blessing, and by others as a curse and a +crime. I agree with you, that this system is now at the bar of +public opinion--not only of this country, but of the whole +civilized world--for judgment. Its friends have made for it the +usual plea--"not guilty;" the case must, therefore, proceed. Any +facts, either from slaves, slaveholders, or by-standers, +calculated to enlighten the public mind, by revealing the true +nature, character, and tendency of the slave system, are in +order, and can scarcely be innocently withheld. + +I see, too, that there are special reasons why I should write my +own biography, in preference to employing another to do it. Not +only is slavery on trial, but unfortunately, the enslaved people +are also on trial. It is alleged, that they are, naturally, +inferior; that they are _so low_ in the scale of humanity, and so +utterly stupid, that they are unconscious of their wrongs, and do +not apprehend their rights. Looking, then, at your request, from +this stand-point, and wishing everything of which you think me +capable to go to the benefit of my afflicted people, I part with +my doubts and hesitation, and proceed to furnish you the desired +manuscript; hoping that you may be able to make such arrangements +for its publication as shall be best adapted to accomplish that +good which you so enthusiastically anticipate. + FREDERICK DOUGLASS + +<3> + +There was little necessity for doubt and hesitation on the part +of Mr. Douglass, as to the propriety of his giving to the world a +full account of himself. A man who was born and brought up in +slavery, a living witness of its horrors; who often himself +experienced its cruelties; and who, despite the depressing +influences surrounding his birth, youth and manhood, has risen, +from a dark and almost absolute obscurity, to the distinguished +position which he now occupies, might very well assume the +existence of a commendable curiosity, on the part of the public, +to know the facts of his remarkable history. + EDITOR + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +When a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society to +the highest, mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration; +when he accomplishes this elevation by native energy, guided by +prudence and wisdom, their admiration is increased; but when his +course, onward and upward, excellent in itself, furthermore +proves a possible, what had hitherto been regarded as an +impossible, reform, then he becomes a burning and a shining +light, on which the aged may look with gladness, the young with +hope, and the down-trodden, as a representative of what they may +themselves become. To such a man, dear reader, it is my +privilege to introduce you. + +The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which +follow, is not merely an example of self-elevation under the most +adverse circumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of +the highest aims of the American anti-slavery movement. The real +object of that movement is not only to disenthrall, it is, also, +to bestow upon the Negro the exercise of all those rights, from +the possession of which he has been so long debarred. + +But this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and +the entire admission of the same to the full privileges, +political, religious and social, of manhood, requires powerful +effort on the part of the enthralled, as well as on the part of +those who would disenthrall them. The people at large must feel +the conviction, as well as admit the abstract logic, of human +equality; <5>the Negro, for the first time in the world's +history, brought in full contact with high civilization, must +prove his title first to all that is demanded for him; in the +teeth of unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to the mass +of those who oppress him--therefore, absolutely superior to his +apparent fate, and to their relative ability. And it is most +cheering to the friends of freedom, today, that evidence of this +equality is rapidly accumulating, not from the ranks of the half- +freed colored people of the free states, but from the very depths +of slavery itself; the indestructible equality of man to man is +demonstrated by the ease with which black men, scarce one remove +from barbarism--if slavery can be honored with such a +distinction--vault into the high places of the most advanced and +painfully acquired civilization. Ward and Garnett, Wells Brown +and Pennington, Loguen and Douglass, are banners on the outer +wall, under which abolition is fighting its most successful +battles, because they are living exemplars of the practicability +of the most radical abolitionism; for, they were all of them born +to the doom of slavery, some of them remained slaves until adult +age, yet they all have not only won equality to their white +fellow citizens, in civil, religious, political and social rank, +but they have also illustrated and adorned our common country by +their genius, learning and eloquence. + +The characteristics whereby Mr. Douglass has won first rank among +these remarkable men, and is still rising toward highest rank +among living Americans, are abundantly laid bare in the book +before us. Like the autobiography of Hugh Miller, it carries us +so far back into early childhood, as to throw light upon the +question, "when positive and persistent memory begins in the +human being." And, like Hugh Miller, he must have been a shy +old-fashioned child, occasionally oppressed by what he could not +well account for, peering and poking about among the layers of +right and wrong, of tyrant and thrall, and the wonderfulness of +that hopeless tide of things which brought power to one race, and +unrequited toil to another, until, finally, he stumbled upon +<6>his "first-found Ammonite," hidden away down in the depths of +his own nature, and which revealed to him the fact that liberty +and right, for all men, were anterior to slavery and wrong. When +his knowledge of the world was bounded by the visible horizon on +Col. Lloyd's plantation, and while every thing around him bore a +fixed, iron stamp, as if it had always been so, this was, for one +so young, a notable discovery. + +To his uncommon memory, then, we must add a keen and accurate +insight into men and things; an original breadth of common sense +which enabled him to see, and weigh, and compare whatever passed +before him, and which kindled a desire to search out and define +their relations to other things not so patent, but which never +succumbed to the marvelous nor the supernatural; a sacred thirst +for liberty and for learning, first as a means of attaining +liberty, then as an end in itself most desirable; a will; an +unfaltering energy and determination to obtain what his soul +pronounced desirable; a majestic self-hood; determined courage; a +deep and agonizing sympathy with his embruted, crushed and +bleeding fellow slaves, and an extraordinary depth of passion, +together with that rare alliance between passion and intellect, +which enables the former, when deeply roused, to excite, develop +and sustain the latter. + +With these original gifts in view, let us look at his schooling; +the fearful discipline through which it pleased God to prepare +him for the high calling on which he has since entered--the +advocacy of emancipation by the people who are not slaves. And +for this special mission, his plantation education was better +than any he could have acquired in any lettered school. What he +needed, was facts and experiences, welded to acutely wrought up +sympathies, and these he could not elsewhere have obtained, in a +manner so peculiarly adapted to his nature. His physical being +was well trained, also, running wild until advanced into boyhood; +hard work and light diet, thereafter, and a skill in handicraft +in youth. +<7> + +For his special mission, then, this was, considered in connection +with his natural gifts, a good schooling; and, for his special +mission, he doubtless "left school" just at the proper moment. +Had he remained longer in slavery--had he fretted under bonds +until the ripening of manhood and its passions, until the drear +agony of slave-wife and slave-children had been piled upon his +already bitter experiences--then, not only would his own history +have had another termination, but the drama of American slavery +would have been essentially varied; for I cannot resist the +belief, that the boy who learned to read and write as he did, who +taught his fellow slaves these precious acquirements as he did, +who plotted for their mutual escape as he did, would, when a man +at bay, strike a blow which would make slavery reel and stagger. +Furthermore, blows and insults he bore, at the moment, without +resentment; deep but suppressed emotion rendered him insensible +to their sting; but it was afterward, when the memory of them +went seething through his brain, breeding a fiery indignation at +his injured self-hood, that the resolve came to resist, and the +time fixed when to resist, and the plot laid, how to resist; and +he always kept his self-pledged word. In what he undertook, in +this line, he looked fate in the face, and had a cool, keen look +at the relation of means to ends. Henry Bibb, to avoid +chastisement, strewed his master's bed with charmed leaves and +_was whipped_. Frederick Douglass quietly pocketed a like +_fetiche_, compared his muscles with those of Covey--and _whipped +him_. + +In the history of his life in bondage, we find, well developed, +that inherent and continuous energy of character which will ever +render him distinguished. What his hand found to do, he did with +his might; even while conscious that he was wronged out of his +daily earnings, he worked, and worked hard. At his daily labor +he went with a will; with keen, well set eye, brawny chest, lithe +figure, and fair sweep of arm, he would have been king among +calkers, had that been his mission. + +It must not be overlooked, in this glance at his education, that +<8>Mr. Douglass lacked one aid to which so many men of mark have +been deeply indebted--he had neither a mother's care, nor a +mother's culture, save that which slavery grudgingly meted out to +him. Bitter nurse! may not even her features relax with human +feeling, when she gazes at such offspring! How susceptible he +was to the kindly influences of mother-culture, may be gathered +from his own words, on page 57: "It has been a life-long +standing grief to me, that I know so little of my mother, and +that I was so early separated from her. The counsels of her love +must have been beneficial to me. The side view of her face is +imaged on my memory, and I take few steps in life, without +feeling her presence; but the image is mute, and I have no +striking words of hers treasured up." + +From the depths of chattel slavery in Maryland, our author +escaped into the caste-slavery of the north, in New Bedford, +Massachusetts. Here he found oppression assuming another, and +hardly less bitter, form; of that very handicraft which the greed +of slavery had taught him, his half-freedom denied him the +exercise for an honest living; he found himself one of a class-- +free colored men--whose position he has described in the +following words: + +"Aliens are we in our native land. The fundamental principles of +the republic, to which the humblest white man, whether born here +or elsewhere, may appeal with confidence, in the hope of +awakening a favorable response, are held to be inapplicable to +us. The glorious doctrines of your revolutionary fathers, and +the more glorious teachings of the Son of God, are construed and +applied against us. We are literally scourged beyond the +beneficent range of both authorities, human and divine. * * * * +American humanity hates us, scorns us, disowns and denies, in a +thousand ways, our very personality. The outspread wing of +American christianity, apparently broad enough to give shelter to +a perishing world, refuses to cover us. To us, its bones are +brass, and its features iron. In running thither for shelter and +<9>succor, we have only fled from the hungry blood-hound to the +devouring wolf--from a corrupt and selfish world, to a hollow and +hypocritical church."--_Speech before American and Foreign Anti- +Slavery Society, May_, 1854. + +Four years or more, from 1837 to 1841, he struggled on, in New +Bedford, sawing wood, rolling casks, or doing what labor he +might, to support himself and young family; four years he brooded +over the scars which slavery and semi-slavery had inflicted upon +his body and soul; and then, with his wounds yet unhealed, he +fell among the Garrisonians--a glorious waif to those most ardent +reformers. It happened one day, at Nantucket, that he, +diffidently and reluctantly, was led to address an anti-slavery +meeting. He was about the age when the younger Pitt entered the +House of Commons; like Pitt, too, he stood up a born orator. + +William Lloyd Garrison, who was happily present, writes thus of +Mr. Douglass' maiden effort; "I shall never forget his first +speech at the convention--the extraordinary emotion it excited in +my own mind--the powerful impression it created upon a crowded +auditory, completely taken by surprise. * * * I think I never +hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; certainly, my +perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by it on +the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear +than ever. There stood one in physical proportions and stature +commanding and exact--in intellect richly endowed--in natural +eloquence a prodigy."[1] + +It is of interest to compare Mr. Douglass's account of this +meeting with Mr. Garrison's. Of the two, I think the latter the +most correct. It must have been a grand burst of eloquence! The +pent up agony, indignation and pathos of an abused and harrowed +boyhood and youth, bursting out in all their freshness and +overwhelming earnestness! + +This unique introduction to its great leader, led immediately + + +[1] Letter, Introduction to _Life of Frederick Douglass_, Boston, +1841. + + +<10>to the employment of Mr. Douglass as an agent by the American +Anti-Slavery Society. So far as his self-relying and independent +character would permit, he became, after the strictest sect, a +Garrisonian. It is not too much to say, that he formed a +complement which they needed, and they were a complement equally +necessary to his "make-up." With his deep and keen sensitiveness +to wrong, and his wonderful memory, he came from the land of +bondage full of its woes and its evils, and painting them in +characters of living light; and, on his part, he found, told out +in sound Saxon phrase, all those principles of justice and right +and liberty, which had dimly brooded over the dreams of his +youth, seeking definite forms and verbal expression. It must +have been an electric flashing of thought, and a knitting of +soul, granted to but few in this life, and will be a life-long +memory to those who participated in it. In the society, +moreover, of Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, William Lloyd +Garrison, and other men of earnest faith and refined culture, Mr. +Douglass enjoyed the high advantage of their assistance and +counsel in the labor of self-culture, to which he now addressed +himself with wonted energy. Yet, these gentlemen, although proud +of Frederick Douglass, failed to fathom, and bring out to the +light of day, the highest qualities of his mind; the force of +their own education stood in their own way: they did not delve +into the mind of a colored man for capacities which the pride of +race led them to believe to be restricted to their own Saxon +blood. Bitter and vindictive sarcasm, irresistible mimicry, and +a pathetic narrative of his own experiences of slavery, were the +intellectual manifestations which they encouraged him to exhibit +on the platform or in the lecture desk. + +A visit to England, in 1845, threw Mr. Douglass among men and +women of earnest souls and high culture, and who, moreover, had +never drank of the bitter waters of American caste. For the +first time in his life, he breathed an atmosphere congenial to +the longings of his spirit, and felt his manhood free and +<11>unrestricted. The cordial and manly greetings of the British +and Irish audiences in public, and the refinement and elegance of +the social circles in which he mingled, not only as an equal, but +as a recognized man of genius, were, doubtless, genial and +pleasant resting places in his hitherto thorny and troubled +journey through life. There are joys on the earth, and, to the +wayfaring fugitive from American slavery or American caste, this +is one of them. + +But his sojourn in England was more than a joy to Mr. Douglass. +Like the platform at Nantucket, it awakened him to the +consciousness of new powers that lay in him. From the pupilage +of Garrisonism he rose to the dignity of a teacher and a thinker; +his opinions on the broader aspects of the great American +question were earnestly and incessantly sought, from various +points of view, and he must, perforce, bestir himself to give +suitable answer. With that prompt and truthful perception which +has led their sisters in all ages of the world to gather at the +feet and support the hands of reformers, the gentlewomen of +England[2] were foremost to encourage and strengthen him to carve +out for himself a path fitted to his powers and energies, in the +life-battle against slavery and caste to which he was pledged. +And one stirring thought, inseparable from the British idea of +the evangel of freedom, must have smote his ear from every side-- + +_ Hereditary bondmen! know ye not + Who would be free, themselves mast strike the blow?_ + + +The result of this visit was, that on his return to the United +States, he established a newspaper. This proceeding was sorely +against the wishes and the advice of the leaders of the American +Anti-Slavery Society, but our author had fully grown up to the +conviction of a truth which they had once promulged, but now + + + +[2] One of these ladies, impelled by the same noble spirit which +carried Miss Nightingale to Scutari, has devoted her time, her +untiring energies, to a great extent her means, and her high +literary abilities, to the advancement and support of Frederick +Douglass' Paper, the only organ of the downtrodden, edited and +published by one of themselves, in the United States. + +<12>forgotten, to wit: that in their own elevation--self- +elevation--colored men have a blow to strike "on their own hook," +against slavery and caste. Differing from his Boston friends in +this matter, diffident in his own abilities, reluctant at their +dissuadings, how beautiful is the loyalty with which he still +clung to their principles in all things else, and even in this. + +Now came the trial hour. Without cordial support from any large +body of men or party on this side the Atlantic, and too far +distant in space and immediate interest to expect much more, +after the much already done, on the other side, he stood up, +almost alone, to the arduous labor and heavy expenditure of +editor and lecturer. The Garrison party, to which he still +adhered, did not want a _colored_ newspaper--there was an odor of +_caste_ about it; the Liberty party could hardly be expected to +give warm support to a man who smote their principles as with a +hammer; and the wide gulf which separated the free colored people +from the Garrisonians, also separated them from their brother, +Frederick Douglass. + +The arduous nature of his labors, from the date of the +establishment of his paper, may be estimated by the fact, that +anti-slavery papers in the United States, even while organs of, +and when supported by, anti-slavery parties, have, with a single +exception, failed to pay expenses. Mr. Douglass has maintained, +and does maintain, his paper without the support of any party, +and even in the teeth of the opposition of those from whom he had +reason to expect counsel and encouragement. He has been +compelled, at one and the same time, and almost constantly, +during the past seven years, to contribute matter to its columns +as editor, and to raise funds for its support as lecturer. It is +within bounds to say, that he has expended twelve thousand +dollars of his own hard earned money, in publishing this paper, a +larger sum than has been contributed by any one individual for +the general advancement of the colored people. There had been +many other papers published and edited by colored men, beginning +as far back as <13>1827, when the Rev. Samuel E. Cornish and John +B. Russworm (a graduate of Bowdoin college, and afterward +Governor of Cape Palmas) published the _Freedom's Journal_, in +New York City; probably not less than one hundred newspaper +enterprises have been started in the United States, by free +colored men, born free, and some of them of liberal education and +fair talents for this work; but, one after another, they have +fallen through, although, in several instances, anti-slavery +friends contributed to their support.[3] It had almost been +given up, as an impracticable thing, to maintain a colored +newspaper, when Mr. Douglass, with fewest early advantages of all +his competitors, essayed, and has proved the thing perfectly +practicable, and, moreover, of great public benefit. This paper, +in addition to its power in holding up the hands of those to whom +it is especially devoted, also affords irrefutable evidence of +the justice, safety and practicability of Immediate Emancipation; +it further proves the immense loss which slavery inflicts on the +land while it dooms such energies as his to the hereditary +degradation of slavery. + +It has been said in this Introduction, that Mr. Douglass had +raised himself by his own efforts to the highest position in +society. As a successful editor, in our land, he occupies this +position. Our editors rule the land, and he is one of them. As +an orator and thinker, his position is equally high, in the +opinion of his countrymen. If a stranger in the United States +would seek its most distinguished men--the movers of public +opinion--he will find their names mentioned, and their movements +chronicled, under the head of "BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH, in the +daily papers. The keen caterers for the public attention, set +down, in this column, such men only as have won high mark in the +public esteem. During the past winter--1854-5--very frequent +mention of Frederick Douglass was made under this head in the +daily papers; his name glided as often--this week from Chicago, +next + + + +[3] Mr. Stephen Myers, of Albany, deserves mention as one of the +most persevering among the colored editorial fraternity. + + +<14>week from Boston--over the lightning wires, as the name of +any other man, of whatever note. To no man did the people more +widely nor more earnestly say, _"Tell me thy thought!"_ And, +somehow or other, revolution seemed to follow in his wake. His +were not the mere words of eloquence which Kossuth speaks of, +that delight the ear and then pass away. No! They were _work_- +able, _do_-able words, that brought forth fruits in the +revolution in Illinois, and in the passage of the franchise +resolutions by the Assembly of New York. + +And the secret of his power, what is it? He is a Representative +American man--a type of his countrymen. Naturalists tell us that +a full grown man is a resultant or representative of all animated +nature on this globe; beginning with the early embryo state, then +representing the lowest forms of organic life,[4] and passing +through every subordinate grade or type, until he reaches the +last and highest--manhood. In like manner, and to the fullest +extent, has Frederick Douglass passed through every gradation of +rank comprised in our national make-up, and bears upon his person +and upon his soul every thing that is American. And he has not +only full sympathy with every thing American; his proclivity or +bent, to active toil and visible progress, are in the strictly +national direction, delighting to outstrip "all creation." + +Nor have the natural gifts, already named as his, lost anything +by his severe training. When unexcited, his mental processes are +probably slow, but singularly clear in perception, and wide in +vision, the unfailing memory bringing up all the facts in their +every aspect; incongruities he lays hold of incontinently, and +holds up on the edge of his keen and telling wit. But this wit +never descends to frivolity; it is rigidly in the keeping of his +truthful common sense, and always used in illustration or proof +of some point which could not so readily be reached any other +way. "Beware of a Yankee when he is feeding," is a shaft that +strikes home + + + +[4] The German physiologists have even discovered vegetable +matter--starch--in the human body. See _Med. Chirurgical Rev_., +Oct., 1854, p. 339. + + +<15>in a matter never so laid bare by satire before. "The +Garrisonian views of disunion, if carried to a successful issue, +would only place the people of the north in the same relation to +American slavery which they now bear to the slavery of Cuba or +the Brazils," is a statement, in a few words, which contains the +result and the evidence of an argument which might cover pages, +but could not carry stronger conviction, nor be stated in less +pregnable form. In proof of this, I may say, that having been +submitted to the attention of the Garrisonians in print, in +March, it was repeated before them at their business meeting in +May--the platform, _par excellence_, on which they invite free +fight, _a l'outrance_, to all comers. It was given out in the +clear, ringing tones, wherewith the hall of shields was wont to +resound of old, yet neither Garrison, nor Phillips, nor May, nor +Remond, nor Foster, nor Burleigh, with his subtle steel of "the +ice brook's temper," ventured to break a lance upon it! The +doctrine of the dissolution of the Union, as a means for the +abolition of American slavery, was silenced upon the lips that +gave it birth, and in the presence of an array of defenders who +compose the keenest intellects in the land. + +_"The man who is right is a majority"_ is an aphorism struck out +by Mr. Douglass in that great gathering of the friends of +freedom, at Pittsburgh, in 1852, where he towered among the +highest, because, with abilities inferior to none, and moved more +deeply than any, there was neither policy nor party to trammel +the outpourings of his soul. Thus we find, opposed to all +disadvantages which a black man in the United States labors and +struggles under, is this one vantage ground--when the chance +comes, and the audience where he may have a say, he stands forth +the freest, most deeply moved and most earnest of all men. + +It has been said of Mr. Douglass, that his descriptive and +declamatory powers, admitted to be of the very highest order, +take precedence of his logical force. Whilst the schools might +have trained him to the exhibition of the formulas of deductive +<16>logic, nature and circumstances forced him into the exercise +of the higher faculties required by induction. The first ninety +pages of this "Life in Bondage," afford specimens of observing, +comparing, and careful classifying, of such superior character, +that it is difficult to believe them the results of a child's +thinking; he questions the earth, and the children and the slaves +around him again and again, and finally looks to _"God in the +sky"_ for the why and the wherefore of the unnatural thing, +slavery. _"Yes, if indeed thou art, wherefore dost thou suffer +us to be slain?"_ is the only prayer and worship of the God- +forsaken Dodos in the heart of Africa. Almost the same was his +prayer. One of his earliest observations was that white children +should know their ages, while the colored children were ignorant +of theirs; and the songs of the slaves grated on his inmost soul, +because a something told him that harmony in sound, and music of +the spirit, could not consociate with miserable degradation. + +To such a mind, the ordinary processes of logical deduction are +like proving that two and two make four. Mastering the +intermediate steps by an intuitive glance, or recurring to them +as Ferguson resorted to geometry, it goes down to the deeper +relation of things, and brings out what may seem, to some, mere +statements, but which are new and brilliant generalizations, each +resting on a broad and stable basis. Thus, Chief Justice +Marshall gave his decisions, and then told Brother Story to look +up the authorities--and they never differed from him. Thus, +also, in his "Lecture on the Anti-Slavery Movement," delivered +before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. Douglass +presents a mass of thought, which, without any showy display of +logic on his part, requires an exercise of the reasoning +faculties of the reader to keep pace with him. And his "Claims +of the Negro Ethnologically Considered," is full of new and fresh +thoughts on the dawning science of race-history. + +If, as has been stated, his intellection is slow, when unexcited, +it is most prompt and rapid when he is thoroughly aroused. +<17>Memory, logic, wit, sarcasm, invective pathos and bold +imagery of rare structural beauty, well up as from a copious +fountain, yet each in its proper place, and contributing to form +a whole, grand in itself, yet complete in the minutest +proportions. It is most difficult to hedge him in a corner, for +his positions are taken so deliberately, that it is rare to find +a point in them undefended aforethought. Professor Reason tells +me the following: "On a recent visit of a public nature, to +Philadelphia, and in a meeting composed mostly of his colored +brethren, Mr. Douglass proposed a comparison of views in the +matters of the relations and duties of `our people;' he holding +that prejudice was the result of condition, and could be +conquered by the efforts of the degraded themselves. A gentleman +present, distinguished for logical acumen and subtlety, and who +had devoted no small portion of the last twenty-five years to the +study and elucidation of this very question, held the opposite +view, that prejudice is innate and unconquerable. He terminated +a series of well dove-tailed, Socratic questions to Mr. Douglass, +with the following: `If the legislature at Harrisburgh should +awaken, to-morrow morning, and find each man's skin turned black +and his hair woolly, what could they do to remove prejudice?' +`Immediately pass laws entitling black men to all civil, +political and social privileges,' was the instant reply--and the +questioning ceased." + +The most remarkable mental phenomenon in Mr. Douglass, is his +style in writing and speaking. In March, 1855, he delivered an +address in the assembly chamber before the members of the +legislature of the state of New York. An eye witness[5] +describes the crowded and most intelligent audience, and their +rapt attention to the speaker, as the grandest scene he ever +witnessed in the capitol. Among those whose eyes were riveted on +the speaker full two hours and a half, were Thurlow Weed and +Lieutenant Governor Raymond; the latter, at the conclusion of the +address, exclaimed to a friend, "I would give twenty thousand +dollars, + + +[5] Mr. Wm. H. Topp, of Albany. + + +<18>if I could deliver that address in that manner." Mr. Raymond +is a first class graduate of Dartmouth, a rising politician, +ranking foremost in the legislature; of course, his ideal of +oratory must be of the most polished and finished description. + +The style of Mr. Douglass in writing, is to me an intellectual +puzzle. The strength, affluence and terseness may easily be +accounted for, because the style of a man is the man; but how are +we to account for that rare polish in his style of writing, +which, most critically examined, seems the result of careful +early culture among the best classics of our language; it equals +if it does not surpass the style of Hugh Miller, which was the +wonder of the British literary public, until he unraveled the +mystery in the most interesting of autobiographies. But +Frederick Douglass was still calking the seams of Baltimore +clippers, and had only written a "pass," at the age when Miller's +style was already formed. + +I asked William Whipper, of Pennsylvania, the gentleman alluded +to above, whether he thought Mr. Douglass's power inherited from +the Negroid, or from what is called the Caucasian side of his +make up? After some reflection, he frankly answered, "I must +admit, although sorry to do so, that the Caucasian predominates." +At that time, I almost agreed with him; but, facts narrated in +the first part of this work, throw a different light on this +interesting question. + +We are left in the dark as to who was the paternal ancestor of +our author; a fact which generally holds good of the Romuluses +and Remuses who are to inaugurate the new birth of our republic. +In the absence of testimony from the Caucasian side, we must see +what evidence is given on the other side of the house. + +"My grandmother, though advanced in years, * * * was yet a woman +of power and spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, +elastic and muscular." (p. 46.) + +After describing her skill in constructing nets, her perseverance +in using them, and her wide-spread fame in the agricultural way +he adds, "It happened to her--as it will happen to any careful +<19>and thrifty person residing in an ignorant and improvident +neighborhood--to enjoy the reputation of being born to good +luck." And his grandmother was a black woman. + +"My mother was tall, and finely proportioned; of deep black, +glossy complexion; had regular features; and among other slaves +was remarkably sedate in her manners." "Being a field hand, she +was obliged to walk twelve miles and return, between nightfall +and daybreak, to see her children" (p. 54.) "I shall never +forget the indescribable expression of her countenance when I +told her that I had had no food since morning. * * * There was +pity in her glance at me, and a fiery indignation at Aunt Katy at +the same time; * * * * she read Aunt Katy a lecture which she +never forgot." (p. 56.) "I learned after my mother's death, +that she could read, and that she was the _only_ one of all the +slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage. +How she acquired this knowledge, I know not, for Tuckahoe is the +last place in the world where she would be apt to find facilities +for learning." (p. 57.) "There is, in _Prichard's Natural +History of Man_, the head of a figure--on page 157--the features +of which so resemble those of my mother, that I often recur to it +with something of the feeling which I suppose others experience +when looking upon the pictures of dear departed ones." (p. 52.) + +The head alluded to is copied from the statue of Ramses the +Great, an Egyptian king of the nineteenth dynasty. The authors +of the _Types of Mankind_ give a side view of the same on page +148, remarking that the profile, "like Napoleon's, is superbly +European!" The nearness of its resemblance to Mr. Douglass' +mother rests upon the evidence of his memory, and judging from +his almost marvelous feats of recollection of forms and outlines +recorded in this book, this testimony may be admitted. + +These facts show that for his energy, perseverance, eloquence, +invective, sagacity, and wide sympathy, he is indebted to his +Negro blood. The very marvel of his style would seem to be a +development of that other marvel--how his mother learned to read. +<20>The versatility of talent which he wields, in common with +Dumas, Ira Aldridge, and Miss Greenfield, would seem to be the +result of the grafting of the Anglo-Saxon on good, original, +Negro stock. If the friends of "Caucasus" choose to claim, for +that region, what remains after this analysis--to wit: +combination--they are welcome to it. They will forgive me for +reminding them that the term "Caucasian" is dropped by recent +writers on Ethnology; for the people about Mount Caucasus, are, +and have ever been, Mongols. The great "white race" now seek +paternity, according to Dr. Pickering, in Arabia--"Arida Nutrix" +of the best breed of horses &c. Keep on, gentlemen; you will +find yourselves in Africa, by-and-by. The Egyptians, like the +Americans, were a _mixed race_, with some Negro blood circling +around the throne, as well as in the mud hovels. + +This is the proper place to remark of our author, that the same +strong self-hood, which led him to measure strength with Mr. +Covey, and to wrench himself from the embrace of the +Garrisonians, and which has borne him through many resistances to +the personal indignities offered him as a colored man, sometimes +becomes a hyper-sensitiveness to such assaults as men of his mark +will meet with, on paper. Keen and unscrupulous opponents have +sought, and not unsuccessfully, to pierce him in this direction; +for well they know, that if assailed, he will smite back. + +It is not without a feeling of pride, dear reader, that I present +you with this book. The son of a self-emancipated bond-woman, I +feel joy in introducing to you my brother, who has rent his own +bonds, and who, in his every relation--as a public man, as a +husband and as a father--is such as does honor to the land which +gave him birth. I shall place this book in the hands of the only +child spared me, bidding him to strive and emulate its noble +example. You may do likewise. It is an American book, for +Americans, in the fullest sense of the idea. It shows that the +worst of our institutions, in its worst aspect, cannot keep down +energy, truthfulness, and earnest struggle for the right. It +proves the <21>justice and practicability of Immediate +Emancipation. It shows that any man in our land, "no matter in +what battle his liberty may have been cloven down, * * * * no +matter what complexion an Indian or an African sun may have +burned upon him," not only may "stand forth redeemed and +disenthralled," but may also stand up a candidate for the highest +suffrage of a great people--the tribute of their honest, hearty +admiration. Reader, _Vale! + +New York_ JAMES MCCUNE SMITH + + +CHAPTER I +_Childhood_ + +PLACE OF BIRTH--CHARACTER OF THE DISTRICT--TUCKAHOE--ORIGIN OF +THE NAME--CHOPTANK RIVER--TIME OF BIRTH--GENEALOGICAL TREES--MODE +OF COUNTING TIME--NAMES OF GRANDPARENTS--THEIR POSITION-- +GRANDMOTHER ESPECIALLY ESTEEMED--"BORN TO GOOD LUCK--SWEET +POTATOES--SUPERSTITION--THE LOG CABIN--ITS CHARMS--SEPARATING +CHILDREN--MY AUNTS--THEIR NAMES--FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF BEING A +SLAVE--OLD MASTER--GRIEFS AND JOYS OF CHILDHOOD--COMPARATIVE +HAPPINESS OF THE SLAVE-BOY AND THE SON OF A SLAVEHOLDER. + + +In Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the +county town of that county, there is a small district of country, +thinly populated, and remarkable for nothing that I know of more +than for the worn-out, sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, +the general dilapidation of its farms and fences, the indigent +and spiritless character of its inhabitants, and the prevalence +of ague and fever. + +The name of this singularly unpromising and truly famine stricken +district is Tuckahoe, a name well known to all Marylanders, black +and white. It was given to this section of country probably, at +the first, merely in derision; or it may possibly have been +applied to it, as I have heard, because some one of its earlier +inhabitants had been guilty of the petty meanness of stealing a +hoe--or taking a hoe that did not belong to him. Eastern Shore +men usually pronounce the word _took_, as _tuck; Took-a-hoe_, +therefore, is, in Maryland parlance, _Tuckahoe_. But, whatever +may have been its origin--and about this I will not be +<26>positive--that name has stuck to the district in question; +and it is seldom mentioned but with contempt and derision, on +account of the barrenness of its soil, and the ignorance, +indolence, and poverty of its people. Decay and ruin are +everywhere visible, and the thin population of the place would +have quitted it long ago, but for the Choptank river, which runs +through it, from which they take abundance of shad and herring, +and plenty of ague and fever. + +It was in this dull, flat, and unthrifty district, or +neighborhood, surrounded by a white population of the lowest +order, indolent and drunken to a proverb, and among slaves, who +seemed to ask, _"Oh! what's the use?"_ every time they lifted a +hoe, that I--without any fault of mine was born, and spent the +first years of my childhood. + +The reader will pardon so much about the place of my birth, on +the score that it is always a fact of some importance to know +where a man is born, if, indeed, it be important to know anything +about him. In regard to the _time_ of my birth, I cannot be as +definite as I have been respecting the _place_. Nor, indeed, can +I impart much knowledge concerning my parents. Genealogical +trees do not flourish among slaves. A person of some consequence +here in the north, sometimes designated _father_, is literally +abolished in slave law and slave practice. It is only once in a +while that an exception is found to this statement. I never met +with a slave who could tell me how old he was. Few slave-mothers +know anything of the months of the year, nor of the days of the +month. They keep no family records, with marriages, births, and +deaths. They measure the ages of their children by spring time, +winter time, harvest time, planting time, and the like; but these +soon become undistinguishable and forgotten. Like other slaves, +I cannot tell how old I am. This destitution was among my +earliest troubles. I learned when I grew up, that my master--and +this is the case with masters generally--allowed no questions to +be put to him, by which a slave might learn his <27 +GRANDPARENTS>age. Such questions deemed evidence of impatience, +and even of impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, +the dates of which I have since learned, I suppose myself to have +been born about the year 1817. + +The first experience of life with me that I now remember--and I +remember it but hazily--began in the family of my grandmother and +grandfather. Betsey and Isaac Baily. They were quite advanced +in life, and had long lived on the spot where they then resided. +They were considered old settlers in the neighborhood, and, from +certain circumstances, I infer that my grandmother, especially, +was held in high esteem, far higher than is the lot of most +colored persons in the slave states. She was a good nurse, and a +capital hand at making nets for catching shad and herring; and +these nets were in great demand, not only in Tuckahoe, but at +Denton and Hillsboro, neighboring villages. She was not only +good at making the nets, but was also somewhat famous for her +good fortune in taking the fishes referred to. I have known her +to be in the water half the day. Grandmother was likewise more +provident than most of her neighbors in the preservation of +seedling sweet potatoes, and it happened to her--as it will +happen to any careful and thrifty person residing in an ignorant +and improvident community--to enjoy the reputation of having been +born to "good luck." Her "good luck" was owing to the exceeding +care which she took in preventing the succulent root from getting +bruised in the digging, and in placing it beyond the reach of +frost, by actually burying it under the hearth of her cabin +during the winter months. In the time of planting sweet +potatoes, "Grandmother Betty," as she was familiarly called, was +sent for in all directions, simply to place the seedling potatoes +in the hills; for superstition had it, that if "Grandmamma Betty +but touches them at planting, they will be sure to grow and +flourish." This high reputation was full of advantage to her, +and to the children around her. Though Tuckahoe had but few of +the good things of <28>life, yet of such as it did possess +grandmother got a full share, in the way of presents. If good +potato crops came after her planting, she was not forgotten by +those for whom she planted; and as she was remembered by others, +so she remembered the hungry little ones around her. + +The dwelling of my grandmother and grandfather had few +pretensions. It was a log hut, or cabin, built of clay, wood, +and straw. At a distance it resembled--though it was smaller, +less commodious and less substantial--the cabins erected in the +western states by the first settlers. To my child's eye, +however, it was a noble structure, admirably adapted to promote +the comforts and conveniences of its inmates. A few rough, +Virginia fence-rails, flung loosely over the rafters above, +answered the triple purpose of floors, ceilings, and bedsteads. +To be sure, this upper apartment was reached only by a ladder-- +but what in the world for climbing could be better than a ladder? +To me, this ladder was really a high invention, and possessed a +sort of charm as I played with delight upon the rounds of it. In +this little hut there was a large family of children: I dare not +say how many. My grandmother--whether because too old for field +service, or because she had so faithfully discharged the duties +of her station in early life, I know not--enjoyed the high +privilege of living in a cabin, separate from the quarter, with +no other burden than her own support, and the necessary care of +the little children, imposed. She evidently esteemed it a great +fortune to live so. The children were not her own, but her +grandchildren--the children of her daughters. She took delight +in having them around her, and in attending to their few wants. +The practice of separating children from their mother, and hiring +the latter out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, +except at long intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and +barbarity of the slave system. But it is in harmony with the +grand aim of slavery, which, always and everywhere, is to reduce +man to a level with the brute. It is a successful method of +obliterating <29 "OLD MASTER">from the mind and heart of the +slave, all just ideas of the sacredness of _the family_, as an +institution. + +Most of the children, however, in this instance, being the +children of my grandmother's daughters, the notions of family, +and the reciprocal duties and benefits of the relation, had a +better chance of being understood than where children are +placed--as they often are in the hands of strangers, who have no +care for them, apart from the wishes of their masters. The +daughters of my grandmother were five in number. Their names +were JENNY, ESTHER, MILLY, PRISCILLA, and HARRIET. The daughter +last named was my mother, of whom the reader shall learn more by- +and-by. + +Living here, with my dear old grandmother and grandfather, it was +a long time before I knew myself to be _a slave_. I knew many +other things before I knew that. Grandmother and grandfather +were the greatest people in the world to me; and being with them +so snugly in their own little cabin--I supposed it be their own-- +knowing no higher authority over me or the other children than +the authority of grandmamma, for a time there was nothing to +disturb me; but, as I grew larger and older, I learned by degrees +the sad fact, that the "little hut," and the lot on which it +stood, belonged not to my dear old grandparents, but to some +person who lived a great distance off, and who was called, by +grandmother, "OLD MASTER." I further learned the sadder fact, +that not only the house and lot, but that grandmother herself, +(grandfather was free,) and all the little children around her, +belonged to this mysterious personage, called by grandmother, +with every mark of reverence, "Old Master." Thus early did +clouds and shadows begin to fall upon my path. Once on the +track--troubles never come singly--I was not long in finding out +another fact, still more grievous to my childish heart. I was +told that this "old master," whose name seemed ever to be +mentioned with fear and shuddering, only allowed the children to +live with grandmother for a limited time, and that in fact as +soon <30>as they were big enough, they were promptly taken away, +to live with the said "old master." These were distressing +revelations indeed; and though I was quite too young to +comprehend the full import of the intelligence, and mostly spent +my childhood days in gleesome sports with the other children, a +shade of disquiet rested upon me. + +The absolute power of this distant "old master" had touched my +young spirit with but the point of its cold, cruel iron, and left +me something to brood over after the play and in moments of +repose. Grandmammy was, indeed, at that time, all the world to +me; and the thought of being separated from her, in any +considerable time, was more than an unwelcome intruder. It was +intolerable. + +Children have their sorrows as well as men and women; and it +would be well to remember this in our dealings with them. SLAVE- +children _are_ children, and prove no exceptions to the general +rule. The liability to be separated from my grandmother, seldom +or never to see her again, haunted me. I dreaded the thought of +going to live with that mysterious "old master," whose name I +never heard mentioned with affection, but always with fear. I +look back to this as among the heaviest of my childhood's +sorrows. My grandmother! my grandmother! and the little hut, and +the joyous circle under her care, but especially _she_, who made +us sorry when she left us but for an hour, and glad on her +return,--how could I leave her and the good old home? + +But the sorrows of childhood, like the pleasures of after life, +are transient. It is not even within the power of slavery to +write _indelible_ sorrow, at a single dash, over the heart of a +child. + + _The tear down childhood's cheek that flows, + Is like the dew-drop on the rose-- + When next the summer breeze comes by, + And waves the bush--the flower is dry_. + + +There is, after all, but little difference in the measure of +contentment felt by the slave-child neglected and the +slaveholder's <31 COMPARATIVE HAPPINESS>child cared for and +petted. The spirit of the All Just mercifully holds the balance +for the young. + +The slaveholder, having nothing to fear from impotent childhood, +easily affords to refrain from cruel inflictions; and if cold and +hunger do not pierce the tender frame, the first seven or eight +years of the slave-boy's life are about as full of sweet content +as those of the most favored and petted _white_ children of the +slaveholder. The slave-boy escapes many troubles which befall +and vex his white brother. He seldom has to listen to lectures +on propriety of behavior, or on anything else. He is never +chided for handling his little knife and fork improperly or +awkwardly, for he uses none. He is never reprimanded for soiling +the table-cloth, for he takes his meals on the clay floor. He +never has the misfortune, in his games or sports, of soiling or +tearing his clothes, for he has almost none to soil or tear. He +is never expected to act like a nice little gentleman, for he is +only a rude little slave. Thus, freed from all restraint, the +slave-boy can be, in his life and conduct, a genuine boy, doing +whatever his boyish nature suggests; enacting, by turns, all the +strange antics and freaks of horses, dogs, pigs, and barn-door +fowls, without in any manner compromising his dignity, or +incurring reproach of any sort. He literally runs wild; has no +pretty little verses to learn in the nursery; no nice little +speeches to make for aunts, uncles, or cousins, to show how smart +he is; and, if he can only manage to keep out of the way of the +heavy feet and fists of the older slave boys, he may trot on, in +his joyous and roguish tricks, as happy as any little heathen +under the palm trees of Africa. To be sure, he is occasionally +reminded, when he stumbles in the path of his master--and this he +early learns to avoid--that he is eating his _"white bread,"_ and +that he will be made to _"see sights"_ by-and-by. The threat is +soon forgotten; the shadow soon passes, and our sable boy +continues to roll in the dust, or play in the mud, as bests suits +him, and in the veriest freedom. If he feels uncomfortable, from +mud or from dust, the coast is clear; he can plunge into <32>the +river or the pond, without the ceremony of undressing, or the +fear of wetting his clothes; his little tow-linen shirt--for that +is all he has on--is easily dried; and it needed ablution as much +as did his skin. His food is of the coarsest kind, consisting +for the most part of cornmeal mush, which often finds it way from +the wooden tray to his mouth in an oyster shell. His days, when +the weather is warm, are spent in the pure, open air, and in the +bright sunshine. He always sleeps in airy apartments; he seldom +has to take powders, or to be paid to swallow pretty little +sugar-coated pills, to cleanse his blood, or to quicken his +appetite. He eats no candies; gets no lumps of loaf sugar; +always relishes his food; cries but little, for nobody cares for +his crying; learns to esteem his bruises but slight, because +others so esteem them. In a word, he is, for the most part of +the first eight years of his life, a spirited, joyous, +uproarious, and happy boy, upon whom troubles fall only like +water on a duck's back. And such a boy, so far as I can now +remember, was the boy whose life in slavery I am now narrating. + + + +CHAPTER II +_Removed from My First Home_ + +THE NAME "OLD MASTER" A TERROR--COLONEL LLOYD'S PLANTATION--WYE +RIVER--WHENCE ITS NAME--POSITION OF THE LLOYDS--HOME ATTRACTION-- +MEET OFFERING--JOURNEY FROM TUCKAHOE TO WYE RIVER--SCENE ON +REACHING OLD MASTER'S--DEPARTURE OF GRANDMOTHER--STRANGE MEETING +OF SISTERS AND BROTHERS--REFUSAL TO BE COMFORTED--SWEET SLEEP. + + +That mysterious individual referred to in the first chapter as an +object of terror among the inhabitants of our little cabin, under +the ominous title of "old master," was really a man of some +consequence. He owned several farms in Tuckahoe; was the chief +clerk and butler on the home plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd; had +overseers on his own farms; and gave directions to overseers on +the farms belonging to Col. Lloyd. This plantation is situated +on Wye river--the river receiving its name, doubtless, from +Wales, where the Lloyds originated. They (the Lloyds) are an old +and honored family in Maryland, exceedingly wealthy. The home +plantation, where they have resided, perhaps for a century or +more, is one of the largest, most fertile, and best appointed, in +the state. + +About this plantation, and about that queer old master--who must +be something more than a man, and something worse than an angel-- +the reader will easily imagine that I was not only curious, but +eager, to know all that could be known. Unhappily for me, +however, all the information I could get concerning him increased +my great dread of being carried thither--of being <34>separated +from and deprived of the protection of my grandmother and +grandfather. It was, evidently, a great thing to go to Col. +Lloyd's; and I was not without a little curiosity to see the +place; but no amount of coaxing could induce in me the wish to +remain there. The fact is, such was my dread of leaving the +little cabin, that I wished to remain little forever, for I knew +the taller I grew the shorter my stay. The old cabin, with its +rail floor and rail bedsteads upstairs, and its clay floor +downstairs, and its dirt chimney, and windowless sides, and that +most curious piece of workmanship dug in front of the fireplace, +beneath which grandmammy placed the sweet potatoes to keep them +from the frost, was MY HOME--the only home I ever had; and I +loved it, and all connected with it. The old fences around it, +and the stumps in the edge of the woods near it, and the +squirrels that ran, skipped, and played upon them, were objects +of interest and affection. There, too, right at the side of the +hut, stood the old well, with its stately and skyward-pointing +beam, so aptly placed between the limbs of what had once been a +tree, and so nicely balanced that I could move it up and down +with only one hand, and could get a drink myself without calling +for help. Where else in the world could such a well be found, +and where could such another home be met with? Nor were these +all the attractions of the place. Down in a little valley, not +far from grandmammy's cabin, stood Mr. Lee's mill, where the +people came often in large numbers to get their corn ground. It +was a watermill; and I never shall be able to tell the many +things thought and felt, while I sat on the bank and watched that +mill, and the turning of that ponderous wheel. The mill-pond, +too, had its charms; and with my pinhook, and thread line, I +could get _nibbles_, if I could catch no fish. But, in all my +sports and plays, and in spite of them, there would, +occasionally, come the painful foreboding that I was not long to +remain there, and that I must soon be called away to the home of +old master. + +I was A SLAVE--born a slave and though the fact was in <35 +DEPARTURE FROM TUCKAHOE>comprehensible to me, it conveyed to my +mind a sense of my entire dependence on the will of _somebody_ I +had never seen; and, from some cause or other, I had been made to +fear this somebody above all else on earth. Born for another's +benefit, as the _firstling_ of the cabin flock I was soon to be +selected as a meet offering to the fearful and inexorable +_demigod_, whose huge image on so many occasions haunted my +childhood's imagination. When the time of my departure was +decided upon, my grandmother, knowing my fears, and in pity for +them, kindly kept me ignorant of the dreaded event about to +transpire. Up to the morning (a beautiful summer morning) when +we were to start, and, indeed, during the whole journey--a +journey which, child as I was, I remember as well as if it were +yesterday--she kept the sad fact hidden from me. This reserve +was necessary; for, could I have known all, I should have given +grandmother some trouble in getting me started. As it was, I was +helpless, and she--dear woman!--led me along by the hand, +resisting, with the reserve and solemnity of a priestess, all my +inquiring looks to the last. + +The distance from Tuckahoe to Wye river--where my old master +lived--was full twelve miles, and the walk was quite a severe +test of the endurance of my young legs. The journey would have +proved too severe for me, but that my dear old grandmother-- +blessings on her memory!--afforded occasional relief by "toting" +me (as Marylanders have it) on her shoulder. My grandmother, +though advanced in years--as was evident from more than one gray +hair, which peeped from between the ample and graceful folds of +her newly-ironed bandana turban--was yet a woman of power and +spirit. She was marvelously straight in figure, elastic, and +muscular. I seemed hardly to be a burden to her. She would have +"toted" me farther, but that I felt myself too much of a man to +allow it, and insisted on walking. Releasing dear grandmamma +from carrying me, did not make me altogether independent of her, +when we happened to pass through portions of the somber woods +which lay between Tuckahoe and <36>Wye river. She often found me +increasing the energy of my grip, and holding her clothing, lest +something should come out of the woods and eat me up. Several +old logs and stumps imposed upon me, and got themselves taken for +wild beasts. I could see their legs, eyes, and ears, or I could +see something like eyes, legs, and ears, till I got close enough +to them to see that the eyes were knots, washed white with rain, +and the legs were broken limbs, and the ears, only ears owing to +the point from which they were seen. Thus early I learned that +the point from which a thing is viewed is of some importance. + +As the day advanced the heat increased; and it was not until the +afternoon that we reached the much dreaded end of the journey. I +found myself in the midst of a group of children of many colors; +black, brown, copper colored, and nearly white. I had not seen +so many children before. Great houses loomed up in different +directions, and a great many men and women were at work in the +fields. All this hurry, noise, and singing was very different +from the stillness of Tuckahoe. As a new comer, I was an object +of special interest; and, after laughing and yelling around me, +and playing all sorts of wild tricks, they (the children) asked +me to go out and play with them. This I refused to do, +preferring to stay with grandmamma. I could not help feeling +that our being there boded no good to me. Grandmamma looked sad. +She was soon to lose another object of affection, as she had lost +many before. I knew she was unhappy, and the shadow fell from +her brow on me, though I knew not the cause. + +All suspense, however, must have an end; and the end of mine, in +this instance, was at hand. Affectionately patting me on the +head, and exhorting me to be a good boy, grandmamma told me to go +and play with the little children. "They are kin to you," said +she; "go and play with them." Among a number of cousins were +Phil, Tom, Steve, and Jerry, Nance and Betty. + +Grandmother pointed out my brother PERRY, my sister SARAH, and my +sister ELIZA, who stood in the group. I had never seen <37 +BROTHERS AND SISTERS>my brother nor my sisters before; and, +though I had sometimes heard of them, and felt a curious interest +in them, I really did not understand what they were to me, or I +to them. We were brothers and sisters, but what of that? Why +should they be attached to me, or I to them? Brothers and +sisters we were by blood; but _slavery_ had made us strangers. I +heard the words brother and sisters, and knew they must mean +something; but slavery had robbed these terms of their true +meaning. The experience through which I was passing, they had +passed through before. They had already been initiated into the +mysteries of old master's domicile, and they seemed to look upon +me with a certain degree of compassion; but my heart clave to my +grandmother. Think it not strange, dear reader, that so little +sympathy of feeling existed between us. The conditions of +brotherly and sisterly feeling were wanting--we had never nestled +and played together. My poor mother, like many other slave- +women, had many _children_, but NO FAMILY! The domestic hearth, +with its holy lessons and precious endearments, is abolished in +the case of a slave-mother and her children. "Little children, +love one another," are words seldom heard in a slave cabin. + +I really wanted to play with my brother and sisters, but they +were strangers to me, and I was full of fear that grandmother +might leave without taking me with her. Entreated to do so, +however, and that, too, by my dear grandmother, I went to the +back part of the house, to play with them and the other children. +_Play_, however, I did not, but stood with my back against the +wall, witnessing the playing of the others. At last, while +standing there, one of the children, who had been in the kitchen, +ran up to me, in a sort of roguish glee, exclaiming, "Fed, Fed! +grandmammy gone! grandmammy gone!" I could not believe it; yet, +fearing the worst, I ran into the kitchen, to see for myself, and +found it even so. Grandmammy had indeed gone, and was now far +away, "clean" out of sight. I need not tell all that happened +now. Almost heart-broken at the discovery, I fell upon the +ground, and <38>wept a boy's bitter tears, refusing to be +comforted. My brother and sisters came around me, and said, +"Don't cry," and gave me peaches and pears, but I flung them +away, and refused all their kindly advances. I had never been +deceived before; and I felt not only grieved at parting--as I +supposed forever--with my grandmother, but indignant that a trick +had been played upon me in a matter so serious. + +It was now late in the afternoon. The day had been an exciting +and wearisome one, and I knew not how or where, but I suppose I +sobbed myself to sleep. There is a healing in the angel wing of +sleep, even for the slave-boy; and its balm was never more +welcome to any wounded soul than it was to mine, the first night +I spent at the domicile of old master. The reader may be +surprised that I narrate so minutely an incident apparently so +trivial, and which must have occurred when I was not more than +seven years old; but as I wish to give a faithful history of my +experience in slavery, I cannot withhold a circumstance which, at +the time, affected me so deeply. Besides, this was, in fact, my +first introduction to the realities of slavery. + + +CHAPTER III +_Parentage_ + +MY FATHER SHROUDED IN MYSTERY--MY MOTHER--HER PERSONAL +APPEARANCE--INTERFERENCE OF SLAVERY WITH THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS +OF MOTHER AND CHILDREN--SITUATION OF MY MOTHER--HER NIGHTLY +VISITS TO HER BOY--STRIKING INCIDENT--HER DEATH--HER PLACE OF +BURIAL. + + +If the reader will now be kind enough to allow me time to grow +bigger, and afford me an opportunity for my experience to become +greater, I will tell him something, by-and-by, of slave life, as +I saw, felt, and heard it, on Col. Edward Lloyd's plantation, and +at the house of old master, where I had now, despite of myself, +most suddenly, but not unexpectedly, been dropped. Meanwhile, I +will redeem my promise to say something more of my dear mother. + +I say nothing of _father_, for he is shrouded in a mystery I have +never been able to penetrate. Slavery does away with fathers, as +it does away with families. Slavery has no use for either +fathers or families, and its laws do not recognize their +existence in the social arrangements of the plantation. When +they _do_ exist, they are not the outgrowths of slavery, but are +antagonistic to that system. The order of civilization is +reversed here. The name of the child is not expected to be that +of its father, and his condition does not necessarily affect that +of the child. He may be the slave of Mr. Tilgman; and his child, +when born, may be the slave of Mr. Gross. He may be a _freeman;_ +and yet his child may be a _chattel_. He may be white, glorying +in the purity of his Anglo-<40>Saxon blood; and his child may be +ranked with the blackest slaves. Indeed, he _may_ be, and often +_is_, master and father to the same child. He can be father +without being a husband, and may sell his child without incurring +reproach, if the child be by a woman in whose veins courses one +thirty-second part of African blood. My father was a white man, +or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master was +my father. + +But to return, or rather, to begin. My knowledge of my mother is +very scanty, but very distinct. Her personal appearance and +bearing are ineffaceably stamped upon my memory. She was tall, +and finely proportioned; of deep black, glossy complexion; had +regular features, and, among the other slaves, was remarkably +sedate in her manners. There is in _Prichard's Natural History +of Man_, the head of a figure--on page 157--the features of which +so resemble those of my mother, that I often recur to it with +something of the feeling which I suppose others experience when +looking upon the pictures of dear departed ones. + +Yet I cannot say that I was very deeply attached to my mother; +certainly not so deeply as I should have been had our relations +in childhood been different. We were separated, according to the +common custom, when I was but an infant, and, of course, before I +knew my mother from any one else. + +The germs of affection with which the Almighty, in his wisdom and +mercy, arms the hopeless infant against the ills and vicissitudes +of his lot, had been directed in their growth toward that loving +old grandmother, whose gentle hand and kind deportment it was in +the first effort of my infantile understanding to comprehend and +appreciate. Accordingly, the tenderest affection which a +beneficent Father allows, as a partial compensation to the mother +for the pains and lacerations of her heart, incident to the +maternal relation, was, in my case, diverted from its true and +natural object, by the envious, greedy, and treacherous hand of +slavery. The slave-mother can be spared long enough from <41 MY +MOTHER>the field to endure all the bitterness of a mother's +anguish, when it adds another name to a master's ledger, but +_not_ long enough to receive the joyous reward afforded by the +intelligent smiles of her child. I never think of this terrible +interference of slavery with my infantile affections, and its +diverting them from their natural course, without feelings to +which I can give no adequate expression. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother at my grandmother's at +any time. I remember her only in her visits to me at Col. +Lloyd's plantation, and in the kitchen of my old master. Her +visits to me there were few in number, brief in duration, and +mostly made in the night. The pains she took, and the toil she +endured, to see me, tells me that a true mother's heart was hers, +and that slavery had difficulty in paralyzing it with unmotherly +indifference. + +My mother was hired out to a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve +miles from old master's, and, being a field hand, she seldom had +leisure, by day, for the performance of the journey. The nights +and the distance were both obstacles to her visits. She was +obliged to walk, unless chance flung into her way an opportunity +to ride; and the latter was sometimes her good luck. But she +always had to walk one way or the other. It was a greater luxury +than slavery could afford, to allow a black slave-mother a horse +or a mule, upon which to travel twenty-four miles, when she could +walk the distance. Besides, it is deemed a foolish whim for a +slave-mother to manifest concern to see her children, and, in one +point of view, the case is made out--she can do nothing for them. +She has no control over them; the master is even more than the +mother, in all matters touching the fate of her child. Why, +then, should she give herself any concern? She has no +responsibility. Such is the reasoning, and such the practice. +The iron rule of the plantation, always passionately and +violently enforced in that neighborhood, makes flogging the +penalty of <42>failing to be in the field before sunrise in the +morning, unless special permission be given to the absenting +slave. "I went to see my child," is no excuse to the ear or +heart of the overseer. + +One of the visits of my mother to me, while at Col. Lloyd's, I +remember very vividly, as affording a bright gleam of a mother's +love, and the earnestness of a mother's care. + +"I had on that day offended "Aunt Katy," (called "Aunt" by way of +respect,) the cook of old master's establishment. I do not now +remember the nature of my offense in this instance, for my +offenses were numerous in that quarter, greatly depending, +however, upon the mood of Aunt Katy, as to their heinousness; but +she had adopted, that day, her favorite mode of punishing me, +namely, making me go without food all day--that is, from after +breakfast. The first hour or two after dinner, I succeeded +pretty well in keeping up my spirits; but though I made an +excellent stand against the foe, and fought bravely during the +afternoon, I knew I must be conquered at last, unless I got the +accustomed reenforcement of a slice of corn bread, at sundown. +Sundown came, but _no bread_, and, in its stead, their came the +threat, with a scowl well suited to its terrible import, that she +"meant to _starve the life out of me!"_ Brandishing her knife, +she chopped off the heavy slices for the other children, and put +the loaf away, muttering, all the while, her savage designs upon +myself. Against this disappointment, for I was expecting that +her heart would relent at last, I made an extra effort to +maintain my dignity; but when I saw all the other children around +me with merry and satisfied faces, I could stand it no longer. I +went out behind the house, and cried like a fine fellow! When +tired of this, I returned to the kitchen, sat by the fire, and +brooded over my hard lot. I was too hungry to sleep. While I +sat in the corner, I caught sight of an ear of Indian corn on an +upper shelf of the kitchen. I watched my chance, and got it, +and, shelling off a few grains, I put it back again. The grains +in my hand, I quickly put in some ashes, and covered them with +embers, to roast them. All this I <43 "AUNT KATY">did at the +risk of getting a brutual thumping, for Aunt Katy could beat, as +well as starve me. My corn was not long in roasting, and, with +my keen appetite, it did not matter even if the grains were not +exactly done. I eagerly pulled them out, and placed them on my +stool, in a clever little pile. Just as I began to help myself +to my very dry meal, in came my dear mother. And now, dear +reader, a scene occurred which was altogether worth beholding, +and to me it was instructive as well as interesting. The +friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need--and when he did +not dare to look for succor--found himself in the strong, +protecting arms of a mother; a mother who was, at the moment +(being endowed with high powers of manner as well as matter) more +than a match for all his enemies. I shall never forget the +indescribable expression of her countenance, when I told her that +I had had no food since morning; and that Aunt Katy said she +"meant to starve the life out of me." There was pity in her +glance at me, and a fiery indignation at Aunt Katy at the same +time; and, while she took the corn from me, and gave me a large +ginger cake, in its stead, she read Aunt Katy a lecture which she +never forgot. My mother threatened her with complaining to old +master in my behalf; for the latter, though harsh and cruel +himself, at times, did not sanction the meanness, injustice, +partiality and oppressions enacted by Aunt Katy in the kitchen. +That night I learned the fact, that I was, not only a child, but +_somebody's_ child. The "sweet cake" my mother gave me was in +the shape of a heart, with a rich, dark ring glazed upon the edge +of it. I was victorious, and well off for the moment; prouder, +on my mother's knee, than a king upon his throne. But my triumph +was short. I dropped off to sleep, and waked in the morning only +to find my mother gone, and myself left at the mercy of the sable +virago, dominant in my old master's kitchen, whose fiery wrath +was my constant dread. + +I do not remember to have seen my mother after this occurrence. +Death soon ended the little communication that had <44>existed +between us; and with it, I believe, a life judging from her +weary, sad, down-cast countenance and mute demeanor--full of +heartfelt sorrow. I was not allowed to visit her during any part +of her long illness; nor did I see her for a long time before she +was taken ill and died. The heartless and ghastly form of +_slavery_ rises between mother and child, even at the bed of +death. The mother, at the verge of the grave, may not gather her +children, to impart to them her holy admonitions, and invoke for +them her dying benediction. The bond-woman lives as a slave, and +is left to die as a beast; often with fewer attentions than are +paid to a favorite horse. Scenes of sacred tenderness, around +the death-bed, never forgotten, and which often arrest the +vicious and confirm the virtuous during life, must be looked for +among the free, though they sometimes occur among the slaves. It +has been a life-long, standing grief to me, that I knew so little +of my mother; and that I was so early separated from her. The +counsels of her love must have been beneficial to me. The side +view of her face is imaged on my memory, and I take few steps in +life, without feeling her presence; but the image is mute, and I +have no striking words of her's treasured up. + +I learned, after my mother's death, that she could read, and that +she was the _only_ one of all the slaves and colored people in +Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage. How she acquired this +knowledge, I know not, for Tuckahoe is the last place in the +world where she would be apt to find facilities for learning. I +can, therefore, fondly and proudly ascribe to her an earnest love +of knowledge. That a "field hand" should learn to read, in any +slave state, is remarkable; but the achievement of my mother, +considering the place, was very extraordinary; and, in view of +that fact, I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any +love of letters I possess, and for which I have got--despite of +prejudices only too much credit, _not_ to my admitted Anglo-Saxon +paternity, but to the native genius of my sable, unprotected, and +uncultivated _mother_--a woman, who belonged to a race <45 +PENALTY FOR HAVING A WHITE FATHER>whose mental endowments it is, +at present, fashionable to hold in disparagement and contempt. + +Summoned away to her account, with the impassable gulf of slavery +between us during her entire illness, my mother died without +leaving me a single intimation of _who_ my father was. There was +a whisper, that my master was my father; yet it was only a +whisper, and I cannot say that I ever gave it credence. Indeed, +I now have reason to think he was not; nevertheless, the fact +remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that, by the laws of +slavery, children, in all cases, are reduced to the condition of +their mothers. This arrangement admits of the greatest license +to brutal slaveholders, and their profligate sons, brothers, +relations and friends, and gives to the pleasure of sin, the +additional attraction of profit. A whole volume might be written +on this single feature of slavery, as I have observed it. + +One might imagine, that the children of such connections, would +fare better, in the hands of their masters, than other slaves. +The rule is quite the other way; and a very little reflection +will satisfy the reader that such is the case. A man who will +enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for +magnanimity. Men do not love those who remind them of their sins +unless they have a mind to repent--and the mulatto child's face +is a standing accusation against him who is master and father to +the child. What is still worse, perhaps, such a child is a +constant offense to the wife. She hates its very presence, and +when a slaveholding woman hates, she wants not means to give that +hate telling effect. Women--white women, I mean--are IDOLS at +the south, not WIVES, for the slave women are preferred in many +instances; and if these _idols_ but nod, or lift a finger, woe to +the poor victim: kicks, cuffs and stripes are sure to follow. +Masters are frequently compelled to sell this class of their +slaves, out of deference to the feelings of their white wives; +and shocking and scandalous as it may seem for a man to sell his +own blood to the traffickers in human flesh, it is often an act +of humanity <46>toward the slave-child to be thus removed from +his merciless tormentors. + +It is not within the scope of the design of my simple story, to +comment upon every phase of slavery not within my experience as a +slave. + +But, I may remark, that, if the lineal descendants of Ham are +only to be enslaved, according to the scriptures, slavery in this +country will soon become an unscriptural institution; for +thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who--like +myself--owe their existence to white fathers, and, most +frequently, to their masters, and master's sons. The slave-woman +is at the mercy of the fathers, sons or brothers of her master. +The thoughtful know the rest. + +After what I have now said of the circumstances of my mother, and +my relations to her, the reader will not be surprised, nor be +disposed to censure me, when I tell but the simple truth, viz: +that I received the tidings of her death with no strong emotions +of sorrow for her, and with very little regret for myself on +account of her loss. I had to learn the value of my mother long +after her death, and by witnessing the devotion of other mothers +to their children. + +There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so +destructive as slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters +strangers to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a +myth; it shrouded my father in mystery, and left me without an +intelligible beginning in the world. + +My mother died when I could not have been more than eight or nine +years old, on one of old master's farms in Tuckahoe, in the +neighborhood of Hillsborough. Her grave is, as the grave of the +dead at sea, unmarked, and without stone or stake. + + + +CHAPTER IV +_A General Survey of the Slave Plantation_ + +ISOLATION OF LLOYD S PLANTATION--PUBLIC OPINION THERE NO +PROTECTION TO THE SLAVE--ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE OVERSEER--NATURAL +AND ARTIFICIAL CHARMS OF THE PLACE--ITS BUSINESS-LIKE +APPEARANCE--SUPERSTITION ABOUT THE BURIAL GROUND--GREAT IDEAS OF +COL. LLOYD--ETIQUETTE AMONG SLAVES--THE COMIC SLAVE DOCTOR-- +PRAYING AND FLOGGING--OLD MASTER LOSING ITS TERRORS--HIS +BUSINESS--CHARACTER OF AUNT KATY--SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER--OLD +MASTER'S HOME--JARGON OF THE PLANTATION--GUINEA SLAVES--MASTER +DANIEL--FAMILY OF COL. LLOYD--FAMILY OF CAPT. ANTHONY--HIS SOCIAL +POSITION--NOTIONS OF RANK AND STATION. + + +It is generally supposed that slavery, in the state of Maryland, +exists in its mildest form, and that it is totally divested of +those harsh and terrible peculiarities, which mark and +characterize the slave system, in the southern and south-western +states of the American union. The argument in favor of this +opinion, is the contiguity of the free states, and the exposed +condition of slavery in Maryland to the moral, religious and +humane sentiment of the free states. + +I am not about to refute this argument, so far as it relates to +slavery in that state, generally; on the contrary, I am willing +to admit that, to this general point, the arguments is well +grounded. Public opinion is, indeed, an unfailing restraint upon +the cruelty and barbarity of masters, overseers, and slave- +drivers, whenever and wherever it can reach them; but there are +certain secluded and out-of-the-way places, even in the state of +Maryland, seldom visited by a single ray of healthy public +sentiment--<48>where slavery, wrapt in its own congenial, +midnight darkness, _can_, and _does_, develop all its malign and +shocking characteristics; where it can be indecent without shame, +cruel without shuddering, and murderous without apprehension or +fear of exposure. + +Just such a secluded, dark, and out-of-the-way place, is the +"home plantation" of Col. Edward Lloyd, on the Eastern Shore, +Maryland. It is far away from all the great thoroughfares, and +is proximate to no town or village. There is neither school- +house, nor town-house in its neighborhood. The school-house is +unnecessary, for there are no children to go to school. The +children and grand-children of Col. Lloyd were taught in the +house, by a private tutor--a Mr. Page a tall, gaunt sapling of a +man, who did not speak a dozen words to a slave in a whole year. +The overseers' children go off somewhere to school; and they, +therefore, bring no foreign or dangerous influence from abroad, +to embarrass the natural operation of the slave system of the +place. Not even the mechanics--through whom there is an +occasional out-burst of honest and telling indignation, at +cruelty and wrong on other plantations--are white men, on this +plantation. Its whole public is made up of, and divided into, +three classes--SLAVEHOLDERS, SLAVES and OVERSEERS. Its +blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shoemakers, weavers, and coopers, are +slaves. Not even commerce, selfish and iron-hearted at it is, +and ready, as it ever is, to side with the strong against the +weak--the rich against the poor--is trusted or permitted within +its secluded precincts. Whether with a view of guarding against +the escape of its secrets, I know not, but it is a fact, the +every leaf and grain of the produce of this plantation, and those +of the neighboring farms belonging to Col. Lloyd, are transported +to Baltimore in Col. Lloyd's own vessels; every man and boy on +board of which--except the captain--are owned by him. In return, +everything brought to the plantation, comes through the same +channel. Thus, even the glimmering and unsteady light of trade, +which sometimes exerts a civilizing influence, is excluded from +this "tabooed" spot. +<49 SLAVES UNPROTECTED BY PUBLIC OPINION> + +Nearly all the plantations or farms in the vicinity of the "home +plantation" of Col. Lloyd, belong to him; and those which do not, +are owned by personal friends of his, as deeply interested in +maintaining the slave system, in all its rigor, as Col. Lloyd +himself. Some of his neighbors are said to be even more +stringent than he. The Skinners, the Peakers, the Tilgmans, the +Lockermans, and the Gipsons, are in the same boat; being +slaveholding neighbors, they may have strengthened each other in +their iron rule. They are on intimate terms, and their interests +and tastes are identical. + +Public opinion in such a quarter, the reader will see, is not +likely to very efficient in protecting the slave from cruelty. +On the contrary, it must increase and intensify his wrongs. +Public opinion seldom differs very widely from public practice. +To be a restraint upon cruelty and vice, public opinion must +emanate from a humane and virtuous community. To no such humane +and virtuous community, is Col. Lloyd's plantation exposed. That +plantation is a little nation of its own, having its own +language, its own rules, regulations and customs. The laws and +institutions of the state, apparently touch it nowhere. The +troubles arising here, are not settled by the civil power of the +state. The overseer is generally accuser, judge, jury, advocate +and executioner. The criminal is always dumb. The overseer +attends to all sides of a case. + +There are no conflicting rights of property, for all the people +are owned by one man; and they can themselves own no property. +Religion and politics are alike excluded. One class of the +population is too high to be reached by the preacher; and the +other class is too low to be cared for by the preacher. The poor +have the gospel preached to them, in this neighborhood, only when +they are able to pay for it. The slaves, having no money, get no +gospel. The politician keeps away, because the people have no +votes, and the preacher keeps away, because the people have no +money. The rich planter can afford to learn politics in the +parlor, and to dispense with religion altogether. +<50> + +In its isolation, seclusion, and self-reliant independence, Col. +Lloyd's plantation resembles what the baronial domains were +during the middle ages in Europe. Grim, cold, and unapproachable +by all genial influences from communities without, _there it +stands;_ full three hundred years behind the age, in all that +relates to humanity and morals. + +This, however, is not the only view that the place presents. +Civilization is shut out, but nature cannot be. Though separated +from the rest of the world; though public opinion, as I have +said, seldom gets a chance to penetrate its dark domain; though +the whole place is stamped with its own peculiar, ironlike +individuality; and though crimes, high-handed and atrocious, may +there be committed, with almost as much impunity as upon the deck +of a pirate ship--it is, nevertheless, altogether, to outward +seeming, a most strikingly interesting place, full of life, +activity, and spirit; and presents a very favorable contrast to +the indolent monotony and languor of Tuckahoe. Keen as was my +regret and great as was my sorrow at leaving the latter, I was +not long in adapting myself to this, my new home. A man's +troubles are always half disposed of, when he finds endurance his +only remedy. I found myself here; there was no getting away; and +what remained for me, but to make the best of it? Here were +plenty of children to play with, and plenty of places of pleasant +resort for boys of my age, and boys older. The little tendrils +of affection, so rudely and treacherously broken from around the +darling objects of my grandmother's hut, gradually began to +extend, and to entwine about the new objects by which I now found +myself surrounded. + +There was a windmill (always a commanding object to a child's +eye) on Long Point--a tract of land dividing Miles river from the +Wye a mile or more from my old master's house. There was a creek +to swim in, at the bottom of an open flat space, of twenty acres +or more, called "the Long Green"--a very beautiful play-ground +for the children. +<51 CHARMS OF THE PLACE> + + +In the river, a short distance from the shore, lying quietly at +anchor, with her small boat dancing at her stern, was a large +sloop--the Sally Lloyd; called by that name in honor of a +favorite daughter of the colonel. The sloop and the mill were +wondrous things, full of thoughts and ideas. A child cannot well +look at such objects without _thinking_. + +Then here were a great many houses; human habitations, full of +the mysteries of life at every stage of it. There was the little +red house, up the road, occupied by Mr. Sevier, the overseer. A +little nearer to my old master's, stood a very long, rough, low +building, literally alive with slaves, of all ages, conditions +and sizes. This was called "the Longe Quarter." Perched upon a +hill, across the Long Green, was a very tall, dilapidated, old +brick building--the architectural dimensions of which proclaimed +its erection for a different purpose--now occupied by slaves, in +a similar manner to the Long Quarter. Besides these, there were +numerous other slave houses and huts, scattered around in the +neighborhood, every nook and corner of which was completely +occupied. Old master's house, a long, brick building, plain, but +substantial, stood in the center of the plantation life, and +constituted one independent establishment on the premises of Col. +Lloyd. + +Besides these dwellings, there were barns, stables, store-houses, +and tobacco-houses; blacksmiths' shops, wheelwrights' shops, +coopers' shops--all objects of interest; but, above all, there +stood the grandest building my eyes had then ever beheld, called, +by every one on the plantation, the "Great House." This was +occupied by Col. Lloyd and his family. They occupied it; _I_ +enjoyed it. The great house was surrounded by numerous and +variously shaped out-buildings. There were kitchens, wash- +houses, dairies, summer-house, green-houses, hen-houses, turkey- +houses, pigeon-houses, and arbors, of many sizes and devices, all +neatly painted, and altogether interspersed with grand old trees, +ornamental and primitive, which afforded delightful shade in +<52>summer, and imparted to the scene a high degree of stately +beauty. The great house itself was a large, white, wooden +building, with wings on three sides of it. In front, a large +portico, extending the entire length of the building, and +supported by a long range of columns, gave to the whole +establishment an air of solemn grandeur. It was a treat to my +young and gradually opening mind, to behold this elaborate +exhibition of wealth, power, and vanity. The carriage entrance +to the house was a large gate, more than a quarter of a mile +distant from it; the intermediate space was a beautiful lawn, +very neatly trimmed, and watched with the greatest care. It was +dotted thickly over with delightful trees, shrubbery, and +flowers. The road, or lane, from the gate to the great house, +was richly paved with white pebbles from the beach, and, in its +course, formed a complete circle around the beautiful lawn. +Carriages going in and retiring from the great house, made the +circuit of the lawn, and their passengers were permitted to +behold a scene of almost Eden-like beauty. Outside this select +inclosure, were parks, where as about the residences of the +English nobility--rabbits, deer, and other wild game, might be +seen, peering and playing about, with none to molest them or make +them afraid. The tops of the stately poplars were often covered +with the red-winged black-birds, making all nature vocal with the +joyous life and beauty of their wild, warbling notes. These all +belonged to me, as well as to Col. Edward Lloyd, and for a time I +greatly enjoyed them. + +A short distance from the great house, were the stately mansions +of the dead, a place of somber aspect. Vast tombs, embowered +beneath the weeping willow and the fir tree, told of the +antiquities of the Lloyd family, as well as of their wealth. +Superstition was rife among the slaves about this family burying +ground. Strange sights had been seen there by some of the older +slaves. Shrouded ghosts, riding on great black horses, had been +seen to enter; balls of fire had been seen to fly there at +midnight, and horrid sounds had been repeatedly heard. Slaves +know <53 WEALTH OF COLONEL LLOYD>enough of the rudiments of +theology to believe that those go to hell who die slaveholders; +and they often fancy such persons wishing themselves back again, +to wield the lash. Tales of sights and sounds, strange and +terrible, connected with the huge black tombs, were a very great +security to the grounds about them, for few of the slaves felt +like approaching them even in the day time. It was a dark, +gloomy and forbidding place, and it was difficult to feel that +the spirits of the sleeping dust there deposited, reigned with +the blest in the realms of eternal peace. + +The business of twenty or thirty farms was transacted at this, +called, by way of eminence, "great house farm." These farms all +belonged to Col. Lloyd, as did, also, the slaves upon them. Each +farm was under the management of an overseer. As I have said of +the overseer of the home plantation, so I may say of the +overseers on the smaller ones; they stand between the slave and +all civil constitutions--their word is law, and is implicitly +obeyed. + +The colonel, at this time, was reputed to be, and he apparently +was, very rich. His slaves, alone, were an immense fortune. +These, small and great, could not have been fewer than one +thousand in number, and though scarcely a month passed without +the sale of one or more lots to the Georgia traders, there was no +apparent diminution in the number of his human stock: the home +plantation merely groaned at a removal of the young increase, or +human crop, then proceeded as lively as ever. Horse-shoeing, +cart-mending, plow-repairing, coopering, grinding, and weaving, +for all the neighboring farms, were performed here, and slaves +were employed in all these branches. "Uncle Tony" was the +blacksmith; "Uncle Harry" was the cartwright; "Uncle Abel" was +the shoemaker; and all these had hands to assist them in their +several departments. + +These mechanics were called "uncles" by all the younger slaves, +not because they really sustained that relationship to any, but +according to plantation _etiquette_, as a mark of respect, due +<54>from the younger to the older slaves. Strange, and even +ridiculous as it may seem, among a people so uncultivated, and +with so many stern trials to look in the face, there is not to be +found, among any people, a more rigid enforcement of the law of +respect to elders, than they maintain. I set this down as partly +constitutional with my race, and partly conventional. There is +no better material in the world for making a gentleman, than is +furnished in the African. He shows to others, and exacts for +himself, all the tokens of respect which he is compelled to +manifest toward his master. A young slave must approach the +company of the older with hat in hand, and woe betide him, if he +fails to acknowledge a favor, of any sort, with the accustomed +_"tank'ee,"_ &c. So uniformly are good manners enforced among +slaves, I can easily detect a "bogus" fugitive by his manners. + +Among other slave notabilities of the plantation, was one called +by everybody Uncle Isaac Copper. It is seldom that a slave gets +a surname from anybody in Maryland; and so completely has the +south shaped the manners of the north, in this respect, that even +abolitionists make very little of the surname of a Negro. The +only improvement on the "Bills," "Jacks," "Jims," and "Neds" of +the south, observable here is, that "William," "John," "James," +"Edward," are substituted. It goes against the grain to treat +and address a Negro precisely as they would treat and address a +white man. But, once in a while, in slavery as in the free +states, by some extraordinary circumstance, the Negro has a +surname fastened to him, and holds it against all +conventionalities. This was the case with Uncle Isaac Copper. +When the "uncle" was dropped, he generally had the prefix +"doctor," in its stead. He was our doctor of medicine, and +doctor of divinity as well. Where he took his degree I am unable +to say, for he was not very communicative to inferiors, and I was +emphatically such, being but a boy seven or eight years old. He +was too well established in his profession to permit questions as +to his native skill, or his attainments. One qualification he +undoubtedly had--he <55 PRAYING AND FLOGGING>was a confirmed +_cripple;_ and he could neither work, nor would he bring anything +if offered for sale in the market. The old man, though lame, was +no sluggard. He was a man that made his crutches do him good +service. He was always on the alert, looking up the sick, and +all such as were supposed to need his counsel. His remedial +prescriptions embraced four articles. For diseases of the body, +_Epsom salts and castor oil;_ for those of the soul, _the Lord's +Prayer_, and _hickory switches_! + +I was not long at Col. Lloyd's before I was placed under the care +of Doctor Issac Copper. I was sent to him with twenty or thirty +other children, to learn the "Lord's Prayer." I found the old +gentleman seated on a huge three-legged oaken stool, armed with +several large hickory switches; and, from his position, he could +reach--lame as he was--any boy in the room. After standing +awhile to learn what was expected of us, the old gentleman, in +any other than a devotional tone, commanded us to kneel down. +This done, he commenced telling us to say everything he said. +"Our Father"--this was repeated after him with promptness and +uniformity; "Who art in heaven"--was less promptly and uniformly +repeated; and the old gentleman paused in the prayer, to give us +a short lecture upon the consequences of inattention, both +immediate and future, and especially those more immediate. About +these he was absolutely certain, for he held in his right hand +the means of bringing all his predictions and warnings to pass. +On he proceeded with the prayer; and we with our thick tongues +and unskilled ears, followed him to the best of our ability. +This, however, was not sufficient to please the old gentleman. +Everybody, in the south, wants the privilege of whipping somebody +else. Uncle Isaac shared the common passion of his country, and, +therefore, seldom found any means of keeping his disciples in +order short of flogging. "Say everything I say;" and bang would +come the switch on some poor boy's undevotional head. _"What you +looking at there"--"Stop that pushing"_--and down again would +come the lash. +<56> + +The whip is all in all. It is supposed to secure obedience to +the slaveholder, and is held as a sovereign remedy among the +slaves themselves, for every form of disobedience, temporal or +spiritual. Slaves, as well as slaveholders, use it with an +unsparing hand. Our devotions at Uncle Isaac's combined too much +of the tragic and comic, to make them very salutary in a +spiritual point of view; and it is due to truth to say, I was +often a truant when the time for attending the praying and +flogging of Doctor Isaac Copper came on. + +The windmill under the care of Mr. Kinney, a kind hearted old +Englishman, was to me a source of infinite interest and pleasure. +The old man always seemed pleased when he saw a troop of darkey +little urchins, with their tow-linen shirts fluttering in the +breeze, approaching to view and admire the whirling wings of his +wondrous machine. From the mill we could see other objects of +deep interest. These were, the vessels from St. Michael's, on +their way to Baltimore. It was a source of much amusement to +view the flowing sails and complicated rigging, as the little +crafts dashed by, and to speculate upon Baltimore, as to the kind +and quality of the place. With so many sources of interest +around me, the reader may be prepared to learn that I began to +think very highly of Col. L.'s plantation. It was just a place +to my boyish taste. There were fish to be caught in the creek, +if one only had a hook and line; and crabs, clams and oysters +were to be caught by wading, digging and raking for them. Here +was a field for industry and enterprise, strongly inviting; and +the reader may be assured that I entered upon it with spirit. + +Even the much dreaded old master, whose merciless fiat had +brought me from Tuckahoe, gradually, to my mind, parted with his +terrors. Strange enough, his reverence seemed to take no +particular notice of me, nor of my coming. Instead of leaping +out and devouring me, he scarcely seemed conscious of my +presence. The fact is, he was occupied with matters more weighty +and important than either looking after or vexing me. He +probably thought as <57 "OLD MASTER" LOSING ITS TERRORS>little of +my advent, as he would have thought of the addition of a single +pig to his stock! + +As the chief butler on Col. Lloyd's plantation, his duties were +numerous and perplexing. In almost all important matters he +answered in Col. Lloyd's stead. The overseers of all the farms +were in some sort under him, and received the law from his mouth. +The colonel himself seldom addressed an overseer, or allowed an +overseer to address him. Old master carried the keys of all +store houses; measured out the allowance for each slave at the +end of every month; superintended the storing of all goods +brought to the plantation; dealt out the raw material to all the +handicraftsmen; shipped the grain, tobacco, and all saleable +produce of the plantation to market, and had the general +oversight of the coopers' shop, wheelwrights' shop, blacksmiths' +shop, and shoemakers' shop. Besides the care of these, he often +had business for the plantation which required him to be absent +two and three days. + +Thus largely employed, he had little time, and perhaps as little +disposition, to interfere with the children individually. What +he was to Col. Lloyd, he made Aunt Katy to him. When he had +anything to say or do about us, it was said or done in a +wholesale manner; disposing of us in classes or sizes, leaving +all minor details to Aunt Katy, a person of whom the reader has +already received no very favorable impression. Aunt Katy was a +woman who never allowed herself to act greatly within the margin +of power granted to her, no matter how broad that authority might +be. Ambitious, ill-tempered and cruel, she found in her present +position an ample field for the exercise of her ill-omened +qualities. She had a strong hold on old master she was +considered a first rate cook, and she really was very +industrious. She was, therefore, greatly favored by old master, +and as one mark of his favor, she was the only mother who was +permitted to retain her children around her. Even to these +children she was often fiendish in her brutality. She pursued +her son Phil, one day, in <58>my presence, with a huge butcher +knife, and dealt a blow with its edge which left a shocking gash +on his arm, near the wrist. For this, old master did sharply +rebuke her, and threatened that if she ever should do the like +again, he would take the skin off her back. Cruel, however, as +Aunt Katy was to her own children, at times she was not destitute +of maternal feeling, as I often had occasion to know, in the +bitter pinches of hunger I had to endure. Differing from the +practice of Col. Lloyd, old master, instead of allowing so much +for each slave, committed the allowance for all to the care of +Aunt Katy, to be divided after cooking it, amongst us. The +allowance, consisting of coarse corn-meal, was not very +abundant--indeed, it was very slender; and in passing through +Aunt Katy's hands, it was made more slender still, for some of +us. William, Phil and Jerry were her children, and it is not to +accuse her too severely, to allege that she was often guilty of +starving myself and the other children, while she was literally +cramming her own. Want of food was my chief trouble the first +summer at my old master's. Oysters and clams would do very well, +with an occasional supply of bread, but they soon failed in the +absence of bread. I speak but the simple truth, when I say, I +have often been so pinched with hunger, that I have fought with +the dog--"Old Nep"--for the smallest crumbs that fell from the +kitchen table, and have been glad when I won a single crumb in +the combat. Many times have I followed, with eager step, the +waiting-girl when she went out to shake the table cloth, to get +the crumbs and small bones flung out for the cats. The water, in +which meat had been boiled, was as eagerly sought for by me. It +was a great thing to get the privilege of dipping a piece of +bread in such water; and the skin taken from rusty bacon, was a +positive luxury. Nevertheless, I sometimes got full meals and +kind words from sympathizing old slaves, who knew my sufferings, +and received the comforting assurance that I should be a man some +day. "Never mind, honey--better day comin'," was even then a +solace, a cheering consolation to me in my <59 JARGON OF THE +PLANTATION>troubles. Nor were all the kind words I received from +slaves. I had a friend in the parlor, as well, and one to whom I +shall be glad to do justice, before I have finished this part of +my story. + +I was not long at old master's, before I learned that his surname +was Anthony, and that he was generally called "Captain Anthony"-- +a title which he probably acquired by sailing a craft in the +Chesapeake Bay. Col. Lloyd's slaves never called Capt. Anthony +"old master," but always Capt. Anthony; and _me_ they called +"Captain Anthony Fred." There is not, probably, in the whole +south, a plantation where the English language is more +imperfectly spoken than on Col. Lloyd's. It is a mixture of +Guinea and everything else you please. At the time of which I am +now writing, there were slaves there who had been brought from +the coast of Africa. They never used the "s" in indication of +the possessive case. "Cap'n Ant'ney Tom," "Lloyd Bill," "Aunt +Rose Harry," means "Captain Anthony's Tom," "Lloyd's Bill," &c. +_"Oo you dem long to?"_ means, "Whom do you belong to?" _"Oo dem +got any peachy?"_ means, "Have you got any peaches?" I could +scarcely understand them when I first went among them, so broken +was their speech; and I am persuaded that I could not have been +dropped anywhere on the globe, where I could reap less, in the +way of knowledge, from my immediate associates, than on this +plantation. Even "MAS' DANIEL," by his association with his +father's slaves, had measurably adopted their dialect and their +ideas, so far as they had ideas to be adopted. The equality of +nature is strongly asserted in childhood, and childhood requires +children for associates. _Color_ makes no difference with a +child. Are you a child with wants, tastes and pursuits common to +children, not put on, but natural? then, were you black as ebony +you would be welcome to the child of alabaster whiteness. The +law of compensation holds here, as well as elsewhere. Mas' +Daniel could not associate with ignorance without sharing its +shade; and he could not give his black playmates his company, +without giving them his intelligence, as well. Without knowing +<60>this, or caring about it, at the time, I, for some cause or +other, spent much of my time with Mas' Daniel, in preference to +spending it with most of the other boys. + +Mas' Daniel was the youngest son of Col. Lloyd; his older +brothers were Edward and Murray--both grown up, and fine looking +men. Edward was especially esteemed by the children, and by me +among the rest; not that he ever said anything to us or for us, +which could be called especially kind; it was enough for us, that +he never looked nor acted scornfully toward us. There were also +three sisters, all married; one to Edward Winder; a second to +Edward Nicholson; a third to Mr. Lownes. + +The family of old master consisted of two sons, Andrew and +Richard; his daughter, Lucretia, and her newly married husband, +Capt. Auld. This was the house family. The kitchen family +consisted of Aunt Katy, Aunt Esther, and ten or a dozen children, +most of them older than myself. Capt. Anthony was not considered +a rich slaveholder, but was pretty well off in the world. He +owned about thirty _"head"_ of slaves, and three farms in +Tuckahoe. The most valuable part of his property was his slaves, +of whom he could afford to sell one every year. This crop, +therefore, brought him seven or eight hundred dollars a year, +besides his yearly salary, and other revenue from his farms. + +The idea of rank and station was rigidly maintained on Col. +Lloyd's plantation. Our family never visited the great house, +and the Lloyds never came to our home. Equal non-intercourse was +observed between Capt. Anthony's family and that of Mr. Sevier, +the overseer. + +Such, kind reader, was the community, and such the place, in +which my earliest and most lasting impressions of slavery, and of +slave-life, were received; of which impressions you will learn +more in the coming chapters of this book. + + +CHAPTER V +_Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery_ + +GROWING ACQUAINTANCE WITH OLD MASTER--HIS CHARACTER--EVILS OF +UNRESTRAINED PASSION--APPARENT TENDERNESS--OLD MASTER A MAN OF +TROUBLE--CUSTOM OF MUTTERING TO HIMSELF--NECESSITY OF BEING AWARE +OF HIS WORDS--THE SUPPOSED OBTUSENESS OF SLAVE-CHILDREN--BRUTAL +OUTRAGE--DRUNKEN OVERSEER--SLAVEHOLDER'S IMPATIENCE--WISDOM OF +APPEALING TO SUPERIORS--THE SLAVEHOLDER S WRATH BAD AS THAT OF +THE OVERSEER--A BASE AND SELFISH ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP A +COURTSHIP--A HARROWING SCENE. + + +Although my old master--Capt. Anthony--gave me at first, (as the +reader will have already seen) very little attention, and +although that little was of a remarkably mild and gentle +description, a few months only were sufficient to convince me +that mildness and gentleness were not the prevailing or governing +traits of his character. These excellent qualities were +displayed only occasionally. He could, when it suited him, +appear to be literally insensible to the claims of humanity, when +appealed to by the helpless against an aggressor, and he could +himself commit outrages, deep, dark and nameless. Yet he was not +by nature worse than other men. Had he been brought up in a free +state, surrounded by the just restraints of free society-- +restraints which are necessary to the freedom of all its members, +alike and equally--Capt. Anthony might have been as humane a man, +and every way as respectable, as many who now oppose the slave +system; certainly as humane and respectable as are members of +society generally. The slaveholder, as well as the slave, is the +victim of the slave <62>system. A man's character greatly takes +its hue and shape from the form and color of things about him. +Under the whole heavens there is no relation more unfavorable to +the development of honorable character, than that sustained by +the slaveholder to the slave. Reason is imprisoned here, and +passions run wild. Like the fires of the prairie, once lighted, +they are at the mercy of every wind, and must burn, till they +have consumed all that is combustible within their remorseless +grasp. Capt. Anthony could be kind, and, at times, he even +showed an affectionate disposition. Could the reader have seen +him gently leading me by the hand--as he sometimes did--patting +me on the head, speaking to me in soft, caressing tones and +calling me his "little Indian boy," he would have deemed him a +kind old man, and really, almost fatherly. But the pleasant +moods of a slaveholder are remarkably brittle; they are easily +snapped; they neither come often, nor remain long. His temper is +subjected to perpetual trials; but, since these trials are never +borne patiently, they add nothing to his natural stock of +patience. + +Old master very early impressed me with the idea that he was an +unhappy man. Even to my child's eye, he wore a troubled, and at +times, a haggard aspect. His strange movements excited my +curiosity, and awakened my compassion. He seldom walked alone +without muttering to himself; and he occasionally stormed about, +as if defying an army of invisible foes. "He would do this, +that, and the other; he'd be d--d if he did not,"--was the usual +form of his threats. Most of his leisure was spent in walking, +cursing and gesticulating, like one possessed by a demon. Most +evidently, he was a wretched man, at war with his own soul, and +with all the world around him. To be overheard by the children, +disturbed him very little. He made no more of our presence, than +of that of the ducks and geese which he met on the green. He +little thought that the little black urchins around him, could +see, through those vocal crevices, the very secrets of his heart. +Slaveholders ever underrate the intelligence with which <63 +SUPPOSED OBTUSENESS OF SLAVE-CHILDREN>they have to grapple. I +really understood the old man's mutterings, attitudes and +gestures, about as well as he did himself. But slaveholders +never encourage that kind of communication, with the slaves, by +which they might learn to measure the depths of his knowledge. +Ignorance is a high virtue in a human chattel; and as the master +studies to keep the slave ignorant, the slave is cunning enough +to make the master think he succeeds. The slave fully +appreciates the saying, "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to +be wise." When old master's gestures were violent, ending with a +threatening shake of the head, and a sharp snap of his middle +finger and thumb, I deemed it wise to keep at a respectable +distance from him; for, at such times, trifling faults stood, in +his eyes, as momentous offenses; and, having both the power and +the disposition, the victim had only to be near him to catch the +punishment, deserved or undeserved. + +One of the first circumstances that opened my eyes to the cruelty +and wickedness of slavery, and the heartlessness of my old +master, was the refusal of the latter to interpose his authority, +to protect and shield a young woman, who had been most cruelly +abused and beaten by his overseer in Tuckahoe. This overseer--a +Mr. Plummer--was a man like most of his class, little better than +a human brute; and, in addition to his general profligacy and +repulsive coarseness, the creature was a miserable drunkard. He +was, probably, employed by my old master, less on account of the +excellence of his services, than for the cheap rate at which they +could be obtained. He was not fit to have the management of a +drove of mules. In a fit of drunken madness, he committed the +outrage which brought the young woman in question down to my old +master's for protection. This young woman was the daughter of +Milly, an own aunt of mine. The poor girl, on arriving at our +house, presented a pitiable appearance. She had left in haste, +and without preparation; and, probably, without the knowledge of +Mr. Plummer. She had traveled twelve miles, bare-footed, bare- +necked and bare-headed. Her neck and shoulders <64>were covered +with scars, newly made; and not content with marring her neck and +shoulders, with the cowhide, the cowardly brute had dealt her a +blow on the head with a hickory club, which cut a horrible gash, +and left her face literally covered with blood. In this +condition, the poor young woman came down, to implore protection +at the hands of my old master. I expected to see him boil over +with rage at the revolting deed, and to hear him fill the air +with curses upon the brutual Plummer; but I was disappointed. He +sternly told her, in an angry tone, he "believed she deserved +every bit of it," and, if she did not go home instantly, he would +himself take the remaining skin from her neck and back. Thus was +the poor girl compelled to return, without redress, and perhaps +to receive an additional flogging for daring to appeal to old +master against the overseer. + +Old master seemed furious at the thought of being troubled by +such complaints. I did not, at that time, understand the +philosophy of his treatment of my cousin. It was stern, +unnatural, violent. Had the man no bowels of compassion? Was he +dead to all sense of humanity? No. I think I now understand it. +This treatment is a part of the system, rather than a part of the +man. Were slaveholders to listen to complaints of this sort +against the overseers, the luxury of owning large numbers of +slaves, would be impossible. It would do away with the office of +overseer, entirely; or, in other words, it would convert the +master himself into an overseer. It would occasion great loss of +time and labor, leaving the overseer in fetters, and without the +necessary power to secure obedience to his orders. A privilege +so dangerous as that of appeal, is, therefore, strictly +prohibited; and any one exercising it, runs a fearful hazard. +Nevertheless, when a slave has nerve enough to exercise it, and +boldly approaches his master, with a well-founded complaint +against an overseer, though he may be repulsed, and may even have +that of which he complains repeated at the time, and, though he +may be beaten by his master, as well as by the overseer, for his +temerity, in the end the <65 SLAVEHOLDERS IMPATIENCE>policy of +complaining is, generally, vindicated by the relaxed rigor of the +overseer's treatment. The latter becomes more careful, and less +disposed to use the lash upon such slaves thereafter. It is with +this final result in view, rather than with any expectation of +immediate good, that the outraged slave is induced to meet his +master with a complaint. The overseer very naturally dislikes to +have the ear of the master disturbed by complaints; and, either +upon this consideration, or upon advice and warning privately +given him by his employers, he generally modifies the rigor of +his rule, after an outbreak of the kind to which I have been +referring. + +Howsoever the slaveholder may allow himself to act toward his +slave, and, whatever cruelty he may deem it wise, for example's +sake, or for the gratification of his humor, to inflict, he +cannot, in the absence of all provocation, look with pleasure +upon the bleeding wounds of a defenseless slave-woman. When he +drives her from his presence without redress, or the hope of +redress, he acts, generally, from motives of policy, rather than +from a hardened nature, or from innate brutality. Yet, let but +his own temper be stirred, his own passions get loose, and the +slave-owner will go _far beyond_ the overseer in cruelty. He +will convince the slave that his wrath is far more terrible and +boundless, and vastly more to be dreaded, than that of the +underling overseer. What may have been mechanically and +heartlessly done by the overseer, is now done with a will. The +man who now wields the lash is irresponsible. He may, if he +pleases, cripple or kill, without fear of consequences; except in +so far as it may concern profit or loss. To a man of violent +temper--as my old master was--this was but a very slender and +inefficient restraint. I have seen him in a tempest of passion, +such as I have just described--a passion into which entered all +the bitter ingredients of pride, hatred, envy, jealousy, and the +thrist{sic} for revenge. + +The circumstances which I am about to narrate, and which gave +rise to this fearful tempest of passion, are not singular nor +<66>isolated in slave life, but are common in every slaveholding +community in which I have lived. They are incidental to the +relation of master and slave, and exist in all sections of slave- +holding countries. + +The reader will have noticed that, in enumerating the names of +the slaves who lived with my old master, _Esther_ is mentioned. +This was a young woman who possessed that which is ever a curse +to the slave-girl; namely--personal beauty. She was tall, well +formed, and made a fine appearance. The daughters of Col. Lloyd +could scarcely surpass her in personal charms. Esther was +courted by Ned Roberts, and he was as fine looking a young man, +as she was a woman. He was the son of a favorite slave of Col. +Lloyd. Some slaveholders would have been glad to promote the +marriage of two such persons; but, for some reason or other, my +old master took it upon him to break up the growing intimacy +between Esther and Edward. He strictly ordered her to quit the +company of said Roberts, telling her that he would punish her +severely if he ever found her again in Edward's company. This +unnatural and heartless order was, of course, broken. A woman's +love is not to be annihilated by the peremptory command of any +one, whose breath is in his nostrils. It was impossible to keep +Edward and Esther apart. Meet they would, and meet they did. +Had old master been a man of honor and purity, his motives, in +this matter, might have been viewed more favorably. As it was, +his motives were as abhorrent, as his methods were foolish and +contemptible. It was too evident that he was not concerned for +the girl's welfare. It is one of the damning characteristics of +the slave system, that it robs its victims of every earthly +incentive to a holy life. The fear of God, and the hope of +heaven, are found sufficient to sustain many slave-women, amidst +the snares and dangers of their strange lot; but, this side of +God and heaven, a slave-woman is at the mercy of the power, +caprice and passion of her owner. Slavery provides no means for +the honorable continuance of the race. Marriage as imposing +obligations on the parties to it--has no <67 A HARROWING SCENE> +existence here, except in such hearts as are purer and higher +than the standard morality around them. It is one of the +consolations of my life, that I know of many honorable instances +of persons who maintained their honor, where all around was +corrupt. + +Esther was evidently much attached to Edward, and abhorred--as +she had reason to do--the tyrannical and base behavior of old +master. Edward was young, and fine looking, and he loved and +courted her. He might have been her husband, in the high sense +just alluded to; but WHO and _what_ was this old master? His +attentions were plainly brutal and selfish, and it was as natural +that Esther should loathe him, as that she should love Edward. +Abhorred and circumvented as he was, old master, having the +power, very easily took revenge. I happened to see this +exhibition of his rage and cruelty toward Esther. The time +selected was singular. It was early in the morning, when all +besides was still, and before any of the family, in the house or +kitchen, had left their beds. I saw but few of the shocking +preliminaries, for the cruel work had begun before I awoke. I +was probably awakened by the shrieks and piteous cries of poor +Esther. My sleeping place was on the floor of a little, rough +closet, which opened into the kitchen; and through the cracks of +its unplaned boards, I could distinctly see and hear what was +going on, without being seen by old master. Esther's wrists were +firmly tied, and the twisted rope was fastened to a strong staple +in a heavy wooden joist above, near the fireplace. Here she +stood, on a bench, her arms tightly drawn over her breast. Her +back and shoulders were bare to the waist. Behind her stood old +master, with cowskin in hand, preparing his barbarous work with +all manner of harsh, coarse, and tantalizing epithets. The +screams of his victim were most piercing. He was cruelly +deliberate, and protracted the torture, as one who was delighted +with the scene. Again and again he drew the hateful whip through +his hand, adjusting it with a view of dealing the most pain- +giving blow. Poor Esther had never yet been severely whipped, +and her shoulders <68>were plump and tender. Each blow, +vigorously laid on, brought screams as well as blood. _"Have +mercy; Oh! have mercy"_ she cried; "_I won't do so no more;"_ but +her piercing cries seemed only to increase his fury. His answers +to them are too coarse and blasphemous to be produced here. The +whole scene, with all its attendants, was revolting and shocking, +to the last degree; and when the motives of this brutal +castigation are considered,--language has no power to convey a +just sense of its awful criminality. After laying on some thirty +or forty stripes, old master untied his suffering victim, and let +her get down. She could scarcely stand, when untied. From my +heart I pitied her, and--child though I was--the outrage kindled +in me a feeling far from peaceful; but I was hushed, terrified, +stunned, and could do nothing, and the fate of Esther might be +mine next. The scene here described was often repeated in the +case of poor Esther, and her life, as I knew it, was one of +wretchedness. + + + +CHAPTER VI +_Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd's Plantation_ + +EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY--PRESENTIMENT OF ONE DAY BEING A +FREEMAN--COMBAT BETWEEN AN OVERSEER AND A SLAVEWOMAN--THE +ADVANTAGES OF RESISTANCE--ALLOWANCE DAY ON THE HOME PLANTATION-- +THE SINGING OF SLAVES--AN EXPLANATION--THE SLAVES FOOD AND +CLOTHING--NAKED CHILDREN--LIFE IN THE QUARTER--DEPRIVATION OF +SLEEP--NURSING CHILDREN CARRIED TO THE FIELD--DESCRIPTION OF THE +COWSKIN--THE ASH-CAKE--MANNER OF MAKING IT--THE DINNER HOUR--THE +CONTRAST. + + +The heart-rending incidents, related in the foregoing chapter, +led me, thus early, to inquire into the nature and history of +slavery. _Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and +others masters? Was there ever a time this was not so? How did +the relation commence?_ These were the perplexing questions +which began now to claim my thoughts, and to exercise the weak +powers of my mind, for I was still but a child, and knew less +than children of the same age in the free states. As my +questions concerning these things were only put to children a +little older, and little better informed than myself, I was not +rapid in reaching a solid footing. By some means I learned from +these inquiries that _"God, up in the sky,"_ made every body; and +that he made _white_ people to be masters and mistresses, and +_black_ people to be slaves. This did not satisfy me, nor lessen +my interest in the subject. I was told, too, that God was good, +and that He knew what was best for me, and best for everybody. +This was less satisfactory than the first statement; because it +came, point blank, against all my <70>notions of goodness. It +was not good to let old master cut the flesh off Esther, and make +her cry so. Besides, how did people know that God made black +people to be slaves? Did they go up in the sky and learn it? or, +did He come down and tell them so? All was dark here. It was +some relief to my hard notions of the goodness of God, that, +although he made white men to be slaveholders, he did not make +them to be _bad_ slaveholders, and that, in due time, he would +punish the bad slaveholders; that he would, when they died, send +them to the bad place, where they would be "burnt up." +Nevertheless, I could not reconcile the relation of slavery with +my crude notions of goodness. + +Then, too, I found that there were puzzling exceptions to this +theory of slavery on both sides, and in the middle. I knew of +blacks who were _not_ slaves; I knew of whites who were _not_ +slaveholders; and I knew of persons who were _nearly_ white, who +were slaves. _Color_, therefore, was a very unsatisfactory basis +for slavery. + +Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in +finding out the true solution of the matter. It was not _color_, +but _crime_, not _God_, but _man_, that afforded the true +explanation of the existence of slavery; nor was I long in +finding out another important truth, viz: what man can make, man +can unmake. The appalling darkness faded away, and I was master +of the subject. There were slaves here, direct from Guinea; and +there were many who could say that their fathers and mothers were +stolen from Africa--forced from their homes, and compelled to +serve as slaves. This, to me, was knowledge; but it was a kind +of knowledge which filled me with a burning hatred of slavery, +increased my suffering, and left me without the means of breaking +away from my bondage. Yet it was knowledge quite worth +possessing. I could not have been more than seven or eight years +old, when I began to make this subject my study. It was with me +in the woods and fields; along the shore of the river, and +wherever my boyish wanderings led me; and though I was, at that +time, <71 EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY>quite ignorant of the +existence of the free states, I distinctly remember being, _even +then_, most strongly impressed with the idea of being a freeman +some day. This cheering assurance was an inborn dream of my +human nature a constant menace to slavery--and one which all the +powers of slavery were unable to silence or extinguish. + +Up to the time of the brutal flogging of my Aunt Esther--for she +was my own aunt--and the horrid plight in which I had seen my +cousin from Tuckahoe, who had been so badly beaten by the cruel +Mr. Plummer, my attention had not been called, especially, to the +gross features of slavery. I had, of course, heard of whippings +and of savage _rencontres_ between overseers and slaves, but I +had always been out of the way at the times and places of their +occurrence. My plays and sports, most of the time, took me from +the corn and tobacco fields, where the great body of the hands +were at work, and where scenes of cruelty were enacted and +witnessed. But, after the whipping of Aunt Esther, I saw many +cases of the same shocking nature, not only in my master's house, +but on Col. Lloyd's plantation. One of the first which I saw, +and which greatly agitated me, was the whipping of a woman +belonging to Col. Lloyd, named Nelly. The offense alleged +against Nelly, was one of the commonest and most indefinite in +the whole catalogue of offenses usually laid to the charge of +slaves, viz: "impudence." This may mean almost anything, or +nothing at all, just according to the caprice of the master or +overseer, at the moment. But, whatever it is, or is not, if it +gets the name of "impudence," the party charged with it is sure +of a flogging. This offense may be committed in various ways; in +the tone of an answer; in answering at all; in not answering; in +the expression of countenance; in the motion of the head; in the +gait, manner and bearing of the slave. In the case under +consideration, I can easily believe that, according to all +slaveholding standards, here was a genuine instance of impudence. +In Nelly there were all the necessary conditions for committing +the offense. She was <72>a bright mulatto, the recognized wife +of a favorite "hand" on board Col. Lloyd's sloop, and the mother +of five sprightly children. She was a vigorous and spirited +woman, and one of the most likely, on the plantation, to be +guilty of impudence. My attention was called to the scene, by +the noise, curses and screams that proceeded from it; and, on +going a little in that direction, I came upon the parties engaged +in the skirmish. Mr. Siever, the overseer, had hold of Nelly, +when I caught sight of them; he was endeavoring to drag her +toward a tree, which endeavor Nelly was sternly resisting; but to +no purpose, except to retard the progress of the overseer's +plans. Nelly--as I have said--was the mother of five children; +three of them were present, and though quite small (from seven to +ten years old, I should think) they gallantly came to their +mother's defense, and gave the overseer an excellent pelting with +stones. One of the little fellows ran up, seized the overseer by +the leg and bit him; but the monster was too busily engaged with +Nelly, to pay any attention to the assaults of the children. +There were numerous bloody marks on Mr. Sevier's face, when I +first saw him, and they increased as the struggle went on. The +imprints of Nelly's fingers were visible, and I was glad to see +them. Amidst the wild screams of the children--"_Let my mammy +go"--"let my mammy go_"--there escaped, from between the teeth of +the bullet-headed overseer, a few bitter curses, mingled with +threats, that "he would teach the d--d b--h how to give a white +man impudence." There is no doubt that Nelly felt herself +superior, in some respects, to the slaves around her. She was a +wife and a mother; her husband was a valued and favorite slave. +Besides, he was one of the first hands on board of the sloop, and +the sloop hands--since they had to represent the plantation +abroad--were generally treated tenderly. The overseer never was +allowed to whip Harry; why then should he be allowed to whip +Harry's wife? Thoughts of this kind, no doubt, influenced her; +but, for whatever reason, she nobly resisted, and, unlike most of +the slaves, <73 COMBAT BETWEEN MR. SEVIER AND NELLY>seemed +determined to make her whipping cost Mr. Sevier as much as +possible. The blood on his (and her) face, attested her skill, +as well as her courage and dexterity in using her nails. +Maddened by her resistance, I expected to see Mr. Sevier level +her to the ground by a stunning blow; but no; like a savage bull- +dog--which he resembled both in temper and appearance--he +maintained his grip, and steadily dragged his victim toward the +tree, disregarding alike her blows, and the cries of the children +for their mother's release. He would, doubtless, have knocked +her down with his hickory stick, but that such act might have +cost him his place. It is often deemed advisable to knock a +_man_ slave down, in order to tie him, but it is considered +cowardly and inexcusable, in an overseer, thus to deal with a +_woman_. He is expected to tie her up, and to give her what is +called, in southern parlance, a "genteel flogging," without any +very great outlay of strength or skill. I watched, with +palpitating interest, the course of the preliminary struggle, and +was saddened by every new advantage gained over her by the +ruffian. There were times when she seemed likely to get the +better of the brute, but he finally overpowered her, and +succeeded in getting his rope around her arms, and in firmly +tying her to the tree, at which he had been aiming. This done, +and Nelly was at the mercy of his merciless lash; and now, what +followed, I have no heart to describe. The cowardly creature +made good his every threat; and wielded the lash with all the hot +zest of furious revenge. The cries of the woman, while +undergoing the terrible infliction, were mingled with those of +the children, sounds which I hope the reader may never be called +upon to hear. When Nelly was untied, her back was covered with +blood. The red stripes were all over her shoulders. She was +whipped--severely whipped; but she was not subdued, for she +continued to denounce the overseer, and to call him every vile +name. He had bruised her flesh, but had left her invincible +spirit undaunted. Such floggings are seldom repeated by the same +overseer. They prefer to whip those <74>who are most easily +whipped. The old doctrine that submission is the very best cure +for outrage and wrong, does not hold good on the slave +plantation. He is whipped oftenest, who is whipped easiest; and +that slave who has the courage to stand up for himself against +the overseer, although he may have many hard stripes at the +first, becomes, in the end, a freeman, even though he sustain the +formal relation of a slave. "You can shoot me but you can't whip +me," said a slave to Rigby Hopkins; and the result was that he +was neither whipped nor shot. If the latter had been his fate, +it would have been less deplorable than the living and lingering +death to which cowardly and slavish souls are subjected. I do +not know that Mr. Sevier ever undertook to whip Nelly again. He +probably never did, for it was not long after his attempt to +subdue her, that he was taken sick, and died. The wretched man +died as he had lived, unrepentant; and it was said--with how much +truth I know not--that in the very last hours of his life, his +ruling passion showed itself, and that when wrestling with death, +he was uttering horrid oaths, and flourishing the cowskin, as +though he was tearing the flesh off some helpless slave. One +thing is certain, that when he was in health, it was enough to +chill the blood, and to stiffen the hair of an ordinary man, to +hear Mr. Sevier talk. Nature, or his cruel habits, had given to +his face an expression of unusual savageness, even for a slave- +driver. Tobacco and rage had worn his teeth short, and nearly +every sentence that escaped their compressed grating, was +commenced or concluded with some outburst of profanity. His +presence made the field alike the field of blood, and of +blasphemy. Hated for his cruelty, despised for his cowardice, +his death was deplored by no one outside his own house--if indeed +it was deplored there; it was regarded by the slaves as a +merciful interposition of Providence. Never went there a man to +the grave loaded with heavier curses. Mr. Sevier's place was +promptly taken by a Mr. Hopkins, and the change was quite a +relief, he being a very different man. He was, in <75 ALLOWANCE +DAY AT THE HOME PLANTATION>all respects, a better man than his +predecessor; as good as any man can be, and yet be an overseer. +His course was characterized by no extraordinary cruelty; and +when he whipped a slave, as he sometimes did, he seemed to take +no especial pleasure in it, but, on the contrary, acted as though +he felt it to be a mean business. Mr. Hopkins stayed but a short +time; his place much to the regret of the slaves generally--was +taken by a Mr. Gore, of whom more will be said hereafter. It is +enough, for the present, to say, that he was no improvement on +Mr. Sevier, except that he was less noisy and less profane. + +I have already referred to the business-like aspect of Col. +Lloyd's plantation. This business-like appearance was much +increased on the two days at the end of each month, when the +slaves from the different farms came to get their monthly +allowance of meal and meat. These were gala days for the slaves, +and there was much rivalry among them as to _who_ should be +elected to go up to the great house farm for the allowance, and, +indeed, to attend to any business at this (for them) the capital. +The beauty and grandeur of the place, its numerous slave +population, and the fact that Harry, Peter and Jake the sailors +of the sloop--almost always kept, privately, little trinkets +which they bought at Baltimore, to sell, made it a privilege to +come to the great house farm. Being selected, too, for this +office, was deemed a high honor. It was taken as a proof of +confidence and favor; but, probably, the chief motive of the +competitors for the place, was, a desire to break the dull +monotony of the field, and to get beyond the overseer's eye and +lash. Once on the road with an ox team, and seated on the tongue +of his cart, with no overseer to look after him, the slave was +comparatively free; and, if thoughtful, he had time to think. +Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work. A +silent slave is not liked by masters or overseers. _"Make a +noise," "make a noise,"_ and _"bear a hand,"_ are the words +usually addressed to the slaves when there is silence amongst +them. This may account for the almost constant singing <76>heard +in the southern states. There was, generally, more or less +singing among the teamsters, as it was one means of letting the +overseer know where they were, and that they were moving on with +the work. But, on allowance day, those who visited the great +house farm were peculiarly excited and noisy. While on their +way, they would make the dense old woods, for miles around, +reverberate with their wild notes. These were not always merry +because they were wild. On the contrary, they were mostly of a +plaintive cast, and told a tale of grief and sorrow. In the most +boisterous outbursts of rapturous sentiment, there was ever a +tinge of deep melancholy. I have never heard any songs like +those anywhere since I left slavery, except when in Ireland. +There I heard the same _wailing notes_, and was much affected by +them. It was during the famine of 1845-6. In all the songs of +the slaves, there was ever some expression in praise of the great +house farm; something which would flatter the pride of the owner, +and, possibly, draw a favorable glance from him. + + _I am going away to the great house farm, + O yea! O yea! O yea! + My old master is a good old master, + O yea! O yea! O yea!_ + + +This they would sing, with other words of their own improvising-- +jargon to others, but full of meaning to themselves. I have +sometimes thought, that the mere hearing of those songs would do +more to impress truly spiritual-minded men and women with the +soul-crushing and death-dealing character of slavery, than the +reading of whole volumes of its mere physical cruelties. They +speak to the heart and to the soul of the thoughtful. I cannot +better express my sense of them now, than ten years ago, when, in +sketching my life, I thus spoke of this feature of my plantation +experience: + + +I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meanings of those +rude, and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the +circle, so that I neither saw or heard as those without might see +and hear. They told a tale which was <77 SINGING OF SLAVES--AN +EXPLANATION>then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they +were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and +complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. +Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God +for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes +always depressed my spirits, and filled my heart with ineffable +sadness. The mere recurrence, even now, afflicts my spirit, and +while I am writing these lines, my tears are falling. To those +songs I trace my first glimmering conceptions of the dehumanizing +character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. +Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and +quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one +wishes to be impressed with a sense of the soul-killing power of +slavery, let him go to Col. Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance +day, place himself in the deep, pine woods, and there let him, in +silence, thoughtfully analyze the sounds that shall pass through +the chambers of his soul, and if he is not thus impressed, it +will only be because "there is no flesh in his obdurate heart." + + +The remark is not unfrequently made, that slaves are the most +contended and happy laborers in the world. They dance and sing, +and make all manner of joyful noises--so they do; but it is a +great mistake to suppose them happy because they sing. The songs +of the slave represent the sorrows, rather than the joys, of his +heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is +relieved by its tears. Such is the constitution of the human +mind, that, when pressed to extremes, it often avails itself of +the most opposite methods. Extremes meet in mind as in matter. +When the slaves on board of the "Pearl" were overtaken, arrested, +and carried to prison--their hopes for freedom blasted--as they +marched in chains they sang, and found (as Emily Edmunson tells +us) a melancholy relief in singing. The singing of a man cast +away on a desolate island, might be as appropriately considered +an evidence of his contentment and happiness, as the singing of a +slave. Sorrow and desolation have their songs, as well as joy +and peace. Slaves sing more to _make_ themselves happy, than to +express their happiness. + +It is the boast of slaveholders, that their slaves enjoy more of +the physical comforts of life than the peasantry of any country +in the world. My experience contradicts this. The men and the +women slaves on Col. Lloyd's farm, received, as their monthly +<78>allowance of food, eight pounds of pickled pork, or their +equivalent in fish. The pork was often tainted, and the fish was +of the poorest quality--herrings, which would bring very little +if offered for sale in any northern market. With their pork or +fish, they had one bushel of Indian meal--unbolted--of which +quite fifteen per cent was fit only to feed pigs. With this, one +pint of salt was given; and this was the entire monthly allowance +of a full grown slave, working constantly in the open field, from +morning until night, every day in the month except Sunday, and +living on a fraction more than a quarter of a pound of meat per +day, and less than a peck of corn-meal per week. There is no +kind of work that a man can do which requires a better supply of +food to prevent physical exhaustion, than the field-work of a +slave. So much for the slave's allowance of food; now for his +raiment. The yearly allowance of clothing for the slaves on this +plantation, consisted of two tow-linen shirts--such linen as the +coarsest crash towels are made of; one pair of trowsers of the +same material, for summer, and a pair of trowsers and a jacket of +woolen, most slazily put together, for winter; one pair of yarn +stockings, and one pair of shoes of the coarsest description. +The slave's entire apparel could not have cost more than eight +dollars per year. The allowance of food and clothing for the +little children, was committed to their mothers, or to the older +slavewomen having the care of them. Children who were unable to +work in the field, had neither shoes, stockings, jackets nor +trowsers given them. Their clothing consisted of two coarse tow- +linen shirts--already described--per year; and when these failed +them, as they often did, they went naked until the next allowance +day. Flocks of little children from five to ten years old, might +be seen on Col. Lloyd's plantation, as destitute of clothing as +any little heathen on the west coast of Africa; and this, not +merely during the summer months, but during the frosty weather of +March. The little girls were no better off than the boys; all +were nearly in a state of nudity. +<79 THE SLAVES' FOOD AND CLOTHING> + +As to beds to sleep on, they were known to none of the field +hands; nothing but a coarse blanket--not so good as those used in +the north to cover horses--was given them, and this only to the +men and women. The children stuck themselves in holes and +corners, about the quarters; often in the corner of the huge +chimneys, with their feet in the ashes to keep them warm. The +want of beds, however, was not considered a very great privation. +Time to sleep was of far greater importance, for, when the day's +work is done, most of the slaves have their washing, mending and +cooking to do; and, having few or none of the ordinary facilities +for doing such things, very many of their sleeping hours are +consumed in necessary preparations for the duties of the coming +day. + +The sleeping apartments--if they may be called such--have little +regard to comfort or decency. Old and young, male and female, +married and single, drop down upon the common clay floor, each +covering up with his or her blanket,--the only protection they +have from cold or exposure. The night, however, is shortened at +both ends. The slaves work often as long as they can see, and +are late in cooking and mending for the coming day; and, at the +first gray streak of morning, they are summoned to the field by +the driver's horn. + +More slaves are whipped for oversleeping than for any other +fault. Neither age nor sex finds any favor. The overseer stands +at the quarter door, armed with stick and cowskin, ready to whip +any who may be a few minutes behind time. When the horn is +blown, there is a rush for the door, and the hindermost one is +sure to get a blow from the overseer. Young mothers who worked +in the field, were allowed an hour, about ten o'clock in the +morning, to go home to nurse their children. Sometimes they were +compelled to take their children with them, and to leave them in +the corner of the fences, to prevent loss of time in nursing +them. The overseer generally rides about the field on horseback. +A cowskin and a hickory stick are his constant companions. The +<80>cowskin is a kind of whip seldom seen in the northern states. +It is made entirely of untanned, but dried, ox hide, and is about +as hard as a piece of well-seasoned live oak. It is made of +various sizes, but the usual length is about three feet. The +part held in the hand is nearly an inch in thickness; and, from +the extreme end of the butt or handle, the cowskin tapers its +whole length to a point. This makes it quite elastic and +springy. A blow with it, on the hardest back, will gash the +flesh, and make the blood start. Cowskins are painted red, blue +and green, and are the favorite slave whip. I think this whip +worse than the "cat-o'nine-tails." It condenses the whole +strength of the arm to a single point, and comes with a spring +that makes the air whistle. It is a terrible instrument, and is +so handy, that the overseer can always have it on his person, and +ready for use. The temptation to use it is ever strong; and an +overseer can, if disposed, always have cause for using it. With +him, it is literally a word and a blow, and, in most cases, the +blow comes first. + +As a general rule, slaves do not come to the quarters for either +breakfast or dinner, but take their "ash cake" with them, and eat +it in the field. This was so on the home plantation; probably, +because the distance from the quarter to the field, was sometimes +two, and even three miles. + +The dinner of the slaves consisted of a huge piece of ash cake, +and a small piece of pork, or two salt herrings. Not having +ovens, nor any suitable cooking utensils, the slaves mixed their +meal with a little water, to such thickness that a spoon would +stand erect in it; and, after the wood had burned away to coals +and ashes, they would place the dough between oak leaves and lay +it carefully in the ashes, completely covering it; hence, the +bread is called ash cake. The surface of this peculiar bread is +covered with ashes, to the depth of a sixteenth part of an inch, +and the ashes, certainly, do not make it very grateful to the +teeth, nor render it very palatable. The bran, or coarse part of +the meal, is baked with the fine, and bright scales run through +the bread. <81 THE CONTRAST>This bread, with its ashes and bran, +would disgust and choke a northern man, but it is quite liked by +the slaves. They eat it with avidity, and are more concerned +about the quantity than about the quality. They are far too +scantily provided for, and are worked too steadily, to be much +concerned for the quality of their food. The few minutes allowed +them at dinner time, after partaking of their coarse repast, are +variously spent. Some lie down on the "turning row," and go to +sleep; others draw together, and talk; and others are at work +with needle and thread, mending their tattered garments. +Sometimes you may hear a wild, hoarse laugh arise from a circle, +and often a song. Soon, however, the overseer comes dashing +through the field. _"Tumble up! Tumble up_, and to _work, +work,"_ is the cry; and, now, from twelve o'clock (mid-day) till +dark, the human cattle are in motion, wielding their clumsy hoes; +hurried on by no hope of reward, no sense of gratitude, no love +of children, no prospect of bettering their condition; nothing, +save the dread and terror of the slave-driver's lash. So goes +one day, and so comes and goes another. + +But, let us now leave the rough usage of the field, where vulgar +coarseness and brutal cruelty spread themselves and flourish, +rank as weeds in the tropics; where a vile wretch, in the shape +of a man, rides, walks, or struts about, dealing blows, and +leaving gashes on broken-spirited men and helpless women, for +thirty dollars per month--a business so horrible, hardening and +disgraceful, that, rather, than engage in it, a decent man would +blow his own brains out--and let the reader view with me the +equally wicked, but less repulsive aspects of slave life; where +pride and pomp roll luxuriously at ease; where the toil of a +thousand men supports a single family in easy idleness and sin. +This is the great house; it is the home of the LLOYDS! Some idea +of its splendor has already been given--and, it is here that we +shall find that height of luxury which is the opposite of that +depth of poverty and physical wretchedness that we have just now +been contemplating. But, there is this difference in the two +extremes; <82>viz: that in the case of the slave, the miseries +and hardships of his lot are imposed by others, and, in the +master's case, they are imposed by himself. The slave is a +subject, subjected by others; the slaveholder is a subject, but +he is the author of his own subjection. There is more truth in +the saying, that slavery is a greater evil to the master than to +the slave, than many, who utter it, suppose. The self-executing +laws of eternal justice follow close on the heels of the evil- +doer here, as well as elsewhere; making escape from all its +penalties impossible. But, let others philosophize; it is my +province here to relate and describe; only allowing myself a word +or two, occasionally, to assist the reader in the proper +understanding of the facts narrated. + + + +CHAPTER VII +_Life in the Great House_ + +COMFORTS AND LUXURIES--ELABORATE EXPENDITURE--HOUSE SERVANTS--MEN +SERVANTS AND MAID SERVANTS--APPEARANCES--SLAVE ARISTOCRACY-- +STABLE AND CARRIAGE HOUSE--BOUNDLESS HOSPITALITY--FRAGRANCE OF +RICH DISHES--THE DECEPTIVE CHARACTER OF SLAVERY--SLAVES SEEM +HAPPY--SLAVES AND SLAVEHOLDERS ALIKE WRETCHED--FRETFUL DISCONTENT +OF SLAVEHOLDERS--FAULT-FINDING--OLD BARNEY--HIS PROFESSION-- +WHIPPING--HUMILIATING SPECTACLE--CASE EXCEPTIONAL--WILLIAM +WILKS--SUPPOSED SON OF COL. LLOYD--CURIOUS INCIDENT--SLAVES +PREFER RICH MASTERS TO POOR ONES. + + +The close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse +corn-meal and tainted meat; that clothed him in crashy tow-linen, +and hurried him to toil through the field, in all weathers, with +wind and rain beating through his tattered garments; that +scarcely gave even the young slave-mother time to nurse her +hungry infant in the fence corner; wholly vanishes on approaching +the sacred precincts of the great house, the home of the Lloyds. +There the scriptural phrase finds an exact illustration; the +highly favored inmates of this mansion are literally arrayed "in +purple and fine linen," and fare sumptuously every day! The +table groans under the heavy and blood-bought luxuries gathered +with painstaking care, at home and abroad. Fields, forests, +rivers and seas, are made tributary here. Immense wealth, and +its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can +please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is +the great _desideratum_. Fish, flesh and fowl, are here in +profusion. Chickens, of <84>all breeds; ducks, of all kinds, +wild and tame, the common, and the huge Muscovite; Guinea fowls, +turkeys, geese, and pea fowls, are in their several pens, fat and +fatting for the destined vortex. The graceful swan, the +mongrels, the black-necked wild goose; partridges, quails, +pheasants and pigeons; choice water fowl, with all their strange +varieties, are caught in this huge family net. Beef, veal, +mutton and venison, of the most select kinds and quality, roll +bounteously to this grand consumer. The teeming riches of the +Chesapeake bay, its rock, perch, drums, crocus, trout, oysters, +crabs, and terrapin, are drawn hither to adorn the glittering +table of the great house. The dairy, too, probably the finest on +the Eastern Shore of Maryland--supplied by cattle of the best +English stock, imported for the purpose, pours its rich donations +of fragant cheese, golden butter, and delicious cream, to +heighten the attraction of the gorgeous, unending round of +feasting. Nor are the fruits of the earth forgotten or +neglected. The fertile garden, many acres in size, constituting +a separate establishment, distinct from the common farm--with its +scientific gardener, imported from Scotland (a Mr. McDermott) +with four men under his direction, was not behind, either in the +abundance or in the delicacy of its contributions to the same +full board. The tender asparagus, the succulent celery, and the +delicate cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, +and French beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes, melons of +all kinds; the fruits and flowers of all climes and of all +descriptions, from the hardy apple of the north, to the lemon and +orange of the south, culminated at this point. Baltimore +gathered figs, raisins, almonds and juicy grapes from Spain. +Wines and brandies from France; teas of various flavor, from +China; and rich, aromatic coffee from Java, all conspired to +swell the tide of high life, where pride and indolence rolled and +lounged in magnificence and satiety. + +Behind the tall-backed and elaborately wrought chairs, stand the +servants, men and maidens--fifteen in number--discriminately +selected, not only with a view to their industry and faith<85 +HOUSE SERVANTS>fulness, but with special regard to their personal +appearance, their graceful agility and captivating address. Some +of these are armed with fans, and are fanning reviving breezes +toward the over-heated brows of the alabaster ladies; others +watch with eager eye, and with fawn-like step anticipate and +supply wants before they are sufficiently formed to be announced +by word or sign. + +These servants constituted a sort of black aristocracy on Col. +Lloyd's plantation. They resembled the field hands in nothing, +except in color, and in this they held the advantage of a velvet- +like glossiness, rich and beautiful. The hair, too, showed the +same advantage. The delicate colored maid rustled in the +scarcely worn silk of her young mistress, while the servant men +were equally well attired from the over-flowing wardrobe of their +young masters; so that, in dress, as well as in form and feature, +in manner and speech, in tastes and habits, the distance between +these favored few, and the sorrow and hunger-smitten multitudes +of the quarter and the field, was immense; and this is seldom +passed over. + +Let us now glance at the stables and the carriage house, and we +shall find the same evidences of pride and luxurious +extravagance. Here are three splendid coaches, soft within and +lustrous without. Here, too, are gigs, phaetons, barouches, +sulkeys and sleighs. Here are saddles and harnesses--beautifully +wrought and silver mounted--kept with every care. In the stable +you will find, kept only for pleasure, full thirty-five horses, +of the most approved blood for speed and beauty. There are two +men here constantly employed in taking care of these horses. One +of these men must be always in the stable, to answer every call +from the great house. Over the way from the stable, is a house +built expressly for the hounds--a pack of twenty-five or thirty-- +whose fare would have made glad the heart of a dozen slaves. +Horses and hounds are not the only consumers of the slave's toil. +There was practiced, at the Lloyd's, a hospitality which would +have <86>astonished and charmed any health-seeking northern +divine or merchant, who might have chanced to share it. Viewed +from his own table, and _not_ from the field, the colonel was a +model of generous hospitality. His house was, literally, a +hotel, for weeks during the summer months. At these times, +especially, the air was freighted with the rich fumes of baking, +boiling, roasting and broiling. The odors I shared with the +winds; but the meats were under a more stringent monopoly except +that, occasionally, I got a cake from Mas' Daniel. In Mas' +Daniel I had a friend at court, from whom I learned many things +which my eager curiosity was excited to know. I always knew when +company was expected, and who they were, although I was an +outsider, being the property, not of Col. Lloyd, but of a servant +of the wealthy colonel. On these occasions, all that pride, +taste and money could do, to dazzle and charm, was done. + +Who could say that the servants of Col. Lloyd were not well clad +and cared for, after witnessing one of his magnificent +entertainments? Who could say that they did not seem to glory in +being the slaves of such a master? Who, but a fanatic, could get +up any sympathy for persons whose every movement was agile, easy +and graceful, and who evinced a consciousness of high +superiority? And who would ever venture to suspect that Col. +Lloyd was subject to the troubles of ordinary mortals? Master +and slave seem alike in their glory here? Can it all be seeming? +Alas! it may only be a sham at last! This immense wealth; this +gilded splendor; this profusion of luxury; this exemption from +toil; this life of ease; this sea of plenty; aye, what of it all? +Are the pearly gates of happiness and sweet content flung open to +such suitors? _far from it!_ The poor slave, on his hard, pine +plank, but scantily covered with his thin blanket, sleeps more +soundly than the feverish voluptuary who reclines upon his +feather bed and downy pillow. Food, to the indolent lounger, is +poison, not sustenance. Lurking beneath all their dishes, are +invisible spirits of evil, ready to feed the self-deluded +gormandizers <87 DECEPTIVE CHARACTER OF SLAVERY>which aches, +pains, fierce temper, uncontrolled passions, dyspepsia, +rheumatism, lumbago and gout; and of these the Lloyds got their +full share. To the pampered love of ease, there is no resting +place. What is pleasant today, is repulsive tomorrow; what is +soft now, is hard at another time; what is sweet in the morning, +is bitter in the evening. Neither to the wicked, nor to the +idler, is there any solid peace: _"Troubled, like the restless +sea."_ + +I had excellent opportunities of witnessing the restless +discontent and the capricious irritation of the Lloyds. My +fondness for horses--not peculiar to me more than to other boys +attracted me, much of the time, to the stables. This +establishment was especially under the care of "old" and "young" +Barney--father and son. Old Barney was a fine looking old man, +of a brownish complexion, who was quite portly, and wore a +dignified aspect for a slave. He was, evidently, much devoted to +his profession, and held his office an honorable one. He was a +farrier as well as an ostler; he could bleed, remove lampers from +the mouths of the horses, and was well instructed in horse +medicines. No one on the farm knew, so well as Old Barney, what +to do with a sick horse. But his gifts and acquirements were of +little advantage to him. His office was by no means an enviable +one. He often got presents, but he got stripes as well; for in +nothing was Col. Lloyd more unreasonable and exacting, than in +respect to the management of his pleasure horses. Any supposed +inattention to these animals were sure to be visited with +degrading punishment. His horses and dogs fared better than his +men. Their beds must be softer and cleaner than those of his +human cattle. No excuse could shield Old Barney, if the colonel +only suspected something wrong about his horses; and, +consequently, he was often punished when faultless. It was +absolutely painful to listen to the many unreasonable and fretful +scoldings, poured out at the stable, by Col. Lloyd, his sons and +sons-in-law. Of the latter, he had three--Messrs. Nicholson, +Winder and Lownes. These all <88>lived at the great house a +portion of the year, and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the +servants when they pleased, which was by no means unfrequently. +A horse was seldom brought out of the stable to which no +objection could be raised. "There was dust in his hair;" "there +was a twist in his reins;" "his mane did not lie straight;" "he +had not been properly grained;" "his head did not look well;" +"his fore-top was not combed out;" "his fetlocks had not been +properly trimmed;" something was always wrong. Listening to +complaints, however groundless, Barney must stand, hat in hand, +lips sealed, never answering a word. He must make no reply, no +explanation; the judgment of the master must be deemed +infallible, for his power is absolute and irresponsible. In a +free state, a master, thus complaining without cause, of his +ostler, might be told--"Sir, I am sorry I cannot please you, but, +since I have done the best I can, your remedy is to dismiss me." +Here, however, the ostler must stand, listen and tremble. One of +the most heart-saddening and humiliating scenes I ever witnessed, +was the whipping of Old Barney, by Col. Lloyd himself. Here were +two men, both advanced in years; there were the silvery locks of +Col. L., and there was the bald and toil-worn brow of Old Barney; +master and slave; superior and inferior here, but _equals_ at the +bar of God; and, in the common course of events, they must both +soon meet in another world, in a world where all distinctions, +except those based on obedience and disobedience, are blotted out +forever. "Uncover your head!" said the imperious master; he was +obeyed. "Take off your jacket, you old rascal!" and off came +Barney's jacket. "Down on your knees!" down knelt the old man, +his shoulders bare, his bald head glistening in the sun, and his +aged knees on the cold, damp ground. In his humble and debasing +attitude, the master--that master to whom he had given the best +years and the best strength of his life--came forward, and laid +on thirty lashes, with his horse whip. The old man bore it +patiently, to the last, answering each blow with a slight shrug +of the shoulders, and a groan. I cannot think that <89 A +HUMILIATING SPECTACLE>Col. Lloyd succeeded in marring the flesh +of Old Barney very seriously, for the whip was a light, riding +whip; but the spectacle of an aged man--a husband and a father-- +humbly kneeling before a worm of the dust, surprised and shocked +me at the time; and since I have grown old enough to think on the +wickedness of slavery, few facts have been of more value to me +than this, to which I was a witness. It reveals slavery in its +true color, and in its maturity of repulsive hatefulness. I owe +it to truth, however, to say, that this was the first and the +last time I ever saw Old Barney, or any other slave, compelled to +kneel to receive a whipping. + +I saw, at the stable, another incident, which I will relate, as +it is illustrative of a phase of slavery to which I have already +referred in another connection. Besides two other coachmen, Col. +Lloyd owned one named William, who, strangely enough, was often +called by his surname, Wilks, by white and colored people on the +home plantation. Wilks was a very fine looking man. He was +about as white as anybody on the plantation; and in manliness of +form, and comeliness of features, he bore a very striking +resemblance to Mr. Murray Lloyd. It was whispered, and pretty +generally admitted as a fact, that William Wilks was a son of +Col. Lloyd, by a highly favored slave-woman, who was still on the +plantation. There were many reasons for believing this whisper, +not only in William's appearance, but in the undeniable freedom +which he enjoyed over all others, and his apparent consciousness +of being something more than a slave to his master. It was +notorious, too, that William had a deadly enemy in Murray Lloyd, +whom he so much resembled, and that the latter greatly worried +his father with importunities to sell William. Indeed, he gave +his father no rest until he did sell him, to Austin Woldfolk, the +great slave-trader at that time. Before selling him, however, +Mr. L. tried what giving William a whipping would do, toward +making things smooth; but this was a failure. It was a +compromise, and defeated itself; for, imme<90>diately after the +infliction, the heart-sickened colonel atoned to William for the +abuse, by giving him a gold watch and chain. Another fact, +somewhat curious, is, that though sold to the remorseless +_Woldfolk_, taken in irons to Baltimore and cast into prison, +with a view to being driven to the south, William, by _some_ +means--always a mystery to me--outbid all his purchasers, paid +for himself, _and now resides in Baltimore, a_ FREEMAN. Is there +not room to suspect, that, as the gold watch was presented to +atone for the whipping, a purse of gold was given him by the same +hand, with which to effect his purchase, as an atonement for the +indignity involved in selling his own flesh and blood. All the +circumstances of William, on the great house farm, show him to +have occupied a different position from the other slaves, and, +certainly, there is nothing in the supposed hostility of +slaveholders to amalgamation, to forbid the supposition that +William Wilks was the son of Edward Lloyd. _Practical_ +amalgamation is common in every neighborhood where I have been in +slavery. + +Col. Lloyd was not in the way of knowing much of the real +opinions and feelings of his slaves respecting him. The distance +between him and them was far too great to admit of such +knowledge. His slaves were so numerous, that he did not know +them when he saw them. Nor, indeed, did all his slaves know him. +In this respect, he was inconveniently rich. It is reported of +him, that, while riding along the road one day, he met a colored +man, and addressed him in the usual way of speaking to colored +people on the public highways of the south: "Well, boy, who do +you belong to?" "To Col. Lloyd," replied the slave. "Well, does +the colonel treat you well?" "No, sir," was the ready reply. +"What? does he work you too hard?" "Yes, sir." "Well, don't he +give enough to eat?" "Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it +is." The colonel, after ascertaining where the slave belonged, +rode on; the slave also went on about his business, not dreaming +that he had been conversing with his master. He thought, said +and heard nothing more of the matter, until two or three weeks +after<91 PENALTY FOR TELLING THE TRUTH>wards. The poor man was +then informed by his overseer, that, for having found fault with +his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was +immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment's +warning he was snatched away, and forever sundered from his +family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than that of +death. _This_ is the penalty of telling the simple truth, in +answer to a series of plain questions. It is partly in +consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to +their condition and the character of their masters, almost +invariably say they are contented, and that their masters are +kind. Slaveholders have been known to send spies among their +slaves, to ascertain, if possible, their views and feelings in +regard to their condition. The frequency of this had the effect +to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue +makes a wise head. They suppress the truth rather than take the +consequence of telling it, and, in so doing, they prove +themselves a part of the human family. If they have anything to +say of their master, it is, generally, something in his favor, +especially when speaking to strangers. I was frequently asked, +while a slave, if I had a kind master, and I do not remember ever +to have given a negative reply. Nor did I, when pursuing this +course, consider myself as uttering what was utterly false; for I +always measured the kindness of my master by the standard of +kindness set up by slaveholders around us. However, slaves are +like other people, and imbibe similar prejudices. They are apt +to think _their condition_ better than that of others. Many, +under the influence of this prejudice, think their own masters +are better than the masters of other slaves; and this, too, in +some cases, when the very reverse is true. Indeed, it is not +uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves +about the relative kindness of their masters, contending for the +superior goodness of his own over that of others. At the very +same time, they mutually execrate their masters, when viewed +separately. It was so on our plantation. When Col. Lloyd's +slaves met those of Jacob Jepson, they <92>seldom parted without +a quarrel about their masters; Col. Lloyd's slaves contending +that he was the richest, and Mr. Jepson's slaves that he was the +smartest, man of the two. Col. Lloyd's slaves would boost his +ability to buy and sell Jacob Jepson; Mr. Jepson's slaves would +boast his ability to whip Col. Lloyd. These quarrels would +almost always end in a fight between the parties; those that beat +were supposed to have gained the point at issue. They seemed to +think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to +themselves. To be a SLAVE, was thought to be bad enough; but to +be a _poor man's_ slave, was deemed a disgrace, indeed. + + + +CHAPTER VIII +_A Chapter of Horrors_ + +AUSTIN GORE--A SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER--OVERSEERS AS A CLASS-- +THEIR PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS--THE MARKED INDIVIDUALITY OF +AUSTIN GORE--HIS SENSE OF DUTY--HOW HE WHIPPED--MURDER OF POOR +DENBY--HOW IT OCCURRED--SENSATION--HOW GORE MADE PEACE WITH COL. +LLOYD--THE MURDER UNPUNISHED--ANOTHER DREADFUL MURDER NARRATED-- +NO LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF SLAVES CAN BE ENFORCED IN THE +SOUTHERN STATES. + + +As I have already intimated elsewhere, the slaves on Col. Lloyd's +plantation, whose hard lot, under Mr. Sevier, the reader has +already noticed and deplored, were not permitted to enjoy the +comparatively moderate rule of Mr. Hopkins. The latter was +succeeded by a very different man. The name of the new overseer +was Austin Gore. Upon this individual I would fix particular +attention; for under his rule there was more suffering from +violence and bloodshed than had--according to the older slaves +ever been experienced before on this plantation. I confess, I +hardly know how to bring this man fitly before the reader. He +was, it is true, an overseer, and possessed, to a large extent, +the peculiar characteristics of his class; yet, to call him +merely an overseer, would not give the reader a fair notion of +the man. I speak of overseers as a class. They are such. They +are as distinct from the slaveholding gentry of the south, as are +the fishwomen of Paris, and the coal-heavers of London, distinct +from other members of society. They constitute a separate +fraternity at the south, not less marked than is the fraternity +of Park Lane bullies in New York. They have been arranged and +classified <94>by that great law of attraction, which determines +the spheres and affinities of men; which ordains, that men, whose +malign and brutal propensities predominate over their moral and +intellectual endowments, shall, naturally, fall into those +employments which promise the largest gratification to those +predominating instincts or propensities. The office of overseer +takes this raw material of vulgarity and brutality, and stamps it +as a distinct class of southern society. But, in this class, as +in all other classes, there are characters of marked +individuality, even while they bear a general resemblance to the +mass. Mr. Gore was one of those, to whom a general +characterization would do no manner of justice. He was an +overseer; but he was something more. With the malign and +tyrannical qualities of an overseer, he combined something of the +lawful master. He had the artfulness and the mean ambition of +his class; but he was wholly free from the disgusting swagger and +noisy bravado of his fraternity. There was an easy air of +independence about him; a calm self-possession, and a sternness +of glance, which might well daunt hearts less timid than those of +poor slaves, accustomed from childhood and through life to cower +before a driver's lash. The home plantation of Col. Lloyd +afforded an ample field for the exercise of the qualifications +for overseership, which he possessed in such an eminent degree. + +Mr. Gore was one of those overseers, who could torture the +slightest word or look into impudence; he had the nerve, not only +to resent, but to punish, promptly and severely. He never +allowed himself to be answered back, by a slave. In this, he was +as lordly and as imperious as Col. Edward Lloyd, himself; acting +always up to the maxim, practically maintained by slaveholders, +that it is better that a dozen slaves suffer under the lash, +without fault, than that the master or the overseer should _seem_ +to have been wrong in the presence of the slave. _Everything +must be absolute here_. Guilty or not guilty, it is enough to be +accused, to be sure of a flogging. The very presence of this man +Gore was <95 AUSTIN GORE>painful, and I shunned him as I would +have shunned a rattlesnake. His piercing, black eyes, and sharp, +shrill voice, ever awakened sensations of terror among the +slaves. For so young a man (I describe him as he was, twenty- +five or thirty years ago) Mr. Gore was singularly reserved and +grave in the presence of slaves. He indulged in no jokes, said +no funny things, and kept his own counsels. Other overseers, how +brutal soever they might be, were, at times, inclined to gain +favor with the slaves, by indulging a little pleasantry; but Gore +was never known to be guilty of any such weakness. He was always +the cold, distant, unapproachable _overseer_ of Col. Edward +Lloyd's plantation, and needed no higher pleasure than was +involved in a faithful discharge of the duties of his office. +When he whipped, he seemed to do so from a sense of duty, and +feared no consequences. What Hopkins did reluctantly, Gore did +with alacrity. There was a stern will, an iron-like reality, +about this Gore, which would have easily made him the chief of a +band of pirates, had his environments been favorable to such a +course of life. All the coolness, savage barbarity and freedom +from moral restraint, which are necessary in the character of a +pirate-chief, centered, I think, in this man Gore. Among many +other deeds of shocking cruelty which he perpetrated, while I was +at Mr. Lloyd's, was the murder of a young colored man, named +Denby. He was sometimes called Bill Denby, or Demby; (I write +from sound, and the sounds on Lloyd's plantation are not very +certain.) I knew him well. He was a powerful young man, full of +animal spirits, and, so far as I know, he was among the most +valuable of Col. Lloyd's slaves. In something--I know not what-- +he offended this Mr. Austin Gore, and, in accordance with the +custom of the latter, he under took to flog him. He gave Denby +but few stripes; the latter broke away from him and plunged into +the creek, and, standing there to the depth of his neck in water, +he refused to come out at the order of the overseer; whereupon, +for this refusal, _Gore shot him dead!_ It is said that Gore +gave Denby three calls, telling him that <96>if he did not obey +the last call, he would shoot him. When the third call was +given, Denby stood his ground firmly; and this raised the +question, in the minds of the by-standing slaves--"Will he dare +to shoot?" Mr. Gore, without further parley, and without making +any further effort to induce Denby to come out of the water, +raised his gun deliberately to his face, took deadly aim at his +standing victim, and, in an instant, poor Denby was numbered with +the dead. His mangled body sank out of sight, and only his warm, +red blood marked the place where he had stood. + +This devilish outrage, this fiendish murder, produced, as it was +well calculated to do, a tremendous sensation. A thrill of +horror flashed through every soul on the plantation, if I may +except the guilty wretch who had committed the hell-black deed. +While the slaves generally were panic-struck, and howling with +alarm, the murderer himself was calm and collected, and appeared +as though nothing unusual had happened. The atrocity roused my +old master, and he spoke out, in reprobation of it; but the whole +thing proved to be less than a nine days' wonder. Both Col. +Lloyd and my old master arraigned Gore for his cruelty in the +matter, but this amounted to nothing. His reply, or +explanation--as I remember to have heard it at the time was, that +the extraordinary expedient was demanded by necessity; that Denby +had become unmanageable; that he had set a dangerous example to +the other slaves; and that, without some such prompt measure as +that to which he had resorted, were adopted, there would be an +end to all rule and order on the plantation. That very +convenient covert for all manner of cruelty and outrage that +cowardly alarm-cry, that the slaves would _"take the place,"_ was +pleaded, in extenuation of this revolting crime, just as it had +been cited in defense of a thousand similar ones. He argued, +that if one slave refused to be corrected, and was allowed to +escape with his life, when he had been told that he should lose +it if he persisted in his course, the other slaves would soon +copy his example; the result of which would be, the freedom of +the slaves, and the enslavement of the <97 HOW GORE MADE PEACE +WITH COL. LLOYD>whites. I have every reason to believe that Mr. +Gore's defense, or explanation, was deemed satisfactory--at least +to Col. Lloyd. He was continued in his office on the plantation. +His fame as an overseer went abroad, and his horrid crime was not +even submitted to judicial investigation. The murder was +committed in the presence of slaves, and they, of course, could +neither institute a suit, nor testify against the murderer. His +bare word would go further in a court of law, than the united +testimony of ten thousand black witnesses. + +All that Mr. Gore had to do, was to make his peace with Col. +Lloyd. This done, and the guilty perpetrator of one of the most +foul murders goes unwhipped of justice, and uncensured by the +community in which he lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. Michael's, +Talbot county, when I left Maryland; if he is still alive he +probably yet resides there; and I have no reason to doubt that he +is now as highly esteemed, and as greatly respected, as though +his guilty soul had never been stained with innocent blood. I am +well aware that what I have now written will by some be branded +as false and malicious. It will be denied, not only that such a +thing ever did transpire, as I have now narrated, but that such a +thing could happen in _Maryland_. I can only say--believe it or +not--that I have said nothing but the literal truth, gainsay it +who may. + +I speak advisedly when I say this,--that killing a slave, or any +colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a +crime, either by the courts or the community. Mr. Thomas Lanman, +ship carpenter, of St. Michael's, killed two slaves, one of whom +he butchered with a hatchet, by knocking his brains out. He used +to boast of the commission of the awful and bloody deed. I have +heard him do so, laughingly, saying, among other things, that he +was the only benefactor of his country in the company, and that +when "others would do as much as he had done, we should be +relieved of the d--d niggers." + +As an evidence of the reckless disregard of human life where the +life is that of a slave I may state the notorious fact, that the +<98>wife of Mr. Giles Hicks, who lived but a short distance from +Col. Lloyd's, with her own hands murdered my wife's cousin, a +young girl between fifteen and sixteen years of age--mutilating +her person in a most shocking manner. The atrocious woman, in +the paroxysm of her wrath, not content with murdering her victim, +literally mangled her face, and broke her breast bone. Wild, +however, and infuriated as she was, she took the precaution to +cause the slave-girl to be buried; but the facts of the case +coming abroad, very speedily led to the disinterment of the +remains of the murdered slave-girl. A coroner's jury was +assembled, who decided that the girl had come to her death by +severe beating. It was ascertained that the offense for which +this girl was thus hurried out of the world, was this: she had +been set that night, and several preceding nights, to mind Mrs. +Hicks's baby, and having fallen into a sound sleep, the baby +cried, waking Mrs. Hicks, but not the slave-girl. Mrs. Hicks, +becoming infuriated at the girl's tardiness, after calling +several times, jumped from her bed and seized a piece of fire- +wood from the fireplace; and then, as she lay fast asleep, she +deliberately pounded in her skull and breast-bone, and thus ended +her life. I will not say that this most horrid murder produced +no sensation in the community. It _did_ produce a sensation; +but, incredible to tell, the moral sense of the community was +blunted too entirely by the ordinary nature of slavery horrors, +to bring the murderess to punishment. A warrant was issued for +her arrest, but, for some reason or other, that warrant was never +served. Thus did Mrs. Hicks not only escape condign punishment, +but even the pain and mortification of being arraigned before a +court of justice. + +Whilst I am detailing the bloody deeds that took place during my +stay on Col. Lloyd's plantation, I will briefly narrate another +dark transaction, which occurred about the same time as the +murder of Denby by Mr. Gore. + +On the side of the river Wye, opposite from Col. Lloyd's, there +lived a Mr. Beal Bondley, a wealthy slaveholder. In the +direction <99 NO LAW PROTECTS THE SLAVE>of his land, and near the +shore, there was an excellent oyster fishing ground, and to this, +some of the slaves of Col. Lloyd occasionally resorted in their +little canoes, at night, with a view to make up the deficiency of +their scanty allowance of food, by the oysters that they could +easily get there. This, Mr. Bondley took it into his head to +regard as a trespass, and while an old man belonging to Col. +Lloyd was engaged in catching a few of the many millions of +oysters that lined the bottom of that creek, to satisfy his +hunger, the villainous Mr. Bondley, lying in ambush, without the +slightest ceremony, discharged the contents of his musket into +the back and shoulders of the poor old man. As good fortune +would have it, the shot did not prove mortal, and Mr. Bondley +came over, the next day, to see Col. Lloyd--whether to pay him +for his property, or to justify himself for what he had done, I +know not; but this I _can_ say, the cruel and dastardly +transaction was speedily hushed up; there was very little said +about it at all, and nothing was publicly done which looked like +the application of the principle of justice to the man whom +_chance_, only, saved from being an actual murderer. One of the +commonest sayings to which my ears early became accustomed, on +Col. Lloyd's plantation and elsewhere in Maryland, was, that it +was _"worth but half a cent to kill a nigger, and a half a cent +to bury him;"_ and the facts of my experience go far to justify +the practical truth of this strange proverb. Laws for the +protection of the lives of the slaves, are, as they must needs +be, utterly incapable of being enforced, where the very parties +who are nominally protected, are not permitted to give evidence, +in courts of law, against the only class of persons from whom +abuse, outrage and murder might be reasonably apprehended. While +I heard of numerous murders committed by slaveholders on the +Eastern Shores of Maryland, I never knew a solitary instance in +which a slaveholder was either hung or imprisoned for having +murdered a slave. The usual pretext for killing a slave is, that +the slave has offered resistance. Should a slave, when +assaulted, but raise his hand in self defense, the white +assaulting <100>party is fully justified by southern, or +Maryland, public opinion, in shooting the slave down. Sometimes +this is done, simply because it is alleged that the slave has +been saucy. But here I leave this phase of the society of my +early childhood, and will relieve the kind reader of these heart- +sickening details. + + + +CHAPTER IX +_Personal Treatment_ + +MISS LUCRETIA--HER KINDNESS--HOW IT WAS MANIFESTED--"IKE"--A +BATTLE WITH HIM--THE CONSEQUENCES THEREOF--MISS LUCRETIA'S +BALSAM--BREAD--HOW I OBTAINED IT--BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT AMIDST THE +GENERAL DARKNESS--SUFFERING FROM COLD--HOW WE TOOK OUR MEALS-- +ORDERS TO PREPARE FOR BALTIMORE--OVERJOYED AT THE THOUGHT OF +QUITTING THE PLANTATION--EXTRAORDINARY CLEANSING--COUSIN TOM'S +VERSION OF BALTIMORE--ARRIVAL THERE--KIND RECEPTION GIVEN ME BY +MRS. SOPHIA AULD--LITTLE TOMMY--MY NEW POSITION--MY NEW DUTIES--A +TURNING POINT IN MY HISTORY. + + +I have nothing cruel or shocking to relate of my own personal +experience, while I remained on Col. Lloyd's plantation, at the +home of my old master. An occasional cuff from Aunt Katy, and a +regular whipping from old master, such as any heedless and +mischievous boy might get from his father, is all that I can +mention of this sort. I was not old enough to work in the field, +and, there being little else than field work to perform, I had +much leisure. The most I had to do, was, to drive up the cows in +the evening, to keep the front yard clean, and to perform small +errands for my young mistress, Lucretia Auld. I have reasons for +thinking this lady was very kindly disposed toward me, and, +although I was not often the object of her attention, I +constantly regarded her as my friend, and was always glad when it +was my privilege to do her a service. In a family where there +was so much that was harsh, cold and indifferent, the slightest +word or look of kindness passed, with me, for its full value. +Miss Lucretia--<102>as we all continued to call her long after +her marriage--had bestowed upon me such words and looks as taught +me that she pitied me, if she did not love me. In addition to +words and looks, she sometimes gave me a piece of bread and +butter; a thing not set down in the bill of fare, and which must +have been an extra ration, planned aside from either Aunt Katy or +old master, solely out of the tender regard and friendship she +had for me. Then, too, I one day got into the wars with Uncle +Able's son, "Ike," and had got sadly worsted; in fact, the little +rascal had struck me directly in the forehead with a sharp piece +of cinder, fused with iron, from the old blacksmith's forge, +which made a cross in my forehead very plainly to be seen now. +The gash bled very freely, and I roared very loudly and betook +myself home. The coldhearted Aunt Katy paid no attention either +to my wound or my roaring, except to tell me it served me right; +I had no business with Ike; it was good for me; I would now keep +away _"from dem Lloyd niggers."_ Miss Lucretia, in this state of +the case, came forward; and, in quite a different spirit from +that manifested by Aunt Katy, she called me into the parlor (an +extra privilege of itself) and, without using toward me any of +the hard-hearted and reproachful epithets of my kitchen +tormentor, she quietly acted the good Samaritan. With her own +soft hand she washed the blood from my head and face, fetched her +own balsam bottle, and with the balsam wetted a nice piece of +white linen, and bound up my head. The balsam was not more +healing to the wound in my head, than her kindness was healing to +the wounds in my spirit, made by the unfeeling words of Aunt +Katy. After this, Miss Lucretia was my friend. I felt her to be +such; and I have no doubt that the simple act of binding up my +head, did much to awaken in her mind an interest in my welfare. +It is quite true, that this interest was never very marked, and +it seldom showed itself in anything more than in giving me a +piece of bread when I was hungry; but this was a great favor on a +slave plantation, and I was the only one of the children to whom +such attention was paid. <103 REALMS OF SUNLIGHT>When very +hungry, I would go into the back yard and play under Miss +Lucretia's window. When pretty severely pinched by hunger, I had +a habit of singing, which the good lady very soon came to +understand as a petition for a piece of bread. When I sung under +Miss Lucretia's window, I was very apt to get well paid for my +music. The reader will see that I now had two friends, both at +important points--Mas' Daniel at the great house, and Miss +Lucretia at home. From Mas' Daniel I got protection from the +bigger boys; and from Miss Lucretia I got bread, by singing when +I was hungry, and sympathy when I was abused by that termagant, +who had the reins of government in the kitchen. For such +friendship I felt deeply grateful, and bitter as are my +recollections of slavery, I love to recall any instances of +kindness, any sunbeams of humane treatment, which found way to my +soul through the iron grating of my house of bondage. Such beams +seem all the brighter from the general darkness into which they +penetrate, and the impression they make is vividly distinct and +beautiful. + +As I have before intimated, I was seldom whipped--and never +severely--by my old master. I suffered little from the treatment +I received, except from hunger and cold. These were my two great +physical troubles. I could neither get a sufficiency of food nor +of clothing; but I suffered less from hunger than from cold. In +hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept almost in a state +of nudity; no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trowsers; +nothing but coarse sackcloth or tow-linen, made into a sort of +shirt, reaching down to my knees. This I wore night and day, +changing it once a week. In the day time I could protect myself +pretty well, by keeping on the sunny side of the house; and in +bad weather, in the corner of the kitchen chimney. The great +difficulty was, to keep warm during the night. I had no bed. +The pigs in the pen had leaves, and the horses in the stable had +straw, but the children had no beds. They lodged anywhere in the +ample kitchen. I slept, generally, in a little closet, without +even a blanket to cover me. In very cold weather. I sometimes +got down the bag in which corn<104>meal was usually carried to +the mill, and crawled into that. Sleeping there, with my head in +and feet out, I was partly protected, though not comfortable. My +feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which +I am writing might be laid in the gashes. The manner of taking +our meals at old master's, indicated but little refinement. Our +corn-meal mush, when sufficiently cooled, was placed in a large +wooden tray, or trough, like those used in making maple sugar +here in the north. This tray was set down, either on the floor +of the kitchen, or out of doors on the ground; and the children +were called, like so many pigs; and like so many pigs they would +come, and literally devour the mush--some with oyster shells, +some with pieces of shingles, and none with spoons. He that eat +fastest got most, and he that was strongest got the best place; +and few left the trough really satisfied. I was the most unlucky +of any, for Aunt Katy had no good feeling for me; and if I pushed +any of the other children, or if they told her anything +unfavorable of me, she always believed the worst, and was sure to +whip me. + +As I grew older and more thoughtful, I was more and more filled +with a sense of my wretchedness. The cruelty of Aunt Katy, the +hunger and cold I suffered, and the terrible reports of wrong and +outrage which came to my ear, together with what I almost daily +witnessed, led me, when yet but eight or nine years old, to wish +I had never been born. I used to contrast my condition with the +black-birds, in whose wild and sweet songs I fancied them so +happy! Their apparent joy only deepened the shades of my sorrow. +There are thoughtful days in the lives of children--at least +there were in mine when they grapple with all the great, primary +subjects of knowledge, and reach, in a moment, conclusions which +no subsequent experience can shake. I was just as well aware of +the unjust, unnatural and murderous character of slavery, when +nine years old, as I am now. Without any appeal to books, to +laws, or to authorities of any kind, it was enough to accept God +as a father, to regard slavery as a crime. +<105 REJOICED AT LEAVING THE PLANTATION> + +I was not ten years old when I left Col. Lloyd's plantation for +Balitmore{sic}. I left that plantation with inexpressible joy. +I never shall forget the ecstacy with which I received the +intelligence from my friend, Miss Lucretia, that my old master +had determined to let me go to Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh +Auld, a brother to Mr. Thomas Auld, my old master's son-in-law. +I received this information about three days before my departure. +They were three of the happiest days of my childhood. I spent +the largest part of these three days in the creek, washing off +the plantation scurf, and preparing for my new home. Mrs. +Lucretia took a lively interest in getting me ready. She told me +I must get all the dead skin off my feet and knees, before I +could go to Baltimore, for the people there were very cleanly, +and would laugh at me if I looked dirty; and, besides, she was +intending to give me a pair of trowsers, which I should not put +on unless I got all the dirt off. This was a warning to which I +was bound to take heed; for the thought of owning a pair of +trowsers, was great, indeed. It was almost a sufficient motive, +not only to induce me to scrub off the _mange_ (as pig drovers +would call it) but the skin as well. So I went at it in good +earnest, working for the first time in the hope of reward. I was +greatly excited, and could hardly consent to sleep, lest I should +be left. The ties that, ordinarily, bind children to their +homes, were all severed, or they never had any existence in my +case, at least so far as the home plantation of Col. L. was +concerned. I therefore found no severe trail at the moment of my +departure, such as I had experienced when separated from my home +in Tuckahoe. My home at my old master's was charmless to me; it +was not home, but a prison to me; on parting from it, I could not +feel that I was leaving anything which I could have enjoyed by +staying. My mother was now long dead; my grandmother was far +away, so that I seldom saw her; Aunt Katy was my unrelenting +tormentor; and my two sisters and brothers, owing to our early +separation in life, and the family-destroying power of slavery, +were, comparatively, stran<106>gers to me. The fact of our +relationship was almost blotted out. I looked for _home_ +elsewhere, and was confident of finding none which I should +relish less than the one I was leaving. If, however, I found in +my new home to which I was going with such blissful +anticipations--hardship, whipping and nakedness, I had the +questionable consolation that I should not have escaped any one +of these evils by remaining under the management of Aunt Katy. +Then, too, I thought, since I had endured much in this line on +Lloyd's plantation, I could endure as much elsewhere, and +especially at Baltimore; for I had something of the feeling about +that city which is expressed in the saying, that being "hanged in +England, is better than dying a natural death in Ireland." I had +the strongest desire to see Baltimore. My cousin Tom--a boy two +or three years older than I--had been there, and though not +fluent (he stuttered immoderately) in speech, he had inspired me +with that desire, by his eloquent description of the place. Tom +was, sometimes, Capt. Auld's cabin boy; and when he came from +Baltimore, he was always a sort of hero amongst us, at least till +his Baltimore trip was forgotten. I could never tell him of +anything, or point out anything that struck me as beautiful or +powerful, but that he had seen something in Baltimore far +surpassing it. Even the great house itself, with all its +pictures within, and pillars without, he had the hardihood to say +"was nothing to Baltimore." He bought a trumpet (worth six +pence) and brought it home; told what he had seen in the windows +of stores; that he had heard shooting crackers, and seen +soldiers; that he had seen a steamboat; that there were ships in +Baltimore that could carry four such sloops as the "Sally Lloyd." +He said a great deal about the market-house; he spoke of the +bells ringing; and of many other things which roused my curiosity +very much; and, indeed, which heightened my hopes of happiness in +my new home. + +We sailed out of Miles river for Baltimore early on a Saturday +morning. I remember only the day of the week; for, at that time, +<107 ARRIVAL AT BALTIMORE>I had no knowledge of the days of the +month, nor, indeed, of the months of the year. On setting sail, +I walked aft, and gave to Col. Lloyd's plantation what I hoped +would be the last look I should ever give to it, or to any place +like it. My strong aversion to the great farm, was not owing to +my own personal suffering, but the daily suffering of others, and +to the certainty that I must, sooner or later, be placed under +the barbarous rule of an overseer, such as the accomplished Gore, +or the brutal and drunken Plummer. After taking this last view, +I quitted the quarter deck, made my way to the bow of the sloop, +and spent the remainder of the day in looking ahead; interesting +myself in what was in the distance, rather than what was near by +or behind. The vessels, sweeping along the bay, were very +interesting objects. The broad bay opened like a shoreless ocean +on my boyish vision, filling me with wonder and admiration. + +Late in the afternoon, we reached Annapolis, the capital of the +state, stopping there not long enough to admit of my going +ashore. It was the first large town I had ever seen; and though +it was inferior to many a factory village in New England, my +feelings, on seeing it, were excited to a pitch very little below +that reached by travelers at the first view of Rome. The dome of +the state house was especially imposing, and surpassed in +grandeur the appearance of the great house. The great world was +opening upon me very rapidly, and I was eagerly acquainting +myself with its multifarious lessons. + +We arrived in Baltimore on Sunday morning, and landed at Smith's +wharf, not far from Bowly's wharf. We had on board the sloop a +large flock of sheep, for the Baltimore market; and, after +assisting in driving them to the slaughter house of Mr. Curtis, +on Loudon Slater's Hill, I was speedily conducted by Rich--one of +the hands belonging to the sloop--to my new home in Alliciana +street, near Gardiner's ship-yard, on Fell's Point. Mr. and Mrs. +Hugh Auld, my new mistress and master, were both at home, and met +me at the door with their rosy cheeked little son, Thomas, +<108>to take care of whom was to constitute my future occupation. +In fact, it was to "little Tommy," rather than to his parents, +that old master made a present of me; and though there was no +_legal_ form or arrangement entered into, I have no doubt that +Mr. and Mrs. Auld felt that, in due time, I should be the legal +property of their bright-eyed and beloved boy, Tommy. I was +struck with the appearance, especially, of my new mistress. Her +face was lighted with the kindliest emotions; and the reflex +influence of her countenance, as well as the tenderness with +which she seemed to regard me, while asking me sundry little +questions, greatly delighted me, and lit up, to my fancy, the +pathway of my future. Miss Lucretia was kind; but my new +mistress, "Miss Sophy," surpassed her in kindness of manner. +Little Thomas was affectionately told by his mother, that _"there +was his Freddy,"_ and that "Freddy would take care of him;" and I +was told to "be kind to little Tommy"--an injunction I scarcely +needed, for I had already fallen in love with the dear boy; and +with these little ceremonies I was initiated into my new home, +and entered upon my peculiar duties, with not a cloud above the +horizon. + +I may say here, that I regard my removal from Col. Lloyd's +plantation as one of the most interesting and fortunate events of +my life. Viewing it in the light of human likelihoods, it is +quite probable that, but for the mere circumstance of being thus +removed before the rigors of slavery had fastened upon me; before +my young spirit had been crushed under the iron control of the +slave-driver, instead of being, today, a FREEMAN, I might have +been wearing the galling chains of slavery. I have sometimes +felt, however, that there was something more intelligent than +_chance_, and something more certain than _luck_, to be seen in +the circumstance. If I have made any progress in knowledge; if I +have cherished any honorable aspirations, or have, in any manner, +worthily discharged the duties of a member of an oppressed +people; this little circumstance must be allowed its due weight +<109 A TURNING POINT IN MY HISTORY>in giving my life that +direction. I have ever regarded it as the first plain +manifestation of that + + _Divinity that shapes our ends, + Rough hew them as we will_. + + +I was not the only boy on the plantation that might have been +sent to live in Baltimore. There was a wide margin from which to +select. There were boys younger, boys older, and boys of the +same age, belonging to my old master some at his own house, and +some at his farm--but the high privilege fell to my lot. + +I may be deemed superstitious and egotistical, in regarding this +event as a special interposition of Divine Providence in my +favor; but the thought is a part of my history, and I should be +false to the earliest and most cherished sentiments of my soul, +if I suppressed, or hesitated to avow that opinion, although it +may be characterized as irrational by the wise, and ridiculous by +the scoffer. From my earliest recollections of serious matters, +I date the entertainment of something like an ineffaceable +conviction, that slavery would not always be able to hold me +within its foul embrace; and this conviction, like a word of +living faith, strengthened me through the darkest trials of my +lot. This good spirit was from God; and to him I offer +thanksgiving and praise. + + +CHAPTER X +_Life in Baltimore_ + +CITY ANNOYANCES--PLANTATION REGRETS--MY MISTRESS, MISS SOPHA--HER +HISTORY--HER KINDNESS TO ME--MY MASTER, HUGH AULD--HIS SOURNESS-- +MY INCREASED SENSITIVENESS--MY COMFORTS--MY OCCUPATION--THE +BANEFUL EFFECTS OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY DEAR AND GOOD MISTRESS--HOW +SHE COMMENCED TEACHING ME TO READ--WHY SHE CEASED TEACHING ME-- +CLOUDS GATHERING OVER MY BRIGHT PROSPECTS--MASTER AULD'S +EXPOSITION OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF SLAVERY--CITY SLAVES-- +PLANTATION SLAVES--THE CONTRAST--EXCEPTIONS--MR. HAMILTON'S TWO +SLAVES, HENRIETTA AND MARY--MRS. HAMILTON'S CRUEL TREATMENT OF +THEM--THE PITEOUS ASPECT THEY PRESENTED--NO POWER MUST COME +BETWEEN THE SLAVE AND THE SLAVEHOLDER. + + +Once in Baltimore, with hard brick pavements under my feet, which +almost raised blisters, by their very heat, for it was in the +height of summer; walled in on all sides by towering brick +buildings; with troops of hostile boys ready to pounce upon me at +every street corner; with new and strange objects glaring upon me +at every step, and with startling sounds reaching my ears from +all directions, I for a time thought that, after all, the home +plantation was a more desirable place of residence than my home +on Alliciana street, in Baltimore. My country eyes and ears were +confused and bewildered here; but the boys were my chief trouble. +They chased me, and called me _"Eastern Shore man,"_ till really +I almost wished myself back on the Eastern Shore. I had to +undergo a sort of moral acclimation, and when that was over, I +did much better. My new mistress happily proved to be all she +_seemed_ to be, when, with her husband, she met me at <111 +KINDNESS OF MY NEW MISTRESS>the door, with a most beaming, +benignant countenance. She was, naturally, of an excellent +disposition, kind, gentle and cheerful. The supercilious +contempt for the rights and feelings of the slave, and the +petulance and bad humor which generally characterize slaveholding +ladies, were all quite absent from kind "Miss" Sophia's manner +and bearing toward me. She had, in truth, never been a +slaveholder, but had--a thing quite unusual in the south-- +depended almost entirely upon her own industry for a living. To +this fact the dear lady, no doubt, owed the excellent +preservation of her natural goodness of heart, for slavery can +change a saint into a sinner, and an angel into a demon. I +hardly knew how to behave toward "Miss Sopha," as I used to call +Mrs. Hugh Auld. I had been treated as a _pig_ on the plantation; +I was treated as a _child_ now. I could not even approach her as +I had formerly approached Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang +down my head, and speak with bated breath, when there was no +pride to scorn me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to +inspire me with fear? I therefore soon learned to regard her as +something more akin to a mother, than a slaveholding mistress. +The crouching servility of a slave, usually so acceptable a +quality to the haughty slaveholder, was not understood nor +desired by this gentle woman. So far from deeming it impudent in +a slave to look her straight in the face, as some slaveholding +ladies do, she seemed ever to say, "look up, child; don't be +afraid; see, I am full of kindness and good will toward you." +The hands belonging to Col. Lloyd's sloop, esteemed it a great +privilege to be the bearers of parcels or messages to my new +mistress; for whenever they came, they were sure of a most kind +and pleasant reception. If little Thomas was her son, and her +most dearly beloved child, she, for a time, at least, made me +something like his half-brother in her affections. If dear Tommy +was exalted to a place on his mother's knee, "Feddy" was honored +by a place at his mother's side. Nor did he lack the caressing +strokes of her gentle hand, to convince him that, though +_motherless_, he was not _friendless_. Mrs. Auld <112>was not +only a kind-hearted woman, but she was remarkably pious; frequent +in her attendance of public worship, much given to reading the +bible, and to chanting hymns of praise, when alone. Mr. Hugh +Auld was altogether a different character. He cared very little +about religion, knew more of the world, and was more of the +world, than his wife. He set out, doubtless to be--as the world +goes--a respectable man, and to get on by becoming a successful +ship builder, in that city of ship building. This was his +ambition, and it fully occupied him. I was, of course, of very +little consequence to him, compared with what I was to good Mrs. +Auld; and, when he smiled upon me, as he sometimes did, the smile +was borrowed from his lovely wife, and, like all borrowed light, +was transient, and vanished with the source whence it was +derived. While I must characterize Master Hugh as being a very +sour man, and of forbidding appearance, it is due to him to +acknowledge, that he was never very cruel to me, according to the +notion of cruelty in Maryland. The first year or two which I +spent in his house, he left me almost exclusively to the +management of his wife. She was my law-giver. In hands so +tender as hers, and in the absence of the cruelties of the +plantation, I became, both physically and mentally, much more +sensitive to good and ill treatment; and, perhaps, suffered more +from a frown from my mistress, than I formerly did from a cuff at +the hands of Aunt Katy. Instead of the cold, damp floor of my +old master's kitchen, I found myself on carpets; for the corn bag +in winter, I now had a good straw bed, well furnished with +covers; for the coarse corn-meal in the morning, I now had good +bread, and mush occasionally; for my poor tow-lien shirt, +reaching to my knees, I had good, clean clothes. I was really +well off. My employment was to run errands, and to take care of +Tommy; to prevent his getting in the way of carriages, and to +keep him out of harm's way generally. Tommy, and I, and his +mother, got on swimmingly together, for a time. I say _for a +time_, because the fatal poison of irresponsible power, and the +natural influence <113 LEARNING TO READ>of slavery customs, were +not long in making a suitable impression on the gentle and loving +disposition of my excellent mistress. At first, Mrs. Auld +evidently regarded me simply as a child, like any other child; +she had not come to regard me as _property_. This latter thought +was a thing of conventional growth. The first was natural and +spontaneous. A noble nature, like hers, could not, instantly, be +wholly perverted; and it took several years to change the natural +sweetness of her temper into fretful bitterness. In her worst +estate, however, there were, during the first seven years I lived +with her, occasional returns of her former kindly disposition. + +The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the bible for she +often read aloud when her husband was absent soon awakened my +curiosity in respect to this _mystery_ of reading, and roused in +me the desire to learn. Having no fear of my kind mistress +before my eyes, (she had then given me no reason to fear,) I +frankly asked her to teach me to read; and, without hesitation, +the dear woman began the task, and very soon, by her assistance, +I was master of the alphabet, and could spell words of three or +four letters. My mistress seemed almost as proud of my progress, +as if I had been her own child; and, supposing that her husband +would be as well pleased, she made no secret of what she was +doing for me. Indeed, she exultingly told him of the aptness of +her pupil, of her intention to persevere in teaching me, and of +the duty which she felt it to teach me, at least to read _the +bible_. Here arose the first cloud over my Baltimore prospects, +the precursor of drenching rains and chilling blasts. + +Master Hugh was amazed at the simplicity of his spouse, and, +probably for the first time, he unfolded to her the true +philosophy of slavery, and the peculiar rules necessary to be +observed by masters and mistresses, in the management of their +human chattels. Mr. Auld promptly forbade continuance of her +instruction; telling her, in the first place, that the thing +itself was unlawful; that it was also unsafe, and could only lead +to mischief. To use <114>his own words, further, he said, "if +you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell;" "he should know +nothing but the will of his master, and learn to obey it." "if +you teach that nigger--speaking of myself--how to read the bible, +there will be no keeping him;" "it would forever unfit him for +the duties of a slave;" and "as to himself, learning would do him +no good, but probably, a great deal of harm--making him +disconsolate and unhappy." "If you learn him now to read, he'll +want to know how to write; and, this accomplished, he'll be +running away with himself." Such was the tenor of Master Hugh's +oracular exposition of the true philosophy of training a human +chattel; and it must be confessed that he very clearly +comprehended the nature and the requirements of the relation of +master and slave. His discourse was the first decidedly anti- +slavery lecture to which it had been my lot to listen. Mrs. Auld +evidently felt the force of his remarks; and, like an obedient +wife, began to shape her course in the direction indicated by her +husband. The effect of his words, _on me_, was neither slight +nor transitory. His iron sentences--cold and harsh--sunk deep +into my heart, and stirred up not only my feelings into a sort of +rebellion, but awakened within me a slumbering train of vital +thought. It was a new and special revelation, dispelling a +painful mystery, against which my youthful understanding had +struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit: the _white_ man's power +to perpetuate the enslavement of the _black_ man. "Very well," +thought I; "knowledge unfits a child to be a slave." I +instinctively assented to the proposition; and from that moment I +understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom. This was +just what I needed; and I got it at a time, and from a source, +whence I least expected it. I was saddened at the thought of +losing the assistance of my kind mistress; but the information, +so instantly derived, to some extent compensated me for the loss +I had sustained in this direction. Wise as Mr. Auld was, he +evidently underrated my comprehension, and had little idea of the +use to which I was capable of putting <115 CITY SLAVES AND +COUNTRYSLAVES>the impressive lesson he was giving to his wife. +_He_ wanted me to be _a slave;_ I had already voted against that +on the home plantation of Col. Lloyd. That which he most loved I +most hated; and the very determination which he expressed to keep +me in ignorance, only rendered me the more resolute in seeking +intelligence. In learning to read, therefore, I am not sure that +I do not owe quite as much to the opposition of my master, as to +the kindly assistance of my amiable mistress. I acknowledge the +benefit rendered me by the one, and by the other; believing, that +but for my mistress, I might have grown up in ignorance. + +I had resided but a short time in Baltimore, before I observed a +marked difference in the manner of treating slaves, generally, +from which I had witnessed in that isolated and out-of-the-way +part of the country where I began life. A city slave is almost a +free citizen, in Baltimore, compared with a slave on Col. Lloyd's +plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, is less dejected +in his appearance, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to +the whip-driven slave on the plantation. Slavery dislikes a +dense population, in which there is a majority of non- +slaveholders. The general sense of decency that must pervade +such a population, does much to check and prevent those outbreaks +of atrocious cruelty, and those dark crimes without a name, +almost openly perpetrated on the plantation. He is a desperate +slaveholder who will shock the humanity of his non-slaveholding +neighbors, by the cries of the lacerated slaves; and very few in +the city are willing to incur the odium of being cruel masters. +I found, in Baltimore, that no man was more odious to the white, +as well as to the colored people, than he, who had the reputation +of starving his slaves. Work them, flog them, if need be, but +don't starve them. These are, however, some painful exceptions +to this rule. While it is quite true that most of the +slaveholders in Baltimore feed and clothe their slaves well, +there are others who keep up their country cruelties in the city. + +An instance of this sort is furnished in the case of a family +<116>who lived directly opposite to our house, and were named +Hamilton. Mrs. Hamilton owned two slaves. Their names were +Henrietta and Mary. They had always been house slaves. One was +aged about twenty-two, and the other about fourteen. They were a +fragile couple by nature, and the treatment they received was +enough to break down the constitution of a horse. Of all the +dejected, emaciated, mangled and excoriated creatures I ever saw, +those two girls--in the refined, church going and Christian city +of Baltimore were the most deplorable. Of stone must that heart +be made, that could look upon Henrietta and Mary, without being +sickened to the core with sadness. Especially was Mary a heart- +sickening object. Her head, neck and shoulders, were literally +cut to pieces. I have frequently felt her head, and found it +nearly covered over with festering sores, caused by the lash of +her cruel mistress. I do not know that her master ever whipped +her, but I have often been an eye witness of the revolting and +brutal inflictions by Mrs. Hamilton; and what lends a deeper +shade to this woman's conduct, is the fact, that, almost in the +very moments of her shocking outrages of humanity and decency, +she would charm you by the sweetness of her voice and her seeming +piety. She used to sit in a large rocking chair, near the middle +of the room, with a heavy cowskin, such as I have elsewhere +described; and I speak within the truth when I say, that these +girls seldom passed that chair, during the day, without a blow +from that cowskin, either upon their bare arms, or upon their +shoulders. As they passed her, she would draw her cowskin and +give them a blow, saying, _"move faster, you black jip!"_ and, +again, _"take that, you black jip!"_ continuing, _"if you don't +move faster, I will give you more."_ Then the lady would go on, +singing her sweet hymns, as though her _righteous_ soul were +sighing for the holy realms of paradise. + +Added to the cruel lashings to which these poor slave-girls were +subjected--enough in themselves to crush the spirit of men--they +were, really, kept nearly half starved; they seldom knew <117 +MRS. HAMILTON'S CRUELTY TO HER SLAVES>what it was to eat a full +meal, except when they got it in the kitchens of neighbors, less +mean and stingy than the psalm-singing Mrs. Hamilton. I have +seen poor Mary contending for the offal, with the pigs in the +street. So much was the poor girl pinched, kicked, cut and +pecked to pieces, that the boys in the street knew her only by +the name of _"pecked,"_ a name derived from the scars and +blotches on her neck, head and shoulders. + +It is some relief to this picture of slavery in Baltimore, to +say--what is but the simple truth--that Mrs. Hamilton's treatment +of her slaves was generally condemned, as disgraceful and +shocking; but while I say this, it must also be remembered, that +the very parties who censured the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton, would +have condemned and promptly punished any attempt to interfere +with Mrs. Hamilton's _right_ to cut and slash her slaves to +pieces. There must be no force between the slave and the +slaveholder, to restrain the power of the one, and protect the +weakness of the other; and the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton is as +justly chargeable to the upholders of the slave system, as +drunkenness is chargeable on those who, by precept and example, +or by indifference, uphold the drinking system. + + + +CHAPTER XI +_"A Change Came O'er the Spirit of My Dream"_ + +HOW I LEARNED TO READ--MY MISTRESS--HER SLAVEHOLDING DUTIES-- +THEIR DEPLORABLE EFFECTS UPON HER ORIGINALLY NOBLE NATURE--THE +CONFLICT IN HER MIND--HER FINAL OPPOSITION TO MY LEARNING TO +READ--TOO LATE--SHE HAD GIVEN ME THE INCH, I WAS RESOLVED TO TAKE +THE ELL--HOW I PURSUED MY EDUCATION--MY TUTORS--HOW I COMPENSATED +THEM--WHAT PROGRESS I MADE--SLAVERY--WHAT I HEARD SAID ABOUT IT-- +THIRTEEN YEARS OLD--THE _Columbian Orator_--A RICH SCENE--A +DIALOGUE--SPEECHES OF CHATHAM, SHERIDAN, PITT AND FOX--KNOWLEDGE +EVER INCREASING--MY EYES OPENED--LIBERTY--HOW I PINED FOR IT--MY +SADNESS--THE DISSATISFACTION OF MY POOR MISTRESS--MY HATRED OF +SLAVERY--ONE UPAS TREE OVERSHADOWED US BOTH. + + +I lived in the family of Master Hugh, at Baltimore, seven years, +during which time--as the almanac makers say of the weather--my +condition was variable. The most interesting feature of my +history here, was my learning to read and write, under somewhat +marked disadvantages. In attaining this knowledge, I was +compelled to resort to indirections by no means congenial to my +nature, and which were really humiliating to me. My mistress-- +who, as the reader has already seen, had begun to teach me was +suddenly checked in her benevolent design, by the strong advice +of her husband. In faithful compliance with this advice, the +good lady had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, but had +set her face as a flint against my learning to read by any means. +It is due, however, to my mistress to say, that she did not adopt +this course in all its stringency at the first. She either +thought it unnecessary, or she lacked the depravity indispensable +to shutting me up in <119 EFFECTS OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY +MISTRESS>mental darkness. It was, at least, necessary for her to +have some training, and some hardening, in the exercise of the +slaveholder's prerogative, to make her equal to forgetting my +human nature and character, and to treating me as a thing +destitute of a moral or an intellectual nature. Mrs. Auld--my +mistress--was, as I have said, a most kind and tender-hearted +woman; and, in the humanity of her heart, and the simplicity of +her mind, she set out, when I first went to live with her, to +treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another. + +It is easy to see, that, in entering upon the duties of a +slaveholder, some little experience is needed. Nature has done +almost nothing to prepare men and women to be either slaves or +slaveholders. Nothing but rigid training, long persisted in, can +perfect the character of the one or the other. One cannot easily +forget to love freedom; and it is as hard to cease to respect +that natural love in our fellow creatures. On entering upon the +career of a slaveholding mistress, Mrs. Auld was singularly +deficient; nature, which fits nobody for such an office, had done +less for her than any lady I had known. It was no easy matter to +induce her to think and to feel that the curly-headed boy, who +stood by her side, and even leaned on her lap; who was loved by +little Tommy, and who loved little Tommy in turn; sustained to +her only the relation of a chattel. I was _more_ than that, and +she felt me to be more than that. I could talk and sing; I could +laugh and weep; I could reason and remember; I could love and +hate. I was human, and she, dear lady, knew and felt me to be +so. How could she, then, treat me as a brute, without a mighty +struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul. That +struggle came, and the will and power of the husband was +victorious. Her noble soul was overthrown; but, he that +overthrew it did not, himself, escape the consequences. He, not +less than the other parties, was injured in his domestic peace by +the fall. + +When I went into their family, it was the abode of happiness and +contentment. The mistress of the house was a model of +affec<120>tion and tenderness. Her fervent piety and watchful +uprightness made it impossible to see her without thinking and +feeling--"_that woman is a Christian_." There was no sorrow nor +suffering for which she had not a tear, and there was no innocent +joy for which she did not a smile. She had bread for the hungry, +clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came +within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her +of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early +happiness. Conscience cannot stand much violence. Once +thoroughly broken down, _who_ is he that can repair the damage? +It may be broken toward the slave, on Sunday, and toward the +master on Monday. It cannot endure such shocks. It must stand +entire, or it does not stand at all. If my condition waxed bad, +that of the family waxed not better. The first step, in the +wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and to +conscience, in arresting the benevolence that would have +enlightened my young mind. In ceasing to instruct me, she must +begin to justify herself _to_ herself; and, once consenting to +take sides in such a debate, she was riveted to her position. +One needs very little knowledge of moral philosophy, to see +_where_ my mistress now landed. She finally became even more +violent in her opposition to my learning to read, than was her +husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as +_well_ as her husband had commanded her, but seemed resolved to +better his instruction. Nothing appeared to make my poor +mistress--after her turning toward the downward path--more angry, +than seeing me, seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a +book or a newspaper. I have had her rush at me, with the utmost +fury, and snatch from my hand such newspaper or book, with +something of the wrath and consternation which a traitor might be +supposed to feel on being discovered in a plot by some dangerous +spy. + +Mrs. Auld was an apt woman, and the advice of her husband, and +her own experience, soon demonstrated, to her entire +satisfaction, that education and slavery are incompatible with +each other. When this conviction was thoroughly established, I +was <121 HOW I PURSUED MY EDUCATION>most narrowly watched in all +my movements. If I remained in a separate room from the family +for any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected +of having a book, and was at once called upon to give an account +of myself. All this, however, was entirely _too late_. The +first, and never to be retraced, step had been taken. In +teaching me the alphabet, in the days of her simplicity and +kindness, my mistress had given me the _"inch,"_ and now, no +ordinary precaution could prevent me from taking the _"ell."_ + +Seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, I hit +upon many expedients to accomplish the desired end. The plea +which I mainly adopted, and the one by which I was most +successful, was that of using my young white playmates, with whom +I met in the streets as teachers. I used to carry, almost +constantly, a copy of Webster's spelling book in my pocket; and, +when sent of errands, or when play time was allowed me, I would +step, with my young friends, aside, and take a lesson in +spelling. I generally paid my _tuition fee_ to the boys, with +bread, which I also carried in my pocket. For a single biscuit, +any of my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more +valuable to me than bread. Not every one, however, demanded this +consideration, for there were those who took pleasure in teaching +me, whenever I had a chance to be taught by them. I am strongly +tempted to give the names of two or three of those little boys, +as a slight testimonial of the gratitude and affection I bear +them, but prudence forbids; not that it would injure me, but it +might, possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an unpardonable +offense to do any thing, directly or indirectly, to promote a +slave's freedom, in a slave state. It is enough to say, of my +warm-hearted little play fellows, that they lived on Philpot +street, very near Durgin & Bailey's shipyard. + +Although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously +talked about among grown up people in Maryland, I frequently +talked about it--and that very freely--with the white boys. I +<122>would, sometimes, say to them, while seated on a curb stone +or a cellar door, "I wish I could be free, as you will be when +you get to be men." "You will be free, you know, as soon as you +are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but I am a slave for +life. Have I not as good a right to be free as you have?" Words +like these, I observed, always troubled them; and I had no small +satisfaction in wringing from the boys, occasionally, that fresh +and bitter condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature, +unseared and unperverted. Of all consciences let me have those +to deal with which have not been bewildered by the cares of life. +I do not remember ever to have met with a _boy_, while I was in +slavery, who defended the slave system; but I have often had boys +to console me, with the hope that something would yet occur, by +which I might be made free. Over and over again, they have told +me, that "they believed I had as good a right to be free as +_they_ had;" and that "they did not believe God ever made any one +to be a slave." The reader will easily see, that such little +conversations with my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my +love of liberty, nor to render me contented with my condition as +a slave. + +When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in +learning to read, every increase of knowledge, especially +respecting the FREE STATES, added something to the almost +intolerable burden of the thought--I AM A SLAVE FOR LIFE. To my +bondage I saw no end. It was a terrible reality, and I shall +never be able to tell how sadly that thought chafed my young +spirit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, about this time in my +life, I had made enough money to buy what was then a very popular +school book, viz: the _Columbian Orator_. I bought this addition +to my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, Fell's Point, +Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents for it. I was first led to +buy this book, by hearing some little boys say they were going to +learn some little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. This +volume was, indeed, a rich treasure, and every opportunity +afforded me, for <123 _The Columbian Orator_--A DIALOGUE>a time, +was spent in diligently perusing it. Among much other +interesting matter, that which I had perused and reperused with +unflagging satisfaction, was a short dialogue between a master +and his slave. The slave is represented as having been +recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and the master opens +the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave with +ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say in his own +defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called upon to reply, the +slave rejoins, that he knows how little anything that he can say +will avail, seeing that he is completely in the hands of his +owner; and with noble resolution, calmly says, "I submit to my +fate." Touched by the slave's answer, the master insists upon +his further speaking, and recapitulates the many acts of kindness +which he has performed toward the slave, and tells him he is +permitted to speak for himself. Thus invited to the debate, the +quondam slave made a spirited defense of himself, and thereafter +the whole argument, for and against slavery, was brought out. +The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument; and +seeing himself to be thus vanquished, he generously and meekly +emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. +It is scarcely neccessary{sic} to say, that a dialogue, with such +an origin, and such an ending--read when the fact of my being a +slave was a constant burden of grief--powerfully affected me; and +I could not help feeling that the day might come, when the well- +directed answers made by the slave to the master, in this +instance, would find their counterpart in myself. + +This, however, was not all the fanaticism which I found in this +_Columbian Orator_. I met there one of Sheridan's mighty +speeches, on the subject of Catholic Emancipation, Lord Chatham's +speech on the American war, and speeches by the great William +Pitt and by Fox. These were all choice documents to me, and I +read them, over and over again, with an interest that was ever +increasing, because it was ever gaining in intelligence; for the +more I read them, the better I understood them. The reading of +<124>these speeches added much to my limited stock of language, +and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting thoughts, which +had frequently flashed through my soul, and died away for want of +utterance. The mighty power and heart-searching directness of +truth, penetrating even the heart of a slaveholder, compelling +him to yield up his earthly interests to the claims of eternal +justice, were finely illustrated in the dialogue, just referred +to; and from the speeches of Sheridan, I got a bold and powerful +denunciation of oppression, and a most brilliant vindication of +the rights of man. Here was, indeed, a noble acquisition. If I +ever wavered under the consideration, that the Almighty, in some +way, ordained slavery, and willed my enslavement for his own +glory, I wavered no longer. I had now penetrated the secret of +all slavery and oppression, and had ascertained their true +foundation to be in the pride, the power and the avarice of man. +The dialogue and the speeches were all redolent of the principles +of liberty, and poured floods of light on the nature and +character of slavery. With a book of this kind in my hand, my +own human nature, and the facts of my experience, to help me, I +was equal to a contest with the religious advocates of slavery, +whether among the whites or among the colored people, for +blindness, in this matter, is not confined to the former. I have +met many religious colored people, at the south, who are under +the delusion that God requires them to submit to slavery, and to +wear their chains with meekness and humility. I could entertain +no such nonsense as this; and I almost lost my patience when I +found any colored man weak enough to believe such stuff. +Nevertheless, the increase of knowledge was attended with bitter, +as well as sweet results. The more I read, the more I was led to +abhor and detest slavery, and my enslavers. "Slaveholders," +thought I, "are only a band of successful robbers, who left their +homes and went into Africa for the purpose of stealing and +reducing my people to slavery." I loathed them as the meanest +and the most wicked of men. As I read, behold! the very +discontent so graphically pre<125 MY EYES OPENED>dicted by Master +Hugh, had already come upon me. I was no longer the light- +hearted, gleesome boy, full of mirth and play, as when I landed +first at Baltimore. Knowledge had come; light had penetrated the +moral dungeon where I dwelt; and, behold! there lay the bloody +whip, for my back, and here was the iron chain; and my good, +_kind master_, he was the author of my situation. The revelation +haunted me, stung me, and made me gloomy and miserable. As I +writhed under the sting and torment of this knowledge, I almost +envied my fellow slaves their stupid contentment. This knowledge +opened my eyes to the horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the +frightful dragon that was ready to pounce upon me, but it opened +no way for my escape. I have often wished myself a beast, or a +bird--anything, rather than a slave. I was wretched and gloomy, +beyond my ability to describe. I was too thoughtful to be happy. +It was this everlasting thinking which distressed and tormented +me; and yet there was no getting rid of the subject of my +thoughts. All nature was redolent of it. Once awakened by the +silver trump of knowledge, my spirit was roused to eternal +wakefulness. Liberty! the inestimable birthright of every man, +had, for me, converted every object into an asserter of this +great right. It was heard in every sound, and beheld in every +object. It was ever present, to torment me with a sense of my +wretched condition. The more beautiful and charming were the +smiles of nature, the more horrible and desolate was my +condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, and I heard nothing +without hearing it. I do not exaggerate, when I say, that it +looked from every star, smiled in every calm, breathed in every +wind, and moved in every storm. + +I have no doubt that my state of mind had something to do with +the change in the treatment adopted, by my once kind mistress +toward me. I can easily believe, that my leaden, downcast, and +discontented look, was very offensive to her. Poor lady! She +did not know my trouble, and I dared not tell her. Could I have +freely made her acquainted with the real state of my mind, and +<126>given her the reasons therefor, it might have been well for +both of us. Her abuse of me fell upon me like the blows of the +false prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an _angel_ +stood in the way; and--such is the relation of master and slave I +could not tell her. Nature had made us _friends;_ slavery made +us _enemies_. My interests were in a direction opposite to hers, +and we both had our private thoughts and plans. She aimed to +keep me ignorant; and I resolved to know, although knowledge only +increased my discontent. My feelings were not the result of any +marked cruelty in the treatment I received; they sprung from the +consideration of my being a slave at all. It was _slavery_--not +its mere _incidents_--that I hated. I had been cheated. I saw +through the attempt to keep me in ignorance; I saw that +slaveholders would have gladly made me believe that they were +merely acting under the authority of God, in making a slave of +me, and in making slaves of others; and I treated them as robbers +and deceivers. The feeding and clothing me well, could not atone +for taking my liberty from me. The smiles of my mistress could +not remove the deep sorrow that dwelt in my young bosom. Indeed, +these, in time, came only to deepen my sorrow. She had changed; +and the reader will see that I had changed, too. We were both +victims to the same overshadowing evil--_she_, as mistress, I, as +slave. I will not censure her harshly; she cannot censure me, +for she knows I speak but the truth, and have acted in my +opposition to slavery, just as she herself would have acted, in a +reverse of circumstances. + + + +CHAPTER XII +_Religious Nature Awakened_ + +ABOLITIONISTS SPOKEN OF--MY EAGERNESS TO KNOW WHAT THIS WORD +MEANT--MY CONSULTATION OF THE DICTIONARY--INCENDIARY +INFORMATION--HOW AND WHERE DERIVED--THE ENIGMA SOLVED--NATHANIEL +TURNER'S INSURRECTION--THE CHOLERA--RELIGION--FIRST AWAKENED BY A +METHODIST MINISTER NAMED HANSON--MY DEAR AND GOOD OLD COLORED +FRIEND, LAWSON--HIS CHARACTER AND OCCUPATION--HIS INFLUENCE OVER +ME--OUR MUTUAL ATTACHMENT--THE COMFORT I DERIVED FROM HIS +TEACHING--NEW HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS--HEAVENLY LIGHT AMIDST +EARTHLY DARKNESS--THE TWO IRISHMEN ON THE WHARF--THEIR +CONVERSATION--HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE--WHAT WERE MY AIMS. + + +Whilst in the painful state of mind described in the foregoing +chapter, almost regretting my very existence, because doomed to a +life of bondage, so goaded and so wretched, at times, that I was +even tempted to destroy my own life, I was keenly sensitive and +eager to know any, and every thing that transpired, having any +relation to the subject of slavery. I was all ears, all eyes, +whenever the words _slave, slavery_, dropped from the lips of any +white person, and the occasions were not unfrequent when these +words became leading ones, in high, social debate, at our house. +Every little while, I could hear Master Hugh, or some of his +company, speaking with much warmth and excitement about +_"abolitionists."_ Of _who_ or _what_ these were, I was totally +ignorant. I found, however, that whatever they might be, they +were most cordially hated and soundly abused by slaveholders, of +every grade. I very soon discovered, too, that slavery was, in +some <128>sort, under consideration, whenever the abolitionists +were alluded to. This made the term a very interesting one to +me. If a slave, for instance, had made good his escape from +slavery, it was generally alleged, that he had been persuaded and +assisted by the abolitionists. If, also, a slave killed his +master--as was sometimes the case--or struck down his overseer, +or set fire to his master's dwelling, or committed any violence +or crime, out of the common way, it was certain to be said, that +such a crime was the legitimate fruits of the abolition movement. +Hearing such charges often repeated, I, naturally enough, +received the impression that abolition--whatever else it might +be--could not be unfriendly to the slave, nor very friendly to +the slaveholder. I therefore set about finding out, if possible, +_who_ and _what_ the abolitionists were, and _why_ they were so +obnoxious to the slaveholders. The dictionary afforded me very +little help. It taught me that abolition was the "act of +abolishing;" but it left me in ignorance at the very point where +I most wanted information--and that was, as to the _thing_ to be +abolished. A city newspaper, the _Baltimore American_, gave me +the incendiary information denied me by the dictionary. In its +columns I found, that, on a certain day, a vast number of +petitions and memorials had been presented to congress, praying +for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and for +the abolition of the slave trade between the states of the Union. +This was enough. The vindictive bitterness, the marked caution, +the studied reverse, and the cumbrous ambiguity, practiced by our +white folks, when alluding to this subject, was now fully +explained. Ever, after that, when I heard the words "abolition," +or "abolition movement," mentioned, I felt the matter one of a +personal concern; and I drew near to listen, when I could do so, +without seeming too solicitous and prying. There was HOPE in +those words. Ever and anon, too, I could see some terrible +denunciation of slavery, in our papers--copied from abolition +papers at the north--and the injustice of such denunciation +commented on. These I read with avidity. <129 ABOLITIONISM--THE +ENIGMA SOLVED>I had a deep satisfaction in the thought, that the +rascality of slaveholders was not concealed from the eyes of the +world, and that I was not alone in abhorring the cruelty and +brutality of slavery. A still deeper train of thought was +stirred. I saw that there was _fear_, as well as _rage_, in the +manner of speaking of the abolitionists. The latter, therefore, +I was compelled to regard as having some power in the country; +and I felt that they might, possibly, succeed in their designs. +When I met with a slave to whom I deemed it safe to talk on the +subject, I would impart to him so much of the mystery as I had +been able to penetrate. Thus, the light of this grand movement +broke in upon my mind, by degrees; and I must say, that, ignorant +as I then was of the philosophy of that movement, I believe in it +from the first--and I believed in it, partly, because I saw that +it alarmed the consciences of slaveholders. The insurrection of +Nathaniel Turner had been quelled, but the alarm and terror had +not subsided. The cholera was on its way, and the thought was +present, that God was angry with the white people because of +their slaveholding wickedness, and, therefore, his judgments were +abroad in the land. It was impossible for me not to hope much +from the abolition movement, when I saw it supported by the +Almighty, and armed with DEATH! + +Previous to my contemplation of the anti-slavery movement, and +its probable results, my mind had been seriously awakened to the +subject of religion. I was not more than thirteen years old, +when I felt the need of God, as a father and protector. My +religious nature was awakened by the preaching of a white +Methodist minister, named Hanson. He thought that all men, great +and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God; that +they were, by nature, rebels against His government; and that +they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God, through +Christ. I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what +was required of me; but one thing I knew very well--I was +wretched, and had no means of making myself otherwise. Moreover, +I knew that I could pray for light. I consulted a good colored +man, named <130>Charles Johnson; and, in tones of holy affection, +he told me to pray, and what to pray for. I was, for weeks, a +poor, brokenhearted mourner, traveling through the darkness and +misery of doubts and fears. I finally found that change of heart +which comes by "casting all one's care" upon God, and by having +faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Friend, and Savior of +those who diligently seek Him. + +After this, I saw the world in a new light. I seemed to live in +a new world, surrounded by new objects, and to be animated by new +hopes and desires. I loved all mankind--slaveholders not +excepted; though I abhorred slavery more than ever. My great +concern was, now, to have the world converted. The desire for +knowledge increased, and especially did I want a thorough +acquaintance with the contents of the bible. I have gathered +scattered pages from this holy book, from the filthy street +gutters of Baltimore, and washed and dried them, that in the +moments of my leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from +them. While thus religiously seeking knowledge, I became +acquainted with a good old colored man, named Lawson. A more +devout man than he, I never saw. He drove a dray for Mr. James +Ramsey, the owner of a rope-walk on Fell's Point, Baltimore. +This man not only prayed three time a day, but he prayed as he +walked through the streets, at his work--on his dray everywhere. +His life was a life of prayer, and his words (when he spoke to +his friends,) were about a better world. Uncle Lawson lived near +Master Hugh's house; and, becoming deeply attached to the old +man, I went often with him to prayer-meeting, and spent much of +my leisure time with him on Sunday. The old man could read a +little, and I was a great help to him, in making out the hard +words, for I was a better reader than he. I could teach him +_"the letter,"_ but he could teach me _"the spirit;"_ and high, +refreshing times we had together, in singing, praying and +glorifying God. These meetings with Uncle Lawson went on for a +long time, without the knowledge of Master Hugh or my mistress. +Both knew, how<131 FATHER LAWSON--OUR ATTACHMENT>ever, that I had +become religious, and they seemed to respect my conscientious +piety. My mistress was still a professor of religion, and +belonged to class. Her leader was no less a person than the Rev. +Beverly Waugh, the presiding elder, and now one of the bishops of +the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Waugh was then stationed +over Wilk street church. I am careful to state these facts, that +the reader may be able to form an idea of the precise influences +which had to do with shaping and directing my mind. + +In view of the cares and anxieties incident to the life she was +then leading, and, especially, in view of the separation from +religious associations to which she was subjected, my mistress +had, as I have before stated, become lukewarm, and needed to be +looked up by her leader. This brought Mr. Waugh to our house, +and gave me an opportunity to hear him exhort and pray. But my +chief instructor, in matters of religion, was Uncle Lawson. He +was my spiritual father; and I loved him intensely, and was at +his house every chance I got. + +This pleasure was not long allowed me. Master Hugh became averse +to my going to Father Lawson's, and threatened to whip me if I +ever went there again. I now felt myself persecuted by a wicked +man; and I _would_ go to Father Lawson's, notwithstanding the +threat. The good old man had told me, that the "Lord had a great +work for me to do;" and I must prepare to do it; and that he had +been shown that I must preach the gospel. His words made a deep +impression on my mind, and I verily felt that some such work was +before me, though I could not see _how_ I should ever engage in +its performance. "The good Lord," he said, "would bring it to +pass in his own good time," and that I must go on reading and +studying the scriptures. The advice and the suggestions of Uncle +Lawson, were not without their influence upon my character and +destiny. He threw my thoughts into a channel from which they +have never entirely diverged. He fanned my already intense love +of knowledge into a flame, by assuring me that I was to be a +useful man in the world. When I would <132>say to him, "How can +these things be and what can _I_ do?" his simple reply was, +_"Trust in the Lord."_ When I told him that "I was a slave, and +a slave FOR LIFE," he said, "the Lord can make you free, my dear. +All things are possible with him, only _have faith in God."_ +"Ask, and it shall be given." "If you want liberty," said the +good old man, "ask the Lord for it, _in faith_, AND HE WILL GIVE +IT TO YOU." + +Thus assured, and cheered on, under the inspiration of hope, I +worked and prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was +under the guidance of a wisdom higher than my own. With all +other blessings sought at the mercy seat, I always prayed that +God would, of His great mercy, and in His own good time, deliver +me from my bondage. + +I went, one day, on the wharf of Mr. Waters; and seeing two +Irishmen unloading a large scow of stone, or ballast I went on +board, unasked, and helped them. When we had finished the work, +one of the men came to me, aside, and asked me a number of +questions, and among them, if I were a slave. I told him "I was +a slave, and a slave for life." The good Irishman gave his +shoulders a shrug, and seemed deeply affected by the statement. +He said, "it was a pity so fine a little fellow as myself should +be a slave for life." They both had much to say about the +matter, and expressed the deepest sympathy with me, and the most +decided hatred of slavery. They went so far as to tell me that I +ought to run away, and go to the north; that I should find +friends there, and that I would be as free as anybody. I, +however, pretended not to be interested in what they said, for I +feared they might be treacherous. White men have been known to +encourage slaves to escape, and then--to get the reward--they +have kidnapped them, and returned them to their masters. And +while I mainly inclined to the notion that these men were honest +and meant me no ill, I feared it might be otherwise. I +nevertheless remembered their words and their advice, and looked +forward to an escape to the north, as a possible means of gaining +the liberty <133 HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE>for which my heart +panted. It was not my enslavement, at the then present time, +that most affected me; the being a slave _for life_, was the +saddest thought. I was too young to think of running away +immediately; besides, I wished to learn how to write, before +going, as I might have occasion to write my own pass. I now not +only had the hope of freedom, but a foreshadowing of the means by +which I might, some day, gain that inestimable boon. Meanwhile, +I resolved to add to my educational attainments the art of +writing. + +After this manner I began to learn to write: I was much in the +ship yard--Master Hugh's, and that of Durgan & Bailey--and I +observed that the carpenters, after hewing and getting a piece of +timber ready for use, wrote on it the initials of the name of +that part of the ship for which it was intended. When, for +instance, a piece of timber was ready for the starboard side, it +was marked with a capital "S." A piece for the larboard side was +marked "L;" larboard forward, "L. F.;" larboard aft, was marked +"L. A.;" starboard aft, "S. A.;" and starboard forward "S. F." I +soon learned these letters, and for what they were placed on the +timbers. + +My work was now, to keep fire under the steam box, and to watch +the ship yard while the carpenters had gone to dinner. This +interval gave me a fine opportunity for copying the letters +named. I soon astonished myself with the ease with which I made +the letters; and the thought was soon present, "if I can make +four, I can make more." But having made these easily, when I met +boys about Bethel church, or any of our play-grounds, I entered +the lists with them in the art of writing, and would make the +letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask them +to "beat that if they could." With playmates for my teachers, +fences and pavements for my copy books, and chalk for my pen and +ink, I learned the art of writing. I, however, afterward adopted +various methods of improving my hand. The most successful, was +copying the _italics_ in Webster's spelling book, until <134>I +could make them all without looking on the book. By this time, +my little "Master Tommy" had grown to be a big boy, and had +written over a number of copy books, and brought them home. They +had been shown to the neighbors, had elicited due praise, and +were now laid carefully away. Spending my time between the ship +yard and house, I was as often the lone keeper of the latter as +of the former. When my mistress left me in charge of the house, +I had a grand time; I got Master Tommy's copy books and a pen and +ink, and, in the ample spaces between the lines, I wrote other +lines, as nearly like his as possible. The process was a tedious +one, and I ran the risk of getting a flogging for marring the +highly prized copy books of the oldest son. In addition to those +opportunities, sleeping, as I did, in the kitchen loft--a room +seldom visited by any of the family--I got a flour barrel up +there, and a chair; and upon the head of that barrel I have +written (or endeavored to write) copying from the bible and the +Methodist hymn book, and other books which had accumulated on my +hands, till late at night, and when all the family were in bed +and asleep. I was supported in my endeavors by renewed advice, +and by holy promises from the good Father Lawson, with whom I +continued to meet, and pray, and read the scriptures. Although +Master Hugh was aware of my going there, I must say, for his +credit, that he never executed his threat to whip me, for having +thus, innocently, employed-my leisure time. + + + +CHAPTER XIII +_The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_ + +DEATH OF OLD MASTER'S SON RICHARD, SPEEDILY FOLLOWED BY THAT OF +OLD MASTER--VALUATION AND DIVISION OF ALL THE PROPERTY, INCLUDING +THE SLAVES--MY PRESENCE REQUIRED AT HILLSBOROUGH TO BE APPRAISED +AND ALLOTTED TO A NEW OWNER--MY SAD PROSPECTS AND GRIEF-- +PARTING--THE UTTER POWERLESSNESS OF THE SLAVES TO DECIDE THEIR +OWN DESTINY--A GENERAL DREAD OF MASTER ANDREW--HIS WICKEDNESS AND +CRUELTY--MISS LUCRETIA MY NEW OWNER--MY RETURN TO BALTIMORE--JOY +UNDER THE ROOF OF MASTER HUGH--DEATH OF MRS. LUCRETIA--MY POOR +OLD GRANDMOTHER--HER SAD FATE--THE LONE COT IN THE WOODS--MASTER +THOMAS AULD'S SECOND MARRIAGE--AGAIN REMOVED FROM MASTER HUGH'S-- +REASONS FOR REGRETTING THE CHANGE--A PLAN OF ESCAPE ENTERTAINED. + + +I must now ask the reader to go with me a little back in point of +time, in my humble story, and to notice another circumstance that +entered into my slavery experience, and which, doubtless, has had +a share in deepening my horror of slavery, and increasing my +hostility toward those men and measures that practically uphold +the slave system. + +It has already been observed, that though I was, after my removal +from Col. Lloyd's plantation, in _form_ the slave of Master Hugh, +I was, in _fact_, and in _law_, the slave of my old master, Capt. +Anthony. Very well. + +In a very short time after I went to Baltimore, my old master's +youngest son, Richard, died; and, in three years and six months +after his death, my old master himself died, leaving only his +son, Andrew, and his daughter, Lucretia, to share his estate. +The <136>old man died while on a visit to his daughter, in +Hillsborough, where Capt. Auld and Mrs. Lucretia now lived. The +former, having given up the command of Col. Lloyd's sloop, was +now keeping a store in that town. + +Cut off, thus unexpectedly, Capt. Anthony died intestate; and his +property must now be equally divided between his two children, +Andrew and Lucretia. + +The valuation and the division of slaves, among contending heirs, +is an important incident in slave life. The character and +tendencies of the heirs, are generally well understood among the +slaves who are to be divided, and all have their aversions and +preferences. But, neither their aversions nor their preferences +avail them anything. + +On the death of old master, I was immediately sent for, to be +valued and divided with the other property. Personally, my +concern was, mainly, about my possible removal from the home of +Master Hugh, which, after that of my grandmother, was the most +endeared to me. But, the whole thing, as a feature of slavery, +shocked me. It furnished me anew insight into the unnatural +power to which I was subjected. My detestation of slavery, +already great, rose with this new conception of its enormity. + +That was a sad day for me, a sad day for little Tommy, and a sad +day for my dear Baltimore mistress and teacher, when I left for +the Eastern Shore, to be valued and divided. We, all three, wept +bitterly that day; for we might be parting, and we feared we were +parting, forever. No one could tell among which pile of chattels +I should be flung. Thus early, I got a foretaste of that painful +uncertainty which slavery brings to the ordinary lot of mortals. +Sickness, adversity and death may interfere with the plans and +purposes of all; but the slave has the added danger of changing +homes, changing hands, and of having separations unknown to other +men. Then, too, there was the intensified degradation of the +spectacle. What an assemblage! Men and women, young and old, +married and single; moral and intellectual beings, in open +contempt of their humanity, level at a blow with <137 DIVISION OF +OLD MASTER'S PROPERTY>horses, sheep, horned cattle and swine! +Horses and men--cattle and women--pigs and children--all holding +the same rank in the scale of social existence; and all subjected +to the same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in gold +and silver--the only standard of worth applied by slaveholders to +slaves! How vividly, at that moment, did the brutalizing power +of slavery flash before me! Personality swallowed up in the +sordid idea of property! Manhood lost in chattelhood! + +After the valuation, then came the division. This was an hour of +high excitement and distressing anxiety. Our destiny was now to +be _fixed for life_, and we had no more voice in the decision of +the question, than the oxen and cows that stood chewing at the +haymow. One word from the appraisers, against all preferences or +prayers, was enough to sunder all the ties of friendship and +affection, and even to separate husbands and wives, parents and +children. We were all appalled before that power, which, to +human seeming, could bless or blast us in a moment. Added to the +dread of separation, most painful to the majority of the slaves, +we all had a decided horror of the thought of falling into the +hands of Master Andrew. He was distinguished for cruelty and +intemperance. + +Slaves generally dread to fall into the hands of drunken owners. +Master Andrew was almost a confirmed sot, and had already, by his +reckless mismanagement and profligate dissipation, wasted a large +portion of old master's property. To fall into his hands, was, +therefore, considered merely as the first step toward being sold +away to the far south. He would spend his fortune in a few +years, and his farms and slaves would be sold, we thought, at +public outcry; and we should be hurried away to the cotton +fields, and rice swamps, of the sunny south. This was the cause +of deep consternation. + +The people of the north, and free people generally, I think, have +less attachment to the places where they are born and brought up, +than have the slaves. Their freedom to go and come, <138>to be +here and there, as they list, prevents any extravagant attachment +to any one particular place, in their case. On the other hand, +the slave is a fixture; he has no choice, no goal, no +destination; but is pegged down to a single spot, and must take +root here, or nowhere. The idea of removal elsewhere, comes, +generally, in the shape of a threat, and in punishment of crime. +It is, therefore, attended with fear and dread. A slave seldom +thinks of bettering his condition by being sold, and hence he +looks upon separation from his native place, with none of the +enthusiasm which animates the bosoms of young freemen, when they +contemplate a life in the far west, or in some distant country +where they intend to rise to wealth and distinction. Nor can +those from whom they separate, give them up with that +cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield each other +up, when they feel that it is for the good of the departing one +that he is removed from his native place. Then, too, there is +correspondence, and there is, at least, the hope of reunion, +because reunion is _possible_. But, with the slave, all these +mitigating circumstances are wanting. There is no improvement in +his condition _probable_,--no correspondence _possible_,--no +reunion attainable. His going out into the world, is like a +living man going into the tomb, who, with open eyes, sees himself +buried out of sight and hearing of wife, children and friends of +kindred tie. + +In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our +circumstances, I probably suffered more than most of my fellow +servants. I had known what it was to experience kind, and even +tender treatment; they had known nothing of the sort. Life, to +them, had been rough and thorny, as well as dark. They had--most +of them--lived on my old master's farm in Tuckahoe, and had felt +the reign of Mr. Plummer's rule. The overseer had written his +character on the living parchment of most of their backs, and +left them callous; my back (thanks to my early removal from the +plantation to Baltimore) was yet tender. I had left a kind +mistress <139 MY SAD PROSPECTS AND GRIEF>at Baltimore, who was +almost a mother to me. She was in tears when we parted, and the +probabilities of ever seeing her again, trembling in the balance +as they did, could not be viewed without alarm and agony. The +thought of leaving that kind mistress forever, and, worse still, +of being the slave of Andrew Anthony--a man who, but a few days +before the division of the property, had, in my presence, seized +my brother Perry by the throat, dashed him on the ground, and +with the heel of his boot stamped him on the head, until the +blood gushed from his nose and ears--was terrible! This fiendish +proceeding had no better apology than the fact, that Perry had +gone to play, when Master Andrew wanted him for some trifling +service. This cruelty, too, was of a piece with his general +character. After inflicting his heavy blows on my brother, on +observing me looking at him with intense astonishment, he said, +"_That_ is the way I will serve you, one of these days;" meaning, +no doubt, when I should come into his possession. This threat, +the reader may well suppose, was not very tranquilizing to my +feelings. I could see that he really thirsted to get hold of me. +But I was there only for a few days. I had not received any +orders, and had violated none, and there was, therefore, no +excuse for flogging me. + +At last, the anxiety and suspense were ended; and they ended, +thanks to a kind Providence, in accordance with my wishes. I +fell to the portion of Mrs. Lucretia--the dear lady who bound up +my head, when the savage Aunt Katy was adding to my sufferings +her bitterest maledictions. + +Capt. Thomas Auld and Mrs. Lucretia at once decided on my return +to Baltimore. They knew how sincerely and warmly Mrs. Hugh Auld +was attached to me, and how delighted Mr. Hugh's son would be to +have me back; and, withal, having no immediate use for one so +young, they willingly let me off to Baltimore. + +I need not stop here to narrate my joy on returning to Baltimore, +nor that of little Tommy; nor the tearful joy of his mother; +<140>nor the evident saticfaction{sic} of Master Hugh. I was +just one month absent from Baltimore, before the matter was +decided; and the time really seemed full six months. + +One trouble over, and on comes another. The slave's life is full +of uncertainty. I had returned to Baltimore but a short time, +when the tidings reached me, that my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, who +was only second in my regard to Mrs. Hugh Auld, was dead, leaving +her husband and only one child--a daughter, named Amanda. + +Shortly after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, strange to say, Master +Andrew died, leaving his wife and one child. Thus, the whole +family of Anthonys was swept away; only two children remained. +All this happened within five years of my leaving Col. Lloyd's. + +No alteration took place in the condition of the slaves, in +consequence of these deaths, yet I could not help feeling less +secure, after the death of my friend, Mrs. Lucretia, than I had +done during her life. While she lived, I felt that I had a +strong friend to plead for me in any emergency. Ten years ago, +while speaking of the state of things in our family, after the +events just named, I used this language: + +Now all the property of my old master, slaves included, was in +the hands of strangers--strangers who had nothing to do in +accumulating it. Not a slave was left free. All remained +slaves, from youngest to oldest. If any one thing in my +experience, more than another, served to deepen my conviction of +the infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with +unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base +ingratitude to my poor old grandmother. She had served my old +master faithfully from youth to old age. She had been the source +of all his wealth; she had peopled his plantation with slaves; +she had become a great-grandmother in his service. She had +rocked him in infancy, attended him in childhood, served him +through life, and at his death wiped from his icy brow the cold +death-sweat, and closed his eyes forever. She was nevertheless +left a slave--a slave for life--a slave in the hands of +strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her +grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many +sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a +single word, as to their or her own destiny. And, to cap the +climax of their base ingratitude and fiendish barbarity, my +grandmother, who was now very old, having outlived my old master +and all his children, having seen the beginning and end of all of +them, and her present owners finding she <141 DEATH OF MRS. +LUCRETIA>was of but little value, her frame already racked with +the pains of old age, and complete helplessness fast stealing +over her once active limbs, they took her to the woods, built her +a little hut, put up a little mud-chimney, and then made her +welcome to the privilege of supporting herself there in perfect +loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to die! If my poor +old grandmother now lives, she lives to suffer in utter +loneliness; she lives to remember and mourn over the loss of +children, the loss of grandchildren, and the loss of great- +grandchildren. They are, in the language of the slave's poet, +Whittier-- + + _Gone, gone, sold and gone, + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, + Where the noisome insect stings, + Where the fever-demon strews + Poison with the falling dews, + Where the sickly sunbeams glare + Through the hot and misty air:-- + Gone, gone, sold and gone + To the rice swamp dank and lone, + From Virginia hills and waters-- + Woe is me, my stolen daughters_! + + +The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children, +who once sang and danced in her presence, are gone. She gropes +her way, in the darkness of age, for a drink of water. Instead +of the voices of her children, she hears by day the moans of the +dove, and by night the screams of the hideous owl. All is gloom. +The grave is at the door. And now, when weighed down by the +pains and aches of old age, when the head inclines to the feet, +when the beginning and ending of human existence meet, and +helpless infancy and painful old age combine together--at this +time, this most needful time, the time for the exercise of that +tenderness and affection which children only can exercise toward +a declining parent--my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother +of twelve children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, +before a few dim embers. + +Two years after the death of Mrs. Lucretia, Master Thomas married +his second wife. Her name was Rowena Hamilton, the eldest +daughter of Mr. William Hamilton, a rich slaveholder on the +Eastern Shore of Maryland, who lived about five miles from St. +Michael's, the then place of my master's residence. + +Not long after his marriage, Master Thomas had a misunderstanding +with Master Hugh, and, as a means of punishing his brother, he +ordered him to send me home. +<142> + +As the ground of misunderstanding will serve to illustrate the +character of southern chivalry, and humanity, I will relate it. + +Among the children of my Aunt Milly, was a daughter, named Henny. +When quite a child, Henny had fallen into the fire, and burnt her +hands so bad that they were of very little use to her. Her +fingers were drawn almost into the palms of her hands. She could +make out to do something, but she was considered hardly worth the +having--of little more value than a horse with a broken leg. +This unprofitable piece of human property, ill shapen, and +disfigured, Capt. Auld sent off to Baltimore, making his brother +Hugh welcome to her services. + +After giving poor Henny a fair trial, Master Hugh and his wife +came to the conclusion, that they had no use for the crippled +servant, and they sent her back to Master Thomas. Thus, the +latter took as an act of ingratitude, on the part of his brother; +and, as a mark of his displeasure, he required him to send me +immediately to St. Michael's, saying, if he cannot keep _"Hen,"_ +he shall not have _"Fred."_ + +Here was another shock to my nerves, another breaking up of my +plans, and another severance of my religious and social +alliances. I was now a big boy. I had become quite useful to +several young colored men, who had made me their teacher. I had +taught some of them to read, and was accustomed to spend many of +my leisure hours with them. Our attachment was strong, and I +greatly dreaded the separation. But regrets, especially in a +slave, are unavailing. I was only a slave; my wishes were +nothing, and my happiness was the sport of my masters. + +My regrets at now leaving Baltimore, were not for the same +reasons as when I before left that city, to be valued and handed +over to my proper owner. My home was not now the pleasant place +it had formerly been. A change had taken place, both in Master +Hugh, and in his once pious and affectionate wife. The influence +of brandy and bad company on him, and the influence of slavery +and social isolation upon her, had wrought disastrously upon the +<143 REASONS FOR REGRETTING THE CHANGE>characters of both. +Thomas was no longer "little Tommy," but was a big boy, and had +learned to assume the airs of his class toward me. My condition, +therefore, in the house of Master Hugh, was not, by any means, so +comfortable as in former years. My attachments were now outside +of our family. They were felt to those to whom I _imparted_ +instruction, and to those little white boys from whom I +_received_ instruction. There, too, was my dear old father, the +pious Lawson, who was, in christian graces, the very counterpart +of "Uncle" Tom. The resemblance is so perfect, that he might +have been the original of Mrs. Stowe's christian hero. The +thought of leaving these dear friends, greatly troubled me, for I +was going without the hope of ever returning to Baltimore again; +the feud between Master Hugh and his brother being bitter and +irreconcilable, or, at least, supposed to be so. + +In addition to thoughts of friends from whom I was parting, as I +supposed, _forever_, I had the grief of neglected chances of +escape to brood over. I had put off running away, until now I +was to be placed where the opportunities for escaping were much +fewer than in a large city like Baltimore. + +On my way from Baltimore to St. Michael's, down the Chesapeake +bay, our sloop--the "Amanda"--was passed by the steamers plying +between that city and Philadelphia, and I watched the course of +those steamers, and, while going to St. Michael's, I formed a +plan to escape from slavery; of which plan, and matters connected +therewith the kind reader shall learn more hereafter. + + +CHAPTER XIV +_Experience in St. Michael's_ + +THE VILLAGE--ITS INHABITANTS--THEIR OCCUPATION AND LOW +PROPENSITIES CAPTAN{sic} THOMAS AULD--HIS CHARACTER--HIS SECOND +WIFE, ROWENA--WELL MATCHED--SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER--OBLIGED TO +TAKE FOOD--MODE OF ARGUMENT IN VINDICATION THEREOF--NO MORAL CODE +OF FREE SOCIETY CAN APPLY TO SLAVE SOCIETY--SOUTHERN CAMP +MEETING--WHAT MASTER THOMAS DID THERE--HOPES--SUSPICIONS ABOUT +HIS CONVERSION--THE RESULT--FAITH AND WORKS ENTIRELY AT +VARIANCE--HIS RISE AND PROGRESS IN THE CHURCH--POOR COUSIN +"HENNY"--HIS TREATMENT OF HER--THE METHODIST PREACHERS--THEIR +UTTER DISREGARD OF US--ONE EXCELLENT EXCEPTION--REV. GEORGE +COOKMAN--SABBATH SCHOOL--HOW BROKEN UP AND BY WHOM--A FUNERAL +PALL CAST OVER ALL MY PROSPECTS--COVEY THE NEGRO-BREAKER. + + +St. Michael's, the village in which was now my new home, compared +favorably with villages in slave states, generally. There were a +few comfortable dwellings in it, but the place, as a whole, wore +a dull, slovenly, enterprise-forsaken aspect. The mass of the +buildings were wood; they had never enjoyed the artificial +adornment of paint, and time and storms had worn off the bright +color of the wood, leaving them almost as black as buildings +charred by a conflagration. + +St. Michael's had, in former years, (previous to 1833, for that +was the year I went to reside there,) enjoyed some reputation as +a ship building community, but that business had almost entirely +given place to oyster fishing, for the Baltimore and Philadelphia +markets--a course of life highly unfavorable to morals, industry, +and manners. Miles river was broad, and its oyster fishing <145 +ARRIVAL AT ST. MICHAEL'S>grounds were extensive; and the +fishermen were out, often, all day, and a part of the night, +during autumn, winter and spring. This exposure was an excuse +for carrying with them, in considerable quanties{sic}, spirituous +liquors, the then supposed best antidote for cold. Each canoe +was supplied with its jug of rum; and tippling, among this class +of the citizens of St. Michael's, became general. This drinking +habit, in an ignorant population, fostered coarseness, vulgarity +and an indolent disregard for the social improvement of the +place, so that it was admitted, by the few sober, thinking people +who remained there, that St. Michael's had become a very +_unsaintly_, as well as unsightly place, before I went there to +reside. + +I left Baltimore for St. Michael's in the month of March, 1833. +I know the year, because it was the one succeeding the first +cholera in Baltimore, and was the year, also, of that strange +phenomenon, when the heavens seemed about to part with its starry +train. I witnessed this gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. +The air seemed filled with bright, descending messengers from the +sky. It was about daybreak when I saw this sublime scene. I was +not without the suggestion, at the moment, that it might be the +harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; and, in my then state +of mind, I was prepared to hail Him as my friend and deliverer. +I had read, that the "stars shall fall from heaven"; and they +were now falling. I was suffering much in my mind. It did seem +that every time the young tendrils of my affection became +attached, they were rudely broken by some unnatural outside +power; and I was beginning to look away to heaven for the rest +denied me on earth. + +But, to my story. It was now more than seven years since I had +lived with Master Thomas Auld, in the family of my old master, on +Col. Lloyd's plantation. We were almost entire strangers to each +other; for, when I knew him at the house of my old master, it was +not as a _master_, but simply as "Captain Auld," who had married +old master's daughter. All my lessons concerning his <146>temper +and disposition, and the best methods of pleasing him, were yet +to be learnt. Slaveholders, however, are not very ceremonious in +approaching a slave; and my ignorance of the new material in +shape of a master was but transient. Nor was my mistress long in +making known her animus. She was not a "Miss Lucretia," traces +of whom I yet remembered, and the more especially, as I saw them +shining in the face of little Amanda, her daughter, now living +under a step-mother's government. I had not forgotten the soft +hand, guided by a tender heart, that bound up with healing balsam +the gash made in my head by Ike, the son of Abel. Thomas and +Rowena, I found to be a well-matched pair. _He_ was stingy, and +_she_ was cruel; and--what was quite natural in such cases--she +possessed the ability to make him as cruel as herself, while she +could easily descend to the level of his meanness. In the house +of Master Thomas, I was made--for the first time in seven years +to feel the pinchings of hunger, and this was not very easy to +bear. + +For, in all the changes of Master Hugh's family, there was no +change in the bountifulness with which they supplied me with +food. Not to give a slave enough to eat, is meanness +intensified, and it is so recognized among slaveholders +generally, in Maryland. The rule is, no matter how coarse the +food, only let there be enough of it. This is the theory, and-- +in the part of Maryland I came from--the general practice accords +with this theory. Lloyd's plantation was an exception, as was, +also, the house of Master Thomas Auld. + +All know the lightness of Indian corn-meal, as an article of +food, and can easily judge from the following facts whether the +statements I have made of the stinginess of Master Thomas, are +borne out. There were four slaves of us in the kitchen, and four +whites in the great house Thomas Auld, Mrs. Auld, Hadaway Auld +(brother of Thomas Auld) and little Amanda. The names of the +slaves in the kitchen, were Eliza, my sister; Priscilla, my aunt; +Henny, my cousin; and myself. There were eight persons <147 +STEALING--MODE OF VINDICATION>in the family. There was, each +week, one half bushel of corn-meal brought from the mill; and in +the kitchen, corn-meal was almost our exclusive food, for very +little else was allowed us. Out of this bushel of corn-meal, the +family in the great house had a small loaf every morning; thus +leaving us, in the kitchen, with not quite a half a peck per +week, apiece. This allowance was less than half the allowance of +food on Lloyd's plantation. It was not enough to subsist upon; +and we were, therefore, reduced to the wretched necessity of +living at the expense of our neighbors. We were compelled either +to beg, or to steal, and we did both. I frankly confess, that +while I hated everything like stealing, _as such_, I nevertheless +did not hesitate to take food, when I was hungry, wherever I +could find it. Nor was this practice the mere result of an +unreasoning instinct; it was, in my case, the result of a clear +apprehension of the claims of morality. I weighed and considered +the matter closely, before I ventured to satisfy my hunger by +such means. Considering that my labor and person were the +property of Master Thomas, and that I was by him deprived of the +necessaries of life necessaries obtained by my own labor--it was +easy to deduce the right to supply myself with what was my own. +It was simply appropriating what was my own to the use of my +master, since the health and strength derived from such food were +exerted in _his_ service. To be sure, this was stealing, +according to the law and gospel I heard from St. Michael's +pulpit; but I had already begun to attach less importance to what +dropped from that quarter, on that point, while, as yet, I +retained my reverence for religion. It was not always convenient +to steal from master, and the same reason why I might, +innocently, steal from him, did not seem to justify me in +stealing from others. In the case of my master, it was only a +question of _removal_--the taking his meat out of one tub, and +putting it into another; the ownership of the meat was not +affected by the transaction. At first, he owned it in the _tub_, +and last, he owned it in _me_. His meat house was not always +open. There was a strict watch kept on that <148>point, and the +key was on a large bunch in Rowena's pocket. A great many times +have we, poor creatures, been severely pinched with hunger, when +meat and bread have been moulding under the lock, while the key +was in the pocket of our mistress. This had been so when she +_knew_ we were nearly half starved; and yet, that mistress, with +saintly air, would kneel with her husband, and pray each morning +that a merciful God would bless them in basket and in store, and +save them, at last, in his kingdom. But I proceed with the +argument. + +It was necessary that right to steal from _others_ should be +established; and this could only rest upon a wider range of +generalization than that which supposed the right to steal from +my master. + +It was sometime before I arrived at this clear right. The reader +will get some idea of my train of reasoning, by a brief statement +of the case. "I am," thought I, "not only the slave of Thomas, +but I am the slave of society at large. Society at large has +bound itself, in form and in fact, to assist Master Thomas in +robbing me of my rightful liberty, and of the just reward of my +labor; therefore, whatever rights I have against Master Thomas, I +have, equally, against those confederated with him in robbing me +of liberty. As society has marked me out as privileged plunder, +on the principle of self-preservation I am justified in +plundering in turn. Since each slave belongs to all; all must, +therefore, belong to each." + +I shall here make a profession of faith which may shock some, +offend others, and be dissented from by all. It is this: Within +the bounds of his just earnings, I hold that the slave is fully +justified in helping himself to the _gold and silver, and the +best apparel of his master, or that of any other slaveholder; and +that such taking is not stealing in any just sense of that word_. + +The morality of _free_ society can have no application to _slave_ +society. Slaveholders have made it almost impossible for the +slave to commit any crime, known either to the laws of God or to +the laws of man. If he steals, he takes his own; if he kills his +master, <149 SELFISHNESS OF MASTER THOMAS>he imitates only the +heroes of the revolution. Slaveholders I hold to be individually +and collectively responsible for all the evils which grow out of +the horrid relation, and I believe they will be so held at the +judgment, in the sight of a just God. Make a man a slave, and +you rob him of moral responsibility. Freedom of choice is the +essence of all accountability. But my kind readers are, +probably, less concerned about my opinions, than about that which +more nearly touches my personal experience; albeit, my opinions +have, in some sort, been formed by that experience. + +Bad as slaveholders are, I have seldom met with one so entirely +destitute of every element of character capable of inspiring +respect, as was my present master, Capt. Thomas Auld. + +When I lived with him, I thought him incapable of a noble action. +The leading trait in his character was intense selfishness. I +think he was fully aware of this fact himself, and often tried to +conceal it. Capt. Auld was not a _born_ slaveholder--not a +birthright member of the slaveholding oligarchy. He was only a +slaveholder by _marriage-right;_ and, of all slaveholders, these +latter are, _by far_, the most exacting. There was in him all +the love of domination, the pride of mastery, and the swagger of +authority, but his rule lacked the vital element of consistency. +He could be cruel; but his methods of showing it were cowardly, +and evinced his meanness rather than his spirit. His commands +were strong, his enforcement weak. + +Slaves are not insensible to the whole-souled characteristics of +a generous, dashing slaveholder, who is fearless of consequences; +and they prefer a master of this bold and daring kind--even with +the risk of being shot down for impudence to the fretful, little +soul, who never uses the lash but at the suggestion of a love of +gain. + +Slaves, too, readily distinguish between the birthright bearing +of the original slaveholder and the assumed attitudes of the +accidental slaveholder; and while they cannot respect either, +they certainly despise the latter more than the former. +<150> + +The luxury of having slaves wait upon him was something new to +Master Thomas; and for it he was wholly unprepared. He was a +slaveholder, without the ability to hold or manage his slaves. +We seldom called him "master," but generally addressed him by his +"bay craft" title--_Capt. Auld_." It is easy to see that such +conduct might do much to make him appear awkward, and, +consequently, fretful. His wife was especially solicitous to +have us call her husband "master." Is your _master_ at the +store?"--"Where is your _master_?"--"Go and tell your _master"_-- +"I will make your _master_ acquainted with your conduct"--she +would say; but we were inapt scholars. Especially were I and my +sister Eliza inapt in this particular. Aunt Priscilla was less +stubborn and defiant in her spirit than Eliza and myself; and, I +think, her road was less rough than ours. + +In the month of August, 1833, when I had almost become desperate +under the treatment of Master Thomas, and when I entertained more +strongly than ever the oft-repeated determination to run away, a +circumstance occurred which seemed to promise brighter and better +days for us all. At a Methodist camp-meeting, held in the Bay +Side (a famous place for campmeetings) about eight miles from St. +Michael's, Master Thomas came out with a profession of religion. +He had long been an object of interest to the church, and to the +ministers, as I had seen by the repeated visits and lengthy +exhortations of the latter. He was a fish quite worth catching, +for he had money and standing. In the community of St. Michael's +he was equal to the best citizen. He was strictly temperate; +_perhaps_, from principle, but most likely, from interest. There +was very little to do for him, to give him the appearance of +piety, and to make him a pillar in the church. Well, the camp- +meeting continued a week; people gathered from all parts of the +county, and two steamboat loads came from Baltimore. The ground +was happily chosen; seats were arranged; a stand erected; a rude +altar fenced in, fronting the preachers' stand, with straw in it +for the accommodation of <151 SOUTHERN CAMP MEETING>mourners. +This latter would hold at least one hundred persons. In front, +and on the sides of the preachers' stand, and outside the long +rows of seats, rose the first class of stately tents, each vieing +with the other in strength, neatness, and capacity for +accommodating its inmates. Behind this first circle of tents was +another, less imposing, which reached round the camp-ground to +the speakers' stand. Outside this second class of tents were +covered wagons, ox carts, and vehicles of every shape and size. +These served as tents to their owners. Outside of these, huge +fires were burning, in all directions, where roasting, and +boiling, and frying, were going on, for the benefit of those who +were attending to their own spiritual welfare within the circle. +_Behind_ the preachers' stand, a narrow space was marked out for +the use of the colored people. There were no seats provided for +this class of persons; the preachers addressed them, _"over the +left,"_ if they addressed them at all. After the preaching was +over, at every service, an invitation was given to mourners to +come into the pen; and, in some cases, ministers went out to +persuade men and women to come in. By one of these ministers, +Master Thomas Auld was persuaded to go inside the pen. I was +deeply interested in that matter, and followed; and, though +colored people were not allowed either in the pen or in front of +the preachers' stand, I ventured to take my stand at a sort of +half-way place between the blacks and whites, where I could +distinctly see the movements of mourners, and especially the +progress of Master Thomas. + +"If he has got religion," thought I, "he will emancipate his +slaves; and if he should not do so much as this, he will, at any +rate, behave toward us more kindly, and feed us more generously +than he has heretofore done." Appealing to my own religious +experience, and judging my master by what was true in my own +case, I could not regard him as soundly converted, unless some +such good results followed his profession of religion. + +But in my expectations I was doubly disappointed; Master Thomas +was _Master Thomas_ still. The fruits of his righteousness +<152>were to show themselves in no such way as I had anticipated. +His conversion was not to change his relation toward men--at any +rate not toward BLACK men--but toward God. My faith, I confess, +was not great. There was something in his appearance that, in my +mind, cast a doubt over his conversion. Standing where I did, I +could see his every movement. I watched narrowly while he +remained in the little pen; and although I saw that his face was +extremely red, and his hair disheveled, and though I heard him +groan, and saw a stray tear halting on his cheek, as if inquiring +"which way shall I go?"--I could not wholly confide in the +genuineness of his conversion. The hesitating behavior of that +tear-drop and its loneliness, distressed me, and cast a doubt +upon the whole transaction, of which it was a part. But people +said, _"Capt. Auld had come through,"_ and it was for me to hope +for the best. I was bound to do this, in charity, for I, too, +was religious, and had been in the church full three years, +although now I was not more than sixteen years old. Slaveholders +may, sometimes, have confidence in the piety of some of their +slaves; but the slaves seldom have confidence in the piety of +their masters. _"He cant go to heaven with our blood in his +skirts_," is a settled point in the creed of every slave; rising +superior to all teaching to the contrary, and standing forever as +a fixed fact. The highest evidence the slaveholder can give the +slave of his acceptance with God, is the emancipation of his +slaves. This is proof that he is willing to give up all to God, +and for the sake of God. Not to do this, was, in my estimation, +and in the opinion of all the slaves, an evidence of half- +heartedness, and wholly inconsistent with the idea of genuine +conversion. I had read, also, somewhere in the Methodist +Discipline, the following question and answer: + +"_Question_. What shall be done for the extirpation of slavery? + +"_Answer_. We declare that we are much as ever convinced of the +great evil of slavery; therefore, no slaveholder shall be +eligible to any official station in our church." + + +These words sounded in my ears for a long time, and en<153 FAITH +AND WORKS AT VARIANCE>couraged me to hope. But, as I have before +said, I was doomed to disappointment. Master Thomas seemed to be +aware of my hopes and expectations concerning him. I have +thought, before now, that he looked at me in answer to my +glances, as much as to say, "I will teach you, young man, that, +though I have parted with my sins, I have not parted with my +sense. I shall hold my slaves, and go to heaven too." + +Possibly, to convince us that we must not presume _too much_ upon +his recent conversion, he became rather more rigid and stringent +in his exactions. There always was a scarcity of good nature +about the man; but now his whole countenance was _soured_ over +with the seemings of piety. His religion, therefore, neither +made him emancipate his slaves, nor caused him to treat them with +greater humanity. If religion had any effect on his character at +all, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways. The +natural wickedness of his heart had not been removed, but only +reinforced, by the profession of religion. Do I judge him +harshly? God forbid. Facts _are_ facts. Capt. Auld made the +greatest profession of piety. His house was, literally, a house +of prayer. In the morning, and in the evening, loud prayers and +hymns were heard there, in which both himself and his wife +joined; yet, _no more meal_ was brought from the mill, _no more +attention_ was paid to the moral welfare of the kitchen; and +nothing was done to make us feel that the heart of Master Thomas +was one whit better than it was before he went into the little +pen, opposite to the preachers' stand, on the camp ground. + +Our hopes (founded on the discipline) soon vanished; for the +authorities let him into the church _at once_, and before he was +out of his term of _probation_, I heard of his leading class! He +distinguished himself greatly among the brethren, and was soon an +exhorter. His progress was almost as rapid as the growth of the +fabled vine of Jack's bean. No man was more active than he, in +revivals. He would go many miles to assist in carrying them on, +and in getting outsiders interested in religion. His house being +<154>one of the holiest, if not the happiest in St. Michael's, +became the "preachers' home." These preachers evidently liked to +share Master Thomas's hospitality; for while he _starved us_, he +_stuffed_ them. Three or four of these ambassadors of the +gospel--according to slavery--have been there at a time; all +living on the fat of the land, while we, in the kitchen, were +nearly starving. Not often did we get a smile of recognition +from these holy men. They seemed almost as unconcerned about our +getting to heaven, as they were about our getting out of slavery. +To this general charge there was one exception--the Rev. GEORGE +COOKMAN. Unlike Rev. Messrs. Storks, Ewry, Hickey, Humphrey and +Cooper (all whom were on the St. Michael's circuit) he kindly +took an interest in our temporal and spiritual welfare. Our +souls and our bodies were all alike sacred in his sight; and he +really had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery feeling mingled +with his colonization ideas. There was not a slave in our +neighborhood that did not love, and almost venerate, Mr. Cookman. +It was pretty generally believed that he had been chiefly +instrumental in bringing one of the largest slaveholders--Mr. +Samuel Harrison--in that neighborhood, to emancipate all his +slaves, and, indeed, the general impression was, that Mr. Cookman +had labored faithfully with slaveholders, whenever he met them, +to induce them to emancipate their bondmen, and that he did this +as a religious duty. When this good man was at our house, we +were all sure to be called in to prayers in the morning; and he +was not slow in making inquiries as to the state of our minds, +nor in giving us a word of exhortation and of encouragement. +Great was the sorrow of all the slaves, when this faithful +preacher of the gospel was removed from the Talbot county +circuit. He was an eloquent preacher, and possessed what few +ministers, south of Mason Dixon's line, possess, or _dare_ to +show, viz: a warm and philanthropic heart. The Mr. Cookman, of +whom I speak, was an Englishman by birth, and perished while on +his way to England, on board the ill-fated "President". Could +the thousands of slaves <155 THE SABBATH SCHOOL>in Maryland know +the fate of the good man, to whose words of comfort they were so +largely indebted, they would thank me for dropping a tear on this +page, in memory of their favorite preacher, friend and +benefactor. + +But, let me return to Master Thomas, and to my experience, after +his conversion. In Baltimore, I could, occasionally, get into a +Sabbath school, among the free children, and receive lessons, +with the rest; but, having already learned both to read and to +write, I was more of a teacher than a pupil, even there. When, +however, I went back to the Eastern Shore, and was at the house +of Master Thomas, I was neither allowed to teach, nor to be +taught. The whole community--with but a single exception, among +the whites--frowned upon everything like imparting instruction +either to slaves or to free colored persons. That single +exception, a pious young man, named Wilson, asked me, one day, if +I would like to assist him in teaching a little Sabbath school, +at the house of a free colored man in St. Michael's, named James +Mitchell. The idea was to me a delightful one, and I told him I +would gladly devote as much of my Sabbath as I could command, to +that most laudable work. Mr. Wilson soon mustered up a dozen old +spelling books, and a few testaments; and we commenced +operations, with some twenty scholars, in our Sunday school. +Here, thought I, is something worth living for; here is an +excellent chance for usefulness; and I shall soon have a company +of young friends, lovers of knowledge, like some of my Baltimore +friends, from whom I now felt parted forever. + +Our first Sabbath passed delightfully, and I spent the week after +very joyously. I could not go to Baltimore, but I could make a +little Baltimore here. At our second meeting, I learned that +there was some objection to the existence of the Sabbath school; +and, sure enough, we had scarcely got at work--_good work_, +simply teaching a few colored children how to read the gospel of +the Son of God--when in rushed a mob, headed by Mr. Wright +Fairbanks and Mr. Garrison West--two class-leaders<156>--and +Master Thomas; who, armed with sticks and other missiles, drove +us off, and commanded us never to meet for such a purpose again. +One of this pious crew told me, that as for my part, I wanted to +be another Nat Turner; and if I did not look out, I should get as +many balls into me, as Nat did into him. Thus ended the infant +Sabbath school, in the town of St. Michael's. The reader will +not be surprised when I say, that the breaking up of my Sabbath +school, by these class-leaders, and professedly holy men, did not +serve to strengthen my religious convictions. The cloud over my +St. Michael's home grew heavier and blacker than ever. + +It was not merely the agency of Master Thomas, in breaking up and +destroying my Sabbath school, that shook my confidence in the +power of southern religion to make men wiser or better; but I saw +in him all the cruelty and meanness, _after_ his conversion, +which he had exhibited before he made a profession of religion. +His cruelty and meanness were especially displayed in his +treatment of my unfortunate cousin, Henny, whose lameness made +her a burden to him. I have no extraordinary personal hard usage +toward myself to complain of, against him, but I have seen him +tie up the lame and maimed woman, and whip her in a manner most +brutal, and shocking; and then, with blood-chilling blasphemy, he +would quote the passage of scripture, "That servant which knew +his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according +to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." Master would +keep this lacerated woman tied up by her wrists, to a bolt in the +joist, three, four and five hours at a time. He would tie her up +early in the morning, whip her with a cowskin before breakfast; +leave her tied up; go to his store, and, returning to his dinner, +repeat the castigation; laying on the rugged lash, on flesh +already made raw by repeated blows. He seemed desirous to get +the poor girl out of existence, or, at any rate, off his hands. +In proof of this, he afterwards gave her away to his sister Sarah +(Mrs. Cline) but, as in the case of Master <157 BARBAROUS +TREATMENT OF HENNY>Hugh, Henny was soon returned on his hands. +Finally, upon a pretense that he could do nothing with her (I use +his own words) he "set her adrift, to take care of herself." +Here was a recently converted man, holding, with tight grasp, the +well-framed, and able bodied slaves left him by old master--the +persons, who, in freedom, could have taken care of themselves; +yet, turning loose the only cripple among them, virtually to +starve and die. + +No doubt, had Master Thomas been asked, by some pious northern +brother, _why_ he continued to sustain the relation of a +slaveholder, to those whom he retained, his answer would have +been precisely the same as many other religious slaveholders have +returned to that inquiry, viz: "I hold my slaves for their own +good." + +Bad as my condition was when I lived with Master Thomas, I was +soon to experience a life far more goading and bitter. The many +differences springing up between myself and Master Thomas, owing +to the clear perception I had of his character, and the boldness +with which I defended myself against his capricious complaints, +led him to declare that I was unsuited to his wants; that my city +life had affected me perniciously; that, in fact, it had almost +ruined me for every good purpose, and had fitted me for +everything that was bad. One of my greatest faults, or offenses, +was that of letting his horse get away, and go down to the farm +belonging to his father-in-law. The animal had a liking for that +farm, with which I fully sympathized. Whenever I let it out, it +would go dashing down the road to Mr. Hamilton's, as if going on +a grand frolic. My horse gone, of course I must go after it. +The explanation of our mutual attachment to the place is the +same; the horse found there good pasturage, and I found there +plenty of bread. Mr. Hamilton had his faults, but starving his +slaves was not among them. He gave food, in abundance, and that, +too, of an excellent quality. In Mr. Hamilton's cook--Aunt +Mary--I found a most generous and considerate friend. She never +allowed me to go there without giving me bread enough <158>to +make good the deficiencies of a day or two. Master Thomas at +last resolved to endure my behavior no longer; he could neither +keep me, nor his horse, we liked so well to be at his father-in- +law's farm. I had now lived with him nearly nine months, and he +had given me a number of severe whippings, without any visible +improvement in my character, or my conduct; and now he was +resolved to put me out--as he said--"_to be broken."_ + +There was, in the Bay Side, very near the camp ground, where my +master got his religious impressions, a man named Edward Covey, +who enjoyed the execrated reputation, of being a first rate hand +at breaking young Negroes. This Covey was a poor man, a farm +renter; and this reputation (hateful as it was to the slaves and +to all good men) was, at the same time, of immense advantage to +him. It enabled him to get his farm tilled with very little +expense, compared with what it would have cost him without this +most extraordinary reputation. Some slaveholders thought it an +advantage to let Mr. Covey have the government of their slaves a +year or two, almost free of charge, for the sake of the excellent +training such slaves got under his happy management! Like some +horse breakers, noted for their skill, who ride the best horses +in the country without expense, Mr. Covey could have under him, +the most fiery bloods of the neighborhood, for the simple reward +of returning them to their owners, _well broken_. Added to the +natural fitness of Mr. Covey for the duties of his profession, he +was said to "enjoy religion," and was as strict in the +cultivation of piety, as he was in the cultivation of his farm. +I was made aware of his character by some who had been under his +hand; and while I could not look forward to going to him with any +pleasure, I was glad to get away from St. Michael's. I was sure +of getting enough to eat at Covey's, even if I suffered in other +respects. _This_, to a hungry man, is not a prospect to be +regarded with indifference. + + + +CHAPTER XV +_Covey, the Negro Breaker_ + +JOURNEY TO MY NEW MASTER'S--MEDITATIONS BY THE WAY--VIEW OF +COVEY'S RESIDENCE--THE FAMILY--MY AWKWARDNESS AS A FIELD HAND--A +CRUEL BEATING--WHY IT WAS GIVEN--DESCRIPTION OF COVEY--FIRST +ADVENTURE AT OX DRIVING--HAIR BREADTH ESCAPES--OX AND MAN ALIKE +PROPERTY--COVEY'S MANNER OF PROCEEDING TO WHIP--HARD LABOR BETTER +THAN THE WHIP FOR BREAKING DOWN THE SPIRIT--CUNNING AND TRICKERY +OF COVEY--FAMILY WORSHIP--SHOCKING CONTEMPT FOR CHASTITY--I AM +BROKEN DOWN--GREAT MENTAL AGITATION IN CONTRASTING THE FREEDOM OF +THE SHIPS WITH HIS OWN SLAVERY--ANGUISH BEYOND DESCRIPTION. + + + +The morning of the first of January, 1834, with its chilling wind +and pinching frost, quite in harmony with the winter in my own +mind, found me, with my little bundle of clothing on the end of a +stick, swung across my shoulder, on the main road, bending my way +toward Covey's, whither I had been imperiously ordered by Master +Thomas. The latter had been as good as his word, and had +committed me, without reserve, to the mastery of Mr. Edward +Covey. Eight or ten years had now passed since I had been taken +from my grandmother's cabin, in Tuckahoe; and these years, for +the most part, I had spent in Baltimore, where--as the reader has +already seen--I was treated with comparative tenderness. I was +now about to sound profounder depths in slave life. The rigors +of a field, less tolerable than the field of battle, awaited me. +My new master was notorious for his fierce and savage +disposition, and my only consolation in going to live <160>with +him was, the certainty of finding him precisely as represented by +common fame. There was neither joy in my heart, nor elasticity +in my step, as I started in search of the tyrant's home. +Starvation made me glad to leave Thomas Auld's, and the cruel +lash made me dread to go to Covey's. Escape was impossible; so, +heavy and sad, I paced the seven miles, which separated Covey's +house from St. Michael's--thinking much by the solitary way-- +averse to my condition; but _thinking_ was all I could do. Like +a fish in a net, allowed to play for a time, I was now drawn +rapidly to the shore, secured at all points. "I am," thought I, +"but the sport of a power which makes no account, either of my +welfare or of my happiness. By a law which I can clearly +comprehend, but cannot evade nor resist, I am ruthlessly snatched +from the hearth of a fond grandmother, and hurried away to the +home of a mysterious `old master;' again I am removed from there, +to a master in Baltimore; thence am I snatched away to the +Eastern Shore, to be valued with the beasts of the field, and, +with them, divided and set apart for a possessor; then I am sent +back to Baltimore; and by the time I have formed new attachments, +and have begun to hope that no more rude shocks shall touch me, a +difference arises between brothers, and I am again broken up, and +sent to St. Michael's; and now, from the latter place, I am +footing my way to the home of a new master, where, I am given to +understand, that, like a wild young working animal, I am to be +broken to the yoke of a bitter and life-long bondage." + +With thoughts and reflections like these, I came in sight of a +small wood-colored building, about a mile from the main road, +which, from the description I had received, at starting, I easily +recognized as my new home. The Chesapeake bay--upon the jutting +banks of which the little wood-colored house was standing--white +with foam, raised by the heavy north-west wind; Poplar Island, +covered with a thick, black pine forest, standing out amid this +half ocean; and Kent Point, stretching its sandy, desert-like +shores out into the foam-cested bay--were all in <161 COVEY'S +RESIDENCE--THE FAMILY>sight, and deepened the wild and desolate +aspect of my new home. + +The good clothes I had brought with me from Baltimore were now +worn thin, and had not been replaced; for Master Thomas was as +little careful to provide us against cold, as against hunger. +Met here by a north wind, sweeping through an open space of forty +miles, I was glad to make any port; and, therefore, I speedily +pressed on to the little wood-colored house. The family +consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Covey; Miss Kemp (a broken-backed +woman) a sister of Mrs. Covey; William Hughes, cousin to Edward +Covey; Caroline, the cook; Bill Smith, a hired man; and myself. +Bill Smith, Bill Hughes, and myself, were the working force of +the farm, which consisted of three or four hundred acres. I was +now, for the first time in my life, to be a field hand; and in my +new employment I found myself even more awkward than a green +country boy may be supposed to be, upon his first entrance into +the bewildering scenes of city life; and my awkwardness gave me +much trouble. Strange and unnatural as it may seem, I had been +at my new home but three days, before Mr. Covey (my brother in +the Methodist church) gave me a bitter foretaste of what was in +reserve for me. I presume he thought, that since he had but a +single year in which to complete his work, the sooner he began, +the better. Perhaps he thought that by coming to blows at once, +we should mutually better understand our relations. But to +whatever motive, direct or indirect, the cause may be referred, I +had not been in his possession three whole days, before he +subjected me to a most brutal chastisement. Under his heavy +blows, blood flowed freely, and wales were left on my back as +large as my little finger. The sores on my back, from this +flogging, continued for weeks, for they were kept open by the +rough and coarse cloth which I wore for shirting. The occasion +and details of this first chapter of my experience as a field +hand, must be told, that the reader may see how unreasonable, as +well as how cruel, my new master, Covey, was. <162>The whole +thing I found to be characteristic of the man; and I was probably +treated no worse by him than scores of lads who had previously +been committed to him, for reasons similar to those which induced +my master to place me with him. But, here are the facts +connected with the affair, precisely as they occurred. + +On one of the coldest days of the whole month of January, 1834, I +was ordered, at day break, to get a load of wood, from a forest +about two miles from the house. In order to perform this work, +Mr. Covey gave me a pair of unbroken oxen, for, it seems, his +breaking abilities had not been turned in this direction; and I +may remark, in passing, that working animals in the south, are +seldom so well trained as in the north. In due form, and with +all proper ceremony, I was introduced to this huge yoke of +unbroken oxen, and was carefully told which was "Buck," and which +was "Darby"--which was the "in hand," and which was the "off +hand" ox. The master of this important ceremony was no less a +person than Mr. Covey, himself; and the introduction was the +first of the kind I had ever had. My life, hitherto, had led me +away from horned cattle, and I had no knowledge of the art of +managing them. What was meant by the "in ox," as against the +"off ox," when both were equally fastened to one cart, and under +one yoke, I could not very easily divine; and the difference, +implied by the names, and the peculiar duties of each, were alike +_Greek_ to me. Why was not the "off ox" called the "in ox?" +Where and what is the reason for this distinction in names, when +there is none in the things themselves? After initiating me into +the _"woa," "back" "gee," "hither"_--the entire spoken language +between oxen and driver--Mr. Covey took a rope, about ten feet +long and one inch thick, and placed one end of it around the +horns of the "in hand ox," and gave the other end to me, telling +me that if the oxen started to run away, as the scamp knew they +would, I must hold on to the rope and stop them. I need not tell +any one who is acquainted with either the strength of the +disposition of an untamed ox, that this order <163 FIRST +ADVENTURE AT OX DRIVING>was about as unreasonable as a command to +shoulder a mad bull! I had never driven oxen before, and I was +as awkward, as a driver, as it is possible to conceive. It did +not answer for me to plead ignorance, to Mr. Covey; there was +something in his manner that quite forbade that. He was a man to +whom a slave seldom felt any disposition to speak. Cold, +distant, morose, with a face wearing all the marks of captious +pride and malicious sternness, he repelled all advances. Covey +was not a large man; he was only about five feet ten inches in +height, I should think; short necked, round shoulders; of quick +and wiry motion, of thin and wolfish visage; with a pair of +small, greenish-gray eyes, set well back under a forehead without +dignity, and constantly in motion, and floating his passions, +rather than his thoughts, in sight, but denying them utterance in +words. The creature presented an appearance altogether ferocious +and sinister, disagreeable and forbidding, in the extreme. When +he spoke, it was from the corner of his mouth, and in a sort of +light growl, like a dog, when an attempt is made to take a bone +from him. The fellow had already made me believe him even +_worse_ than he had been presented. With his directions, and +without stopping to question, I started for the woods, quite +anxious to perform my first exploit in driving, in a creditable +manner. The distance from the house to the woods gate a full +mile, I should think--was passed over with very little +difficulty; for although the animals ran, I was fleet enough, in +the open field, to keep pace with them; especially as they pulled +me along at the end of the rope; but, on reaching the woods, I +was speedily thrown into a distressing plight. The animals took +fright, and started off ferociously into the woods, carrying the +cart, full tilt, against trees, over stumps, and dashing from +side to side, in a manner altogether frightful. As I held the +rope, I expected every moment to be crushed between the cart and +the huge trees, among which they were so furiously dashing. +After running thus for several minutes, my oxen were, finally, +brought to a stand, by a tree, against which they dashed +<164>themselves with great violence, upsetting the cart, and +entangling themselves among sundry young saplings. By the shock, +the body of the cart was flung in one direction, and the wheels +and tongue in another, and all in the greatest confusion. There +I was, all alone, in a thick wood, to which I was a stranger; my +cart upset and shattered; my oxen entangled, wild, and enraged; +and I, poor soul! but a green hand, to set all this disorder +right. I knew no more of oxen than the ox driver is supposed to +know of wisdom. After standing a few moments surveying the +damage and disorder, and not without a presentiment that this +trouble would draw after it others, even more distressing, I took +one end of the cart body, and, by an extra outlay of strength, I +lifted it toward the axle-tree, from which it had been violently +flung; and after much pulling and straining, I succeeded in +getting the body of the cart in its place. This was an important +step out of the difficulty, and its performance increased my +courage for the work which remained to be done. The cart was +provided with an ax, a tool with which I had become pretty well +acquainted in the ship yard at Baltimore. With this, I cut down +the saplings by which my oxen were entangled, and again pursued +my journey, with my heart in my mouth, lest the oxen should again +take it into their senseless heads to cut up a caper. My fears +were groundless. Their spree was over for the present, and the +rascals now moved off as soberly as though their behavior had +been natural and exemplary. On reaching the part of the forest +where I had been, the day before, chopping wood, I filled the +cart with a heavy load, as a security against another running +away. But, the neck of an ox is equal in strength to iron. It +defies all ordinary burdens, when excited. Tame and docile to a +proverb, when _well_ trained, the ox is the most sullen and +intractable of animals when but half broken to the yoke. + +I now saw, in my situation, several points of similarity with +that of the oxen. They were property, so was I; they were to be +<165 SENT BACK TO THE WOODS>broken, so was I. Covey was to break +me, I was to break them; break and be broken--such is life. + +Half the day already gone, and my face not yet homeward! It +required only two day's experience and observation to teach me, +that such apparent waste of time would not be lightly overlooked +by Covey. I therefore hurried toward home; but, on reaching the +lane gate, I met with the crowning disaster for the day. This +gate was a fair specimen of southern handicraft. There were two +huge posts, eighteen inches in diameter, rough hewed and square, +and the heavy gate was so hung on one of these, that it opened +only about half the proper distance. On arriving here, it was +necessary for me to let go the end of the rope on the horns of +the "in hand ox;" and now as soon as the gate was open, and I let +go of it to get the rope, again, off went my oxen--making nothing +of their load--full tilt; and in doing so they caught the huge +gate between the wheel and the cart body, literally crushing it +to splinters, and coming only within a few inches of subjecting +me to a similar crushing, for I was just in advance of the wheel +when it struck the left gate post. With these two hair-breadth +escape, I thought I could sucessfully{sic} explain to Mr. Covey +the delay, and avert apprehended punishment. I was not without a +faint hope of being commended for the stern resolution which I +had displayed in accomplishing the difficult task--a task which, +I afterwards learned, even Covey himself would not have +undertaken, without first driving the oxen for some time in the +open field, preparatory to their going into the woods. But, in +this I was disappointed. On coming to him, his countenance +assumed an aspect of rigid displeasure, and, as I gave him a +history of the casualties of my trip, his wolfish face, with his +greenish eyes, became intensely ferocious. "Go back to the woods +again," he said, muttering something else about wasting time. I +hastily obeyed; but I had not gone far on my way, when I saw him +coming after me. My oxen now behaved themselves with singular +<166>propriety, opposing their present conduct to my +representation of their former antics. I almost wished, now that +Covey was coming, they would do something in keeping with the +character I had given them; but no, they had already had their +spree, and they could afford now to be extra good, readily +obeying my orders, and seeming to understand them quite as well +as I did myself. On reaching the woods, my tormentor--who seemed +all the way to be remarking upon the good behavior of his oxen-- +came up to me, and ordered me to stop the cart, accompanying the +same with the threat that he would now teach me how to break +gates, and idle away my time, when he sent me to the woods. +Suiting the action to the word, Covey paced off, in his own wiry +fashion, to a large, black gum tree, the young shoots of which +are generally used for ox _goads_, they being exceedingly tough. +Three of these _goads_, from four to six feet long, he cut off, +and trimmed up, with his large jack-knife. This done, he ordered +me to take off my clothes. To this unreasonable order I made no +reply, but sternly refused to take off my clothing. "If you will +beat me," thought I, "you shall do so over my clothes." After +many threats, which made no impression on me, he rushed at me +with something of the savage fierceness of a wolf, tore off the +few and thinly worn clothes I had on, and proceeded to wear out, +on my back, the heavy goads which he had cut from the gum tree. +This flogging was the first of a series of floggings; and though +very severe, it was less so than many which came after it, and +these, for offenses far lighter than the gate breaking + +I remained with Mr. Covey one year (I cannot say I _lived_ with +him) and during the first six months that I was there, I was +whipped, either with sticks or cowskins, every week. Aching +bones and a sore back were my constant companions. Frequent as +the lash was used, Mr. Covey thought less of it, as a means of +breaking down my spirit, than that of hard and long continued +labor. He worked me steadily, up to the point of my powers of +endurance. From the dawn of day in the morning, till the +dark<167 CUNNING AND TRICKERY OF COVEY>ness was complete in the +evening, I was kept at hard work, in the field or the woods. At +certain seasons of the year, we were all kept in the field till +eleven and twelve o'clock at night. At these times, Covey would +attend us in the field, and urge us on with words or blows, as it +seemed best to him. He had, in his life, been an overseer, and +he well understood the business of slave driving. There was no +deceiving him. He knew just what a man or boy could do, and he +held both to strict account. When he pleased, he would work +himself, like a very Turk, making everything fly before him. It +was, however, scarcely necessary for Mr. Covey to be really +present in the field, to have his work go on industriously. He +had the faculty of making us feel that he was always present. By +a series of adroitly managed surprises, which he practiced, I was +prepared to expect him at any moment. His plan was, never to +approach the spot where his hands were at work, in an open, manly +and direct manner. No thief was ever more artful in his devices +than this man Covey. He would creep and crawl, in ditches and +gullies; hide behind stumps and bushes, and practice so much of +the cunning of the serpent, that Bill Smith and I--between +ourselves--never called him by any other name than _"the snake."_ +We fancied that in his eyes and his gait we could see a snakish +resemblance. One half of his proficiency in the art of Negro +breaking, consisted, I should think, in this species of cunning. +We were never secure. He could see or hear us nearly all the +time. He was, to us, behind every stump, tree, bush and fence on +the plantation. He carried this kind of trickery so far, that he +would sometimes mount his horse, and make believe he was going to +St. Michael's; and, in thirty minutes afterward, you might find +his horse tied in the woods, and the snake-like Covey lying flat +in the ditch, with his head lifted above its edge, or in a fence +corner, watching every movement of the slaves! I have known him +walk up to us and give us special orders, as to our work, in +advance, as if he were leaving home with a view to being absent +several days; and before he got half way to the <168>house, he +would avail himself of our inattention to his movements, to turn +short on his heels, conceal himself behind a fence corner or a +tree, and watch us until the going down of the sun. Mean and +contemptible as is all this, it is in keeping with the character +which the life of a slaveholder is calculated to produce. There +is no earthly inducement, in the slave's condition, to incite him +to labor faithfully. The fear of punishment is the sole motive +for any sort of industry, with him. Knowing this fact, as the +slaveholder does, and judging the slave by himself, he naturally +concludes the slave will be idle whenever the cause for this fear +is absent. Hence, all sorts of petty deceptions are practiced, +to inspire this fear. + +But, with Mr. Covey, trickery was natural. Everything in the +shape of learning or religion, which he possessed, was made to +conform to this semi-lying propensity. He did not seem conscious +that the practice had anything unmanly, base or contemptible +about it. It was a part of an important system, with him, +essential to the relation of master and slave. I thought I saw, +in his very religious devotions, this controlling element of his +character. A long prayer at night made up for the short prayer +in the morning; and few men could seem more devotional than he, +when he had nothing else to do. + +Mr. Covey was not content with the cold style of family worship, +adopted in these cold latitudes, which begin and end with a +simple prayer. No! the voice of praise, as well as of prayer, +must be heard in his house, night and morning. At first, I was +called upon to bear some part in these exercises; but the +repeated flogging given me by Covey, turned the whole thing into +mockery. He was a poor singer, and mainly relied on me for +raising the hymn for the family, and when I failed to do so, he +was thrown into much confusion. I do not think that he ever +abused me on account of these vexations. His religion was a +thing altogether apart from his worldly concerns. He knew +nothing of it as a holy principle, directing and controlling his +daily life, <169 SHOCKING CONTEMPT FOR CHASTITY>making the latter +conform to the requirements of the gospel. One or two facts will +illustrate his character better than a volume of +generalties{sic}. + +I have already said, or implied, that Mr. Edward Covey was a poor +man. He was, in fact, just commencing to lay the foundation of +his fortune, as fortune is regarded in a slave state. The first +condition of wealth and respectability there, being the ownership +of human property, every nerve is strained, by the poor man, to +obtain it, and very little regard is had to the manner of +obtaining it. In pursuit of this object, pious as Mr. Covey was, +he proved himself to be as unscrupulous and base as the worst of +his neighbors. In the beginning, he was only able--as he said-- +"to buy one slave;" and, scandalous and shocking as is the fact, +he boasted that he bought her simply "_as a breeder_." But the +worst is not told in this naked statement. This young woman +(Caroline was her name) was virtually compelled by Mr. Covey to +abandon herself to the object for which he had purchased her; and +the result was, the birth of twins at the end of the year. At +this addition to his human stock, both Edward Covey and his wife, +Susan, were ecstatic with joy. No one dreamed of reproaching the +woman, or of finding fault with the hired man--Bill Smith--the +father of the children, for Mr. Covey himself had locked the two +up together every night, thus inviting the result. + +But I will pursue this revolting subject no further. No better +illustration of the unchaste and demoralizing character of +slavery can be found, than is furnished in the fact that this +professedly Christian slaveholder, amidst all his prayers and +hymns, was shamelessly and boastfully encouraging, and actually +compelling, in his own house, undisguised and unmitigated +fornication, as a means of increasing his human stock. I may +remark here, that, while this fact will be read with disgust and +shame at the north, it will be _laughed at_, as smart and +praiseworthy in Mr. Covey, at the south; for a man is no more +condemned there for buying a woman and devoting her to this life +of dishonor, <170>than for buying a cow, and raising stock from +her. The same rules are observed, with a view to increasing the +number and quality of the former, as of the latter. + +I will here reproduce what I said of my own experience in this +wretched place, more than ten years ago: + + + +If at any one time of my life, more than another, I was made to +drink the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the +first six months of my stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked all +weathers. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, +blow, snow, or hail too hard for us to work in the field. Work, +work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day than the +night. The longest days were too short for him, and the shortest +nights were too long for him. I was somewhat unmanageable when I +first went there; but a few months of his discipline tamed me. +Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul +and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; my intellect +languished; the disposition to read departed; the cheerful spark +that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed +in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! + +Sunday was my only leisure time. I spent this in a sort of +beast-like stupor, between sleep and wake, under some large tree. +At times, I would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would +dart through my soul, accompanied with a faint beam of hope, +flickered for a moment, and then vanished. I sank down again, +mourning over my wretched condition. I was sometimes prompted to +take my life, and that of Covey, but was prevented by a +combination of hope and fear. My sufferings on this plantation +seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality. + +Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake bay, whose +broad bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the +habitable globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, +so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded +ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched +condition. I have often, in the deep stillness of a summer's +Sabbath, stood all alone upon the banks of that noble bay, and +traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the countless number +of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these +always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel +utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would +pour out my soul's complaint in my rude way, with an apostrophe +to the moving multitude of ships: + +"You are loosed from your moorings, and free; I am fast in my +chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, +and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom's swift- +winged angels, that fly around the world; I am confined in bands +of iron! O, that I were free! O, that I were on one of your +gallant decks, and under your protecting wing! Alas! betwixt me +<171 ANGUISH BEYOND DESCRIPTION>and you the turbid waters roll. +Go on, go on. O that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I +could fly! O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute! +The glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. I am left +in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! God, +deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why am I a +slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught, or +get clear, I'll try it. I had as well die with ague as with +fever. I have only one life to lose. I had as well be killed +running as die standing. Only think of it; one hundred miles +straight north, and I am free! Try it? Yes! God helping me, I +will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will +take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. +The steamboats steered in a north-east coast from North Point. I +will do the same; and when I get to the head of the bay, I will +turn my canoe adrift, and walk straight through Delaware into +Pennsylvania. When I get there, I shall not be required to have +a pass; I will travel without being disturbed. Let but the first +opportunity offer, and come what will, I am off. Meanwhile, I +will try to bear up under the yoke. I am not the only slave in +the world. Why should I fret? I can bear as much as any of +them. Besides, I am but a boy, and all boys are bound to some +one. It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my +happiness when I get free. There is a better day coming." + +I shall never be able to narrate the mental experience through +which it was my lot to pass during my stay at Covey's. I was +completely wrecked, changed and bewildered; goaded almost to +madness at one time, and at another reconciling myself to my +wretched condition. Everything in the way of kindness, which I +had experienced at Baltimore; all my former hopes and aspirations +for usefulness in the world, and the happy moments spent in the +exercises of religion, contrasted with my then present lot, but +increased my anguish. + +I suffered bodily as well as mentally. I had neither sufficient +time in which to eat or to sleep, except on Sundays. The +overwork, and the brutal chastisements of which I was the victim, +combined with that ever-gnawing and soul-devouring thought--"_I +am a slave--a slave for life--a slave with no rational ground to +hope for freedom_"--rendered me a living embodiment of mental and +physical wretchedness. + + + +CHAPTER XVI +_Another Pressure of the Tyrant's Vice_ + +EXPERIENCE AT COVEY'S SUMMED UP--FIRST SIX MONTHS SEVERER THAN +THE SECOND--PRELIMINARIES TO THE CHANCE--REASONS FOR NARRATING +THE CIRCUMSTANCES--SCENE IN TREADING YARD--TAKEN ILL--UNUSUAL +BRUTALITY OF COVEY--ESCAPE TO ST. MICHAEL'S--THE PURSUIT-- +SUFFERING IN THE WOODS--DRIVEN BACK AGAIN TO COVEY'S--BEARING OF +MASTER THOMAS--THE SLAVE IS NEVER SICK--NATURAL TO EXPECT SLAVES +TO FEIGN SICKNESS--LAZINESS OF SLAVEHOLDERS. + + +The foregoing chapter, with all its horrid incidents and shocking +features, may be taken as a fair representation of the first six +months of my life at Covey's. The reader has but to repeat, in +his own mind, once a week, the scene in the woods, where Covey +subjected me to his merciless lash, to have a true idea of my +bitter experience there, during the first period of the breaking +process through which Mr. Covey carried me. I have no heart to +repeat each separate transaction, in which I was victim of his +violence and brutality. Such a narration would fill a volume +much larger than the present one. I aim only to give the reader +a truthful impression of my slave life, without unnecessarily +affecting him with harrowing details. + +As I have elsewhere intimated that my hardships were much greater +during the first six months of my stay at Covey's, than during +the remainder of the year, and as the change in my condition was +owing to causes which may help the reader to a better +understanding of human nature, when subjected to the terrible +extremities of slavery, I will narrate the circumstances of this +<173 SCENE IN THE TREADING YARD>change, although I may seem +thereby to applaud my own courage. You have, dear reader, seen +me humbled, degraded, broken down, enslaved, and brutalized, and +you understand how it was done; now let us see the converse of +all this, and how it was brought about; and this will take us +through the year 1834. + +On one of the hottest days of the month of August, of the year +just mentioned, had the reader been passing through Covey's farm, +he might have seen me at work, in what is there called the +"treading yard"--a yard upon which wheat is trodden out from the +straw, by the horses' feet. I was there, at work, feeding the +"fan," or rather bringing wheat to the fan, while Bill Smith was +feeding. Our force consisted of Bill Hughes, Bill Smith, and a +slave by the name of Eli; the latter having been hired for this +occasion. The work was simple, and required strength and +activity, rather than any skill or intelligence, and yet, to one +entirely unused to such work, it came very hard. The heat was +intense and overpowering, and there was much hurry to get the +wheat, trodden out that day, through the fan; since, if that work +was done an hour before sundown, the hands would have, according +to a promise of Covey, that hour added to their night's rest. I +was not behind any of them in the wish to complete the day's work +before sundown, and, hence, I struggled with all my might to get +the work forward. The promise of one hour's repose on a week +day, was sufficient to quicken my pace, and to spur me on to +extra endeavor. Besides, we had all planned to go fishing, and I +certainly wished to have a hand in that. But I was disappointed, +and the day turned out to be one of the bitterest I ever +experienced. About three o'clock, while the sun was pouring down +his burning rays, and not a breeze was stirring, I broke down; my +strength failed me; I was seized with a violent aching of the +head, attended with extreme dizziness, and trembling in every +limb. Finding what was coming, and feeling it would never do to +stop work, I nerved myself up, and staggered on until I fell by +the side of the wheat fan, feeling that the earth had fallen +<174>upon me. This brought the entire work to a dead stand. +There was work for four; each one had his part to perform, and +each part depended on the other, so that when one stopped, all +were compelled to stop. Covey, who had now become my dread, as +well as my tormentor, was at the house, about a hundred yards +from where I was fanning, and instantly, upon hearing the fan +stop, he came down to the treading yard, to inquire into the +cause of our stopping. Bill Smith told him I was sick, and that +I was unable longer to bring wheat to the fan. + +I had, by this time, crawled away, under the side of a post-and- +rail fence, in the shade, and was exceeding ill. The intense +heat of the sun, the heavy dust rising from the fan, the +stooping, to take up the wheat from the yard, together with the +hurrying, to get through, had caused a rush of blood to my head. +In this condition, Covey finding out where I was, came to me; +and, after standing over me a while, he asked me what the matter +was. I told him as well as I could, for it was with difficulty +that I could speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side, +which jarred my whole frame, and commanded me to get up. The man +had obtained complete control over me; and if he had commanded me +to do any possible thing, I should, in my then state of mind, +have endeavored to comply. I made an effort to rise, but fell +back in the attempt, before gaining my feet. The brute now gave +me another heavy kick, and again told me to rise. I again tried +to rise, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but upon stooping to +get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered +and fell to the ground; and I must have so fallen, had I been +sure that a hundred bullets would have pierced me, as the +consequence. While down, in this sad condition, and perfectly +helpless, the merciless Negro breaker took up the hickory slab, +with which Hughes had been striking off the wheat to a level with +the sides of the half bushel measure (a very hard weapon) and +with the sharp edge of it, he dealt me a heavy blow on my head +which made a large gash, and caused the blood to run freely, +saying, <175 ESCAPE TO ST. MICHAEL'S>at the same time, "If _you +have got the headache, I'll cure you_." This done, he ordered me +again to rise, but I made no effort to do so; for I had made up +my mind that it was useless, and that the heartless monster might +now do his worst; he could but kill me, and that might put me out +of my misery. Finding me unable to rise, or rather despairing of +my doing so, Covey left me, with a view to getting on with the +work without me. I was bleeding very freely, and my face was +soon covered with my warm blood. Cruel and merciless as was the +motive that dealt that blow, dear reader, the wound was fortunate +for me. Bleeding was never more efficacious. The pain in my +head speedily abated, and I was soon able to rise. Covey had, as +I have said, now left me to my fate; and the question was, shall +I return to my work, or shall I find my way to St. Michael's, and +make Capt. Auld acquainted with the atrocious cruelty of his +brother Covey, and beseech him to get me another master? +Remembering the object he had in view, in placing me under the +management of Covey, and further, his cruel treatment of my poor +crippled cousin, Henny, and his meanness in the matter of feeding +and clothing his slaves, there was little ground to hope for a +favorable reception at the hands of Capt. Thomas Auld. +Nevertheless, I resolved to go straight to Capt. Auld, thinking +that, if not animated by motives of humanity, he might be induced +to interfere on my behalf from selfish considerations. "He +cannot," thought I, "allow his property to be thus bruised and +battered, marred and defaced; and I will go to him, and tell him +the simple truth about the matter." In order to get to St. +Michael's, by the most favorable and direct road, I must walk +seven miles; and this, in my sad condition, was no easy +performance. I had already lost much blood; I was exhausted by +over exertion; my sides were sore from the heavy blows planted +there by the stout boots of Mr. Covey; and I was, in every way, +in an unfavorable plight for the journey. I however watched my +chance, while the cruel and cunning Covey was looking in an +opposite direction, and started <176>off, across the field, for +St. Michael's. This was a daring step; if it failed, it would +only exasperate Covey, and increase the rigors of my bondage, +during the remainder of my term of service under him; but the +step was taken, and I must go forward. I succeeded in getting +nearly half way across the broad field, toward the woods, before +Mr. Covey observed me. I was still bleeding, and the exertion of +running had started the blood afresh. _"Come back! Come back!"_ +vociferated Covey, with threats of what he would do if I did not +return instantly. But, disregarding his calls and his threats, I +pressed on toward the woods as fast as my feeble state would +allow. Seeing no signs of my stopping, Covey caused his horse to +be brought out and saddled, as if he intended to pursue me. The +race was now to be an unequal one; and, thinking I might be +overhauled by him, if I kept the main road, I walked nearly the +whole distance in the woods, keeping far enough from the road to +avoid detection and pursuit. But, I had not gone far, before my +little strength again failed me, and I laid down. The blood was +still oozing from the wound in my head; and, for a time, I +suffered more than I can describe. There I was, in the deep +woods, sick and emaciated, pursued by a wretch whose character +for revolting cruelty beggars all opprobrious speech--bleeding, +and almost bloodless. I was not without the fear of bleeding to +death. The thought of dying in the woods, all alone, and of +being torn to pieces by the buzzards, had not yet been rendered +tolerable by my many troubles and hardships, and I was glad when +the shade of the trees, and the cool evening breeze, combined +with my matted hair to stop the flow of blood. After lying there +about three quarters of an hour, brooding over the singular and +mournful lot to which I was doomed, my mind passing over the +whole scale or circle of belief and unbelief, from faith in the +overruling providence of God, to the blackest atheism, I again +took up my journey toward St. Michael's, more weary and sad than +in the morning when I left Thomas Auld's for the home of Mr. +Covey. I was bare-footed and bare-headed, and in <177 BEARING OF +MASTER THOMAS>my shirt sleeves. The way was through bogs and +briers, and I tore my feet often during the journey. I was full +five hours in going the seven or eight miles; partly, because of +the difficulties of the way, and partly, because of the +feebleness induced by my illness, bruises and loss of blood. On +gaining my master's store, I presented an appearance of +wretchedness and woe, fitted to move any but a heart of stone. +From the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, there were +marks of blood. My hair was all clotted with dust and blood, and +the back of my shirt was literally stiff with the same. Briers +and thorns had scarred and torn my feet and legs, leaving blood +marks there. Had I escaped from a den of tigers, I could not +have looked worse than I did on reaching St. Michael's. In this +unhappy plight, I appeared before my professedly _Christian_ +master, humbly to invoke the interposition of his power and +authority, to protect me from further abuse and violence. I had +begun to hope, during the latter part of my tedious journey +toward St. Michael's, that Capt. Auld would now show himself in a +nobler light than I had ever before seen him. I was +disappointed. I had jumped from a sinking ship into the sea; I +had fled from the tiger to something worse. I told him all the +circumstances, as well as I could; how I was endeavoring to +please Covey; how hard I was at work in the present instance; how +unwilling I sunk down under the heat, toil and pain; the brutal +manner in which Covey had kicked me in the side; the gash cut in +my head; my hesitation about troubling him (Capt. Auld) with +complaints; but, that now I felt it would not be best longer to +conceal from him the outrages committed on me from time to time +by Covey. At first, master Thomas seemed somewhat affected by +the story of my wrongs, but he soon repressed his feelings and +became cold as iron. It was impossible--as I stood before him at +the first--for him to seem indifferent. I distinctly saw his +human nature asserting its conviction against the slave system, +which made cases like mine _possible;_ but, as I have said, +humanity fell before the systematic tyranny of slavery. He first +walked <178>the floor, apparently much agitated by my story, and +the sad spectacle I presented; but, presently, it was _his_ turn +to talk. He began moderately, by finding excuses for Covey, and +ending with a full justification of him, and a passionate +condemnation of me. "He had no doubt I deserved the flogging. +He did not believe I was sick; I was only endeavoring to get rid +of work. My dizziness was laziness, and Covey did right to flog +me, as he had done." After thus fairly annihilating me, and +rousing himself by his own eloquence, he fiercely demanded what I +wished _him_ to do in the case! + +With such a complete knock-down to all my hopes, as he had given +me, and feeling, as I did, my entire subjection to his power, I +had very little heart to reply. I must not affirm my innocence +of the allegations which he had piled up against me; for that +would be impudence, and would probably call down fresh violence +as well as wrath upon me. The guilt of a slave is always, and +everywhere, presumed; and the innocence of the slaveholder or the +slave employer, is always asserted. The word of the slave, +against this presumption, is generally treated as impudence, +worthy of punishment. "Do you contradict me, you rascal?" is a +final silencer of counter statements from the lips of a slave. + +Calming down a little in view of my silence and hesitation, and, +perhaps, from a rapid glance at the picture of misery I +presented, he inquired again, "what I would have him do?" Thus +invited a second time, I told Master Thomas I wished him to allow +me to get a new home and to find a new master; that, as sure as I +went back to live with Mr. Covey again, I should be killed by +him; that he would never forgive my coming to him (Capt. Auld) +with a complaint against him (Covey); that, since I had lived +with him, he almost crushed my spirit, and I believed that he +would ruin me for future service; that my life was not safe in +his hands. This, Master Thomas _(my brother in the church)_ +regarded as "nonsence{sic}." "There was no danger of Mr. Covey's +killing me; he was a good man, industrious and religious, and he +would not think of <179 THE SLAVE IS NEVER SICK>removing me from +that home; "besides," said he and this I found was the most +distressing thought of all to him--"if you should leave Covey +now, that your year has but half expired, I should lose your +wages for the entire year. You belong to Mr. Covey for one year, +and you _must go back_ to him, come what will. You must not +trouble me with any more stories about Mr. Covey; and if you do +not go immediately home, I will get hold of you myself." This +was just what I expected, when I found he had _prejudged_ the +case against me. "But, Sir," I said, "I am sick and tired, and I +cannot get home to-night." At this, he again relented, and +finally he allowed me to remain all night at St. Michael's; but +said I must be off early in the morning, and concluded his +directions by making me swallow a huge dose of _epsom salts_-- +about the only medicine ever administered to slaves. + +It was quite natural for Master Thomas to presume I was feigning +sickness to escape work, for he probably thought that were _he_ +in the place of a slave with no wages for his work, no praise for +well doing, no motive for toil but the lash--he would try every +possible scheme by which to escape labor. I say I have no doubt +of this; the reason is, that there are not, under the whole +heavens, a set of men who cultivate such an intense dread of +labor as do the slaveholders. The charge of laziness against the +slave is ever on their lips, and is the standing apology for +every species of cruelty and brutality. These men literally +"bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's +shoulders; but they, themselves, will not move them with one of +their fingers." + +My kind readers shall have, in the next chapter--what they were +led, perhaps, to expect to find in this--namely: an account of my +partial disenthrallment from the tyranny of Covey, and the marked +change which it brought about. + + +CHAPTER XVII +_The Last Flogging_ + +A SLEEPLESS NIGHT--RETURN TO COVEY'S--PURSUED BY COVEY--THE CHASE +DEFEATED--VENGEANCE POSTPONED--MUSINGS IN THE WOODS--THE +ALTERNATIVE--DEPLORABLE SPECTACLE--NIGHT IN THE WOODS--EXPECTED +ATTACK--ACCOSTED BY SANDY, A FRIEND, NOT A HUNTER--SANDY'S +HOSPITALITY--THE "ASH CAKE" SUPPER--THE INTERVIEW WITH SANDY--HIS +ADVICE--SANDY A CONJURER AS WELL AS A CHRISTIAN--THE MAGIC ROOT-- +STRANGE MEETING WITH COVEY--HIS MANNER--COVEY'S SUNDAY FACE--MY +DEFENSIVE RESOLVE--THE FIGHT--THE VICTORY, AND ITS RESULTS. + + +Sleep itself does not always come to the relief of the weary in +body, and the broken in spirit; especially when past troubles +only foreshadow coming disasters. The last hope had been +extinguished. My master, who I did not venture to hope would +protect me as _a man_, had even now refused to protect me as _his +property;_ and had cast me back, covered with reproaches and +bruises, into the hands of a stranger to that mercy which was the +soul of the religion he professed. May the reader never spend +such a night as that allotted to me, previous to the morning +which was to herald my return to the den of horrors from which I +had made a temporary escape. + +I remained all night--sleep I did not--at St. Michael's; and in +the morning (Saturday) I started off, according to the order of +Master Thomas, feeling that I had no friend on earth, and +doubting if I had one in heaven. I reached Covey's about nine +o'clock; and just as I stepped into the field, before I had +reached the house, Covey, true to his snakish habits, darted out +at me <181 RETURN TO COVEY'S>from a fence corner, in which he had +secreted himself, for the purpose of securing me. He was amply +provided with a cowskin and a rope; and he evidently intended to +_tie me up_, and to wreak his vengeance on me to the fullest +extent. I should have been an easy prey, had he succeeded in +getting his hands upon me, for I had taken no refreshment since +noon on Friday; and this, together with the pelting, excitement, +and the loss of blood, had reduced my strength. I, however, +darted back into the woods, before the ferocious hound could get +hold of me, and buried myself in a thicket, where he lost sight +of me. The corn-field afforded me cover, in getting to the +woods. But for the tall corn, Covey would have overtaken me, and +made me his captive. He seemed very much chagrined that he did +not catch me, and gave up the chase, very reluctantly; for I +could see his angry movements, toward the house from which he had +sallied, on his foray. + +Well, now I am clear of Covey, and of his wrathful lash, for +present. I am in the wood, buried in its somber gloom, and +hushed in its solemn silence; hid from all human eyes; shut in +with nature and nature's God, and absent from all human +contrivances. Here was a good place to pray; to pray for help +for deliverance--a prayer I had often made before. But how could +I pray? Covey could pray--Capt. Auld could pray--I would fain +pray; but doubts (arising partly from my own neglect of the means +of grace, and partly from the sham religion which everywhere +prevailed, cast in my mind a doubt upon all religion, and led me +to the conviction that prayers were unavailing and delusive) +prevented my embracing the opportunity, as a religious one. +Life, in itself, had almost become burdensome to me. All my +outward relations were against me; I must stay here and starve (I +was already hungry) or go home to Covey's, and have my flesh torn +to pieces, and my spirit humbled under the cruel lash of Covey. +This was the painful alternative presented to me. The day was +long and irksome. My physical condition was deplorable. I was +weak, from the toils of the previous day, and from the want of +<182>food and rest; and had been so little concerned about my +appearance, that I had not yet washed the blood from my garments. +I was an object of horror, even to myself. Life, in Baltimore, +when most oppressive, was a paradise to this. What had I done, +what had my parents done, that such a life as this should be +mine? That day, in the woods, I would have exchanged my manhood +for the brutehood of an ox. + +Night came. I was still in the woods, unresolved what to do. +Hunger had not yet pinched me to the point of going home, and I +laid myself down in the leaves to rest; for I had been watching +for hunters all day, but not being molested during the day, I +expected no disturbance during the night. I had come to the +conclusion that Covey relied upon hunger to drive me home; and in +this I was quite correct--the facts showed that he had made no +effort to catch me, since morning. + +During the night, I heard the step of a man in the woods. He was +coming toward the place where I lay. A person lying still has +the advantage over one walking in the woods, in the day time, and +this advantage is much greater at night. I was not able to +engage in a physical struggle, and I had recourse to the common +resort of the weak. I hid myself in the leaves to prevent +discovery. But, as the night rambler in the woods drew nearer, I +found him to be a _friend_, not an enemy; it was a slave of Mr. +William Groomes, of Easton, a kind hearted fellow, named "Sandy." +Sandy lived with Mr. Kemp that year, about four miles from St. +Michael's. He, like myself had been hired out by the year; but, +unlike myself, had not been hired out to be broken. Sandy was +the husband of a free woman, who lived in the lower part of +_"Potpie Neck,"_ and he was now on his way through the woods, to +see her, and to spend the Sabbath with her. + +As soon as I had ascertained that the disturber of my solitude +was not an enemy, but the good-hearted Sandy--a man as famous +among the slaves of the neighborhood for his good nature, as for +his good sense I came out from my hiding place, and made <183 THE +ASH CAKE SUPPER>myself known to him. I explained the +circumstances of the past two days, which had driven me to the +woods, and he deeply compassionated my distress. It was a bold +thing for him to shelter me, and I could not ask him to do so; +for, had I been found in his hut, he would have suffered the +penalty of thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, if not something +worse. But Sandy was too generous to permit the fear of +punishment to prevent his relieving a brother bondman from hunger +and exposure; and, therefore, on his own motion, I accompanied +him to his home, or rather to the home of his wife--for the house +and lot were hers. His wife was called up--for it was now about +midnight--a fire was made, some Indian meal was soon mixed with +salt and water, and an ash cake was baked in a hurry to relieve +my hunger. Sandy's wife was not behind him in kindness--both +seemed to esteem it a privilege to succor me; for, although I was +hated by Covey and by my master, I was loved by the colored +people, because _they_ thought I was hated for my knowledge, and +persecuted because I was feared. I was the _only_ slave _now_ in +that region who could read and write. There had been one other +man, belonging to Mr. Hugh Hamilton, who could read (his name was +"Jim"), but he, poor fellow, had, shortly after my coming into +the neighborhood, been sold off to the far south. I saw Jim +ironed, in the cart, to be carried to Easton for sale--pinioned +like a yearling for the slaughter. My knowledge was now the +pride of my brother slaves; and, no doubt, Sandy felt something +of the general interest in me on that account. The supper was +soon ready, and though I have feasted since, with honorables, +lord mayors and aldermen, over the sea, my supper on ash cake and +cold water, with Sandy, was the meal, of all my life, most sweet +to my taste, and now most vivid in my memory. + +Supper over, Sandy and I went into a discussion of what was +_possible_ for me, under the perils and hardships which now +overshadowed my path. The question was, must I go back to Covey, +or must I now tempt to run away? Upon a careful survey, the +latter was found to be impossible; for I was on a narrow neck of +land, <184>every avenue from which would bring me in sight of +pursuers. There was the Chesapeake bay to the right, and "Pot- +pie" river to the left, and St. Michael's and its neighborhood +occupying the only space through which there was any retreat. + +I found Sandy an old advisor. He was not only a religious man, +but he professed to believe in a system for which I have no name. +He was a genuine African, and had inherited some of the so-called +magical powers, said to be possessed by African and eastern +nations. He told me that he could help me; that, in those very +woods, there was an herb, which in the morning might be found, +possessing all the powers required for my protection (I put his +thoughts in my own language); and that, if I would take his +advice, he would procure me the root of the herb of which he +spoke. He told me further, that if I would take that root and +wear it on my right side, it would be impossible for Covey to +strike me a blow; that with this root about my person, no white +man could whip me. He said he had carried it for years, and that +he had fully tested its virtues. He had never received a blow +from a slaveholder since he carried it; and he never expected to +receive one, for he always meant to carry that root as a +protection. He knew Covey well, for Mrs. Covey was the daughter +of Mr. Kemp; and he (Sandy) had heard of the barbarous treatment +to which I was subjected, and he wanted to do something for me. + +Now all this talk about the root, was to me, very absurd and +ridiculous, if not positively sinful. I at first rejected the +idea that the simple carrying a root on my right side (a root, by +the way, over which I walked every time I went into the woods) +could possess any such magic power as he ascribed to it, and I +was, therefore, not disposed to cumber my pocket with it. I had +a positive aversion to all pretenders to _"divination."_ It was +beneath one of my intelligence to countenance such dealings with +the devil, as this power implied. But, with all my learning--it +was really precious little--Sandy was more than a match for me. +"My book learning," he said, "had not kept Covey off me" (a +powerful <185 THE MAGIC ROOT>argument just then) and he entreated +me, with flashing eyes, to try this. If it did me no good, it +could do me no harm, and it would cost me nothing, any way. +Sandy was so earnest, and so confident of the good qualities of +this weed, that, to please him, rather than from any conviction +of its excellence, I was induced to take it. He had been to me +the good Samaritan, and had, almost providentially, found me, and +helped me when I could not help myself; how did I know but that +the hand of the Lord was in it? With thoughts of this sort, I +took the roots from Sandy, and put them in my right hand pocket. + +This was, of course, Sunday morning. Sandy now urged me to go +home, with all speed, and to walk up bravely to the house, as +though nothing had happened. I saw in Sandy too deep an insight +into human nature, with all his superstition, not to have some +respect for his advice; and perhaps, too, a slight gleam or +shadow of his superstition had fallen upon me. At any rate, I +started off toward Covey's, as directed by Sandy. Having, the +previous night, poured my griefs into Sandy's ears, and got him +enlisted in my behalf, having made his wife a sharer in my +sorrows, and having, also, become well refreshed by sleep and +food, I moved off, quite courageously, toward the much dreaded +Covey's. Singularly enough, just as I entered his yard gate, I +met him and his wife, dressed in their Sunday best--looking as +smiling as angels--on their way to church. The manner of Covey +astonished me. There was something really benignant in his +countenance. He spoke to me as never before; told me that the +pigs had got into the lot, and he wished me to drive them out; +inquired how I was, and seemed an altered man. This +extraordinary conduct of Covey, really made me begin to think +that Sandy's herb had more virtue in it than I, in my pride, had +been willing to allow; and, had the day been other than Sunday, I +should have attributed Covey's altered manner solely to the magic +power of the root. I suspected, however, that the _Sabbath_, and +not the _root_, was the real explanation of Covey's manner. His +religion hindered him from breaking the <186>Sabbath, but not +from breaking my skin. He had more respect for the _day_ than +for the _man_, for whom the day was mercifully given; for while +he would cut and slash my body during the week, he would not +hesitate, on Sunday, to teach me the value of my soul, or the way +of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. + +All went well with me till Monday morning; and then, whether the +root had lost its virtue, or whether my tormentor had gone deeper +into the black art than myself (as was sometimes said of him), or +whether he had obtained a special indulgence, for his faithful +Sabbath day's worship, it is not necessary for me to know, or to +inform the reader; but, this I _may_ say--the pious and benignant +smile which graced Covey's face on _Sunday_, wholly disappeared +on _Monday_. Long before daylight, I was called up to go and +feed, rub, and curry the horses. I obeyed the call, and would +have so obeyed it, had it been made at an earilier{sic} hour, for +I had brought my mind to a firm resolve, during that Sunday's +reflection, viz: to obey every order, however unreasonable, if it +were possible, and, if Mr. Covey should then undertake to beat +me, to defend and protect myself to the best of my ability. My +religious views on the subject of resisting my master, had +suffered a serious shock, by the savage persecution to which I +had been subjected, and my hands were no longer tied by my +religion. Master Thomas's indifference had served the last link. +I had now to this extent "backslidden" from this point in the +slave's religious creed; and I soon had occasion to make my +fallen state known to my Sunday-pious brother, Covey. + +Whilst I was obeying his order to feed and get the horses ready +for the field, and when in the act of going up the stable loft +for the purpose of throwing down some blades, Covey sneaked into +the stable, in his peculiar snake-like way, and seizing me +suddenly by the leg, he brought me to the stable floor, giving my +newly mended body a fearful jar. I now forgot my roots, and +remembered my pledge to _stand up in my own defense_. The brute +was endeavoring skillfully to get a slip-knot on my legs, before +I could <187 THE FIGHT>draw up my feet. As soon as I found what +he was up to, I gave a sudden spring (my two day's rest had been +of much service to me,) and by that means, no doubt, he was able +to bring me to the floor so heavily. He was defeated in his plan +of tying me. While down, he seemed to think he had me very +securely in his power. He little thought he was--as the rowdies +say--"in" for a "rough and tumble" fight; but such was the fact. +Whence came the daring spirit necessary to grapple with a man +who, eight-and-forty hours before, could, with his slightest word +have made me tremble like a leaf in a storm, I do not know; at +any rate, _I was resolved to fight_, and, what was better still, +I was actually hard at it. The fighting madness had come upon +me, and I found my strong fingers firmly attached to the throat +of my cowardly tormentor; as heedless of consequences, at the +moment, as though we stood as equals before the law. The very +color of the man was forgotten. I felt as supple as a cat, and +was ready for the snakish creature at every turn. Every blow of +his was parried, though I dealt no blows in turn. I was strictly +on the _defensive_, preventing him from injuring me, rather than +trying to injure him. I flung him on the ground several times, +when he meant to have hurled me there. I held him so firmly by +the throat, that his blood followed my nails. He held me, and I +held him. + +All was fair, thus far, and the contest was about equal. My +resistance was entirely unexpected, and Covey was taken all aback +by it, for he trembled in every limb. _"Are you going to +resist_, you scoundrel?" said he. To which, I returned a polite +_"Yes sir;"_ steadily gazing my interrogator in the eye, to meet +the first approach or dawning of the blow, which I expected my +answer would call forth. But, the conflict did not long remain +thus equal. Covey soon cried out lustily for help; not that I +was obtaining any marked advantage over him, or was injuring him, +but because he was gaining none over me, and was not able, single +handed, to conquer me. He called for his cousin Hughs, to come +to his assistance, and now the scene was changed. I was +compelled to <188>give blows, as well as to parry them; and, +since I was, in any case, to suffer for resistance, I felt (as +the musty proverb goes) that "I might as well be hanged for an +old sheep as a lamb." I was still _defensive_ toward Covey, but +_aggressive_ toward Hughs; and, at the first approach of the +latter, I dealt a blow, in my desperation, which fairly sickened +my youthful assailant. He went off, bending over with pain, and +manifesting no disposition to come within my reach again. The +poor fellow was in the act of trying to catch and tie my right +hand, and while flattering himself with success, I gave him the +kick which sent him staggering away in pain, at the same time +that I held Covey with a firm hand. + +Taken completely by surprise, Covey seemed to have lost his usual +strength and coolness. He was frightened, and stood puffing and +blowing, seemingly unable to command words or blows. When he saw +that poor Hughes was standing half bent with pain--his courage +quite gone the cowardly tyrant asked if I "meant to persist in my +resistance." I told him "_I did mean to resist, come what +might_;" that I had been by him treated like a _brute_, during +the last six months; and that I should stand it _no longer_. +With that, he gave me a shake, and attempted to drag me toward a +stick of wood, that was lying just outside the stable door. He +meant to knock me down with it; but, just as he leaned over to +get the stick, I seized him with both hands by the collar, and, +with a vigorous and sudden snatch, I brought my assailant +harmlessly, his full length, on the _not_ overclean ground--for +we were now in the cow yard. He had selected the place for the +fight, and it was but right that he should have all the +advantges{sic} of his own selection. + +By this time, Bill, the hiredman, came home. He had been to Mr. +Hemsley's, to spend the Sunday with his nominal wife, and was +coming home on Monday morning, to go to work. Covey and I had +been skirmishing from before daybreak, till now, that the sun was +almost shooting his beams over the eastern woods, and we were +still at it. I could not see where the matter was to terminate. +He evidently was afraid to let me go, lest I should again <189 +BILL REFUSES TO ASSIST COVEY>make off to the woods; otherwise, he +would probably have obtained arms from the house, to frighten me. +Holding me, Covey called upon Bill for assistance. The scene +here, had something comic about it. "Bill," who knew _precisely_ +what Covey wished him to do, affected ignorance, and pretended he +did not know what to do. "What shall I do, Mr. Covey," said +Bill. "Take hold of him--take hold of him!" said Covey. With a +toss of his head, peculiar to Bill, he said, "indeed, Mr. Covey I +want to go to work." _"This is_ your work," said Covey; "take +hold of him." Bill replied, with spirit, "My master hired me +here, to work, and _not_ to help you whip Frederick." It was now +my turn to speak. "Bill," said I, "don't put your hands on me." +To which he replied, "My GOD! Frederick, I ain't goin' to tech +ye," and Bill walked off, leaving Covey and myself to settle our +matters as best we might. + +But, my present advantage was threatened when I saw Caroline (the +slave-woman of Covey) coming to the cow yard to milk, for she was +a powerful woman, and could have mastered me very easily, +exhausted as I now was. As soon as she came into the yard, Covey +attempted to rally her to his aid. Strangely--and, I may add, +fortunately--Caroline was in no humor to take a hand in any such +sport. We were all in open rebellion, that morning. Caroline +answered the command of her master to _"take hold of me,"_ +precisely as Bill had answered, but in _her_, it was at greater +peril so to answer; she was the slave of Covey, and he could do +what he pleased with her. It was _not_ so with Bill, and Bill +knew it. Samuel Harris, to whom Bill belonged, did not allow his +slaves to be beaten, unless they were guilty of some crime which +the law would punish. But, poor Caroline, like myself, was at +the mercy of the merciless Covey; nor did she escape the dire +effects of her refusal. He gave her several sharp blows. + +Covey at length (two hours had elapsed) gave up the contest. +Letting me go, he said--puffing and blowing at a great rate-- +"Now, you scoundrel, go to your work; I would not have whipped +you half so much as I have had you not resisted." The fact was, +<190>_he had not whipped me at all_. He had not, in all the +scuffle, drawn a single drop of blood from me. I had drawn blood +from him; and, even without this satisfaction, I should have been +victorious, because my aim had not been to injure him, but to +prevent his injuring me. + +During the whole six months that I lived with Covey, after this +transaction, he never laid on me the weight of his finger in +anger. He would, occasionally, say he did not want to have to +get hold of me again--a declaration which I had no difficulty in +believing; and I had a secret feeling, which answered, "You need +not wish to get hold of me again, for you will be likely to come +off worse in a second fight than you did in the first." + +Well, my dear reader, this battle with Mr. Covey--undignified as +it was, and as I fear my narration of it is--was the turning +point in my _"life as a slave_." It rekindled in my breast the +smouldering embers of liberty; it brought up my Baltimore dreams, +and revived a sense of my own manhood. I was a changed being +after that fight. I was _nothing_ before; I WAS A MAN NOW. It +recalled to life my crushed self-respect and my self-confidence, +and inspired me with a renewed determination to be A FREEMAN. A +man, without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. +Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot _honor_ a helpless +man, although it can _pity_ him; and even this it cannot do long, +if the signs of power do not arise. + +He can only understand the effect of this combat on my spirit, +who has himself incurred something, hazarded something, in +repelling the unjust and cruel aggressions of a tyrant. Covey +was a tyrant, and a cowardly one, withal. After resisting him, I +felt as I had never felt before. It was a resurrection from the +dark and pestiferous tomb of slavery, to the heaven of +comparative freedom. I was no longer a servile coward, trembling +under the frown of a brother worm of the dust, but, my long-cowed +spirit was roused to an attitude of manly independence. I had +reached the point, at which I was _not afraid to die_. This <191 +RESULTS OF THE VICTORY>spirit made me a freeman in _fact_, while +I remained a slave in _form_. When a slave cannot be flogged he +is more than half free. He has a domain as broad as his own +manly heart to defend, and he is really _"a power on earth_." +While slaves prefer their lives, with flogging, to instant death, +they will always find Christians enough, like unto Covey, to +accommodate that preference. From this time, until that of my +escape from slavery, I was never fairly whipped. Several +attempts were made to whip me, but they were always unsuccessful. +Bruises I did get, as I shall hereafter inform the reader; but +the case I have been describing, was the end of the brutification +to which slavery had subjected me. + +The reader will be glad to know why, after I had so grievously +offended Mr. Covey, he did not have me taken in hand by the +authorities; indeed, why the law of Maryland, which assigns +hanging to the slave who resists his master, was not put in force +against me; at any rate, why I was not taken up, as is usual in +such cases, and publicly whipped, for an example to other slaves, +and as a means of deterring me from committing the same offense +again. I confess, that the easy manner in which I got off, for a +long time, a surprise to me, and I cannot, even now, fully +explain the cause. + +The only explanation I can venture to suggest, is the fact, that +Covey was, probably, ashamed to have it known and confessed that +he had been mastered by a boy of sixteen. Mr. Covey enjoyed the +unbounded and very valuable reputation, of being a first rate +overseer and _Negro breaker_. By means of this reputation, he +was able to procure his hands for _very trifling_ compensation, +and with very great ease. His interest and his pride mutually +suggested the wisdom of passing the matter by, in silence. The +story that he had undertaken to whip a lad, and had been +resisted, was, of itself, sufficient to damage him; for his +bearing should, in the estimation of slaveholders, be of that +imperial order that should make such an occurrence _impossible_. +I judge from these circumstances, that Covey deemed it best to +<192>give me the go-by. It is, perhaps, not altogether +creditable to my natural temper, that, after this conflict with +Mr. Covey, I did, at times, purposely aim to provoke him to an +attack, by refusing to keep with the other hands in the field, +but I could never bully him to another battle. I had made up my +mind to do him serious damage, if he ever again attempted to lay +violent hands on me. + +_ Hereditary bondmen, know ye not + Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow? + +_ +CHAPTER XVIII +_New Relations and Duties_ + +CHANGE OF MASTERS--BENEFITS DERIVED BY THE CHANGE--FAME OF THE +FIGHT WITH COVEY--RECKLESS UNCONCERN--MY ABHORRENCE OF SLAVERY-- +ABILITY TO READ A CAUSE OF PREJUDICE--THE HOLIDAYS--HOW SPENT-- +SHARP HIT AT SLAVERY--EFFECTS OF HOLIDAYS--A DEVICE OF SLAVERY-- +DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COVEY AND FREELAND--AN IRRELIGIOUS MASTER +PREFERRED TO A RELIGIOUS ONE--CATALOGUE OF FLOGGABLE OFFENSES-- +HARD LIFE AT COVEY'S USEFUL--IMPROVED CONDITION NOT FOLLOWED BY +CONTENTMENT--CONGENIAL SOCIETY AT FREELAND'S--SABBATH SCHOOL +INSTITUTED--SECRECY NECESSARY--AFFECTIONATE RELATIONS OF TUTOR +AND PUPILS--CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP AMONG SLAVES--I DECLINE +PUBLISHING PARTICULARS OF CONVERSATIONS WITH MY FRIENDS--SLAVERY +THE INVITER OF VENGEANCE. + + +My term of actual service to Mr. Edward Covey ended on Christmas +day, 1834. I gladly left the snakish Covey, although he was now +as gentle as a lamb. My home for the year 1835 was already +secured--my next master was already selected. There is always +more or less excitement about the matter of changing hands, but I +had become somewhat reckless. I cared very little into whose +hands I fell--I meant to fight my way. Despite of Covey, too, +the report got abroad, that I was hard to whip; that I was guilty +of kicking back; that though generally a good tempered Negro, I +sometimes "_got the devil in me_." These sayings were rife in +Talbot county, and they distinguished me among my servile +brethren. Slaves, generally, will fight each other, and die at +each other's hands; but there are few who are not held in awe by +a white man. Trained from the cradle up, to think and <194>feel +that their masters are superior, and invested with a sort of +sacredness, there are few who can outgrow or rise above the +control which that sentiment exercises. I had now got free from +it, and the thing was known. One bad sheep will spoil a whole +flock. Among the slaves, I was a bad sheep. I hated slavery, +slaveholders, and all pertaining to them; and I did not fail to +inspire others with the same feeling, wherever and whenever +opportunity was presented. This made me a marked lad among the +slaves, and a suspected one among the slaveholders. A knowledge +of my ability to read and write, got pretty widely spread, which +was very much against me. + +The days between Christmas day and New Year's, are allowed the +slaves as holidays. During these days, all regular work was +suspended, and there was nothing to do but to keep fires, and +look after the stock. This time was regarded as our own, by the +grace of our masters, and we, therefore used it, or abused it, as +we pleased. Those who had families at a distance, were now +expected to visit them, and to spend with them the entire week. +The younger slaves, or the unmarried ones, were expected to see +to the cattle, and attend to incidental duties at home. The +holidays were variously spent. The sober, thinking and +industrious ones of our number, would employ themselves in +manufacturing corn brooms, mats, horse collars and baskets, and +some of these were very well made. Another class spent their +time in hunting opossums, coons, rabbits, and other game. But +the majority spent the holidays in sports, ball playing, +wrestling, boxing, running foot races, dancing, and drinking +whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was generally +most agreeable to their masters. A slave who would work during +the holidays, was thought, by his master, undeserving of +holidays. Such an one had rejected the favor of his master. +There was, in this simple act of continued work, an accusation +against slaves; and a slave could not help thinking, that if he +made three dollars during the holidays, he might make three +hundred during the year. Not to be drunk during the holi<195 +EFFECTS OF HOLIDAYS>days, was disgraceful; and he was esteemed a +lazy and improvident man, who could not afford to drink whisky +during Christmas. + +The fiddling, dancing and _"jubilee beating_," was going on in +all directions. This latter performance is strictly southern. +It supplies the place of a violin, or of other musical +instruments, and is played so easily, that almost every farm has +its "Juba" beater. The performer improvises as he beats, and +sings his merry songs, so ordering the words as to have them fall +pat with the movement of his hands. Among a mass of nonsense and +wild frolic, once in a while a sharp hit is given to the meanness +of slaveholders. Take the following, for an example: + + _We raise de wheat, + Dey gib us de corn; + We bake de bread, + Dey gib us de cruss; + We sif de meal, + Dey gib us de huss; + We peal de meat, + Dey gib us de skin, + And dat's de way + Dey takes us in. + We skim de pot, + Dey gib us the liquor, + And say dat's good enough for nigger. + Walk over! walk over! + Tom butter and de fat; + Poor nigger you can't get over dat; + Walk over_! + + +This is not a bad summary of the palpable injustice and fraud of +slavery, giving--as it does--to the lazy and idle, the comforts +which God designed should be given solely to the honest laborer. +But to the holiday's. + +Judging from my own observation and experience, I believe these +holidays to be among the most effective means, in the hands of +slaveholders, of keeping down the spirit of insurrection among +the slaves. + +To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to +<196>have their minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations +short of the liberty of which they are deprived. A certain +degree of attainable good must be kept before them. These +holidays serve the purpose of keeping the minds of the slaves +occupied with prospective pleasure, within the limits of slavery. +The young man can go wooing; the married man can visit his wife; +the father and mother can see their children; the industrious and +money loving can make a few dollars; the great wrestler can win +laurels; the young people can meet, and enjoy each other's +society; the drunken man can get plenty of whisky; and the +religious man can hold prayer meetings, preach, pray and exhort +during the holidays. Before the holidays, these are pleasures in +prospect; after the holidays, they become pleasures of memory, +and they serve to keep out thoughts and wishes of a more +dangerous character. Were slaveholders at once to abandon the +practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, periodically, +and to keep them, the year round, closely confined to the narrow +circle of their homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze +with insurrections. These holidays are conductors or safety +valves to carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the +human mind, when reduced to the condition of slavery. But for +these, the rigors of bondage would become too severe for +endurance, and the slave would be forced up to dangerous +desperation. Woe to the slaveholder when he undertakes to hinder +or to prevent the operation of these electric conductors. A +succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, than the +insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in +different parts of the south, from such interference. + +Thus, the holidays, became part and parcel of the gross fraud, +wrongs and inhumanity of slavery. Ostensibly, they are +institutions of benevolence, designed to mitigate the rigors of +slave life, but, practically, they are a fraud, instituted by +human selfishness, the better to secure the ends of injustice and +oppression. The slave's happiness is not the end sought, but, +rather, the master's <197 A DEVICE OF SLAVERY>safety. It is not +from a generous unconcern for the slave's labor that this +cessation from labor is allowed, but from a prudent regard to the +safety of the slave system. I am strengthened in this opinion, +by the fact, that most slaveholders like to have their slaves +spend the holidays in such a manner as to be of no real benefit +to the slaves. It is plain, that everything like rational +enjoyment among the slaves, is frowned upon; and only those wild +and low sports, peculiar to semi-civilized people, are +encouraged. All the license allowed, appears to have no other +object than to disgust the slaves with their temporary freedom, +and to make them as glad to return to their work, as they were to +leave it. By plunging them into exhausting depths of drunkenness +and dissipation, this effect is almost certain to follow. I have +known slaveholders resort to cunning tricks, with a view of +getting their slaves deplorably drunk. A usual plan is, to make +bets on a slave, that he can drink more whisky than any other; +and so to induce a rivalry among them, for the mastery in this +degradation. The scenes, brought about in this way, were often +scandalous and loathsome in the extreme. Whole multitudes might +be found stretched out in brutal drunkenness, at once helpless +and disgusting. Thus, when the slave asks for a few hours of +virtuous freedom, his cunning master takes advantage of his +ignorance, and cheers him with a dose of vicious and revolting +dissipation, artfully labeled with the name of LIBERTY. We were +induced to drink, I among the rest, and when the holidays were +over, we all staggered up from our filth and wallowing, took a +long breath, and went away to our various fields of work; +feeling, upon the whole, rather glad to go from that which our +masters artfully deceived us into the belief was freedom, back +again to the arms of slavery. It was not what we had taken it to +be, nor what it might have been, had it not been abused by us. +It was about as well to be a slave to _master_, as to be a slave +to _rum_ and _whisky._ + +I am the more induced to take this view of the holiday system, +<198>adopted by slaveholders, from what I know of their treatment +of slaves, in regard to other things. It is the commonest thing +for them to try to disgust their slaves with what they do not +want them to have, or to enjoy. A slave, for instance, likes +molasses; he steals some; to cure him of the taste for it, his +master, in many cases, will go away to town, and buy a large +quantity of the _poorest_ quality, and set it before his slave, +and, with whip in hand, compel him to eat it, until the poor +fellow is made to sicken at the very thought of molasses. The +same course is often adopted to cure slaves of the disagreeable +and inconvenient practice of asking for more food, when their +allowance has failed them. The same disgusting process works +well, too, in other things, but I need not cite them. When a +slave is drunk, the slaveholder has no fear that he will plan an +insurrection; no fear that he will escape to the north. It is +the sober, thinking slave who is dangerous, and needs the +vigilance of his master, to keep him a slave. But, to proceed +with my narrative. + +On the first of January, 1835, I proceeded from St. Michael's to +Mr. William Freeland's, my new home. Mr. Freeland lived only +three miles from St. Michael's, on an old worn out farm, which +required much labor to restore it to anything like a self- +supporting establishment. + +I was not long in finding Mr. Freeland to be a very different man +from Mr. Covey. Though not rich, Mr. Freeland was what may be +called a well-bred southern gentleman, as different from Covey, +as a well-trained and hardened Negro breaker is from the best +specimen of the first families of the south. Though Freeland was +a slaveholder, and shared many of the vices of his class, he +seemed alive to the sentiment of honor. He had some sense of +justice, and some feelings of humanity. He was fretful, +impulsive and passionate, but I must do him the justice to say, +he was free from the mean and selfish characteristics which +distinguished the creature from which I had now, happily, +escaped. He was open, frank, imperative, and practiced no +concealments, <199 RELIGIOUS SLAVEHOLDERS>disdaining to play the +spy. In all this, he was the opposite of the crafty Covey. + +Among the many advantages gained in my change from Covey's to +Freeland's--startling as the statement may be--was the fact that +the latter gentleman made no profession of religion. I assert +_most unhesitatingly_, that the religion of the south--as I have +observed it and proved it--is a mere covering for the most horrid +crimes; the justifier of the most appalling barbarity; a +sanctifier of the most hateful frauds; and a secure shelter, +under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal +abominations fester and flourish. Were I again to be reduced to +the condition of a slave, _next_ to that calamity, I should +regard the fact of being the slave of a religious slaveholder, +the greatest that could befall me. For all slaveholders with +whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I +have found them, almost invariably, the vilest, meanest and +basest of their class. Exceptions there may be, but this is true +of religious slaveholders, _as a class_. It is not for me to +explain the fact. Others may do that; I simply state it as a +fact, and leave the theological, and psychological inquiry, which +it raises, to be decided by others more competent than myself. +Religious slaveholders, like religious persecutors, are ever +extreme in their malice and violence. Very near my new home, on +an adjoining farm, there lived the Rev. Daniel Weeden, who was +both pious and cruel after the real Covey pattern. Mr. Weeden +was a local preacher of the Protestant Methodist persuasion, and +a most zealous supporter of the ordinances of religion, +generally. This Weeden owned a woman called "Ceal," who was a +standing proof of his mercilessness. Poor Ceal's back, always +scantily clothed, was kept literally raw, by the lash of this +religious man and gospel minister. The most notoriously wicked +man--so called in distinction from church members--could hire +hands more easily than this brute. When sent out to find a home, +a slave would never enter the gates of the preacher Weeden, while +a sinful sinner needed a hand. Be<200>have ill, or behave well, +it was the known maxim of Weeden, that it is the duty of a master +to use the lash. If, for no other reason, he contended that this +was essential to remind a slave of his condition, and of his +master's authority. The good slave must be whipped, to be _kept_ +good, and the bad slave must be whipped, to be _made_ good. Such +was Weeden's theory, and such was his practice. The back of his +slave-woman will, in the judgment, be the swiftest witness +against him. + +While I am stating particular cases, I might as well immortalize +another of my neighbors, by calling him by name, and putting him +in print. He did not think that a "chiel" was near, "taking +notes," and will, doubtless, feel quite angry at having his +character touched off in the ragged style of a slave's pen. I +beg to introduce the reader to REV. RIGBY HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins +resides between Easton and St. Michael's, in Talbot county, +Maryland. The severity of this man made him a perfect terror to +the slaves of his neighborhood. The peculiar feature of his +government, was, his system of whipping slaves, as he said, _in +advance_ of deserving it. He always managed to have one or two +slaves to whip on Monday morning, so as to start his hands to +their work, under the inspiration of a new assurance on Monday, +that his preaching about kindness, mercy, brotherly love, and the +like, on Sunday, did not interfere with, or prevent him from +establishing his authority, by the cowskin. He seemed to wish to +assure them, that his tears over poor, lost and ruined sinners, +and his pity for them, did not reach to the blacks who tilled his +fields. This saintly Hopkins used to boast, that he was the best +hand to manage a Negro in the county. He whipped for the +smallest offenses, by way of preventing the commission of large +ones. + +The reader might imagine a difficulty in finding faults enough +for such frequent whipping. But this is because you have no idea +how easy a matter it is to offend a man who is on the look-out +for offenses. The man, unaccustomed to slaveholding, would be +astonished to observe how many _foggable_ offenses there are in +<201>CATALOGUE OF FLOGGABLE OFFENSES>the slaveholder's catalogue +of crimes; and how easy it is to commit any one of them, even +when the slave least intends it. A slaveholder, bent on finding +fault, will hatch up a dozen a day, if he chooses to do so, and +each one of these shall be of a punishable description. A mere +look, word, or motion, a mistake, accident, or want of power, are +all matters for which a slave may be whipped at any time. Does a +slave look dissatisfied with his condition? It is said, that he +has the devil in him, and it must be whipped out. Does he answer +_loudly_, when spoken to by his master, with an air of self- +consciousness? Then, must he be taken down a button-hole lower, +by the lash, well laid on. Does he forget, and omit to pull off +his hat, when approaching a white person? Then, he must, or may +be, whipped for his bad manners. Does he ever venture to +vindicate his conduct, when harshly and unjustly accused? Then, +he is guilty of impudence, one of the greatest crimes in the +social catalogue of southern society. To allow a slave to escape +punishment, who has impudently attempted to exculpate himself +from unjust charges, preferred against him by some white person, +is to be guilty of great dereliction of duty. Does a slave ever +venture to suggest a better way of doing a thing, no matter what? +He is, altogether, too officious--wise above what is written--and +he deserves, even if he does not get, a flogging for his +presumption. Does he, while plowing, break a plow, or while +hoeing, break a hoe, or while chopping, break an ax? No matter +what were the imperfections of the implement broken, or the +natural liabilities for breaking, the slave can be whipped for +carelessness. The _reverend_ slaveholder could always find +something of this sort, to justify him in using the lash several +times during the week. Hopkins--like Covey and Weeden--were +shunned by slaves who had the privilege (as many had) of finding +their own masters at the end of each year; and yet, there was not +a man in all that section of country, who made a louder +profession of religion, than did MR. RIGBY HOPKINS. +<202> + +But, to continue the thread of my story, through my experience +when at Mr. William Freeland's. + +My poor, weather-beaten bark now reached smoother water, and +gentler breezes. My stormy life at Covey's had been of service +to me. The things that would have seemed very hard, had I gone +direct to Mr. Freeland's, from the home of Master Thomas, were +now (after the hardships at Covey's) "trifles light as air." I +was still a field hand, and had come to prefer the severe labor +of the field, to the enervating duties of a house servant. I had +become large and strong; and had begun to take pride in the fact, +that I could do as much hard work as some of the older men. +There is much rivalry among slaves, at times, as to which can do +the most work, and masters generally seek to promote such +rivalry. But some of us were too wise to race with each other +very long. Such racing, we had the sagacity to see, was not +likely to pay. We had our times for measuring each other's +strength, but we knew too much to keep up the competition so long +as to produce an extraordinary day's work. We knew that if, by +extraordinary exertion, a large quantity of work was done in one +day, the fact, becoming known to the master, might lead him to +require the same amount every day. This thought was enough to +bring us to a dead halt when over so much excited for the race. + +At Mr. Freeland's, my condition was every way improved. I was no +longer the poor scape-goat that I was when at Covey's, where +every wrong thing done was saddled upon me, and where other +slaves were whipped over my shoulders. Mr. Freeland was too just +a man thus to impose upon me, or upon any one else. + +It is quite usual to make one slave the object of especial abuse, +and to beat him often, with a view to its effect upon others, +rather than with any expectation that the slave whipped will be +improved by it, but the man with whom I now was, could descend to +no such meanness and wickedness. Every man here was held +individually responsible for his own conduct. + +This was a vast improvement on the rule at Covey's. There, I +<203 NOT YET CONTENTED>was the general pack horse. Bill Smith +was protected, by a positive prohibition made by his rich master, +and the command of the rich slaveholder is LAW to the poor one; +Hughes was favored, because of his relationship to Covey; and the +hands hired temporarily, escaped flogging, except as they got it +over my poor shoulders. Of course, this comparison refers to the +time when Covey _could_ whip me. + +Mr. Freeland, like Mr. Covey, gave his hands enough to eat, but, +unlike Mr. Covey, he gave them time to take their meals; he +worked us hard during the day, but gave us the night for rest-- +another advantage to be set to the credit of the sinner, as +against that of the saint. We were seldom in the field after +dark in the evening, or before sunrise in the morning. Our +implements of husbandry were of the most improved pattern, and +much superior to those used at Covey's. + +Nothwithstanding the improved condition which was now mine, and +the many advantages I had gained by my new home, and my new +master, I was still restless and discontented. I was about as +hard to please by a master, as a master is by slave. The freedom +from bodily torture and unceasing labor, had given my mind an +increased sensibility, and imparted to it greater activity. I +was not yet exactly in right relations. "How be it, that was not +first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and +afterward that which is spiritual." When entombed at Covey's, +shrouded in darkness and physical wretchedness, temporal +wellbeing was the grand _desideratum;_ but, temporal wants +supplied, the spirit puts in its claims. Beat and cuff your +slave, keep him hungry and spiritless, and he will follow the +chain of his master like a dog; but, feed and clothe him well-- +work him moderately--surround him with physical comfort--and +dreams of freedom intrude. Give him a _bad_ master, and he +aspires to a _good_ master; give him a good master, and he wishes +to become his _own_ master. Such is human nature. You may hurl +a man so low, beneath the level of his kind, that he loses all +just ideas of his natural position; <204>but elevate him a +little, and the clear conception of rights arises to life and +power, and leads him onward. Thus elevated, a little, at +Freeland's, the dreams called into being by that good man, Father +Lawson, when in Baltimore, began to visit me; and shoots from the +tree of liberty began to put forth tender buds, and dim hopes of +the future began to dawn. + +I found myself in congenial society, at Mr. Freeland's. There +were Henry Harris, John Harris, Handy Caldwell, and Sandy +Jenkins.[6] + +Henry and John were brothers, and belonged to Mr. Freeland. They +were both remarkably bright and intelligent, though neither of +them could read. Now for mischief! I had not been long at +Freeland's before I was up to my old tricks. I early began to +address my companions on the subject of education, and the +advantages of intelligence over ignorance, and, as far as I +dared, I tried to show the agency of ignorance in keeping men in +slavery. Webster's spelling book and the _Columbian Orator_ were +looked into again. As summer came on, and the long Sabbath days +stretched themselves over our idleness, I became uneasy, and +wanted a Sabbath school, in which to exercise my gifts, and to +impart the little knowledge of letters which I possessed, to my +brother slaves. A house was hardly necessary in the summer time; +I could hold my school under the shade of an old oak tree, as +well as any where else. The thing was, to get the scholars, and +to have them thoroughly imbued with the desire to learn. Two +such boys were quickly secured, in Henry and John, and from them +the contagion spread. I was not long bringing around me twenty +or thirty young men, who enrolled themselves, gladly, in my +Sabbath school, and were willing to meet me regularly, under the +trees or elsewhere, for the purpose of learning to read. It was + + +[6] This is the same man who gave me the roots to prevent my +being whipped by Mr. Covey. He was "a clever soul." We used +frequently to talk about the fight with Covey, and as often as we +did so, he would claim my success as the result of the roots +which he gave me. This superstition is very common among the +more ignorant slaves. A slave seldom dies, but that his death is +attributed to trickery. + + +<205 SABBATH SCHOOL INSTITUTED>surprising with what ease they +provided themselves with spelling books. These were mostly the +cast off books of their young masters or mistresses. I taught, +at first, on our own farm. All were impressed with the necessity +of keeping the matter as private as possible, for the fate of the +St. Michael's attempt was notorious, and fresh in the minds of +all. Our pious masters, at St. Michael's, must not know that a +few of their dusky brothers were learning to read the word of +God, lest they should come down upon us with the lash and chain. +We might have met to drink whisky, to wrestle, fight, and to do +other unseemly things, with no fear of interruption from the +saints or sinners of St. Michael's. + +But, to meet for the purpose of improving the mind and heart, by +learning to read the sacred scriptures, was esteemed a most +dangerous nuisance, to be instantly stopped. The slaveholders of +St. Michael's, like slaveholders elsewhere, would always prefer +to see the slaves engaged in degrading sports, rather than to see +them acting like moral and accountable beings. + +Had any one asked a religious white man, in St. Michael's, twenty +years ago, the names of three men in that town, whose lives were +most after the pattern of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the +first three would have been as follows: + +GARRISON WEST, _Class Leader_. +WRIGHT FAIRBANKS, _Class Leader_. +THOMAS AULD, _Class Leader_. + +And yet, these were men who ferociously rushed in upon my Sabbath +school, at St. Michael's, armed with mob-like missiles, and I +must say, I thought him a Christian, until he took part in bloody +by the lash. This same Garrison West was my class leader, and I +must say, I thought him a Christian, until he took part in +breaking up my school. He led me no more after that. The plea +for this outrage was then, as it is now and at all times--the +danger to good order. If the slaves learnt to read, they would +learn something else, and something worse. The peace of slavery +would be disturbed; slave rule would be endangered. I leave the +reader to <206>characterize a system which is endangered by such +causes. I do not dispute the soundness of the reasoning. It is +perfectly sound; and, if slavery be _right_, Sabbath schools for +teaching slaves to read the bible are _wrong_, and ought to be +put down. These Christian class leaders were, to this extent, +consistent. They had settled the question, that slavery is +_right_, and, by that standard, they determined that Sabbath +schools are wrong. To be sure, they were Protestant, and held to +the great Protestant right of every man to _"search the +scriptures"_ for himself; but, then, to all general rules, there +are _exceptions_. How convenient! What crimes may not be +committed under the doctrine of the last remark. But, my dear, +class leading Methodist brethren, did not condescend to give me a +reason for breaking up the Sabbath school at St. Michael's; it +was enough that they had determined upon its destruction. I am, +however, digressing. + +After getting the school cleverly into operation, the second time +holding it in the woods, behind the barn, and in the shade of +trees--I succeeded in inducing a free colored man, who lived +several miles from our house, to permit me to hold my school in a +room at his house. He, very kindly, gave me this liberty; but he +incurred much peril in doing so, for the assemblage was an +unlawful one. I shall not mention, here, the name of this man; +for it might, even now, subject him to persecution, although the +offenses were committed more than twenty years ago. I had, at +one time, more than forty scholars, all of the right sort; and +many of them succeeded in learning to read. I have met several +slaves from Maryland, who were once my scholars; and who obtained +their freedom, I doubt not, partly in consequence of the ideas +imparted to them in that school. I have had various employments +during my short life; but I look back to _none_ with more +satisfaction, than to that afforded by my Sunday school. An +attachment, deep and lasting, sprung up between me and my +persecuted pupils, which made parting from them intensely +grievous; and, <207 FRIENDSHIP AMONG SLAVES>when I think that +most of these dear souls are yet shut up in this abject +thralldom, I am overwhelmed with grief. + +Besides my Sunday school, I devoted three evenings a week to my +fellow slaves, during the winter. Let the reader reflect upon +the fact, that, in this christian country, men and women are +hiding from professors of religion, in barns, in the woods and +fields, in order to learn to read the _holy bible_. Those dear +souls, who came to my Sabbath school, came _not_ because it was +popular or reputable to attend such a place, for they came under +the liability of having forty stripes laid on their naked backs. +Every moment they spend in my school, they were under this +terrible liability; and, in this respect, I was sharer with them. +Their minds had been cramped and starved by their cruel masters; +the light of education had been completely excluded; and their +hard earnings had been taken to educate their master's children. +I felt a delight in circumventing the tyrants, and in blessing +the victims of their curses. + +The year at Mr. Freeland's passed off very smoothly, to outward +seeming. Not a blow was given me during the whole year. To the +credit of Mr. Freeland--irreligious though he was--it must be +stated, that he was the best master I ever had, until I became my +own master, and assumed for myself, as I had a right to do, the +responsibility of my own existence and the exercise of my own +powers. For much of the happiness--or absence of misery--with +which I passed this year with Mr. Freeland, I am indebted to the +genial temper and ardent friendship of my brother slaves. They +were, every one of them, manly, generous and brave, yes; I say +they were brave, and I will add, fine looking. It is seldom the +lot of mortals to have truer and better friends than were the +slaves on this farm. It is not uncommon to charge slaves with +great treachery toward each other, and to believe them incapable +of confiding in each other; but I must say, that I never loved, +esteemed, or confided in men, more than I did in these. They +were as true as steel, and no band of brothers could have been +more <208>loving. There were no mean advantages taken of each +other, as is sometimes the case where slaves are situated as we +were; no tattling; no giving each other bad names to Mr. +Freeland; and no elevating one at the expense of the other. We +never undertook to do any thing, of any importance, which was +likely to affect each other, without mutual consultation. We +were generally a unit, and moved together. Thoughts and +sentiments were exchanged between us, which might well be called +very incendiary, by oppressors and tyrants; and perhaps the time +has not even now come, when it is safe to unfold all the flying +suggestions which arise in the minds of intelligent slaves. +Several of my friends and brothers, if yet alive, are still in +some part of the house of bondage; and though twenty years have +passed away, the suspicious malice of slavery might punish them +for even listening to my thoughts. + +The slaveholder, kind or cruel, is a slaveholder still--the every +hour violator of the just and inalienable rights of man; and he +is, therefore, every hour silently whetting the knife of +vengeance for his own throat. He never lisps a syllable in +commendation of the fathers of this republic, nor denounces any +attempted oppression of himself, without inviting the knife to +his own throat, and asserting the rights of rebellion for his own +slaves. + +The year is ended, and we are now in the midst of the Christmas +holidays, which are kept this year as last, according to the +general description previously given. + + + +CHAPTER XIX +_The Run-Away Plot_ + +NEW YEAR'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATIONS--AGAIN BOUGHT BY FREELAND--NO +AMBITION TO BE A SLAVE--KINDNESS NO COMPENSATION FOR SLAVERY-- +INCIPIENT STEPS TOWARD ESCAPE--CONSIDERATIONS LEADING THERETO-- +IRRECONCILABLE HOSTILITY TO SLAVERY--SOLEMN VOW TAKEN--PLAN +DIVULGED TO THE SLAVES--_Columbian Orator--_SCHEME GAINS FAVOR, +DESPITE PRO-SLAVERY PREACHING--DANGER OF DISCOVERY--SKILL OF +SLAVEHOLDERS IN READING THE MINDS OF THEIR SLAVES--SUSPICION AND +COERCION--HYMNS WITH DOUBLE MEANING--VALUE, IN DOLLARS, OF OUR +COMPANY--PRELIMINARY CONSULTATION--PASS-WORD--CONFLICTS OF HOPE +AND FEAR--DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME--IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY-- +SURVEY OF IMAGINARY DIFFICULTIES--EFFECT ON OUR MINDS--PATRICK +HENRY--SANDY BECOMES A DREAMER--ROUTE TO THE NORTH LAID OUT-- +OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED--FRAUDS PRACTICED ON FREEMEN--PASSES +WRITTEN--ANXIETIES AS THE TIME DREW NEAR--DREAD OF FAILURE-- +APPEALS TO COMRADES--STRANGE PRESENTIMENT--COINCIDENCE--THE +BETRAYAL DISCOVERED--THE MANNER OF ARRESTING US--RESISTANCE MADE +BY HENRY HARRIS--ITS EFFECT--THE UNIQUE SPEECH OF MRS. FREELAND-- +OUR SAD PROCESSION TO PRISON--BRUTAL JEERS BY THE MULTITUDE ALONG +THE ROAD--PASSES EATEN--THE DENIAL--SANDY TOO WELL LOVED TO BE +SUSPECTED--DRAGGED BEHIND HORSES--THE JAIL A RELIEF--A NEW SET OF +TORMENTORS--SLAVE-TRADERS--JOHN, CHARLES AND HENRY RELEASED-- +ALONE IN PRISON--I AM TAKEN OUT, AND SENT TO BALTIMORE. + + +I am now at the beginning of the year 1836, a time favorable for +serious thoughts. The mind naturally occupies itself with the +mysteries of life in all its phases--the ideal, the real and the +actual. Sober people look both ways at the beginning of the +year, surveying the errors of the past, and providing against +possible errors of the future. I, too, was thus exercised. I +had little pleasure <210>in retrospect, and the prospect was not +very brilliant. "Notwithstanding," thought I, "the many +resolutions and prayers I have made, in behalf of freedom, I am, +this first day of the year 1836, still a slave, still wandering +in the depths of spirit-devouring thralldom. My faculties and +powers of body and soul are not my own, but are the property of a +fellow mortal, in no sense superior to me, except that he has the +physical power to compel me to be owned and controlled by him. +By the combined physical force of the community, I am his slave-- +a slave for life." With thoughts like these, I was perplexed and +chafed; they rendered me gloomy and disconsolate. The anguish of +my mind may not be written. + +At the close of the year 1835, Mr. Freeland, my temporary master, +had bought me of Capt. Thomas Auld, for the year 1836. His +promptness in securing my services, would have been flattering to +my vanity, had I been ambitious to win the reputation of being a +valuable slave. Even as it was, I felt a slight degree of +complacency at the circumstance. It showed he was as well +pleased with me as a slave, as I was with him as a master. I +have already intimated my regard for Mr. Freeland, and I may say +here, in addressing northern readers--where is no selfish motive +for speaking in praise of a slaveholder--that Mr. Freeland was a +man of many excellent qualities, and to me quite preferable to +any master I ever had. + +But the kindness of the slavemaster only gilds the chain of +slavery, and detracts nothing from its weight or power. The +thought that men are made for other and better uses than slavery, +thrives best under the gentle treatment of a kind master. But +the grim visage of slavery can assume no smiles which can +fascinate the partially enlightened slave, into a forgetfulness +of his bondage, nor of the desirableness of liberty. + +I was not through the first month of this, my second year with +the kind and gentlemanly Mr. Freeland, before I was earnestly +considering and advising plans for gaining that freedom, which, +<211 INCIPIENT STEPS TOWARDS ESCAPE>when I was but a mere child, +I had ascertained to be the natural and inborn right of every +member of the human family. The desire for this freedom had been +benumbed, while I was under the brutalizing dominion of Covey; +and it had been postponed, and rendered inoperative, by my truly +pleasant Sunday school engagements with my friends, during the +year 1835, at Mr. Freeland's. It had, however, never entirely +subsided. I hated slavery, always, and the desire for freedom +only needed a favorable breeze, to fan it into a blaze, at any +moment. The thought of only being a creature of the _present_ +and the _past_, troubled me, and I longed to have a _future_--a +future with hope in it. To be shut up entirely to the past and +present, is abhorrent to the human mind; it is to the soul--whose +life and happiness is unceasing progress--what the prison is to +the body; a blight and mildew, a hell of horrors. The dawning of +this, another year, awakened me from my temporary slumber, and +roused into life my latent, but long cherished aspirations for +freedom. I was now not only ashamed to be contented in slavery, +but ashamed to _seem_ to be contented, and in my present +favorable condition, under the mild rule of Mr. F., I am not sure +that some kind reader will not condemn me for being over +ambitious, and greatly wanting in proper humility, when I say the +truth, that I now drove from me all thoughts of making the best +of my lot, and welcomed only such thoughts as led me away from +the house of bondage. The intense desires, now felt, _to be +free_, quickened by my present favorable circumstances, brought +me to the determination to act, as well as to think and speak. +Accordingly, at the beginning of this year 1836, I took upon me a +solemn vow, that the year which had now dawned upon me should not +close, without witnessing an earnest attempt, on my part, to gain +my liberty. This vow only bound me to make my escape +individually; but the year spent with Mr. Freeland had attached +me, as with "hooks of steel," to my brother slaves. The most +affectionate and confiding friendship existed between us; and I +felt it my duty to give them an opportunity to share in my +<212>virtuous determination by frankly disclosing to them my +plans and purposes. Toward Henry and John Harris, I felt a +friendship as strong as one man can feel for another; for I could +have died with and for them. To them, therefore, with a suitable +degree of caution, I began to disclose my sentiments and plans; +sounding them, the while on the subject of running away, provided +a good chance should offer. I scarcely need tell the reader, +that I did my _very best_ to imbue the minds of my dear friends +with my own views and feelings. Thoroughly awakened, now, and +with a definite vow upon me, all my little reading, which had any +bearing on the subject of human rights, was rendered available in +my communications with my friends. That (to me) gem of a book, +the _Columbian Orator_, with its eloquent orations and spicy +dialogues, denouncing oppression and slavery--telling of what had +been dared, done and suffered by men, to obtain the inestimable +boon of liberty--was still fresh in my memory, and whirled into +the ranks of my speech with the aptitude of well trained +soldiers, going through the drill. The fact is, I here began my +public speaking. I canvassed, with Henry and John, the subject +of slavery, and dashed against it the condemning brand of God's +eternal justice, which it every hour violates. My fellow +servants were neither indifferent, dull, nor inapt. Our feelings +were more alike than our opinions. All, however, were ready to +act, when a feasible plan should be proposed. "Show us _how_ the +thing is to be done," said they, "and all is clear." + +We were all, except Sandy, quite free from slaveholding +priestcraft. It was in vain that we had been taught from the +pulpit at St. Michael's, the duty of obedience to our masters; to +recognize God as the author of our enslavement; to regard running +away an offense, alike against God and man; to deem our +enslavement a merciful and beneficial arrangement; to esteem our +condition, in this country, a paradise to that from which we had +been snatched in Africa; to consider our hard hands and dark +color as God's mark of displeasure, and as pointing us out as the +proper <213 FREE FROM PROSLAVERY PRIESTCRAFT>subjects of slavery; +that the relation of master and slave was one of reciprocal +benefits; that our work was not more serviceable to our masters, +than our master's thinking was serviceable to us. I say, it was +in vain that the pulpit of St. Michael's had constantly +inculcated these plausib]e doctrine. Nature laughed them to +scorn. For my own part, I had now become altogether too big for +my chains. Father Lawson's solemn words, of what I ought to be, +and might be, in the providence of God, had not fallen dead on my +soul. I was fast verging toward manhood, and the prophecies of +my childhood were still unfulfilled. The thought, that year +after year had passed away, and my resolutions to run away had +failed and faded--that I was _still a slave_, and a slave, too, +with chances for gaining my freedom diminished and still +diminishing--was not a matter to be slept over easily; nor did I +easily sleep over it. + +But here came a new trouble. Thoughts and purposes so incendiary +as those I now cherished, could not agitate the mind long, +without danger of making themselves manifest to scrutinizing and +unfriendly beholders. I had reason to fear that my sable face +might prove altogether too transparent for the safe concealment +of my hazardous enterprise. Plans of greater moment have leaked +through stone walls, and revealed their projectors. But, here +was no stone wall to hide my purpose. I would have given my +poor, tell tale face for the immoveable countenance of an Indian, +for it was far from being proof against the daily, searching +glances of those with whom I met. + +It is the interest and business of slaveholders to study human +nature, with a view to practical results, and many of them attain +astonishing proficiency in discerning the thoughts and emotions +of slaves. They have to deal not with earth, wood, or stone, but +with _men;_ and, by every regard they have for their safety and +prosperity, they must study to know the material on which they +are at work. So much intellect as the slaveholder has around +him, requires watching. Their safety depends upon their +vigilance. Conscious of the injustice and wrong they are every +hour perpe<214>trating, and knowing what they themselves would do +if made the victims of such wrongs, they are looking out for the +first signs of the dread retribution of justice. They watch, +therefore, with skilled and practiced eyes, and have learned to +read, with great accuracy, the state of mind and heart of the +slaves, through his sable face. These uneasy sinners are quick +to inquire into the matter, where the slave is concerned. +Unusual sobriety, apparent abstraction, sullenness and +indifference--indeed, any mood out of the common way--afford +ground for suspicion and inquiry. Often relying on their +superior position and wisdom, they hector and torture the slave +into a confession, by affecting to know the truth of their +accusations. "You have got the devil in you," say they, "and we +will whip him out of you." I have often been put thus to the +torture, on bare suspicion. This system has its disadvantages as +well as their opposite. The slave is sometimes whipped into the +confession of offenses which he never committed. The reader will +see that the good old rule--"a man is to be held innocent until +proved to be guilty"--does not hold good on the slave plantation. +Suspicion and torture are the approved methods of getting at the +truth, here. It was necessary for me, therefore, to keep a watch +over my deportment, lest the enemy should get the better of me. + +But with all our caution and studied reserve, I am not sure that +Mr. Freeland did not suspect that all was not right with us. It +_did_ seem that he watched us more narrowly, after the plan of +escape had been conceived and discussed amongst us. Men seldom +see themselves as others see them; and while, to ourselves, +everything connected with our contemplated escape appeared +concealed, Mr. Freeland may have, with the peculiar prescience of +a slaveholder, mastered the huge thought which was disturbing our +peace in slavery. + +I am the more inclined to think that he suspected us, because, +prudent as we were, as I now look back, I can see that we did +many silly things, very well calculated to awaken suspicion. We +were, <215 HYMNS WITH A DOUBLE MEANING>at times, remarkably +buoyant, singing hymns and making joyous exclamations, almost as +triumphant in their tone as if we reached a land of freedom and +safety. A keen observer might have detected in our repeated +singing of + + _O Canaan, sweet Canaan, + I am bound for the land of Canaan,_ + +something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach +the _north_--and the north was our Canaan. + + _I thought I heard them say, + There were lions in the way, + I don't expect to Star + Much longer here. + + Run to Jesus--shun the danger-- + I don't expect to stay + Much longer here_. + +was a favorite air, and had a double meaning. In the lips of +some, it meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of +spirits; but, in the lips of _our_ company, it simply meant, a +speedy pilgrimage toward a free state, and deliverance from all +the evils and dangers of slavery. + +I had succeeded in winning to my (what slaveholders would call +wicked) scheme, a company of five young men, the very flower of +the neighborhood, each one of whom would have commanded one +thousand dollars in the home market. At New Orleans, they would +have brought fifteen hundred dollars a piece, and, perhaps, more. +The names of our party were as follows: Henry Harris; John +Harris, brother to Henry; Sandy Jenkins, of root memory; Charles +Roberts, and Henry Bailey. I was the youngest, but one, of the +party. I had, however, the advantage of them all, in experience, +and in a knowledge of letters. This gave me great influence over +them. Perhaps not one of them, left to himself, would have +dreamed of escape as a possible thing. Not one of them was self- +moved in the matter. They all wanted to be free; but the serious +thought of running away, had not entered into <216>their minds, +until I won them to the undertaking. They all were tolerably +well off--for slaves--and had dim hopes of being set free, some +day, by their masters. If any one is to blame for disturbing the +quiet of the slaves and slave-masters of the neighborhood of St. +Michael's, _I am the man_. I claim to be the instigator of the +high crime (as the slaveholders regard it) and I kept life in it, +until life could be kept in it no longer. + +Pending the time of our contemplated departure out of our Egypt, +we met often by night, and on every Sunday. At these meetings we +talked the matter over; told our hopes and fears, and the +difficulties discovered or imagined; and, like men of sense, we +counted the cost of the enterprise to which we were committing +ourselves. + +These meetings must have resembled, on a small scale, the +meetings of revolutionary conspirators, in their primary +condition. We were plotting against our (so called) lawful +rulers; with this difference that we sought our own good, and not +the harm of our enemies. We did not seek to overthrow them, but +to escape from them. As for Mr. Freeland, we all liked him, and +would have gladly remained with him, _as freeman_. LIBERTY was +our aim; and we had now come to think that we had a right to +liberty, against every obstacle even against the lives of our +enslavers. + +We had several words, expressive of things, important to us, +which we understood, but which, even if distinctly heard by an +outsider, would convey no certain meaning. I have reasons for +suppressing these _pass-words_, which the reader will easily +divine. I hated the secrecy; but where slavery is powerful, and +liberty is weak, the latter is driven to concealment or to +destruction. + +The prospect was not always a bright one. At times, we were +almost tempted to abandon the enterprise, and to get back to that +comparative peace of mind, which even a man under the gallows +might feel, when all hope of escape had vanished. Quiet bondage +was felt to be better than the doubts, fears and uncertainties, +which now so sadly perplexed and disturbed us. +<217 IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY> + +The infirmities of humanity, generally, were represented in our +little band. We were confident, bold and determined, at times; +and, again, doubting, timid and wavering; whistling, like the boy +in the graveyard, to keep away the spirits. + +To look at the map, and observe the proximity of Eastern Shore, +Maryland, to Delaware and Pennsylvania, it may seem to the reader +quite absurd, to regard the proposed escape as a formidable +undertaking. But to _understand_, some one has said a man must +_stand under_. The real distance was great enough, but the +imagined distance was, to our ignorance, even greater. Every +slaveholder seeks to impress his slave with a belief in the +boundlessness of slave territory, and of his own almost +illimitable power. We all had vague and indistinct notions of +the geography of the country. + +The distance, however, is not the chief trouble. The nearer are +the lines of a slave state and the borders of a free one, the +greater the peril. Hired kidnappers infest these borders. Then, +too, we knew that merely reaching a free state did not free us; +that, wherever caught, we could be returned to slavery. We could +see no spot on this side the ocean, where we could be free. We +had heard of Canada, the real Canaan of the American bondmen, +simply as a country to which the wild goose and the swan repaired +at the end of winter, to escape the heat of summer, but not as +the home of man. I knew something of theology, but nothing of +geography. I really did not, at that time, know that there was a +state of New York, or a state of Massachusetts. I had heard of +Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, and all the southern +states, but was ignorant of the free states, generally. New York +city was our northern limit, and to go there, and be forever +harassed with the liability of being hunted down and returned to +slavery--with the certainty of being treated ten times worse than +we had ever been treated before was a prospect far from +delightful, and it might well cause some hesitation about +engaging in the enterprise. The case, sometimes, to our excited +visions, <218>stood thus: At every gate through which we had to +pass, we saw a watchman; at every ferry, a guard; on every +bridge, a sentinel; and in every wood, a patrol or slave-hunter. +We were hemmed in on every side. The good to be sought, and the +evil to be shunned, were flung in the balance, and weighed +against each other. On the one hand, there stood slavery; a +stern reality, glaring frightfully upon us, with the blood of +millions in his polluted skirts--terrible to behold--greedily +devouring our hard earnings and feeding himself upon our flesh. +Here was the evil from which to escape. On the other hand, far +away, back in the hazy distance, where all forms seemed but +shadows, under the flickering light of the north star--behind +some craggy hill or snow-covered mountain--stood a doubtful +freedom, half frozen, beckoning us to her icy domain. This was +the good to be sought. The inequality was as great as that +between certainty and uncertainty. This, in itself, was enough +to stagger us; but when we came to survey the untrodden road, and +conjecture the many possible difficulties, we were appalled, and +at times, as I have said, were upon the point of giving over the +struggle altogether. + +The reader can have little idea of the phantoms of trouble which +flit, in such circumstances, before the uneducated mind of the +slave. Upon either side, we saw grim death assuming a variety of +horrid shapes. Now, it was starvation, causing us, in a strange +and friendless land, to eat our own flesh. Now, we were +contending with the waves (for our journey was in part by water) +and were drowned. Now, we were hunted by dogs, and overtaken and +torn to pieces by their merciless fangs. We were stung by +scorpions--chased by wild beasts--bitten by snakes; and, worst of +all, after having succeeded in swimming rivers--encountering wild +beasts--sleeping in the woods--suffering hunger, cold, heat and +nakedness--we supposed ourselves to be overtaken by hired +kidnappers, who, in the name of the law, and for their thrice +accursed reward, would, perchance, fire upon us--kill some, wound +others, and capture all. This dark pic<219 IMAGINARY +DIFFICULTIES>ture, drawn by ignorance and fear, at times greatly +shook our determination, and not unfrequently caused us to + + _Rather bear those ills we had + Than fly to others which we knew not of_. + + +I am not disposed to magnify this circumstance in my experience, +and yet I think I shall seem to be so disposed, to the reader. +No man can tell the intense agony which is felt by the slave, +when wavering on the point of making his escape. All that he has +is at stake; and even that which he has not, is at stake, also. +The life which he has, may be lost, and the liberty which he +seeks, may not be gained. + +Patrick Henry, to a listening senate, thrilled by his magic +eloquence, and ready to stand by him in his boldest flights, +could say, GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH, and this saying was +a sublime one, even for a freeman; but, incomparably more +sublime, is the same sentiment, when _practically_ asserted by +men accustomed to the lash and chain--men whose sensibilities +must have become more or less deadened by their bondage. With us +it was a _doubtful_ liberty, at best, that we sought; and a +certain, lingering death in the rice swamps and sugar fields, if +we failed. Life is not lightly regarded by men of sane minds. +It is precious, alike to the pauper and to the prince--to the +slave, and to his master; and yet, I believe there was not one +among us, who would not rather have been shot down, than pass +away life in hopeless bondage. + +In the progress of our preparations, Sandy, the root man, became +troubled. He began to have dreams, and some of them were very +distressing. One of these, which happened on a Friday night, +was, to him, of great significance; and I am quite ready to +confess, that I felt somewhat damped by it myself. He said, "I +dreamed, last night, that I was roused from sleep, by strange +noises, like the voices of a swarm of angry birds, that caused a +roar as they passed, which fell upon my ear like a coming gale +<220>over the tops of the trees. Looking up to see what it could +mean," said Sandy, "I saw you, Frederick, in the claws of a huge +bird, surrounded by a large number of birds, of all colors and +sizes. These were all picking at you, while you, with your arms, +seemed to be trying to protect your eyes. Passing over me, the +birds flew in a south-westerly direction, and I watched them +until they were clean out of sight. Now, I saw this as plainly +as I now see you; and furder, honey, watch de Friday night dream; +dare is sumpon in it, shose you born; dare is, indeed, honey." + +I confess I did not like this dream; but I threw off concern +about it, by attributing it to the general excitement and +perturbation consequent upon our contemplated plan of escape. I +could not, however, shake off its effect at once. I felt that it +boded me no good. Sandy was unusually emphatic and oracular, and +his manner had much to do with the impression made upon me. + +The plan of escape which I recommended, and to which my comrades +assented, was to take a large canoe, owned by Mr. Hamilton, and, +on the Saturday night previous to the Easter holidays, launch out +into the Chesapeake bay, and paddle for its head--a distance of +seventy miles with all our might. Our course, on reaching this +point, was, to turn the canoe adrift, and bend our steps toward +the north star, till we reached a free state. + +There were several objections to this plan. One was, the danger +from gales on the bay. In rough weather, the waters of the +Chesapeake are much agitated, and there is danger, in a canoe, of +being swamped by the waves. Another objection was, that the +canoe would soon be missed; the absent persons would, at once, be +suspected of having taken it; and we should be pursued by some of +the fast sailing bay craft out of St. Michael's. Then, again, if +we reached the head of the bay, and turned the canoe adrift, she +might prove a guide to our track, and bring the land hunters +after us. + +These and other objections were set aside, by the stronger ones +which could be urged against every other plan that could then be +<221 PASSES WRITTEN>suggested. On the water, we had a chance of +being regarded as fishermen, in the service of a master. On the +other hand, by taking the land route, through the counties +adjoining Delaware, we should be subjected to all manner of +interruptions, and many very disagreeable questions, which might +give us serious trouble. Any white man is authorized to stop a +man of color, on any road, and examine him, and arrest him, if he +so desires. + +By this arrangement, many abuses (considered such even by +slaveholders) occur. Cases have been known, where freemen have +been called upon to show their free papers, by a pack of +ruffians--and, on the presentation of the papers, the ruffians +have torn them up, and seized their victim, and sold him to a +life of endless bondage. + +The week before our intended start, I wrote a pass for each of +our party, giving them permission to visit Baltimore, during the +Easter holidays. The pass ran after this manner: + + +This is to certify, that I, the undersigned, have given the +bearer, my servant, John, full liberty to go to Baltimore, to +spend the Easter holidays. + W.H. + Near St. Michael's, Talbot county, Maryland + + +Although we were not going to Baltimore, and were intending to +land east of North Point, in the direction where I had seen the +Philadelphia steamers go, these passes might be made useful to us +in the lower part of the bay, while steering toward Baltimore. +These were not, however, to be shown by us, until all other +answers failed to satisfy the inquirer. We were all fully alive +to the importance of being calm and self-possessed, when +accosted, if accosted we should be; and we more times than one +rehearsed to each other how we should behave in the hour of +trial. + +These were long, tedious days and nights. The suspense was +painful, in the extreme. To balance probabilities, where life +and liberty hang on the result, requires steady nerves. I panted +for action, and was glad when the day, at the close of which we +were to start, dawned upon us. Sleeping, the night before, was +<222>out of the question. I probably felt more deeply than any +of my companions, because I was the instigator of the movement. +The responsibility of the whole enterprise rested on my +shoulders. The glory of success, and the shame and confusion of +failure, could not be matters of indifference to me. Our food +was prepared; our clothes were packed up; we were all ready to +go, and impatient for Saturday morning--considering that the last +morning of our bondage. + +I cannot describe the tempest and tumult of my brain, that +morning. The reader will please to bear in mind, that, in a +slave state, an unsuccessful runaway is not only subjected to +cruel torture, and sold away to the far south, but he is +frequently execrated by the other slaves. He is charged with +making the condition of the other slaves intolerable, by laying +them all under the suspicion of their masters--subjecting them to +greater vigilance, and imposing greater limitations on their +privileges. I dreaded murmurs from this quarter. It is +difficult, too, for a slavemaster to believe that slaves escaping +have not been aided in their flight by some one of their fellow +slaves. When, therefore, a slave is missing, every slave on the +place is closely examined as to his knowledge of the undertaking; +and they are sometimes even tortured, to make them disclose what +they are suspected of knowing of such escape. + +Our anxiety grew more and more intense, as the time of our +intended departure for the north drew nigh. It was truly felt to +be a matter of life and death with us; and we fully intended to +_fight_ as well as _run_, if necessity should occur for that +extremity. But the trial hour was not yet to come. It was easy +to resolve, but not so easy to act. I expected there might be +some drawing back, at the last. It was natural that there should +be; therefore, during the intervening time, I lost no opportunity +to explain away difficulties, to remove doubts, to dispel fears, +and to inspire all with firmness. It was too late to look back; +and _now_ was the time to go forward. Like most other men, we +had done the talking part of our <223 APPEALS TO COMRADES>work, +long and well; and the time had come to _act_ as if we were in +earnest, and meant to be as true in action as in words. I did +not forget to appeal to the pride of my comrades, by telling them +that, if after having solemnly promised to go, as they had done, +they now failed to make the attempt, they would, in effect, brand +themselves with cowardice, and might as well sit down, fold their +arms, and acknowledge themselves as fit only to be _slaves_. +This detestable character, all were unwilling to assume. Every +man except Sandy (he, much to our regret, withdrew) stood firm; +and at our last meeting we pledged ourselves afresh, and in the +most solemn manner, that, at the time appointed, we _would_ +certainly start on our long journey for a free country. This +meeting was in the middle of the week, at the end of which we +were to start. + +Early that morning we went, as usual, to the field, but with +hearts that beat quickly and anxiously. Any one intimately +acquainted with us, might have seen that all was not well with +us, and that some monster lingered in our thoughts. Our work +that morning was the same as it had been for several days past-- +drawing out and spreading manure. While thus engaged, I had a +sudden presentiment, which flashed upon me like lightning in a +dark night, revealing to the lonely traveler the gulf before, and +the enemy behind. I instantly turned to Sandy Jenkins, who was +near me, and said to him, _"Sandy, we are betrayed;_ something +has just told me so." I felt as sure of it, as if the officers +were there in sight. Sandy said, "Man, dat is strange; but I +feel just as you do." If my mother--then long in her grave--had +appeared before me, and told me that we were betrayed, I could +not, at that moment, have felt more certain of the fact. + +In a few minutes after this, the long, low and distant notes of +the horn summoned us from the field to breakfast. I felt as one +may be supposed to feel before being led forth to be executed for +some great offense. I wanted no breakfast; but I went with the +other slaves toward the house, for form's sake. My feelings were +<224>not disturbed as to the right of running away; on that point +I had no trouble, whatever. My anxiety arose from a sense of the +consequences of failure. + +In thirty minutes after that vivid presentiment came the +apprehended crash. On reaching the house, for breakfast, and +glancing my eye toward the lane gate, the worst was at once made +known. The lane gate off Mr. Freeland's house, is nearly a half +mile from the door, and shaded by the heavy wood which bordered +the main road. I was, however, able to descry four white men, +and two colored men, approaching. The white men were on +horseback, and the colored men were walking behind, and seemed to +be tied. _"It is all over with us,"_ thought I, _"we are surely +betrayed_." I now became composed, or at least comparatively so, +and calmly awaited the result. I watched the ill-omened company, +till I saw them enter the gate. Successful flight was +impossible, and I made up my mind to stand, and meet the evil, +whatever it might be; for I was not without a slight hope that +things might turn differently from what I at first expected. In +a few moments, in came Mr. William Hamilton, riding very rapidly, +and evidently much excited. He was in the habit of riding very +slowly, and was seldom known to gallop his horse. This time, his +horse was nearly at full speed, causing the dust to roll thick +behind him. Mr. Hamilton, though one of the most resolute men in +the whole neighborhood, was, nevertheless, a remarkably mild +spoken man; and, even when greatly excited, his language was cool +and circumspect. He came to the door, and inquired if Mr. +Freeland was in. I told him that Mr. Freeland was at the barn. +Off the old gentleman rode, toward the barn, with unwonted speed. +Mary, the cook, was at a loss to know what was the matter, and I +did not profess any skill in making her understand. I knew she +would have united, as readily as any one, in cursing me for +bringing trouble into the family; so I held my peace, leaving +matters to develop themselves, without my assistance. In a few +moments, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Freeland came down from the barn to +the house; and, just as they <225 THE MANNER OF ARRESTING US>made +their appearance in the front yard, three men (who proved to be +constables) came dashing into the lane, on horseback, as if +summoned by a sign requiring quick work. A few seconds brought +them into the front yard, where they hastily dismounted, and tied +their horses. This done, they joined Mr. Freeland and Mr. +Hamilton, who were standing a short distance from the kitchen. A +few moments were spent, as if in consulting how to proceed, and +then the whole party walked up to the kitchen door. There was +now no one in the kitchen but myself and John Harris. Henry and +Sandy were yet at the barn. Mr. Freeland came inside the kitchen +door, and with an agitated voice, called me by name, and told me +to come forward; that there was some gentlemen who wished to see +me. I stepped toward them, at the door, and asked what they +wanted, when the constables grabbed me, and told me that I had +better not resist; that I had been in a scrape, or was said to +have been in one; that they were merely going to take me where I +could be examined; that they were going to carry me to St. +Michael's, to have me brought before my master. They further +said, that, in case the evidence against me was not true, I +should be acquitted. I was now firmly tied, and completely at +the mercy of my captors. Resistance was idle. They were five in +number, armed to the very teeth. When they had secured me, they +next turned to John Harris, and, in a few moments, succeeded in +tying him as firmly as they had already tied me. They next +turned toward Henry Harris, who had now returned from the barn. +"Cross your hands," said the constables, to Henry. "I won't" +said Henry, in a voice so firm and clear, and in a manner so +determined, as for a moment to arrest all proceedings. "Won't +you cross your hands?" said Tom Graham, the constable. "_No I +won't_," said Henry, with increasing emphasis. Mr. Hamilton, Mr. +Freeland, and the officers, now came near to Henry. Two of the +constables drew out their shining pistols, and swore by the name +of God, that he should cross his hands, or they would shoot him +down. Each of these hired ruffians now cocked their pistols, +<226>and, with fingers apparently on the triggers, presented +their deadly weapons to the breast of the unarmed slave, saying, +at the same time, if he did not cross his hands, they would "blow +his d--d heart out of him." + +_"Shoot! shoot me!"_ said Henry. "_You can't kill me but once_. +Shoot!--shoot! and be d--d. _I won't be tied_." This, the brave +fellow said in a voice as defiant and heroic in its tone, as was +the language itself; and, at the moment of saying this, with the +pistols at his very breast, he quickly raised his arms, and +dashed them from the puny hands of his assassins, the weapons +flying in opposite directions. Now came the struggle. All hands +was now rushed upon the brave fellow, and, after beating him for +some time, they succeeded in overpowering and tying him. Henry +put me to shame; he fought, and fought bravely. John and I had +made no resistance. The fact is, I never see much use in +fighting, unless there is a reasonable probability of whipping +somebody. Yet there was something almost providential in the +resistance made by the gallant Henry. But for that resistance, +every soul of us would have been hurried off to the far south. +Just a moment previous to the trouble with Henry, Mr. Hamilton +_mildly_ said--and this gave me the unmistakable clue to the +cause of our arrest--"Perhaps we had now better make a search for +those protections, which we understand Frederick has written for +himself and the rest." Had these passes been found, they would +have been point blank proof against us, and would have confirmed +all the statements of our betrayer. Thanks to the resistance of +Henry, the excitement produced by the scuffle drew all attention +in that direction, and I succeeded in flinging my pass, +unobserved, into the fire. The confusion attendant upon the +scuffle, and the apprehension of further trouble, perhaps, led +our captors to forego, for the present, any search for _"those +protections" which Frederick was said to have written for his +companions_; so we were not yet convicted of the purpose to run +away; and it was evident that there was some doubt, on the part +of all, whether we had been guilty of such a purpose. +<227 THE UNIQUE SPEECH OF MRS. FREELAND> + +Just as we were all completely tied, and about ready to start +toward St. Michael's, and thence to jail, Mrs. Betsey Freeland +(mother to William, who was very much attached--after the +southern fashion--to Henry and John, they having been reared from +childhood in her house) came to the kitchen door, with her hands +full of biscuits--for we had not had time to take our breakfast +that morning--and divided them between Henry and John. This +done, the lady made the following parting address to me, looking +and pointing her bony finger at me. "You devil! you yellow +devil! It was you that put it into the heads of Henry and John +to run away. But for _you_, you _long legged yellow devil_, +Henry and John would never have thought of running away." I gave +the lady a look, which called forth a scream of mingled wrath and +terror, as she slammed the kitchen door, and went in, leaving me, +with the rest, in hands as harsh as her own broken voice. + +Could the kind reader have been quietly riding along the main +road to or from Easton, that morning, his eye would have met a +painful sight. He would have seen five young men, guilty of no +crime, save that of preferring _liberty_ to a life of _bondage_, +drawn along the public highway--firmly bound together--tramping +through dust and heat, bare-footed and bare-headed--fastened to +three strong horses, whose riders were armed to the teeth, with +pistols and daggers--on their way to prison, like felons, and +suffering every possible insult from the crowds of idle, vulgar +people, who clustered around, and heartlessly made their failure +the occasion for all manner of ribaldry and sport. As I looked +upon this crowd of vile persons, and saw myself and friends thus +assailed and persecuted, I could not help seeing the fulfillment +of Sandy's dream. I was in the hands of moral vultures, and +firmly held in their sharp talons, and was hurried away toward +Easton, in a south-easterly direction, amid the jeers of new +birds of the same feather, through every neighborhood we passed. +It seemed to me (and this shows the good understanding between +the slaveholders and their allies) that every body we met knew +<228>the cause of our arrest, and were out, awaiting our passing +by, to feast their vindictive eyes on our misery and to gloat +over our ruin. Some said, _I ought to be hanged_, and others, _I +ought to be burnt_, others, I ought to have the _"hide"_ taken +from my back; while no one gave us a kind word or sympathizing +look, except the poor slaves, who were lifting their heavy hoes, +and who cautiously glanced at us through the post-and-rail +fences, behind which they were at work. Our sufferings, that +morning, can be more easily imagined than described. Our hopes +were all blasted, at a blow. The cruel injustice, the victorious +crime, and the helplessness of innocence, led me to ask, in my +ignorance and weakness "Where now is the God of justice and +mercy? And why have these wicked men the power thus to trample +upon our rights, and to insult our feelings?" And yet, in the +next moment, came the consoling thought, _"The day of oppressor +will come at last."_ Of one thing I could be glad--not one of my +dear friends, upon whom I had brought this great calamity, either +by word or look, reproached me for having led them into it. We +were a band of brothers, and never dearer to each other than now. +The thought which gave us the most pain, was the probable +separation which would now take place, in case we were sold off +to the far south, as we were likely to be. While the constables +were looking forward, Henry and I, being fastened together, could +occasionally exchange a word, without being observed by the +kidnappers who had us in charge. "What shall I do with my pass?" +said Henry. "Eat it with your biscuit," said I; "it won't do to +tear it up." We were now near St. Michael's. The direction +concerning the passes was passed around, and executed. _"Own +nothing!"_ said I. _"Own nothing!"_ was passed around and +enjoined, and assented to. Our confidence in each other was +unshaken; and we were quite resolved to succeed or fail +together--as much after the calamity which had befallen us, as +before. + +On reaching St. Michael's, we underwent a sort of examination at +my master's store, and it was evident to my mind, that Master +<229 THE DENIAL>Thomas suspected the truthfulness of the evidence +upon which they had acted in arresting us; and that he only +affected, to some extent, the positiveness with which he asserted +our guilt. There was nothing said by any of our company, which +could, in any manner, prejudice our cause; and there was hope, +yet, that we should be able to return to our homes--if for +nothing else, at least to find out the guilty man or woman who +had betrayed us. + +To this end, we all denied that we had been guilty of intended +flight. Master Thomas said that the evidence he had of our +intention to run away, was strong enough to hang us, in a case of +murder. "But," said I, "the cases are not equal. If murder were +committed, some one must have committed it--the thing is done! +In our case, nothing has been done! We have not run away. Where +is the evidence against us? We were quietly at our work." I +talked thus, with unusual freedom, to bring out the evidence +against us, for we all wanted, above all things, to know the +guilty wretch who had betrayed us, that we might have something +tangible upon which to pour the execrations. From something +which dropped, in the course of the talk, it appeared that there +was but one witness against us--and that that witness could not +be produced. Master Thomas would not tell us _who_ his informant +was; but we suspected, and suspected _one_ person _only_. +Several circumstances seemed to point SANDY out, as our betrayer. +His entire knowledge of our plans his participation in them--his +withdrawal from us--his dream, and his simultaneous presentiment +that we were betrayed--the taking us, and the leaving him--were +calculated to turn suspicion toward him; and yet, we could not +suspect him. We all loved him too well to think it _possible_ +that he could have betrayed us. So we rolled the guilt on other +shoulders. + +We were literally dragged, that morning, behind horses, a +distance of fifteen miles, and placed in the Easton jail. We +were glad to reach the end of our journey, for our pathway had +been the scene of insult and mortification. Such is the power of +public <230>opinion, that it is hard, even for the innocent, to +feel the happy consolations of innocence, when they fall under +the maledictions of this power. How could we regard ourselves as +in the right, when all about us denounced us as criminals, and +had the power and the disposition to treat us as such. + +In jail, we were placed under the care of Mr. Joseph Graham, the +sheriff of the county. Henry, and John, and myself, were placed +in one room, and Henry Baily and Charles Roberts, in another, by +themselves. This separation was intended to deprive us of the +advantage of concert, and to prevent trouble in jail. + +Once shut up, a new set of tormentors came upon us. A swarm of +imps, in human shape the slave-traders, deputy slave-traders, and +agents of slave-traders--that gather in every country town of the +state, watching for chances to buy human flesh (as buzzards to +eat carrion) flocked in upon us, to ascertain if our masters had +placed us in jail to be sold. Such a set of debased and +villainous creatures, I never saw before, and hope never to see +again. I felt myself surrounded as by a pack of _fiends_, fresh +from _perdition_. They laughed, leered, and grinned at us; +saying, "Ah! boys, we've got you, havn't we? So you were about +to make your escape? Where were you going to?" After taunting +us, and peering at us, as long as they liked, they one by one +subjected us to an examination, with a view to ascertain our +value; feeling our arms and legs, and shaking us by the shoulders +to see if we were sound and healthy; impudently asking us, "how +we would like to have them for masters?" To such questions, we +were, very much to their annoyance, quite dumb, disdaining to +answer them. For one, I detested the whisky-bloated gamblers in +human flesh; and I believe I was as much detested by them in +turn. One fellow told me, "if he had me, he would cut the devil +out of me pretty quick." + +These Negro buyers are very offensive to the genteel southern +Christian public. They are looked upon, in respectable Maryland +society, as necessary, but detestable characters. As a class, +they <231 SLAVE-TRADERS>are hardened ruffians, made such by +nature and by occupation. Their ears are made quite familiar +with the agonizing cry of outraged and woe-smitted humanity. +Their eyes are forever open to human misery. They walk amid +desecrated affections, insulted virtue, and blasted hopes. They +have grown intimate with vice and blood; they gloat over the +wildest illustrations of their soul-damning and earth-polluting +business, and are moral pests. Yes; they are a legitimate fruit +of slavery; and it is a puzzle to make out a case of greater +villainy for them, than for the slaveholders, who make such a +class _possible_. They are mere hucksters of the surplus slave +produce of Maryland and Virginia coarse, cruel, and swaggering +bullies, whose very breathing is of blasphemy and blood. + +Aside from these slave-buyers, who infested the prison, from time +to time, our quarters were much more comfortable than we had any +right to expect they would be. Our allowance of food was small +and coarse, but our room was the best in the jail--neat and +spacious, and with nothing about it necessarily reminding us of +being in prison, but its heavy locks and bolts and the black, +iron lattice-work at the windows. We were prisoners of state, +compared with most slaves who are put into that Easton jail. But +the place was not one of contentment. Bolts, bars and grated +windows are not acceptable to freedom-loving people of any color. +The suspense, too, was painful. Every step on the stairway was +listened to, in the hope that the comer would cast a ray of light +on our fate. We would have given the hair off our heads for half +a dozen words with one of the waiters in Sol. Lowe's hotel. Such +waiters were in the way of hearing, at the table, the probable +course of things. We could see them flitting about in their +white jackets in front of this hotel, but could speak to none of +them. + +Soon after the holidays were over, contrary to all our +expectations, Messrs. Hamilton and Freeland came up to Easton; +not to make a bargain with the "Georgia traders," nor to send us +up to Austin Woldfolk, as is usual in the case of run-away +salves, <232>but to release Charles, Henry Harris, Henry Baily +and John Harris, from prison, and this, too, without the +infliction of a single blow. I was now left entirely alone in +prison. The innocent had been taken, and the guilty left. My +friends were separated from me, and apparently forever. This +circumstance caused me more pain than any other incident +connected with our capture and imprisonment. Thirty-nine lashes +on my naked and bleeding back, would have been joyfully borne, in +preference to this separation from these, the friends of my +youth. And yet, I could not but feel that I was the victim of +something like justice. Why should these young men, who were led +into this scheme by me, suffer as much as the instigator? I felt +glad that they were leased from prison, and from the dread +prospect of a life (or death I should rather say) in the rice +swamps. It is due to the noble Henry, to say, that he seemed +almost as reluctant to leave the prison with me in it, as he was +to be tied and dragged to prison. But he and the rest knew that +we should, in all the likelihoods of the case, be separated, in +the event of being sold; and since we were now completely in the +hands of our owners, we all concluded it would be best to go +peaceably home. + +Not until this last separation, dear reader, had I touched those +profounder depths of desolation, which it is the lot of slaves +often to reach. I was solitary in the world, and alone within +the walls of a stone prison, left to a fate of life-long misery. +I had hoped and expected much, for months before, but my hopes +and expectations were now withered and blasted. The ever dreaded +slave life in Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama--from which escape +is next to impossible now, in my loneliness, stared me in the +face. The possibility of ever becoming anything but an abject +slave, a mere machine in the hands of an owner, had now fled, and +it seemed to me it had fled forever. A life of living death, +beset with the innumerable horrors of the cotton field, and the +sugar plantation, seemed to be my doom. The fiends, who rushed +into the prison when we were first put there, continued to visit +me, <233 LEFT ALONE IN PRISON>and to ply me with questions and +with their tantalizing remarks. I was insulted, but helpless; +keenly alive to the demands of justice and liberty, but with no +means of asserting them. To talk to those imps about justice and +mercy, would have been as absurd as to reason with bears and +tigers. Lead and steel are the only arguments that they +understand. + +After remaining in this life of misery and despair about a week, +which, by the way, seemed a month, Master Thomas, very much to my +surprise, and greatly to my relief, came to the prison, and took +me out, for the purpose, as he said, of sending me to Alabama, +with a friend of his, who would emancipate me at the end of eight +years. I was glad enough to get out of prison; but I had no +faith in the story that this friend of Capt. Auld would +emancipate me, at the end of the time indicated. Besides, I +never had heard of his having a friend in Alabama, and I took the +announcement, simply as an easy and comfortable method of +shipping me off to the far south. There was a little scandal, +too, connected with the idea of one Christian selling another to +the Georgia traders, while it was deemed every way proper for +them to sell to others. I thought this friend in Alabama was an +invention, to meet this difficulty, for Master Thomas was quite +jealous of his Christian reputation, however unconcerned he might +be about his real Christian character. In these remarks, +however, it is possible that I do Master Thomas Auld injustice. +He certainly did not exhaust his power upon me, in the case, but +acted, upon the whole, very generously, considering the nature of +my offense. He had the power and the provocation to send me, +without reserve, into the very everglades of Florida, beyond the +remotest hope of emancipation; and his refusal to exercise that +power, must be set down to his credit. + +After lingering about St. Michael's a few days, and no friend +from Alabama making his appearance, to take me there, Master +Thomas decided to send me back again to Baltimore, to live with +his brother Hugh, with whom he was now at peace; possibly he +<234>became so by his profession of religion, at the camp-meeting +in the Bay Side. Master Thomas told me that he wished me to go +to Baltimore, and learn a trade; and that, if I behaved myself +properly, he would _emancipate me at twenty-five!_ Thanks for +this one beam of hope in the future. The promise had but one +fault; it seemed too good to be true. + + +CHAPTER XX +_Apprenticeship Life_ + +NOTHING LOST BY THE ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY--COMRADES IN THEIR OLD +HOMES--REASONS FOR SENDING ME AWAY--RETURN TO BALTIMORE--CONTRAST +BETWEEN TOMMY AND THAT OF HIS COLORED COMPANION--TRIALS IN +GARDINER'S SHIP YARD--DESPERATE FIGHT--ITS CAUSES--CONFLICT +BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK LABOR--DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTRAGE-- +COLORED TESTIMONY NOTHING--CONDUCT OF MASTER HUGH--SPIRIT OF +SLAVERY IN BALTIMORE--MY CONDITION IMPROVES--NEW ASSOCIATIONS-- +SLAVEHOLDER'S RIGHT TO TAKE HIS WAGES--HOW TO MAKE A CONTENTED +SLAVE. + + +Well! dear reader, I am not, as you may have already inferred, a +loser by the general upstir, described in the foregoing chapter. +The little domestic revolution, notwithstanding the sudden snub +it got by the treachery of somebody--I dare not say or think +who--did not, after all, end so disastrously, as when in the iron +cage at Easton, I conceived it would. The prospect, from that +point, did look about as dark as any that ever cast its gloom +over the vision of the anxious, out-looking, human spirit. "All +is well that ends well." My affectionate comrades, Henry and +John Harris, are still with Mr. William Freeland. Charles +Roberts and Henry Baily are safe at their homes. I have not, +therefore, any thing to regret on their account. Their masters +have mercifully forgiven them, probably on the ground suggested +in the spirited little speech of Mrs. Freeland, made to me just +before leaving for the jail--namely: that they had been allured +into the wicked scheme of making their escape, by me; and that, +but for me, they would never have dreamed of a thing so shocking! +My <236>friends had nothing to regret, either; for while they +were watched more closely on account of what had happened, they +were, doubtless, treated more kindly than before, and got new +assurances that they would be legally emancipated, some day, +provided their behavior should make them deserving, from that +time forward. Not a blow, as I learned, was struck any one of +them. As for Master William Freeland, good, unsuspecting soul, +he did not believe that we were intending to run away at all. +Having given--as he thought--no occasion to his boys to leave +him, he could not think it probable that they had entertained a +design so grievous. This, however, was not the view taken of the +matter by "Mas' Billy," as we used to call the soft spoken, but +crafty and resolute Mr. William Hamilton. He had no doubt that +the crime had been meditated; and regarding me as the instigator +of it, he frankly told Master Thomas that he must remove me from +that neighborhood, or he would shoot me down. He would not have +one so dangerous as "Frederick" tampering with his slaves. +William Hamilton was not a man whose threat might be safely +disregarded. I have no doubt that he would have proved as good +as his word, had the warning given not been promptly taken. He +was furious at the thought of such a piece of high-handed +_theft_, as we were about to perpetrate the stealing of our own +bodies and souls! The feasibility of the plan, too, could the +first steps have been taken, was marvelously plain. Besides, +this was a _new_ idea, this use of the bay. Slaves escaping, +until now, had taken to the woods; they had never dreamed of +profaning and abusing the waters of the noble Chesapeake, by +making them the highway from slavery to freedom. Here was a +broad road of destruction to slavery, which, before, had been +looked upon as a wall of security by slaveholders. But Master +Billy could not get Mr. Freeland to see matters precisely as he +did; nor could he get Master Thomas so excited as he was himself. +The latter--I must say it to his credit--showed much humane +feeling in his part of the transaction, and atoned for much that +had been harsh, cruel <237 CHANGE IN LITTLE TOMMY>and +unreasonable in his former treatment of me and others. His +clemency was quite unusual and unlooked for. "Cousin Tom" told +me that while I was in jail, Master Thomas was very unhappy; and +that the night before his going up to release me, he had walked +the floor nearly all night, evincing great distress; that very +tempting offers had been made to him, by the Negro-traders, but +he had rejected them all, saying that _money could not tempt him +to sell me to the far south_. All this I can easily believe, for +he seemed quite reluctant to send me away, at all. He told me +that he only consented to do so, because of the very strong +prejudice against me in the neighborhood, and that he feared for +my safety if I remained there. + +Thus, after three years spent in the country, roughing it in the +field, and experiencing all sorts of hardships, I was again +permitted to return to Baltimore, the very place, of all others, +short of a free state, where I most desired to live. The three +years spent in the country, had made some difference in me, and +in the household of Master Hugh. "Little Tommy" was no longer +_little_ Tommy; and I was not the slender lad who had left for +the Eastern Shore just three years before. The loving relations +between me and Mas' Tommy were broken up. He was no longer +dependent on me for protection, but felt himself a _man_, with +other and more suitable associates. In childhood, he scarcely +considered me inferior to himself certainly, as good as any other +boy with whom he played; but the time had come when his _friend_ +must become his _slave_. So we were cold, and we parted. It was +a sad thing to me, that, loving each other as we had done, we +must now take different roads. To him, a thousand avenues were +open. Education had made him acquainted with all the treasures +of the world, and liberty had flung open the gates thereunto; but +I, who had attended him seven years, and had watched over him +with the care of a big brother, fighting his battles in the +street, and shielding him from harm, to an extent which had +induced his mother to say, "Oh! Tommy is always safe, when he is +with <238>Freddy," must be confined to a single condition. He +could grow, and become a MAN; I could grow, though I could _not_ +become a man, but must remain, all my life, a minor--a mere boy. +Thomas Auld, Junior, obtained a situation on board the brig +"Tweed," and went to sea. I know not what has become of him; he +certainly has my good wishes for his welfare and prosperity. +There were few persons to whom I was more sincerely attached than +to him, and there are few in the world I would be more pleased to +meet. + +Very soon after I went to Baltimore to live, Master Hugh +succeeded in getting me hired to Mr. William Gardiner, an +extensive ship builder on Fell's Point. I was placed here to +learn to calk, a trade of which I already had some knowledge, +gained while in Mr. Hugh Auld's ship-yard, when he was a master +builder. Gardiner's, however, proved a very unfavorable place +for the accomplishment of that object. Mr. Gardiner was, that +season, engaged in building two large man-of-war vessels, +professedly for the Mexican government. These vessels were to be +launched in the month of July, of that year, and, in failure +thereof, Mr. G. would forfeit a very considerable sum of money. +So, when I entered the ship-yard, all was hurry and driving. +There were in the yard about one hundred men; of these about +seventy or eighty were regular carpenters--privileged men. +Speaking of my condition here I wrote, years ago--and I have now +no reason to vary the picture as follows: + + +There was no time to learn any thing. Every man had to do that +which he knew how to do. In entering the ship-yard, my orders +from Mr. Gardiner were, to do whatever the carpenters commanded +me to do. This was placing me at the beck and call of about +seventy-five men. I was to regard all these as masters. Their +word was to be my law. My situation was a most trying one. At +times I needed a dozen pair of hands. I was called a dozen ways +in the space of a single minute. Three or four voices would +strike my ear at the same moment. It was--"Fred., come help me +to cant this timber here." "Fred., come carry this timber +yonder."--"Fred., bring that roller here."--"Fred., go get a +fresh can of water."--"Fred., come help saw off the end of this +timber."--"Fred., go quick and get the crow bar."--"Fred., hold +on the end of this fall."--"Fred., go to the blacksmith's shop, +and get a new punch."--<239 DESPERATE FIGHT> + +"Hurra, Fred.! run and bring me a cold chisel."--"I say, Fred., +bear a hand, and get up a fire as quick as lightning under that +steam-box."--"Halloo, nigger! come, turn this grindstone."-- +"Come, come! move, move! and _bowse_ this timber forward."--"I +say, darkey, blast your eyes, why don't you heat up some +pitch?"--"Halloo! halloo! halloo!" (Three voices at the same +time.) "Come here!--Go there!--Hold on where you are! D--n you, +if you move, I'll knock your brains out!" + + +Such, dear reader, is a glance at the school which was mine, +during, the first eight months of my stay at Baltimore. At the +end of the eight months, Master Hugh refused longer to allow me +to remain with Mr. Gardiner. The circumstance which led to his +taking me away, was a brutal outrage, committed upon me by the +white apprentices of the ship-yard. The fight was a desperate +one, and I came out of it most shockingly mangled. I was cut and +bruised in sundry places, and my left eye was nearly knocked out +of its socket. The facts, leading to this barbarous outrage upon +me, illustrate a phase of slavery destined to become an important +element in the overthrow of the slave system, and I may, +therefore state them with some minuteness. That phase is this: +_the conflict of slavery with the interests of the white +mechanics and laborers of the south_. In the country, this +conflict is not so apparent; but, in cities, such as Baltimore, +Richmond, New Orleans, Mobile, &c., it is seen pretty clearly. +The slaveholders, with a craftiness peculiar to themselves, by +encouraging the enmity of the poor, laboring white man against +the blacks, succeeds in making the said white man almost as much +a slave as the black slave himself. The difference between the +white slave, and the black slave, is this: the latter belongs to +_one_ slaveholder, and the former belongs to _all_ the +slaveholders, collectively. The white slave has taken from him, +by indirection, what the black slave has taken from him, +directly, and without ceremony. Both are plundered, and by the +same plunderers. The slave is robbed, by his master, of all his +earnings, above what is required for his bare physical +necessities; and the white man is robbed by the slave system, of +the just results of his labor, because he is flung into +<240>competition with a class of laborers who work without wages. +The competition, and its injurious consequences, will, one day, +array the nonslaveholding white people of the slave states, +against the slave system, and make them the most effective +workers against the great evil. At present, the slaveholders +blind them to this competition, by keeping alive their prejudice +against the slaves, _as men_--not against them _as slaves_. They +appeal to their pride, often denouncing emancipation, as tending +to place the white man, on an equality with Negroes, and, by this +means, they succeed in drawing off the minds of the poor whites +from the real fact, that, by the rich slave-master, they are +already regarded as but a single remove from equality with the +slave. The impression is cunningly made, that slavery is the +only power that can prevent the laboring white man from falling +to the level of the slave's poverty and degradation. To make +this enmity deep and broad, between the slave and the poor white +man, the latter is allowed to abuse and whip the former, without +hinderance. But--as I have suggested--this state of facts +prevails _mostly_ in the country. In the city of Baltimore, +there are not unfrequent murmurs, that educating the slaves to be +mechanics may, in the end, give slavemasters power to dispense +with the services of the poor white man altogether. But, with +characteristic dread of offending the slaveholders, these poor, +white mechanics in Mr. Gardiner's ship-yard--instead of applying +the natural, honest remedy for the apprehended evil, and +objecting at once to work there by the side of slaves--made a +cowardly attack upon the free colored mechanics, saying _they_ +were eating the bread which should be eaten by American freemen, +and swearing that they would not work with them. The feeling +was, _really_, against having their labor brought into +competition with that of the colored people at all; but it was +too much to strike directly at the interest of the slaveholders; +and, therefore proving their servility and cowardice they dealt +their blows on the poor, colored freeman, and aimed to prevent +_him_ from serving himself, in the evening of life, with the +trade <241 CONFLICT BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK LABOR>with which he +had served his master, during the more vigorous portion of his +days. Had they succeeded in driving the black freemen out of the +ship-yard, they would have determined also upon the removal of +the black slaves. The feeling was very bitter toward all colored +people in Baltimore, about this time (1836), and they--free and +slave suffered all manner of insult and wrong. + +Until a very little before I went there, white and black ship +carpenters worked side by side, in the ship yards of Mr. +Gardiner, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Walter Price, and Mr. Robb. Nobody +seemed to see any impropriety in it. To outward seeming, all +hands were well satisfied. Some of the blacks were first rate +workmen, and were given jobs requiring highest skill. All at +once, however, the white carpenters knocked off, and swore that +they would no longer work on the same stage with free Negroes. +Taking advantage of the heavy contract resting upon Mr. Gardiner, +to have the war vessels for Mexico ready to launch in July, and +of the difficulty of getting other hands at that season of the +year, they swore they would not strike another blow for him, +unless he would discharge his free colored workmen. + +Now, although this movement did not extend to me, _in form_, it +did reach me, _in fact_. The spirit which it awakened was one of +malice and bitterness, toward colored people _generally_, and I +suffered with the rest, and suffered severely. My fellow +apprentices very soon began to feel it to be degrading to work +with me. They began to put on high looks, and to talk +contemptuously and maliciously of _"the Niggers;"_ saying, that +"they would take the country," that "they ought to be killed." +Encouraged by the cowardly workmen, who, knowing me to be a +slave, made no issue with Mr. Gardiner about my being there, +these young men did their utmost to make it impossible for me to +stay. They seldom called me to do any thing, without coupling +the call with a curse, and Edward North, the biggest in every +thing, rascality included, ventured to strike me, whereupon I +picked him up, and threw <242>him into the dock. Whenever any of +them struck me, I struck back again, regardless of consequences. +I could manage any of them _singly_, and, while I could keep them +from combining, I succeeded very well. In the conflict which +ended my stay at Mr. Gardiner's, I was beset by four of them at +once--Ned North, Ned Hays, Bill Stewart, and Tom Humphreys. Two +of them were as large as myself, and they came near killing me, +in broad day light. The attack was made suddenly, and +simultaneously. One came in front, armed with a brick; there was +one at each side, and one behind, and they closed up around me. +I was struck on all sides; and, while I was attending to those in +front, I received a blow on my head, from behind, dealt with a +heavy hand-spike. I was completely stunned by the blow, and +fell, heavily, on the ground, among the timbers. Taking +advantage of my fall, they rushed upon me, and began to pound me +with their fists. I let them lay on, for a while, after I came +to myself, with a view of gaining strength. They did me little +damage, so far; but, finally, getting tired of that sport, I gave +a sudden surge, and, despite their weight, I rose to my hands and +knees. Just as I did this, one of their number (I know not +which) planted a blow with his boot in my left eye, which, for a +time, seemed to have burst my eyeball. When they saw my eye +completely closed, my face covered with blood, and I staggering +under the stunning blows they had given me, they left me. As +soon as I gathered sufficient strength, I picked up the hand- +spike, and, madly enough, attempted to pursue them; but here the +carpenters interfered, and compelled me to give up my frenzied +pursuit. It was impossible to stand against so many. + +Dear reader, you can hardly believe the statement, but it is +true, and, therefore, I write it down: not fewer than fifty white +men stood by, and saw this brutal and shameless outrage +committed, and not a man of them all interposed a single word of +mercy. There were four against one, and that one's face was +beaten and battered most horribly, and no one said, "that is +enough;" but some cried out, "Kill him--kill him--kill the d--d +<243 CONDUCT OF MASTER HUGH>nigger! knock his brains out--he +struck a white person." I mention this inhuman outcry, to show +the character of the men, and the spirit of the times, at +Gardiner's ship yard, and, indeed, in Baltimore generally, in +1836. As I look back to this period, I am almost amazed that I +was not murdered outright, in that ship yard, so murderous was +the spirit which prevailed there. On two occasions, while there, +I came near losing my life. I was driving bolts in the hold, +through the keelson, with Hays. In its course, the bolt bent. +Hays cursed me, and said that it was my blow which bent the bolt. +I denied this, and charged it upon him. In a fit of rage he +seized an adze, and darted toward me. I met him with a maul, and +parried his blow, or I should have then lost my life. A son of +old Tom Lanman (the latter's double murder I have elsewhere +charged upon him), in the spirit of his miserable father, made an +assault upon me, but the blow with his maul missed me. After the +united assault of North, Stewart, Hays and Humphreys, finding +that the carpenters were as bitter toward me as the apprentices, +and that the latter were probably set on by the former, I found +my only chances for life was in flight. I succeeded in getting +away, without an additional blow. To strike a white man, was +death, by Lynch law, in Gardiner's ship yard; nor was there much +of any other law toward colored people, at that time, in any +other part of Maryland. The whole sentiment of Baltimore was +murderous. + +After making my escape from the ship yard, I went straight home, +and related the story of the outrage to Master Hugh Auld; and it +is due to him to say, that his conduct--though he was not a +religious man--was every way more humane than that of his +brother, Thomas, when I went to the latter in a somewhat similar +plight, from the hands of _"Brother Edward Covey."_ He listened +attentively to my narration of the circumstances leading to the +ruffianly outrage, and gave many proofs of his strong indignation +at what was done. Hugh was a rough, but manly-hearted fellow, +and, at this time, his best nature showed itself. +<244> + +The heart of my once almost over-kind mistress, Sophia, was again +melted in pity toward me. My puffed-out eye, and my scarred and +blood-covered face, moved the dear lady to tears. She kindly +drew a chair by me, and with friendly, consoling words, she took +water, and washed the blood from my face. No mother's hand could +have been more tender than hers. She bound up my head, and +covered my wounded eye with a lean piece of fresh beef. It was +almost compensation for the murderous assault, and my suffering, +that it furnished and occasion for the manifestation, once more, +of the orignally{sic} characteristic kindness of my mistress. +Her affectionate heart was not yet dead, though much hardened by +time and by circumstances. + +As for Master Hugh's part, as I have said, he was furious about +it; and he gave expression to his fury in the usual forms of +speech in that locality. He poured curses on the heads of the +whole ship yard company, and swore that he would have +satisfaction for the outrage. His indignation was really strong +and healthy; but, unfortunately, it resulted from the thought +that his rights of property, in my person, had not been +respected, more than from any sense of the outrage committed on +me _as a man_. I inferred as much as this, from the fact that he +could, himself, beat and mangle when it suited him to do so. +Bent on having satisfaction, as he said, just as soon as I got a +little the better of my bruises, Master Hugh took me to Esquire +Watson's office, on Bond street, Fell's Point, with a view to +procuring the arrest of those who had assaulted me. He related +the outrage to the magistrate, as I had related it to him, and +seemed to expect that a warrant would, at once, be issued for the +arrest of the lawless ruffians. + +Mr. Watson heard it all, and instead of drawing up his warrant, +he inquired.-- + +"Mr. Auld, who saw this assault of which you speak?" + +"It was done, sir, in the presence of a ship yard full of hands." + +"Sir," said Watson, "I am sorry, but I cannot move in this matter +except upon the oath of white witnesses." +<245 COLORED TESTIMONY NOTHING> + +"But here's the boy; look at his head and face," said the excited +Master Hugh; _"they_ show _what_ has been done." + +But Watson insisted that he was not authorized to do anything, +unless _white_ witnesses of the transaction would come forward, +and testify to what had taken place. He could issue no warrant +on my word, against white persons; and, if I had been killed in +the presence of a _thousand blacks_, their testimony, combined +would have been insufficient to arrest a single murderer. Master +Hugh, for once, was compelled to say, that this state of things +was _too bad;_ and he left the office of the magistrate, +disgusted. + +Of course, it was impossible to get any white man to testify +against my assailants. The carpenters saw what was done; but the +actors were but the agents of their malice, and only what the +carpenters sanctioned. They had cried, with one accord, _"Kill +the nigger!" "Kill the nigger!"_ Even those who may have pitied +me, if any such were among them, lacked the moral courage to come +and volunteer their evidence. The slightest manifestation of +sympathy or justice toward a person of color, was denounced as +abolitionism; and the name of abolitionist, subjected its bearer +to frightful liabilities. "D--n _abolitionists,"_ and _"Kill the +niggers,"_ were the watch-words of the foul-mouthed ruffians of +those days. Nothing was done, and probably there would not have +been any thing done, had I been killed in the affray. The laws +and the morals of the Christian city of Baltimore, afforded no +protection to the sable denizens of that city. + +Master Hugh, on finding he could get no redress for the cruel +wrong, withdrew me from the employment of Mr. Gardiner, and took +me into his own family, Mrs. Auld kindly taking care of me, and +dressing my wounds, until they were healed, and I was ready to go +again to work. + +While I was on the Eastern Shore, Master Hugh had met with +reverses, which overthrew his business; and he had given up ship +building in his own yard, on the City Block, and was now acting +as foreman of Mr. Walter Price. The best he could now do for me, +<246>was to take me into Mr. Price's yard, and afford me the +facilities there, for completing the trade which I had began to +learn at Gardiner's. Here I rapidly became expert in the use of +my calking tools; and, in the course of a single year, I was able +to command the highest wages paid to journeymen calkers in +Baltimore. + +The reader will observe that I was now of some pecuniary value to +my master. During the busy season, I was bringing six and seven +dollars per week. I have, sometimes, brought him as much as nine +dollars a week, for the wages were a dollar and a half per day. + +After learning to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own +contracts, and collected my own earnings; giving Master Hugh no +trouble in any part of the transactions to which I was a party. + +Here, then, were better days for the Eastern Shore _slave_. I +was now free from the vexatious assalts{sic} of the apprentices +at Mr. Gardiner's; and free from the perils of plantation life, +and once more in a favorable condition to increase my little +stock of education, which had been at a dead stand since my +removal from Baltimore. I had, on the Eastern Shore, been only a +teacher, when in company with other slaves, but now there were +colored persons who could instruct me. Many of the young calkers +could read, write and cipher. Some of them had high notions +about mental improvement; and the free ones, on Fell's Point, +organized what they called the _"East Baltimore Mental +Improvement Society."_ To this society, notwithstanding it was +intended that only free persons should attach themselves, I was +admitted, and was, several times, assigned a prominent part in +its debates. I owe much to the society of these young men. + +The reader already knows enough of the _ill_ effects of good +treatment on a slave, to anticipate what was now the case in my +improved condition. It was not long before I began to show signs +of disquiet with slavery, and to look around for means to get out +of that condition by the shortest route. I was living among +_free_<247 MY CONDITION IMPROVES>_men;_ and was, in all respects, +equal to them by nature and by attainments. _Why should I be a +slave?_ There was _no_ reason why I should be the thrall of any +man. + +Besides, I was now getting--as I have said--a dollar and fifty +cents per day. I contracted for it, worked for it, earned it, +collected it; it was paid to me, and it was _rightfully_ my own; +and yet, upon every returning Saturday night, this money--my own +hard earnings, every cent of it--was demanded of me, and taken +from me by Master Hugh. He did not earn it; he had no hand in +earning it; why, then, should he have it? I owed him nothing. +He had given me no schooling, and I had received from him only my +food and raiment; and for these, my services were supposed to +pay, from the first. The right to take my earnings, was the +right of the robber. He had the power to compel me to give him +the fruits of my labor, and this power was his only right in the +case. I became more and more dissatisfied with this state of +things; and, in so becoming, I only gave proof of the same human +nature which every reader of this chapter in my life-- +slaveholder, or nonslaveholder--is conscious of possessing. + +To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It +is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far +as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able +to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his +earnings, must be able to convince him that he has a perfect +right to do so. It must not depend upon mere force; the slave +must know no Higher Law than his master's will. The whole +relationship must not only demonstrate, to his mind, its +necessity, but its absolute rightfulness. If there be one +crevice through which a single drop can fall, it will certainly +rust off the slave's chain. + + + +CHAPTER XXI +_My Escape from Slavery_ + +CLOSING INCIDENTS OF "MY LIFE AS A SLAVE"--REASONS WHY FULL +PARTICULARS OF THE MANNER OF MY ESCAPE WILL NOT BE GIVEN-- +CRAFTINESS AND MALICE OF SLAVEHOLDERS--SUSPICION OF AIDING A +SLAVE'S ESCAPE ABOUT AS DANGEROUS AS POSITIVE EVIDENCE--WANT OF +WISDOM SHOWN IN PUBLISHING DETAILS OF THE ESCAPE OF THE +FUGITIVES--PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS REACH THE MASTERS, NOT THE SLAVES-- +SLAVEHOLDERS STIMULATED TO GREATER WATCHFULNESS--MY CONDITION-- +DISCONTENT--SUSPICIONS IMPLIED BY MASTER HUGH'S MANNER, WHEN +RECEIVING MY WAGES--HIS OCCASIONAL GENEROSITY!--DIFFICULTIES IN +THE WAY OF ESCAPE--EVERY AVENUE GUARDED--PLAN TO OBTAIN MONEY--I +AM ALLOWED TO HIRE MY TIME--A GLEAM OF HOPE--ATTENDS CAMP- +MEETING, WITHOUT PERMISSION--ANGER OF MASTER HUGH THEREAT--THE +RESULT--MY PLANS OF ESCAPE ACCELERATED THERBY--THE DAY FOR MY +DEPARTURE FIXED--HARASSED BY DOUBTS AND FEARS--PAINFUL THOUGHTS +OF SEPARATION FROM FRIENDS--THE ATTEMPT MADE--ITS SUCCESS. + + +I will now make the kind reader acquainted with the closing +incidents of my "Life as a Slave," having already trenched upon +the limit allotted to my "Life as a Freeman." Before, however, +proceeding with this narration, it is, perhaps, proper that I +should frankly state, in advance, my intention to withhold a part +of the{sic} connected with my escape from slavery. There are +reasons for this suppression, which I trust the reader will deem +altogether valid. It may be easily conceived, that a full and +complete statement of all facts pertaining to the flight of a +bondman, might implicate and embarrass some who may have, +wittingly or unwittingly, assisted him; and no one can wish me to +involve any man or <249 MANNER OF MY ESCAPE NOT GIVEN>woman who +has befriended me, even in the liability of embarrassment or +trouble. + +Keen is the scent of the slaveholder; like the fangs of the +rattlesnake, his malice retains its poison long; and, although it +is now nearly seventeen years since I made my escape, it is well +to be careful, in dealing with the circumstances relating to it. +Were I to give but a shadowy outline of the process adopted, with +characteristic aptitude, the crafty and malicious among the +slaveholders might, possibly, hit upon the track I pursued, and +involve some one in suspicion which, in a slave state, is about +as bad as positive evidence. The colored man, there, must not +only shun evil, but shun the very _appearance_ of evil, or be +condemned as a criminal. A slaveholding community has a peculiar +taste for ferreting out offenses against the slave system, +justice there being more sensitive in its regard for the peculiar +rights of this system, than for any other interest or +institution. By stringing together a train of events and +circumstances, even if I were not very explicit, the means of +escape might be ascertained, and, possibly, those means be +rendered, thereafter, no longer available to the liberty-seeking +children of bondage I have left behind me. No antislavery man +can wish me to do anything favoring such results, and no +slaveholding reader has any right to expect the impartment of +such information. + +While, therefore, it would afford me pleasure, and perhaps would +materially add to the interest of my story, were I at liberty to +gratify a curiosity which I know to exist in the minds of many, +as to the manner of my escape, I must deprive myself of this +pleasure, and the curious of the gratification, which such a +statement of facts would afford. I would allow myself to suffer +under the greatest imputations that evil minded men might +suggest, rather than exculpate myself by explanation, and thereby +run the hazards of closing the slightest avenue by which a +brother in suffering might clear himself of the chains and +fetters of slavery. + +The practice of publishing every new invention by which a +<250>slave is known to have escaped from slavery, has neither +wisdom nor necessity to sustain it. Had not Henry Box Brown and +his friends attracted slaveholding attention to the manner of his +escape, we might have had a thousand _Box Browns_ per annum. The +singularly original plan adopted by William and Ellen Crafts, +perished with the first using, because every slaveholder in the +land was apprised of it. The _salt water slave_ who hung in the +guards of a steamer, being washed three days and three nights-- +like another Jonah--by the waves of the sea, has, by the +publicity given to the circumstance, set a spy on the guards of +every steamer departing from southern ports. + +I have never approved of the very public manner, in which some of +our western friends have conducted what _they_ call the _"Under- +ground Railroad,"_ but which, I think, by their open +declarations, has been made, most emphatically, the _"Upper_- +ground Railroad." Its stations are far better known to the +slaveholders than to the slaves. I honor those good men and +women for their noble daring, in willingly subjecting themselves +to persecution, by openly avowing their participation in the +escape of slaves; nevertheless, the good resulting from such +avowals, is of a very questionable character. It may kindle an +enthusiasm, very pleasant to inhale; but that is of no practical +benefit to themselves, nor to the slaves escaping. Nothing is +more evident, than that such disclosures are a positive evil to +the slaves remaining, and seeking to escape. In publishing such +accounts, the anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, _not +the slave;_ he stimulates the former to greater watchfulness, and +adds to his facilities for capturing his slave. We owe something +to the slaves, south of Mason and Dixon's line, as well as to +those north of it; and, in discharging the duty of aiding the +latter, on their way to freedom, we should be careful to do +nothing which would be likely to hinder the former, in making +their escape from slavery. Such is my detestation of slavery, +that I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant +of the means of flight adopted by the slave. He <251 CRAFTINESS +OF SLAVEHOLDERS>should be left to imagine himself surrounded by +myriads of invisible tormentors, ever ready to snatch, from his +infernal grasp, his trembling prey. In pursuing his victim, let +him be left to feel his way in the dark; let shades of darkness, +commensurate with his crime, shut every ray of light from his +pathway; and let him be made to feel, that, at every step he +takes, with the hellish purpose of reducing a brother man to +slavery, he is running the frightful risk of having his hot +brains dashed out by an invisible hand. + +But, enough of this. I will now proceed to the statement of +those facts, connected with my escape, for which I am alone +responsible, and for which no one can be made to suffer but +myself. + +My condition in the year (1838) of my escape, was, comparatively, +a free and easy one, so far, at least, as the wants of the +physical man were concerned; but the reader will bear in mind, +that my troubles from the beginning, have been less physical than +mental, and he will thus be prepared to find, after what is +narrated in the previous chapters, that slave life was adding +nothing to its charms for me, as I grew older, and became better +acquainted with it. The practice, from week to week, of openly +robbing me of all my earnings, kept the nature and character of +slavery constantly before me. I could be robbed by +_indirection_, but this was _too_ open and barefaced to be +endured. I could see no reason why I should, at the end of each +week, pour the reward of my honest toil into the purse of any +man. The thought itself vexed me, and the manner in which Master +Hugh received my wages, vexed me more than the original wrong. +Carefully counting the money and rolling it out, dollar by +dollar, he would look me in the face, as if he would search my +heart as well as my pocket, and reproachfully ask me, "_Is that +all_?"--implying that I had, perhaps, kept back part of my wages; +or, if not so, the demand was made, possibly, to make me feel, +that, after all, I was an "unprofitable servant." Draining me of +the last cent of my hard earnings, he would, however, +occasionally--when I brought <252>home an extra large sum--dole +out to me a sixpence or a shilling, with a view, perhaps, of +kindling up my gratitude; but this practice had the opposite +effect--it was an admission of _my right to the whole sum_. The +fact, that he gave me any part of my wages, was proof that he +suspected that I had a right _to the whole of them_. I always +felt uncomfortable, after having received anything in this way, +for I feared that the giving me a few cents, might, possibly, +ease his conscience, and make him feel himself a pretty honorable +robber, after all! + +Held to a strict account, and kept under a close watch--the old +suspicion of my running away not having been entirely removed-- +escape from slavery, even in Baltimore, was very difficult. The +railroad from Baltimore to Philadelphia was under regulations so +stringent, that even _free_ colored travelers were almost +excluded. They must have _free_ papers; they must be measured +and carefully examined, before they were allowed to enter the +cars; they only went in the day time, even when so examined. The +steamboats were under regulations equally stringent. All the +great turnpikes, leading northward, were beset with kidnappers, a +class of men who watched the newspapers for advertisements for +runaway slaves, making their living by the accursed reward of +slave hunting. + +My discontent grew upon me, and I was on the look-out for means +of escape. With money, I could easily have managed the matter, +and, therefore, I hit upon the plan of soliciting the privilege +of hiring my time. It is quite common, in Baltimore, to allow +slaves this privilege, and it is the practice, also, in New +Orleans. A slave who is considered trustworthy, can, by paying +his master a definite sum regularly, at the end of each week, +dispose of his time as he likes. It so happened that I was not +in very good odor, and I was far from being a trustworthy slave. +Nevertheless, I watched my opportunity when Master Thomas came to +Baltimore (for I was still his property, Hugh only acted as his +agent) in the spring of 1838, to purchase his spring supply of +goods, <253 ALLOWED TO HIRE MY TIME>and applied to him, directly, +for the much-coveted privilege of hiring my time. This request +Master Thomas unhesitatingly refused to grant; and he charged me, +with some sternness, with inventing this stratagem to make my +escape. He told me, "I could go _nowhere_ but he could catch me; +and, in the event of my running away, I might be assured he +should spare no pains in his efforts to recapture me. He +recounted, with a good deal of eloquence, the many kind offices +he had done me, and exhorted me to be contented and obedient. +"Lay out no plans for the future," said he. "If you behave +yourself properly, I will take care of you." Now, kind and +considerate as this offer was, it failed to soothe me into +repose. In spite of Master Thomas, and, I may say, in spite of +myself, also, I continued to think, and worse still, to think +almost exclusively about the injustice and wickedness of slavery. +No effort of mine or of his could silence this trouble-giving +thought, or change my purpose to run away. + +About two months after applying to Master Thomas for the +privilege of hiring my time, I applied to Master Hugh for the +same liberty, supposing him to be unacquainted with the fact that +I had made a similar application to Master Thomas, and had been +refused. My boldness in making this request, fairly astounded +him at the first. He gazed at me in amazement. But I had many +good reasons for pressing the matter; and, after listening to +them awhile, he did not absolutely refuse, but told me he would +think of it. Here, then, was a gleam of hope. Once master of my +own time, I felt sure that I could make, over and above my +obligation to him, a dollar or two every week. Some slaves have +made enough, in this way, to purchase their freedom. It is a +sharp spur to industry; and some of the most enterprising colored +men in Baltimore hire themselves in this way. After mature +reflection--as I must suppose it was Master Hugh granted me the +privilege in question, on the following terms: I was to be +allowed all my time; to make all bargains for work; to find my +own employment, and to collect my own wages; and, <254>in return +for this liberty, I was required, or obliged, to pay him three +dollars at the end of each week, and to board and clothe myself, +and buy my own calking tools. A failure in any of these +particulars would put an end to my privilege. This was a hard +bargain. The wear and tear of clothing, the losing and breaking +of tools, and the expense of board, made it necessary for me to +earn at least six dollars per week, to keep even with the world. +All who are acquainted with calking, know how uncertain and +irregular that employment is. It can be done to advantage only +in dry weather, for it is useless to put wet oakum into a seam. +Rain or shine, however, work or no work, at the end of each week +the money must be forthcoming. + +Master Hugh seemed to be very much pleased, for a time, with this +arrangement; and well he might be, for it was decidedly in his +favor. It relieved him of all anxiety concerning me. His money +was sure. He had armed my love of liberty with a lash and a +driver, far more efficient than any I had before known; and, +while he derived all the benefits of slaveholding by the +arrangement, without its evils, I endured all the evils of being +a slave, and yet suffered all the care and anxiety of a +responsible freeman. "Nevertheless," thought I, "it is a +valuable privilege another step in my career toward freedom." It +was something even to be permitted to stagger under the +disadvantages of liberty, and I was determined to hold on to the +newly gained footing, by all proper industry. I was ready to +work by night as well as by day; and being in the enjoyment of +excellent health, I was able not only to meet my current +expenses, but also to lay by a small sum at the end of each week. +All went on thus, from the month of May till August; then--for +reasons which will become apparent as I proceed--my much valued +liberty was wrested from me. + +During the week previous to this (to me) calamitous event, I had +made arrangements with a few young friends, to accompany them, on +Saturday night, to a camp-meeting, held about twelve miles from +Baltimore. On the evening of our intended start for <255 I +ATTEND CAMP-MEETING>the camp-ground, something occurred in the +ship yard where I was at work, which detained me unusually late, +and compelled me either to disappoint my young friends, or to +neglect carrying my weekly dues to Master Hugh. Knowing that I +had the money, and could hand it to him on another day, I decided +to go to camp-meeting, and to pay him the three dollars, for the +past week, on my return. Once on the camp-ground, I was induced +to remain one day longer than I had intended, when I left home. +But, as soon as I returned, I went straight to his house on Fell +street, to hand him his (my) money. Unhappily, the fatal mistake +had been committed. I found him exceedingly angry. He exhibited +all the signs of apprehension and wrath, which a slaveholder may +be surmised to exhibit on the supposed escape of a favorite +slave. "You rascal! I have a great mind to give you a severe +whipping. How dare you go out of the city without first asking +and obtaining my permission?" "Sir," said I, "I hired my time and +paid you the price you asked for it. I did not know that it was +any part of the bargain that I should ask you when or where I +should go." + +"You did not know, you rascal! You are bound to show yourself +here every Saturday night." After reflecting, a few moments, he +became somewhat cooled down; but, evidently greatly troubled, he +said, "Now, you scoundrel! you have done for yourself; you shall +hire your time no longer. The next thing I shall hear of, will +be your running away. Bring home your tools and your clothes, at +once. I'll teach you how to go off in this way." + +Thus ended my partial freedom. I could hire my time no longer; +and I obeyed my master's orders at once. The little taste of +liberty which I had had--although as the reader will have seen, +it was far from being unalloyed--by no means enhanced my +contentment with slavery. Punished thus by Master Hugh, it was +now my turn to punish him. "Since," thought I, "you _will_ make +a slave of me, I will await your orders in all things;" and, +instead of going to look for work on Monday morning, as I had +<256>formerly done, I remained at home during the entire week, +without the performance of a single stroke of work. Saturday +night came, and he called upon me, as usual, for my wages. I, of +course, told him I had done no work, and had no wages. Here we +were at the point of coming to blows. His wrath had been +accumulating during the whole week; for he evidently saw that I +was making no effort to get work, but was most aggravatingly +awaiting his orders, in all things. As I look back to this +behavior of mine, I scarcely know what possessed me, thus to +trifle with those who had such unlimited power to bless or to +blast me. Master Hugh raved and swore his determination to _"get +hold of me;"_ but, wisely for _him_, and happily for _me_, his +wrath only employed those very harmless, impalpable missiles, +which roll from a limber tongue. In my desperation, I had fully +made up my mind to measure strength with Master Hugh, in case he +should undertake to execute his threats. I am glad there was no +necessity for this; for resistance to him could not have ended so +happily for me, as it did in the case of Covey. He was not a man +to be safely resisted by a slave; and I freely own, that in my +conduct toward him, in this instance, there was more folly than +wisdom. Master Hugh closed his reproofs, by telling me that, +hereafter, I need give myself no uneasiness about getting work; +that he "would, himself, see to getting work for me, and enough +of it, at that." This threat I confess had some terror in it; +and, on thinking the matter over, during the Sunday, I resolved, +not only to save him the trouble of getting me work, but that, +upon the third day of September, I would attempt to make my +escape from slavery. The refusal to allow me to hire my time, +therefore, hastened the period of flight. I had three weeks, +now, in which to prepare for my journey. + +Once resolved, I felt a certain degree of repose, and on Monday, +instead of waiting for Master Hugh to seek employment for me, I +was up by break of day, and off to the ship yard of Mr. Butler, +on the City Block, near the draw-bridge. I was a favorite <257 +PAINFUL THOUGHTS OF SEPARATION>with Mr. B., and, young as I was, +I had served as his foreman on the float stage, at calking. Of +course, I easily obtained work, and, at the end of the week-- +which by the way was exceedingly fine I brought Master Hugh +nearly nine dollars. The effect of this mark of returning good +sense, on my part, was excellent. He was very much pleased; he +took the money, commended me, and told me I might have done the +same thing the week before. It is a blessed thing that the +tyrant may not always know the thoughts and purposes of his +victim. Master Hugh little knew what my plans were. The going +to camp-meeting without asking his permission--the insolent +answers made to his reproaches--the sulky deportment the week +after being deprived of the privilege of hiring my time--had +awakened in him the suspicion that I might be cherishing disloyal +purposes. My object, therefore, in working steadily, was to +remove suspicion, and in this I succeeded admirably. He probably +thought I was never better satisfied with my condition, than at +the very time I was planning my escape. The second week passed, +and again I carried him my full week's wages--_nine dollars;_ and +so well pleased was he, that he gave me TWENTY-FIVE CENTS! and +"bade me make good use of it!" I told him I would, for one of +the uses to which I meant to put it, was to pay my fare on the +underground railroad. + +Things without went on as usual; but I was passing through the +same internal excitement and anxiety which I had experienced two +years and a half before. The failure, in that instance, was not +calculated to increase my confidence in the success of this, my +second attempt; and I knew that a second failure could not leave +me where my first did--I must either get to the _far north_, or +be sent to the _far south_. Besides the exercise of mind from +this state of facts, I had the painful sensation of being about +to separate from a circle of honest and warm hearted friends, in +Baltimore. The thought of such a separation, where the hope of +ever meeting again is excluded, and where there can be no +correspondence, is very painful. It is my opinion, that +thousands would escape from <258>slavery who now remain there, +but for the strong cords of affection that bind them to their +families, relatives and friends. The daughter is hindered from +escaping, by the love she bears her mother, and the father, by +the love he bears his children; and so, to the end of the +chapter. I had no relations in Baltimore, and I saw no +probability of ever living in the neighborhood of sisters and +brothers; but the thought of leaving my friends, was among the +strongest obstacles to my running away. The last two days of the +week--Friday and Saturday--were spent mostly in collecting my +things together, for my journey. Having worked four days that +week, for my master, I handed him six dollars, on Saturday night. +I seldom spent my Sundays at home; and, for fear that something +might be discovered in my conduct, I kept up my custom, and +absented myself all day. On Monday, the third day of September, +1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to the +city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my +abhorrence from childhood. + +How I got away--in what direction I traveled--whether by land or +by water; whether with or without assistance--must, for reasons +already mentioned, remain unexplained. + + +LIFE +_as a_ +FREEMAN + +CHAPTER XXII +_Liberty Attained_ + +TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM--A WANDERER IN NEW YORK-- +FEELINGS ON REACHING THAT CITY--AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE MET-- +UNFAVORABLE IMPRESSIONS--LONELINESS AND INSECURITY--APOLOGY FOR +SLAVES WHO RETURN TO THEIR MASTERS--COMPELLED TO TELL MY +CONDITION--SUCCORED BY A SAILOR--DAVID RUGGLES--THE UNDERGROUND +RAILROAD--MARRIAGE--BAGGAGE TAKEN FROM ME--KINDNESS OF NATHAN +JOHNSON--MY CHANGE OF NAME--DARK NOTIONS OF NORTHERN +CIVILIZATION--THE CONTRAST--COLORED PEOPLE IN NEW BEDFORD--AN +INCIDENT ILLUSTRATING THEIR SPIRIT--A COMMON LABORER--DENIED WORK +AT MY TRADE--THE FIRST WINTER AT THE NORTH--REPULSE AT THE DOORS +OF THE CHURCH--SANCTIFIED HATE--THE _Liberator_ AND ITS EDITOR. + + +There is no necessity for any extended notice of the incidents of +this part of my life. There is nothing very striking or peculiar +about my career as a freeman, when viewed apart from my life as a +slave. The relation subsisting between my early experience and +that which I am now about to narrate, is, perhaps, my best +apology for adding another chapter to this book. + +Disappearing from the kind reader, in a flying cloud or balloon +(pardon the figure), driven by the wind, and knowing not where I +should land--whether in slavery or in freedom--it is proper that +I should remove, at once, all anxiety, by frankly making known +where I alighted. The flight was a bold and perilous one; but +here I am, in the great city of New York, safe and sound, without +loss of blood or bone. In less than a week after leaving +Baltimore, I was walking amid the hurrying throng, and gazing +upon the dazzling wonders of Broadway. The dreams <262>of my +childhood and the purposes of my manhood were now fulfilled. A +free state around me, and a free earth under my feet! What a +moment was this to me! A whole year was pressed into a single +day. A new world burst upon my agitated vision. I have often +been asked, by kind friends to whom I have told my story, how I +felt when first I found myself beyond the limits of slavery; and +I must say here, as I have often said to them, there is scarcely +anything about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. +It was a moment of joyous excitement, which no words can +describe. In a letter to a friend, written soon after reaching +New York. I said I felt as one might be supposed to feel, on +escaping from a den of hungry lions. But, in a moment like that, +sensations are too intense and too rapid for words. Anguish and +grief, like darkness and rain, may be described, but joy and +gladness, like the rainbow of promise, defy alike the pen and +pencil. + +For ten or fifteen years I had been dragging a heavy chain, with +a huge block attached to it, cumbering my every motion. I had +felt myself doomed to drag this chain and this block through +life. All efforts, before, to separate myself from the hateful +encumbrance, had only seemed to rivet me the more firmly to it. +Baffled and discouraged at times, I had asked myself the +question, May not this, after all, be God's work? May He not, +for wise ends, have doomed me to this lot? A contest had been +going on in my mind for years, between the clear consciousness of +right and the plausible errors of superstition; between the +wisdom of manly courage, and the foolish weakness of timidity. +The contest was now ended; the chain was severed; God and right +stood vindicated. I was A FREEMAN, and the voice of peace and +joy thrilled my heart. + +Free and joyous, however, as I was, joy was not the only +sensation I experienced. It was like the quick blaze, beautiful +at the first, but which subsiding, leaves the building charred +and desolate. I was soon taught that I was still in an enemy's +land. A sense of loneliness and insecurity oppressed me sadly. +I had <263 MEET WITH A FUGITIVE SLAVE>been but a few hours in New +York, before I was met in the streets by a fugitive slave, well +known to me, and the information I got from him respecting New +York, did nothing to lessen my apprehension of danger. The +fugitive in question was "Allender's Jake," in Baltimore; but, +said he, I am "WILLIAM DIXON," in New York! I knew Jake well, +and knew when Tolly Allender and Mr. Price (for the latter +employed Master Hugh as his foreman, in his shipyard on Fell's +Point) made an attempt to recapture Jake, and failed. Jake told +me all about his circumstances, and how narrowly he escaped being +taken back to slavery; that the city was now full of southerners, +returning from the springs; that the black people in New York +were not to be trusted; that there were hired men on the lookout +for fugitives from slavery, and who, for a few dollars, would +betray me into the hands of the slave-catchers; that I must trust +no man with my secret; that I must not think of going either on +the wharves to work, or to a boarding-house to board; and, worse +still, this same Jake told me it was not in his power to help me. +He seemed, even while cautioning me, to be fearing lest, after +all, I might be a party to a second attempt to recapture him. +Under the inspiration of this thought, I must suppose it was, he +gave signs of a wish to get rid of me, and soon left me his +whitewash brush in hand--as he said, for his work. He was soon +lost to sight among the throng, and I was alone again, an easy +prey to the kidnappers, if any should happen to be on my track. + +New York, seventeen years ago, was less a place of safety for a +runaway slave than now, and all know how unsafe it now is, under +the new fugitive slave bill. I was much troubled. I had very +little money enough to buy me a few loaves of bread, but not +enough to pay board, outside a lumber yard. I saw the wisdom of +keeping away from the ship yards, for if Master Hugh pursued me, +he would naturally expect to find me looking for work among the +calkers. For a time, every door seemed closed against me. A +sense of my loneliness and helplessness crept over me, <264>and +covered me with something bordering on despair. In the midst of +thousands of my fellowmen, and yet a perfect stranger! In the +midst of human brothers, and yet more fearful of them than of +hungry wolves! I was without home, without friends, without +work, without money, and without any definite knowledge of which +way to go, or where to look for succor. + +Some apology can easily be made for the few slaves who have, +after making good their escape, turned back to slavery, +preferring the actual rule of their masters, to the life of +loneliness, apprehension, hunger, and anxiety, which meets them +on their first arrival in a free state. It is difficult for a +freeman to enter into the feelings of such fugitives. He cannot +see things in the same light with the slave, because he does not, +and cannot, look from the same point from which the slave does. +"Why do you tremble," he says to the slave "you are in a free +state;" but the difficulty is, in realizing that he is in a free +state, the slave might reply. A freeman cannot understand why +the slave-master's shadow is bigger, to the slave, than the might +and majesty of a free state; but when he reflects that the slave +knows more about the slavery of his master than he does of the +might and majesty of the free state, he has the explanation. The +slave has been all his life learning the power of his master-- +being trained to dread his approach--and only a few hours +learning the power of the state. The master is to him a stern +and flinty reality, but the state is little more than a dream. +He has been accustomed to regard every white man as the friend of +his master, and every colored man as more or less under the +control of his master's friends--the white people. It takes +stout nerves to stand up, in such circumstances. A man, +homeless, shelterless, breadless, friendless, and moneyless, is +not in a condition to assume a very proud or joyous tone; and in +just this condition was I, while wandering about the streets of +New York city and lodging, at least one night, among the barrels +on one of its wharves. I was not only free from slavery, but I +was free from home, as well. The reader <265 MARRIAGE>will +easily see that I had something more than the simple fact of +being free to think of, in this extremity. + +I kept my secret as long as I could, and at last was forced to go +in search of an honest man--a man sufficiently _human_ not to +betray me into the hands of slave-catchers. I was not a bad +reader of the human face, nor long in selecting the right man, +when once compelled to disclose the facts of my condition to some +one. + +I found my man in the person of one who said his name was +Stewart. He was a sailor, warm-hearted and generous, and he +listened to my story with a brother's interest. I told him I was +running for my freedom--knew not where to go--money almost gone-- +was hungry--thought it unsafe to go the shipyards for work, and +needed a friend. Stewart promptly put me in the way of getting +out of my trouble. He took me to his house, and went in search +of the late David Ruggles, who was then the secretary of the New +York Vigilance Committee, and a very active man in all anti- +slavery works. Once in the hands of Mr. Ruggles, I was +comparatively safe. I was hidden with Mr. Ruggles several days. +In the meantime, my intended wife, Anna, came on from Baltimore-- +to whom I had written, informing her of my safe arrival at New +York--and, in the presence of Mrs. Mitchell and Mr. Ruggles, we +were married, by Rev. James W. C. Pennington. + +Mr. Ruggles[7] was the first officer on the under-ground railroad +with whom I met after reaching the north, and, indeed, the first +of whom I ever heard anything. Learning that I was a calker by +trade, he promptly decided that New Bedford was the proper + +[7] He was a whole-souled man, fully imbued with a love of his +afflicted and hunted people, and took pleasure in being to me, as +was his wont, "Eyes to the blind, and legs to the lame." This +brave and devoted man suffered much from the persecutions common +to all who have been prominent benefactors. He at last became +blind, and needed a friend to guide him, even as he had been a +guide to others. Even in his blindness, he exhibited his manly +character. In search of health, he became a physician. When +hope of gaining is{sic} own was gone, he had hope for others. +Believing in hydropathy, he established, at Northampton, +Massachusetts, a large _"Water Cure,"_ and became one of the most +successful of all engaged in that mode of treatment. + + +<266>place to send me. "Many ships," said he, "are there fitted +out for the whaling business, and you may there find work at your +trade, and make a good living." Thus, in one fortnight after my +flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford, regularly +entered upon the exercise of the rights, responsibilities, and +duties of a freeman. + +I may mention a little circumstance which annoyed me on reaching +New Bedford. I had not a cent of money, and lacked two dollars +toward paying our fare from Newport, and our baggage not very +costly--was taken by the stage driver, and held until I could +raise the money to redeem it. This difficulty was soon +surmounted. Mr. Nathan Johnson, to whom we had a line from Mr. +Ruggles, not only received us kindly and hospitably, but, on +being informed about our baggage, promptly loaned me two dollars +with which to redeem my little property. I shall ever be deeply +grateful, both to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson, for the lively +interest they were pleased to take in me, in this hour of my +extremest need. They not only gave myself and wife bread and +shelter, but taught us how to begin to secure those benefits for +ourselves. Long may they live, and may blessings attend them in +this life and in that which is to come! + +Once initiated into the new life of freedom, and assured by Mr. +Johnson that New Bedford was a safe place, the comparatively +unimportant matter, as to what should be my name, came up for +considertion{sic}. It was necessary to have a name in my new +relations. The name given me by my beloved mother was no less +pretentious than "Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey." I had, +however, before leaving Maryland, dispensed with the _Augustus +Washington_, and retained the name _Frederick Bailey_. Between +Baltimore and New Bedford, however, I had several different +names, the better to avoid being overhauled by the hunters, which +I had good reason to believe would be put on my track. Among +honest men an honest man may well be content with one name, and +to acknowledge it at all times and in all <267 CHANGE OF +NAME>places; but toward fugitives, Americans are not honest. +When I arrived at New Bedford, my name was Johnson; and finding +that the Johnson family in New Bedford were already quite +numerous--sufficiently so to produce some confusion in attempts +to distinguish one from another--there was the more reason for +making another change in my name. In fact, "Johnson" had been +assumed by nearly every slave who had arrived in New Bedford from +Maryland, and this, much to the annoyance of the original +"Johnsons" (of whom there were many) in that place. Mine host, +unwilling to have another of his own name added to the community +in this unauthorized way, after I spent a night and a day at his +house, gave me my present name. He had been reading the "Lady of +the Lake," and was pleased to regard me as a suitable person to +wear this, one of Scotland's many famous names. Considering the +noble hospitality and manly character of Nathan Johnson, I have +felt that he, better than I, illustrated the virtues of the great +Scottish chief. Sure I am, that had any slave-catcher entered +his domicile, with a view to molest any one of his household, he +would have shown himself like him of the "stalwart hand." + +The reader will be amused at my ignorance, when I tell the +notions I had of the state of northern wealth, enterprise, and +civilization. Of wealth and refinement, I supposed the north had +none. My _Columbian Orator_, which was almost my only book, had +not done much to enlighten me concerning northern society. The +impressions I had received were all wide of the truth. New +Bedford, especially, took me by surprise, in the solid wealth and +grandeur there exhibited. I had formed my notions respecting the +social condition of the free states, by what I had seen and known +of free, white, non-slaveholding people in the slave states. +Regarding slavery as the basis of wealth, I fancied that no +people could become very wealthy without slavery. A free white +man, holding no slaves, in the country, I had known to be the +most ignorant and poverty-stricken of men, and the laugh<268>ing +stock even of slaves themselves--called generally by them, in +derision, _"poor white trash_." Like the non-slaveholders at the +south, in holding no slaves, I suppose the northern people like +them, also, in poverty and degradation. Judge, then, of my +amazement and joy, when I found--as I did find--the very laboring +population of New Bedford living in better houses, more elegantly +furnished--surrounded by more comfort and refinement--than a +majority of the slaveholders on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. +There was my friend, Mr. Johnson, himself a colored man (who at +the south would have been regarded as a proper marketable +commodity), who lived in a better house--dined at a richer +board--was the owner of more books--the reader of more +newspapers--was more conversant with the political and social +condition of this nation and the world--than nine-tenths of all +the slaveholders of Talbot county, Maryland. Yet Mr. Johnson was +a working man, and his hands were hardened by honest toil. Here, +then, was something for observation and study. Whence the +difference? The explanation was soon furnished, in the +superiority of mind over simple brute force. Many pages might be +given to the contrast, and in explanation of its causes. But an +incident or two will suffice to show the reader as to how the +mystery gradually vanished before me. + +My first afternoon, on reaching New Bedford, was spent in +visiting the wharves and viewing the shipping. The sight of the +broad brim and the plain, Quaker dress, which met me at every +turn, greatly increased my sense of freedom and security. "I am +among the Quakers," thought I, "and am safe." Lying at the +wharves and riding in the stream, were full-rigged ships of +finest model, ready to start on whaling voyages. Upon the right +and the left, I was walled in by large granite-fronted +warehouses, crowded with the good things of this world. On the +wharves, I saw industry without bustle, labor without noise, and +heavy toil without the whip. There was no loud singing, as in +southern ports, where ships are loading or unloading--no loud +cursing or swear<269 THE CONTRAST>ing--but everything went on as +smoothly as the works of a well adjusted machine. How different +was all this from the nosily fierce and clumsily absurd manner of +labor-life in Baltimore and St. Michael's! One of the first +incidents which illustrated the superior mental character of +northern labor over that of the south, was the manner of +unloading a ship's cargo of oil. In a southern port, twenty or +thirty hands would have been employed to do what five or six did +here, with the aid of a single ox attached to the end of a fall. +Main strength, unassisted by skill, is slavery's method of labor. +An old ox, worth eighty dollars, was doing, in New Bedford, what +would have required fifteen thousand dollars worth of human bones +and muscles to have performed in a southern port. I found that +everything was done here with a scrupulous regard to economy, +both in regard to men and things, time and strength. The maid +servant, instead of spending at least a tenth part of her time in +bringing and carrying water, as in Baltimore, had the pump at her +elbow. The wood was dry, and snugly piled away for winter. +Woodhouses, in-door pumps, sinks, drains, self-shutting gates, +washing machines, pounding barrels, were all new things, and told +me that I was among a thoughtful and sensible people. To the +ship-repairing dock I went, and saw the same wise prudence. The +carpenters struck where they aimed, and the calkers wasted no +blows in idle flourishes of the mallet. I learned that men went +from New Bedford to Baltimore, and bought old ships, and brought +them here to repair, and made them better and more valuable than +they ever were before. Men talked here of going whaling on a +four _years'_ voyage with more coolness than sailors where I came +from talked of going a four _months'_ voyage. + +I now find that I could have landed in no part of the United +States, where I should have found a more striking and gratifying +contrast to the condition of the free people of color in +Baltimore, than I found here in New Bedford. No colored man is +really free in a slaveholding state. He wears the badge of +bondage while <270>nominally free, and is often subjected to +hardships to which the slave is a stranger; but here in New +Bedford, it was my good fortune to see a pretty near approach to +freedom on the part of the colored people. I was taken all aback +when Mr. Johnson--who lost no time in making me acquainted with +the fact--told me that there was nothing in the constitution of +Massachusetts to prevent a colored man from holding any office in +the state. There, in New Bedford, the black man's children-- +although anti-slavery was then far from popular--went to school +side by side with the white children, and apparently without +objection from any quarter. To make me at home, Mr. Johnson +assured me that no slaveholder could take a slave from New +Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their +lives, before such an outrage could be perpetrated. The colored +people themselves were of the best metal, and would fight for +liberty to the death. + +Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, I was told the following +story, which was said to illustrate the spirit of the colored +people in that goodly town: A colored man and a fugitive slave +happened to have a little quarrel, and the former was heard to +threaten the latter with informing his master of his whereabouts. +As soon as this threat became known, a notice was read from the +desk of what was then the only colored church in the place, +stating that business of importance was to be then and there +transacted. Special measures had been taken to secure the +attendance of the would-be Judas, and had proved successful. +Accordingly, at the hour appointed, the people came, and the +betrayer also. All the usual formalities of public meetings were +scrupulously gone through, even to the offering prayer for Divine +direction in the duties of the occasion. The president himself +performed this part of the ceremony, and I was told that he was +unusually fervent. Yet, at the close of his prayer, the old man +(one of the numerous family of Johnsons) rose from his knees, +deliberately surveyed his audience, and then said, in a tone of +solemn resolution, _"Well, friends, we have got him here, and I +would now_ <271 COLORED PEOPLE IN NEW BEDFORD>_recommend that you +young men should just take him outside the door and kill him."_ +With this, a large body of the congregation, who well understood +the business they had come there to transact, made a rush at the +villain, and doubtless would have killed him, had he not availed +himself of an open sash, and made good his escape. He has never +shown his head in New Bedford since that time. This little +incident is perfectly characteristic of the spirit of the colored +people in New Bedford. A slave could not be taken from that town +seventeen years ago, any more than he could be so taken away now. +The reason is, that the colored people in that city are educated +up to the point of fighting for their freedom, as well as +speaking for it. + +Once assured of my safety in New Bedford, I put on the +habiliments of a common laborer, and went on the wharf in search +of work. I had no notion of living on the honest and generous +sympathy of my colored brother, Johnson, or that of the +abolitionists. My cry was like that of Hood's laborer, "Oh! only +give me work." Happily for me, I was not long in searching. I +found employment, the third day after my arrival in New Bedford, +in stowing a sloop with a load of oil for the New York market. +It was new, hard, and dirty work, even for a calker, but I went +at it with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was now my own +master--a tremendous fact--and the rapturous excitement with +which I seized the job, may not easily be understood, except by +some one with an experience like mine. The thoughts--"I can +work! I can work for a living; I am not afraid of work; I have +no Master Hugh to rob me of my earnings"--placed me in a state of +independence, beyond seeking friendship or support of any man. +That day's work I considered the real starting point of something +like a new existence. Having finished this job and got my pay +for the same, I went next in pursuit of a job at calking. It so +happened that Mr. Rodney French, late mayor of the city of New +Bedford, had a ship fitting out for sea, and to which there was a +large job of calking and coppering to be done. I applied to that +<272>noblehearted man for employment, and he promptly told me to +go to work; but going on the float-stage for the purpose, I was +informed that every white man would leave the ship if I struck a +blow upon her. "Well, well," thought I, "this is a hardship, but +yet not a very serious one for me." The difference between the +wages of a calker and that of a common day laborer, was an +hundred per cent in favor of the former; but then I was free, and +free to work, though not at my trade. I now prepared myself to +do anything which came to hand in the way of turning an honest +penny; sawed wood--dug cellars--shoveled coal--swept chimneys +with Uncle Lucas Debuty--rolled oil casks on the wharves--helped +to load and unload vessels--worked in Ricketson's candle works-- +in Richmond's brass foundery, and elsewhere; and thus supported +myself and family for three years. + +The first winter was unusually severe, in consequence of the high +prices of food; but even during that winter we probably suffered +less than many who had been free all their lives. During the +hardest of the winter, I hired out for nine dolars{sic} a month; +and out of this rented two rooms for nine dollars per quarter, +and supplied my wife--who was unable to work--with food and some +necessary articles of furniture. We were closely pinched to +bring our wants within our means; but the jail stood over the +way, and I had a wholesome dread of the consequences of running +in debt. This winter past, and I was up with the times--got +plenty of work--got well paid for it--and felt that I had not +done a foolish thing to leave Master Hugh and Master Thomas. I +was now living in a new world, and was wide awake to its +advantages. I early began to attend the meetings of the colored +people of New Bedford, and to take part in them. I was somewhat +amazed to see colored men drawing up resolutions and offering +them for consideration. Several colored young men of New +Bedford, at that period, gave promise of great usefulness. They +were educated, and possessed what seemed to me, at the time, very +superior talents. Some of them have been cut down by death, and +<273 THE CHURCH>others have removed to different parts of the +world, and some remain there now, and justify, in their present +activities, my early impressions of them. + +Among my first concerns on reaching New Bedford, was to become +united with the church, for I had never given up, in reality, my +religious faith. I had become lukewarm and in a backslidden +state, but I was still convinced that it was my duty to join the +Methodist church. I was not then aware of the powerful influence +of that religious body in favor of the enslavement of my race, +nor did I see how the northern churches could be responsible for +the conduct of southern churches; neither did I fully understand +how it could be my duty to remain separate from the church, +because bad men were connected with it. The slaveholding church, +with its Coveys, Weedens, Aulds, and Hopkins, I could see through +at once, but I could not see how Elm Street church, in New +Bedford, could be regarded as sanctioning the Christianity of +these characters in the church at St. Michael's. I therefore +resolved to join the Methodist church in New Bedford, and to +enjoy the spiritual advantage of public worship. The minister of +the Elm Street Methodist church, was the Rev. Mr. Bonney; and +although I was not allowed a seat in the body of the house, and +was proscribed on account of my color, regarding this +proscription simply as an accommodation of the uncoverted +congregation who had not yet been won to Christ and his +brotherhood, I was willing thus to be proscribed, lest sinners +should be driven away form the saving power of the gospel. Once +converted, I thought they would be sure to treat me as a man and +a brother. "Surely," thought I, "these Christian people have +none of this feeling against color. They, at least, have +renounced this unholy feeling." Judge, then, dear reader, of my +astonishment and mortification, when I found, as soon I did find, +all my charitable assumptions at fault. + +An opportunity was soon afforded me for ascertaining the exact +position of Elm Street church on that subject. I had a chance of +seeing the religious part of the congregation by themselves; and +<274>although they disowned, in effect, their black brothers and +sisters, before the world, I did think that where none but the +saints were assembled, and no offense could be given to the +wicked, and the gospel could not be "blamed," they would +certainly recognize us as children of the same Father, and heirs +of the same salvation, on equal terms with themselves. + +The occasion to which I refer, was the sacrament of the Lord's +Supper, that most sacred and most solemn of all the ordinances of +the Christian church. Mr. Bonney had preached a very solemn and +searching discourse, which really proved him to be acquainted +with the inmost secerts{sic} of the human heart. At the close of +his discourse, the congregation was dismissed, and the church +remained to partake of the sacrament. I remained to see, as I +thought, this holy sacrament celebrated in the spirit of its +great Founder. + +There were only about a half dozen colored members attached to +the Elm Street church, at this time. After the congregation was +dismissed, these descended from the gallery, and took a seat +against the wall most distant from the altar. Brother Bonney was +very animated, and sung very sweetly, "Salvation 'tis a joyful +sound," and soon began to administer the sacrament. I was +anxious to observe the bearing of the colored members, and the +result was most humiliating. During the whole ceremony, they +looked like sheep without a shepherd. The white members went +forward to the altar by the bench full; and when it was evident +that all the whites had been served with the bread and wine, +Brother Bonney--pious Brother Bonney--after a long pause, as if +inquiring whether all the whites members had been served, and +fully assuring himself on that important point, then raised his +voice to an unnatural pitch, and looking to the corner where his +black sheep seemed penned, beckoned with his hand, exclaiming, +"Come forward, colored friends! come forward! You, too, have an +interest in the blood of Christ. God is no respecter of persons. +Come forward, and take this holy sacrament to your <275 THE +SACRAMENT>comfort." The colored members poor, slavish souls went +forward, as invited. I went out, and have never been in that +church since, although I honestly went there with a view to +joining that body. I found it impossible to respect the +religious profession of any who were under the dominion of this +wicked prejudice, and I could not, therefore, feel that in +joining them, I was joining a Christian church, at all. I tried +other churches in New Bedford, with the same result, and finally, +I attached myself to a small body of colored Methodists, known as +the Zion Methodists. Favored with the affection and confidence +of the members of this humble communion, I was soon made a +classleader and a local preacher among them. Many seasons of +peace and joy I experienced among them, the remembrance of which +is still precious, although I could not see it to be my duty to +remain with that body, when I found that it consented to the same +spirit which held my brethren in chains. + +In four or five months after reaching New Bedford, there came a +young man to me, with a copy of the _Liberator_, the paper edited +by WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, and published by ISAAC KNAPP, and +asked me to subscribe for it. I told him I had but just escaped +from slavery, and was of course very poor, and remarked further, +that I was unable to pay for it then; the agent, however, very +willingly took me as a subscriber, and appeared to be much +pleased with securing my name to his list. From this time I was +brought in contact with the mind of William Lloyd Garrison. His +paper took its place with me next to the bible. + +The _Liberator_ was a paper after my own heart. It detested +slavery exposed hypocrisy and wickedness in high places--made no +truce with the traffickers in the bodies and souls of men; it +preached human brotherhood, denounced oppression, and, with all +the solemnity of God's word, demanded the complete emancipation +of my race. I not only liked--I _loved_ this paper, and its +editor. He seemed a match for all the oponents{sic} of +emancipation, whether they spoke in the name of the law, or the +gospel. <276>His words were few, full of holy fire, and straight +to the point. Learning to love him, through his paper, I was +prepared to be pleased with his presence. Something of a hero +worshiper, by nature, here was one, on first sight, to excite my +love and reverence. + +Seventeen years ago, few men possessed a more heavenly +countenance than William Lloyd Garrison, and few men evinced a +more genuine or a more exalted piety. The bible was his text +book--held sacred, as the word of the Eternal Father--sinless +perfection--complete submission to insults and injuries--literal +obedience to the injunction, if smitten on one side to turn the +other also. Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all days were +Sabbaths, and to be kept holy. All sectarism false and +mischievous--the regenerated, throughout the world, members of +one body, and the HEAD Christ Jesus. Prejudice against color was +rebellion against God. Of all men beneath the sky, the slaves, +because most neglected and despised, were nearest and dearest to +his great heart. Those ministers who defended slavery from the +bible, were of their "father the devil"; and those churches which +fellowshiped slaveholders as Christians, were synagogues of +Satan, and our nation was a nation of liars. Never loud or +noisy--calm and serene as a summer sky, and as pure. "You are +the man, the Moses, raised up by God, to deliver his modern +Israel from bondage," was the spontaneous feeling of my heart, as +I sat away back in the hall and listened to his mighty words; +mighty in truth--mighty in their simple earnestness. + +I had not long been a reader of the _Liberator_, and listener to +its editor, before I got a clear apprehension of the principles +of the anti-slavery movement. I had already the spirit of the +movement, and only needed to understand its principles and +measures. These I got from the _Liberator_, and from those who +believed in that paper. My acquaintance with the movement +increased my hope for the ultimate freedom of my race, and I +united with it from a sense of delight, as well as duty. +<277 THE _Liberator_> + +Every week the _Liberator_ came, and every week I made myself +master of its contents. All the anti-slavery meetings held in +New Bedford I promptly attended, my heart burning at every true +utterance against the slave system, and every rebuke of its +friends and supporters. Thus passed the first three years of my +residence in New Bedford. I had not then dreamed of the +posibility{sic} of my becoming a public advocate of the cause so +deeply imbedded in my heart. It was enough for me to listen--to +receive and applaud the great words of others, and only whisper +in private, among the white laborers on the wharves, and +elsewhere, the truths which burned in my breast. + + +CHAPTER XXIII +_Introduced to the Abolitionists_ + +FIRST SPEECH AT NANTUCKET--MUCH SENSATION--EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH +OF MR. GARRISON--AUTHOR BECOMES A PUBLIC LECTURER--FOURTEEN YEARS +EXPERIENCE--YOUTHFUL ENTHUSIASM--A BRAND NEW FACT--MATTER OF MY +AUTHOR'S SPEECH--COULD NOT FOLLOW THE PROGRAMME--FUGITIVE +SLAVESHIP DOUBTED--TO SETTLE ALL DOUBT I WRITE MY EXPERIENCE OF +SLAVERY--DANGER OF RECAPTURE INCREASED. + + +In the summer of 1841, a grand anti-slavery convention was held +in Nantucket, under the auspices of Mr. Garrison and his friends. +Until now, I had taken no holiday since my escape from slavery. +Having worked very hard that spring and summer, in Richmond's +brass foundery--sometimes working all night as well as all day-- +and needing a day or two of rest, I attended this convention, +never supposing that I should take part in the proceedings. +Indeed, I was not aware that any one connected with the +convention even so much as knew my name. I was, however, quite +mistaken. Mr. William C. Coffin, a prominent abolitionst{sic} in +those days of trial, had heard me speaking to my colored friends, +in the little school house on Second street, New Bedford, where +we worshiped. He sought me out in the crowd, and invited me to +say a few words to the convention. Thus sought out, and thus +invited, I was induced to speak out the feelings inspired by the +occasion, and the fresh recollection of the scenes through which +I had passed as a slave. My speech on this occasion is about the +only one I ever made, of which I do not remember a single +connected sentence. It was <279 EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH OF MR. +GARRISON>with the utmost difficulty that I could stand erect, or +that I could command and articulate two words without hesitation +and stammering. I trembled in every limb. I am not sure that my +embarrassment was not the most effective part of my speech, if +speech it could be called. At any rate, this is about the only +part of my performance that I now distinctly remember. But +excited and convulsed as I was, the audience, though remarkably +quiet before, became as much excited as myself. Mr. Garrison +followed me, taking me as his text; and now, whether I had made +an eloquent speech in behalf of freedom or not, his was one never +to be forgotten by those who heard it. Those who had heard Mr. +Garrison oftenest, and had known him longest, were astonished. +It was an effort of unequaled power, sweeping down, like a very +tornado, every opposing barrier, whether of sentiment or opinion. +For a moment, he possessed that almost fabulous inspiration, +often referred to but seldom attained, in which a public meeting +is transformed, as it were, into a single individuality--the +orator wielding a thousand heads and hearts at once, and by the +simple majesty of his all controlling thought, converting his +hearers into the express image of his own soul. That night there +were at least one thousand Garrisonians in Nantucket! A{sic} the +close of this great meeting, I was duly waited on by Mr. John A. +Collins--then the general agent of the Massachusetts anti-slavery +society--and urgently solicited by him to become an agent of that +society, and to publicly advocate its anti-slavery principles. I +was reluctant to take the proffered position. I had not been +quite three years from slavery--was honestly distrustful of my +ability--wished to be excused; publicity exposed me to discovery +and arrest by my master; and other objections came up, but Mr. +Collins was not to be put off, and I finally consented to go out +for three months, for I supposed that I should have got to the +end of my story and my usefulness, in that length of time. + +Here opened upon me a new life a life for which I had had no +preparation. I was a "graduate from the peculiar institution," +<280>Mr. Collins used to say, when introducing me, _"with my +diploma written on my back!"_ The three years of my freedom had +been spent in the hard school of adversity. My hands had been +furnished by nature with something like a solid leather coating, +and I had bravely marked out for myself a life of rough labor, +suited to the hardness of my hands, as a means of supporting +myself and rearing my children. + +Now what shall I say of this fourteen years' experience as a +public advocate of the cause of my enslaved brothers and sisters? +The time is but as a speck, yet large enough to justify a pause +for retrospection--and a pause it must only be. + +Young, ardent, and hopeful, I entered upon this new life in the +full gush of unsuspecting enthusiasm. The cause was good; the +men engaged in it were good; the means to attain its triumph, +good; Heaven's blessing must attend all, and freedom must soon be +given to the pining millions under a ruthless bondage. My whole +heart went with the holy cause, and my most fervent prayer to the +Almighty Disposer of the hearts of men, were continually offered +for its early triumph. "Who or what," thought I, "can withstand +a cause so good, so holy, so indescribably glorious. The God of +Israel is with us. The might of the Eternal is on our side. Now +let but the truth be spoken, and a nation will start forth at the +sound!" In this enthusiastic spirit, I dropped into the ranks of +freedom's friends, and went forth to the battle. For a time I +was made to forget that my skin was dark and my hair crisped. +For a time I regretted that I could not have shared the hardships +and dangers endured by the earlier workers for the slave's +release. I soon, however, found that my enthusiasm had been +extravagant; that hardships and dangers were not yet passed; and +that the life now before me, had shadows as well as sunbeams. + +Among the first duties assigned me, on entering the ranks, was to +travel, in company with Mr. George Foster, to secure subscribers +to the _Anti-slavery Standard_ and the _Liberator_. With <281 +MATTER OF THE SPEECH>him I traveled and lectured through the +eastern counties of Massachusetts. Much interest was awakened-- +large meetings assembled. Many came, no doubt, from curiosity to +hear what a Negro could say in his own cause. I was generally +introduced as a _"chattel"--_a_"thing"_--a piece of southern +_"property"_--the chairman assuring the audience that _it_ could +speak. Fugitive slaves, at that time, were not so plentiful as +now; and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of +being a _"brand new fact"_--the first one out. Up to that time, +a colored man was deemed a fool who confessed himself a runaway +slave, not only because of the danger to which he exposed himself +of being retaken, but because it was a confession of a very _low_ +origin! Some of my colored friends in New Bedford thought very +badly of my wisdom for thus exposing and degrading myself. The +only precaution I took, at the beginning, to prevent Master +Thomas from knowing where I was, and what I was about, was the +withholding my former name, my master's name, and the name of the +state and county from which I came. During the first three or +four months, my speeches were almost exclusively made up of +narrations of my own personal experience as a slave. "Let us +have the facts," said the people. So also said Friend George +Foster, who always wished to pin me down to my simple narrative. +"Give us the facts," said Collins, "we will take care of the +philosophy." Just here arose some embarrassment. It was +impossible for me to repeat the same old story month after month, +and to keep up my interest in it. It was new to the people, it +is true, but it was an old story to me; and to go through with it +night after night, was a task altogether too mechanical for my +nature. "Tell your story, Frederick," would whisper my then +revered friend, William Lloyd Garrison, as I stepped upon the +platform. I could not always obey, for I was now reading and +thinking. New views of the subject were presented to my mind. +It did not entirely satisfy me to _narrate_ wrongs; I felt like +_denouncing_ them. I could not always curb my moral indignation +<282>for the perpetrators of slaveholding villainy, long enough +for a circumstantial statement of the facts which I felt almost +everybody must know. Besides, I was growing, and needed room. +"People won't believe you ever was a slave, Frederick, if you +keep on this way," said Friend Foster. "Be yourself," said +Collins, "and tell your story." It was said to me, "Better have +a _little_ of the plantation manner of speech than not; 'tis not +best that you seem too learned." These excellent friends were +actuated by the best of motives, and were not altogether wrong in +their advice; and still I must speak just the word that seemed to +_me_ the word to be spoken _by_ me. + +At last the apprehended trouble came. People doubted if I had +ever been a slave. They said I did not talk like a slave, look +like a slave, nor act like a slave, and that they believed I had +never been south of Mason and Dixon's line. "He don't tell us +where he came from--what his master's name was--how he got away-- +nor the story of his experience. Besides, he is educated, and +is, in this, a contradiction of all the facts we have concerning +the ignorance of the slaves." Thus, I was in a pretty fair way +to be denounced as an impostor. The committee of the +Massachusetts anti-slavery society knew all the facts in my case, +and agreed with me in the prudence of keeping them private. +They, therefore, never doubted my being a genuine fugitive; but +going down the aisles of the churches in which I spoke, and +hearing the free spoken Yankees saying, repeatedly, _"He's never +been a slave, I'll warrant ye_," I resolved to dispel all doubt, +at no distant day, by such a revelation of facts as could not be +made by any other than a genuine fugitive. + +In a little less than four years, therefore, after becoming a +public lecturer, I was induced to write out the leading facts +connected with my experience in slavery, giving names of persons, +places, and dates--thus putting it in the power of any who +doubted, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of my story of being +a fugitive slave. This statement soon became known in Maryland, +<283 DANGER OF RECAPTURE>and I had reason to believe that an +effort would be made to recapture me. + +It is not probable that any open attempt to secure me as a slave +could have succeeded, further than the obtainment, by my master, +of the money value of my bones and sinews. Fortunately for me, +in the four years of my labors in the abolition cause, I had +gained many friends, who would have suffered themselves to be +taxed to almost any extent to save me from slavery. It was felt +that I had committed the double offense of running away, and +exposing the secrets and crimes of slavery and slaveholders. +There was a double motive for seeking my reenslavement--avarice +and vengeance; and while, as I have said, there was little +probability of successful recapture, if attempted openly, I was +constantly in danger of being spirited away, at a moment when my +friends could render me no assistance. In traveling about from +place to place--often alone I was much exposed to this sort of +attack. Any one cherishing the design to betray me, could easily +do so, by simply tracing my whereabouts through the anti-slavery +journals, for my meetings and movements were promptly made known +in advance. My true friends, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips, had +no faith in the power of Massachusetts to protect me in my right +to liberty. Public sentiment and the law, in their opinion, +would hand me over to the tormentors. Mr. Phillips, especially, +considered me in danger, and said, when I showed him the +manuscript of my story, if in my place, he would throw it into +the fire. Thus, the reader will observe, the settling of one +difficulty only opened the way for another; and that though I had +reached a free state, and had attained position for public +usefulness, I ws{sic} still tormented with the liability of +losing my liberty. How this liability was dispelled, will be +related, with other incidents, in the next chapter. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV +_Twenty-One Months in Great Britain_ + + +GOOD ARISING OUT OF UNPROPITIOUS EVENTS--DENIED CABIN PASSAGE-- +PROSCRIPTION TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT--THE HUTCHINSON FAMILY--THE +MOB ON BOARD THE "CAMBRIA"--HAPPY INTRODUCTION TO THE BRITISH +PUBLIC--LETTER ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON--TIME AND +LABORS WHILE ABROAD--FREEDOM PURCHASED--MRS. HENRY RICHARDSON-- +FREE PAPERS--ABOLITIONISTS DISPLEASED WITH THE RANSOM--HOW MY +ENERGIES WERE DIRECTED--RECEPTION SPEECH IN LONDON--CHARACTER OF +THE SPEECH DEFENDED--CIRCUMSTANCES EXPLAINED--CAUSES CONTRIBUTING +TO THE SUCCESS OF MY MISSION--FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND-- +TESTIMONIAL. + + +The allotments of Providence, when coupled with trouble and +anxiety, often conceal from finite vision the wisdom and goodness +in which they are sent; and, frequently, what seemed a harsh and +invidious dispensation, is converted by after experience into a +happy and beneficial arrangement. Thus, the painful liability to +be returned again to slavery, which haunted me by day, and +troubled my dreams by night, proved to be a necessary step in the +path of knowledge and usefulness. The writing of my pamphlet, in +the spring of 1845, endangered my liberty, and led me to seek a +refuge from republican slavery in monarchical England. A rude, +uncultivated fugitive slave was driven, by stern necessity, to +that country to which young American gentlemen go to increase +their stock of knowledge, to seek pleasure, to have their rough, +democratic manners softened by contact with English aristocratic +refinement. On applying for a passage to England, on board the +"Cambria", of the Cunard line, my friend, James N. Buffum, of +<285 PROSCRIPTION TURNED TO GOOD ACCOUNT>Lynn, Massachusetts, was +informed that I could not be received on board as a cabin +passenger. American prejudice against color triumphed over +British liberality and civilization, and erected a color test and +condition for crossing the sea in the cabin of a British vessel. +The insult was keenly felt by my white friends, but to me, it was +common, expected, and therefore, a thing of no great consequence, +whether I went in the cabin or in the steerage. Moreover, I felt +that if I could not go into the first cabin, first-cabin +passengers could come into the second cabin, and the result +justified my anticipations to the fullest extent. Indeed, I soon +found myself an object of more general interest than I wished to +be; and so far from being degraded by being placed in the second +cabin, that part of the ship became the scene of as much pleasure +and refinement, during the voyage, as the cabin itself. The +Hutchinson Family, celebrated vocalists--fellow-passengers--often +came to my rude forecastle deck, and sung their sweetest songs, +enlivening the place with eloquent music, as well as spirited +conversation, during the voyage. In two days after leaving +Boston, one part of the ship was about as free to me as another. +My fellow-passengers not only visited me, but invited me to visit +them, on the saloon deck. My visits there, however, were but +seldom. I preferred to live within my privileges, and keep upon +my own premises. I found this quite as much in accordance with +good policy, as with my own feelings. The effect was, that with +the majority of the passengers, all color distinctions were flung +to the winds, and I found myself treated with every mark of +respect, from the beginning to the end of the voyage, except in a +single instance; and in that, I came near being mobbed, for +complying with an invitation given me by the passengers, and the +captain of the "Cambria," to deliver a lecture on slavery. Our +New Orleans and Georgia passengers were pleased to regard my +lecture as an insult offered to them, and swore I should not +speak. They went so far as to threaten to throw me overboard, +and but for the firmness of Captain Judkins, prob<286>ably would +have (under the inspiration of _slavery_ and _brandy_) attempted +to put their threats into execution. I have no space to describe +this scene, although its tragic and comic peculiarities are well +worth describing. An end was put to the _melee_, by the +captain's calling the ship's company to put the salt water +mobocrats in irons. At this determined order, the gentlemen of +the lash scampered, and for the rest of the voyage conducted +themselves very decorously. + +This incident of the voyage, in two days after landing at +Liverpool, brought me at once before the British public, and that +by no act of my own. The gentlemen so promptly snubbed in their +meditated violence, flew to the press to justify their conduct, +and to denounce me as a worthless and insolent Negro. This +course was even less wise than the conduct it was intended to +sustain; for, besides awakening something like a national +interest in me, and securing me an audience, it brought out +counter statements, and threw the blame upon themselves, which +they had sought to fasten upon me and the gallant captain of the +ship. + +Some notion may be formed of the difference in my feelings and +circumstances, while abroad, from the following extract from one +of a series of letters addressed by me to Mr. Garrison, and +published in the _Liberator_. It was written on the first day of +January, 1846: + + +MY DEAR FRIEND GARRISON: Up to this time, I have given no direct +expression of the views, feelings, and opinions which I have +formed, respecting the character and condition of the people of +this land. I have refrained thus, purposely. I wish to speak +advisedly, and in order to do this, I have waited till, I trust, +experience has brought my opinions to an intelligent maturity. I +have been thus careful, not because I think what I say will have +much effect in shaping the opinions of the world, but because +whatever of influence I may possess, whether little or much, I +wish it to go in the right direction, and according to truth. I +hardly need say that, in speaking of Ireland, I shall be +influenced by no prejudices in favor of America. I think my +circumstances all forbid that. I have no end to serve, no creed +to uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to +none. I have no protection at home, or resting-place abroad. +The land of my birth welcomes me to her shores only as a slave, +and spurns with contempt the idea of treating me differently; so +that I am an outcast from the society of my childhood, and an +outlaw in the <287 LETTER TO GARRISON>land of my birth. "I am a +stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." +That men should be patriotic, is to me perfectly natural; and as +a philosophical fact, I am able to give it an _intellectual_ +recognition. But no further can I go. If ever I had any +patriotism, or any capacity for the feeling, it was whipped out +of me long since, by the lash of the American soul-drivers. + +In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her +bright blue sky, her grand old woods, her fertile fields, her +beautiful rivers, her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. +But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to +mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal +spirit of slaveholding, robbery, and wrong; when I remember that +with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren +are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her +most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged +sisters; I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to +reproach myself that anything could fall from my lips in praise +of such a land. America will not allow her children to love her. +She seems bent on compelling those who would be her warmest +friends, to be her worst enemies. May God give her repentance, +before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my heart. I will +continue to pray, labor, and wait, believing that she cannot +always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the +voice of humanity. + +My opportunities for learning the character and condition of the +people of this land have been very great. I have traveled alm@@ +@@om the Hill of Howth to the Giant's Causeway, and from the +Giant's Causway, to Cape Clear. During these travels, I have met +with much in the chara@@ and condition of the people to approve, +and much to condemn; much that @@thrilled me with pleasure, and +very much that has filled me with pain. I @@ @@t, in this +letter, attempt to give any description of those scenes which +have given me pain. This I will do hereafter. I have enough, +and more than your subscribers will be disposed to read at one +time, of the bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have +spent some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in +this country. I seem to have undergone a transformation. I live +a new life. The warm and generous cooperation extended to me by +the friends of my despised race; the prompt and liberal manner +with which the press has rendered me its aid; the glorious +enthusiasm with which thousands have flocked to hear the cruel +wrongs of my down-trodden and long-enslaved fellow-countrymen +portrayed; the deep sympathy for the slave, and the strong +abhorrence of the slaveholder, everywhere evinced; the cordiality +with which members and ministers of various religious bodies, and +of various shades of religious opinion, have embraced me, and +lent me their aid; the kind of hospitality constantly proffered +to me by persons of the highest rank in society; the spirit of +freedom that seems to animate all with whom I come in contact, +and the entire absence of everything that looked like prejudice +against me, on account of the color of my skin--contrasted so +strongly with my long and bitter experience in the United States, +that I look with wonder and amazement on the transition. In the +southern part of the United States, I was a slave, thought of +<288>and spoken of as property; in the language of the LAW, +"_held, taken, reputed, and adjudged to be a chattel in the hands +of my owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, +and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes +whatsoever_." (Brev. Digest, 224). In the northern states, a +fugitive slave, liable to be hunted at any moment, like a felon, +and to be hurled into the terrible jaws of slavery--doomed by an +inveterate prejudice against color to insult and outrage on every +hand (Massachusetts out of the question)--denied the privileges +and courtesies common to others in the use of the most humble +means of conveyance--shut out from the cabins on steamboats-- +refused admission to respectable hotels--caricatured, scorned, +scoffed, mocked, and maltreated with impunity by any one (no +matter how black his heart), so he has a white skin. But now +behold the change! Eleven days and a half gone, and I have +crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a +democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. +Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the +soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the +chattel becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will +question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an +insult. I employ a cab--I am seated beside white people--I reach +the hotel--I enter the same door--I am shown into the same +parlor--I dine at the same table and no one is offended. No +delicate nose grows deformed in my presence. I find no +difficulty here in obtaining admission into any place of worship, +instruction, or amusement, on equal terms with people as white as +any I ever saw in the United States. I meet nothing to remind me +of my complexion. I find myself regarded and treated at every +turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When +I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to +tell me, "_We don't allow niggers in here_!" + +I remember, about two years ago, there was in Boston, near the +south-west corner of Boston Common, a menagerie. I had long +desired to see such a collection as I understood was being +exhibited there. Never having had an opportunity while a slave, +I resolved to seize this, my first, since my escape. I went, and +as I approached the entrance to gain admission, I was met and +told by the door-keeper, in a harsh and contemptuous tone, "_We +don't allow niggers in here_." I also remember attending a +revival meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson's meeting-house, at New +Bedford, and going up the broad aisle to find a seat, I was met +by a good deacon, who told me, in a pious tone, "_We don't allow +niggers in here_!" Soon after my arrival in New Bedford, from +the south, I had a strong desire to attend the Lyceum, but was +told, "_They don't allow niggers in here_!" While passing from +New York to Boston, on the steamer Massachusetts, on the night of +the 9th of December, 1843, when chilled almost through with the +cold, I went into the cabin to get a little warm. I was soon +touched upon the shoulder, and told, "_We don't allow niggers in +here_!" On arriving in Boston, from an anti-slavery tour, hungry +and tired, I went into an eating-house, near my friend, Mr. +Campbell's to get some refreshments. I was met by a lad in a +white apron, "_We don't allow niggers in here_!" <289 TIME AND +LABORS ABROAD>A week or two before leaving the United States, I +had a meeting appointed at Weymouth, the home of that glorious +band of true abolitionists, the Weston family, and others. On +attempting to take a seat in the omnibus to that place, I was +told by the driver (and I never shall forget his fiendish hate). +"_I don't allow niggers in here_!" Thank heaven for the respite +I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin but a few days, when a +gentleman of great respectability kindly offered to conduct me +through all the public buildings of that beautiful city; and a +little afterward, I found myself dining with the lord mayor of +Dublin. What a pity there was not some American democratic +Christian at the door of his splendid mansion, to bark out at my +approach, "_They don't allow niggers in here_!" The truth is, +the people here know nothing of the republican Negro hate +prevalent in our glorious land. They measure and esteem men +according to their moral and intellectual worth, and not +according to the color of their skin. Whatever may be said of +the aristocracies here, there is none based on the color of a +man's skin. This species of aristocracy belongs preeminently to +"the land of the free, and the home of the brave." I have never +found it abroad, in any but Americans. It sticks to them +wherever they go. They find it almost as hard to get rid of, as +to get rid of their skins. + +The second day after my arrival at Liverpool, in company with my +friend, Buffum, and several other friends, I went to Eaton Hall, +the residence of the Marquis of Westminster, one of the most +splendid buildings in England. On approaching the door, I found +several of our American passengers, who came out with us in the +"Cambria," waiting for admission, as but one party was allowed in +the house at a time. We all had to wait till the company within +came out. And of all the faces, expressive of chagrin, those of +the Americans were preeminent. They looked as sour as vinegar, +and as bitter as gall, when they found I was to be admitted on +equal terms with themselves. When the door was opened, I walked +in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, and from +all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the servants +that showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin. As I +walked through the building, the statuary did not fall down, the +pictures did not leap from their places, the doors did not refuse +to open, and the servants did not say, "_We don't allow niggers +in here_!" + +A happy new-year to you, and all the friends of freedom. + + +My time and labors, while abroad were divided between England, +Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Upon this experience alone, I +might write a book twice the size of this, _My Bondage and My +Freedom_. I visited and lectured in nearly all the large towns +and cities in the United Kingdom, and enjoyed many favorable +opportunities for observation and information. But books on +England are abundant, and the public may, therefore, dismiss any +fear that I am meditating another infliction in that line; +<290>though, in truth, I should like much to write a book on +those countries, if for nothing else, to make grateful mention of +the many dear friends, whose benevolent actions toward me are +ineffaceably stamped upon my memory, and warmly treasured in my +heart. To these friends I owe my freedom in the United States. +On their own motion, without any solicitation from me (Mrs. Henry +Richardson, a clever lady, remarkable for her devotion to every +good work, taking the lead), they raised a fund sufficient to +purchase my freedom, and actually paid it over, and placed the +papers[8] of my manumission in my hands, before + + +[8] The following is a copy of these curious papers, both of my +transfer from Thomas to Hugh Auld, and from Hugh to myself: + +"Know all men by these Presents, That I, Thomas Auld, of Talbot +county, and state of Maryland, for and in consideration of the +sum of one hundred dollars, current money, to me paid by Hugh +Auld, of the city of Baltimore, in the said state, at and before +the sealing and delivery of these presents, the receipt whereof, +I, the said Thomas Auld, do hereby acknowledge, have granted, +bargained, and sold, and by these presents do grant, bargain, and +sell unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, administrators, and +assigns, ONE NEGRO MAN, by the name of FREDERICK BAILY, or +DOUGLASS, as he callls{sic} himself--he is now about twenty-eight +years of age--to have and to hold the said negro man for life. +And I, the said Thomas Auld, for myself my heirs, executors, and +administrators, all and singular, the said FREDERICK BAILY +_alias_ DOUGLASS, unto the said Hugh Auld, his executors, +administrators, and assigns against me, the said Thomas Auld, my +executors, and administrators, and against ali and every other +person or persons whatsoever, shall and will warrant and forever +defend by these presents. In witness whereof, I set my hand and +seal, this thirteenth day of November, eighteen hundred and +forty-six. THOMAS +AULD + +"Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of Wrightson Jones. + "JOHN C. LEAS. + +The authenticity of this bill of sale is attested by N. +Harrington, a justice of the peace of the state of Maryland, and +for the county of Talbot, dated same day as above. + +"To all whom it may concern: Be it known, that I, Hugh Auld, of +the city of Baltimore, in Baltimore county, in the state of +Maryland, for divers good causes and considerations, me thereunto +moving, have released from slavery, liberated, manumitted, and +set free, and by these presents do hereby release from slavery, +liberate, manumit, and set free, MY NEGRO MAN, named FREDERICK +BAILY, otherwise called DOUGLASS, being of the age of twenty- +eight years, or thereabouts, and able to work and gain a +sufficient livelihood and maintenance; and him the said negro man +named FREDERICK BAILY, otherwise called FREDERICK DOUGLASS, I do +declare to be henceforth free, manumitted, and discharged from +all manner of servitude to me, my executors, and administrators +forever. + +"In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Auld, have hereunto set my +hand and seal the fifth of December, in the year one thousand +eight hundred and forty-six. + Hugh Auld + +"Sealed and delivered in presence of T. Hanson Belt. + "JAMES N. S. T. WRIGHT" + + +<291 FREEDOM PURCHASED>they would tolerate the idea of my +returning to this, my native country. To this commercial +transaction I owe my exemption from the democratic operation of +the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. But for this, I might at any +time become a victim of this most cruel and scandalous enactment, +and be doomed to end my life, as I began it, a slave. The sum +paid for my freedom was one hundred and fifty pounds sterling. + +Some of my uncompromising anti-slavery friends in this country +failed to see the wisdom of this arrangement, and were not +pleased that I consented to it, even by my silence. They thought +it a violation of anti-slavery principles--conceding a right of +property in man--and a wasteful expenditure of money. On the +other hand, viewing it simply in the light of a ransom, or as +money extorted by a robber, and my liberty of more value than one +hundred and fifty pounds sterling, I could not see either a +violation of the laws of morality, or those of economy, in the +transaction. + +It is true, I was not in the possession of my claimants, and +could have easily remained in England, for the same friends who +had so generously purchased my freedom, would have assisted me in +establishing myself in that country. To this, however, I could +not consent. I felt that I had a duty to perform--and that was, +to labor and suffer with the oppressed in my native land. +Considering, therefore, all the circumstances--the fugitive slave +bill included--I think the very best thing was done in letting +Master Hugh have the hundred and fifty pounds sterling, and +leaving me free to return to my appropriate field of labor. Had +I been a private person, having no other relations or duties than +those of a personal and family nature, I should never have +consented to the payment of so large a sum for the privilege of +living securely under our glorious republican form of government. +I could have remained in England, or have gone to some other +country; and perhaps I could even have lived unobserved in this. +But to this I could not consent. I had already become +some<292>what notorious, and withal quite as unpopular as +notorious; and I was, therefore, much exposed to arrest and +recapture. + +The main object to which my labors in Great Britain were +directed, was the concentration of the moral and religious +sentiment of its people against American slavery. England is +often charged with having established slavery in the United +States, and if there were no other justification than this, for +appealing to her people to lend their moral aid for the abolition +of slavery, I should be justified. My speeches in Great Britain +were wholly extemporaneous, and I may not always have been so +guarded in my expressions, as I otherwise should have been. I +was ten years younger then than now, and only seven years from +slavery. I cannot give the reader a better idea of the nature of +my discourses, than by republishing one of them, delivered in +Finsbury chapel, London, to an audience of about two thousand +persons, and which was published in the _London Universe_, at the +time.[9] + +Those in the United States who may regard this speech as being +harsh in its spirit and unjust in its statements, because +delivered before an audience supposed to be anti-republican in +their principles and feelings, may view the matter differently, +when they learn that the case supposed did not exist. It so +happened that the great mass of the people in England who +attended and patronized my anti-slavery meetings, were, in truth, +about as good republicans as the mass of Americans, and with this +decided advantage over the latter--they are lovers of +republicanism for all men, for black men as well as for white +men. They are the people who sympathize with Louis Kossuth and +Mazzini, and with the oppressed and enslaved, of every color and +nation, the world over. They constitute the democratic element +in British politics, and are as much opposed to the union of +church and state as we, in America, are to such an union. At the +meeting where this speech was delivered, Joseph Sturge--a world- +wide philan + + +[9] See Appendix to this volume, page 317. + + + +<293 ENGLISH REPUBLICANS>thropist, and a member of the society of +Friends--presided, and addressed the meeting. George William +Alexander, another Friend, who has spent more than an +Ameriacn{sic} fortune in promoting the anti-slavery cause in +different sections of the world, was on the platform; and also +Dr. Campbell (now of the _British Banner_) who combines all the +humane tenderness of Melanchthon, with the directness and +boldness of Luther. He is in the very front ranks of non- +conformists, and looks with no unfriendly eye upon America. +George Thompson, too, was there; and America will yet own that he +did a true man's work in relighting the rapidly dying-out fire of +true republicanism in the American heart, and be ashamed of the +treatment he met at her hands. Coming generations in this +country will applaud the spirit of this much abused republican +friend of freedom. There were others of note seated on the +platform, who would gladly ingraft upon English institutions all +that is purely republican in the institutions of America. +Nothing, therefore, must be set down against this speech on the +score that it was delivered in the presence of those who cannot +appreciate the many excellent things belonging to our system of +government, and with a view to stir up prejudice against +republican institutions. + +Again, let it also be remembered--for it is the simple truth-- +that neither in this speech, nor in any other which I delivered +in England, did I ever allow myself to address Englishmen as +against Americans. I took my stand on the high ground of human +brotherhood, and spoke to Englishmen as men, in behalf of men. +Slavery is a crime, not against Englishmen, but against God, and +all the members of the human family; and it belongs to the whole +human family to seek its suppression. In a letter to Mr. +Greeley, of the New York Tribune, written while abroad, I said: + + +I am, nevertheless aware that the wisdom of exposing the sins of +one nation in the ear of another, has been seriously questioned +by good and clear-sighted people, both on this and on your side +of the Atlantic. And the <294>thought is not without weight on +my own mind. I am satisfied that there are many evils which can +be best removed by confining our efforts to the immediate +locality where such evils exist. This, however, is by no means +the case with the system of slavery. It is such a giant sin-- +such a monstrous aggregation of iniquity--so hardening to the +human heart--so destructive to the moral sense, and so well +calculated to beget a character, in every one around it, +favorable to its own continuance,--that I feel not only at +liberty, but abundantly justified, in appealing to the whole +world to aid in its removal. + + +But, even if I had--as has been often charged--labored to bring +American institutions generally into disrepute, and had not +confined my labors strictly within the limits of humanity and +morality, I should not have been without illustrious examples to +support me. Driven into semi-exile by civil and barbarous laws, +and by a system which cannot be thought of without a shudder, I +was fully justified in turning, if possible, the tide of the +moral universe against the heaven-daring outrage. + +Four circumstances greatly assisted me in getting the question of +American slavery before the British public. First, the mob on +board the "Cambria," already referred to, which was a sort of +national announcement of my arrival in England. Secondly, the +highly reprehensible course pursued by the Free Church of +Scotland, in soliciting, receiving, and retaining money in its +sustentation fund for supporting the gospel in Scotland, which +was evidently the ill-gotten gain of slaveholders and slave- +traders. Third, the great Evangelical Alliance--or rather the +attempt to form such an alliance, which should include +slaveholders of a certain description--added immensely to the +interest felt in the slavery question. About the same time, +there was the World's Temperance Convention, where I had the +misfortune to come in collision with sundry American doctors of +divinity--Dr. Cox among the number--with whom I had a small +controversy. + +It has happened to me--as it has happened to most other men +engaged in a good cause--often to be more indebted to my enemies +than to my own skill or to the assistance of my friends, for +whatever success has attended my labors. Great surprise was <295 +FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND>expressed by American newspapers, north +and south, during my stay in Great Britain, that a person so +illiterate and insignificant as myself could awaken an interest +so marked in England. These papers were not the only parties +surprised. I was myself not far behind them in surprise. But +the very contempt and scorn, the systematic and extravagant +disparagement of which I was the object, served, perhaps, to +magnify my few merits, and to render me of some account, whether +deserving or not. A man is sometimes made great, by the +greatness of the abuse a portion of mankind may think proper to +heap upon him. Whether I was of as much consequence as the +English papers made me out to be, or not, it was easily seen, in +England, that I could not be the ignorant and worthless creature, +some of the American papers would have them believe I was. Men, +in their senses, do not take bowie-knives to kill mosquitoes, nor +pistols to shoot flies; and the American passengers who thought +proper to get up a mob to silence me, on board the "Cambria," +took the most effective method of telling the British public that +I had something to say. + +But to the second circumstance, namely, the position of the Free +Church of Scotland, with the great Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, +and Candlish at its head. That church, with its leaders, put it +out of the power of the Scotch people to ask the old question, +which we in the north have often most wickedly asked--"_What have +we to do with slavery_?" That church had taken the price of +blood into its treasury, with which to build _free_ churches, and +to pay _free_ church ministers for preaching the gospel; and, +worse still, when honest John Murray, of Bowlien Bay--now gone to +his reward in heaven--with William Smeal, Andrew Paton, Frederick +Card, and other sterling anti-slavery men in Glasgow, denounced +the transaction as disgraceful and shocking to the religious +sentiment of Scotland, this church, through its leading divines, +instead of repenting and seeking to mend the mistake into which +it had fallen, made it a flagrant sin, by undertaking to defend, +in the name of God and the bible, the principle not only <296>of +taking the money of slave-dealers to build churches, but of +holding fellowship with the holders and traffickers in human +flesh. This, the reader will see, brought up the whole question +of slavery, and opened the way to its full discussion, without +any agency of mine. I have never seen a people more deeply moved +than were the people of Scotland, on this very question. Public +meeting succeeded public meeting. Speech after speech, pamphlet +after pamphlet, editorial after editorial, sermon after sermon, +soon lashed the conscientious Scotch people into a perfect +_furore_. "SEND BACK THE MONEY!" was indignantly cried out, from +Greenock to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. George +Thompson, of London, Henry C. Wright, of the United States, James +N. Buffum, of Lynn, Massachusetts, and myself were on the anti- +slavery side; and Doctors Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish on +the other. In a conflict where the latter could have had even +the show of right, the truth, in our hands as against them, must +have been driven to the wall; and while I believe we were able to +carry the conscience of the country against the action of the +Free Church, the battle, it must be confessed, was a hard-fought +one. Abler defenders of the doctrine of fellowshiping +slaveholders as christians, have not been met with. In defending +this doctrine, it was necessary to deny that slavery is a sin. +If driven from this position, they were compelled to deny that +slaveholders were responsible for the sin; and if driven from +both these positions, they must deny that it is a sin in such a +sense, and that slaveholders are sinners in such a sense, as to +make it wrong, in the circumstances in which they were placed, to +recognize them as Christians. Dr. Cunningham was the most +powerful debater on the slavery side of the question; Mr. +Thompson was the ablest on the anti-slavery side. A scene +occurred between these two men, a parallel to which I think I +never witnessed before, and I know I never have since. The scene +was caused by a single exclamation on the part of Mr. Thompson. + +The general assembly of the Free Church was in progress at <297 +THE DEBATE>Cannon Mills, Edinburgh. The building would hold +about twenty-five hundred persons; and on this occasion it was +densely packed, notice having been given that Doctors Cunningham +and Candlish would speak, that day, in defense of the relations +of the Free Church of Scotland to slavery in America. Messrs. +Thompson, Buffum, myself, and a few anti-slavery friends, +attended, but sat at such a distance, and in such a position, +that, perhaps we were not observed from the platform. The +excitement was intense, having been greatly increased by a series +of meetings held by Messrs. Thompson, Wright, Buffum, and myself, +in the most splendid hall in that most beautiful city, just +previous to the meetings of the general assembly. "SEND BACK THE +MONEY!" stared at us from every street corner; "SEND BACK THE +MONEY!" in large capitals, adorned the broad flags of the +pavement; "SEND BACK THE MONEY!" was the chorus of the popular +street songs; "SEND BACK THE MONEY!" was the heading of leading +editorials in the daily newspapers. This day, at Cannon Mills, +the great doctors of the church were to give an answer to this +loud and stern demand. Men of all parties and all sects were +most eager to hear. Something great was expected. The occasion +was great, the men great, and great speeches were expected from +them. + +In addition to the outside pressure upon Doctors Cunningham and +Candlish, there was wavering in their own ranks. The conscience +of the church itself was not at ease. A dissatisfaction with the +position of the church touching slavery, was sensibly manifest +among the members, and something must be done to counteract this +untoward influence. The great Dr. Chalmers was in feeble health, +at the time. His most potent eloquence could not now be summoned +to Cannon Mills, as formerly. He whose voice was able to rend +asunder and dash down the granite walls of the established church +of Scotland, and to lead a host in solemn procession from it, as +from a doomed city, was now old and enfeebled. Besides, he had +said his word on this very question; and his word had not +silenced the clamor without, nor stilled <298>the anxious +heavings within. The occasion was momentous, and felt to be so. +The church was in a perilous condition. A change of some sort +must take place in her condition, or she must go to pieces. To +stand where she did, was impossible. The whole weight of the +matter fell on Cunningham and Candlish. No shoulders in the +church were broader than theirs; and I must say, badly as I +detest the principles laid down and defended by them, I was +compelled to acknowledge the vast mental endowments of the men. +Cunningham rose; and his rising was the signal for almost +tumultous applause. You will say this was scarcely in keeping +with the solemnity of the occasion, but to me it served to +increase its grandeur and gravity. The applause, though +tumultuous, was not joyous. It seemed to me, as it thundered up +from the vast audience, like the fall of an immense shaft, flung +from shoulders already galled by its crushing weight. It was +like saying, "Doctor, we have borne this burden long enough, and +willingly fling it upon you. Since it was you who brought it +upon us, take it now, and do what you will with it, for we are +too weary to bear it.{no close "} + +Doctor Cunningham proceeded with his speech, abounding in logic, +learning, and eloquence, and apparently bearing down all +opposition; but at the moment--the fatal moment--when he was just +bringing all his arguments to a point, and that point being, that +neither Jesus Christ nor his holy apostles regarded slaveholding +as a sin, George Thompson, in a clear, sonorous, but rebuking +voice, broke the deep stillness of the audience, exclaiming, +HEAR! HEAR! HEAR! The effect of this simple and common +exclamation is almost incredible. It was as if a granite wall +had been suddenly flung up against the advancing current of a +mighty river. For a moment, speaker and audience were brought to +a dead silence. Both the doctor and his hearers seemed appalled +by the audacity, as well as the fitness of the rebuke. At length +a shout went up to the cry of "_Put him out_!" Happily, no one +attempted to execute this cowardly order, and the doctor +proceeded with his discourse. Not, however, as before, did the +<299 COLLISION WITH DR. COX>learned doctor proceed. The +exclamation of Thompson must have reechoed itself a thousand +times in his memory, during the remainder of his speech, for the +doctor never recovered from the blow. + +The deed was done, however; the pillars of the church--_the +proud, Free Church of Scotland_--were committed and the humility +of repentance was absent. The Free Church held on to the blood- +stained money, and continued to justify itself in its position-- +and of course to apologize for slavery--and does so till this +day. She lost a glorious opportunity for giving her voice, her +vote, and her example to the cause of humanity; and to-day she is +staggering under the curse of the enslaved, whose blood is in her +skirts. The people of Scotland are, to this day, deeply grieved +at the course pursued by the Free Church, and would hail, as a +relief from a deep and blighting shame, the "sending back the +money" to the slaveholders from whom it was gathered. + +One good result followed the conduct of the Free Church; it +furnished an occasion for making the people of Scotland +thoroughly acquainted with the character of slavery, and for +arraying against the system the moral and religious sentiment of +that country. Therefore, while we did not succeed in +accomplishing the specific object of our mission, namely--procure +the sending back of the money--we were amply justified by the +good which really did result from our labors. + +Next comes the Evangelical Alliance. This was an attempt to form +a union of all evangelical Christians throughout the world. +Sixty or seventy American divines attended, and some of them went +there merely to weave a world-wide garment with which to clothe +evangelical slaveholders. Foremost among these divines, was the +Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, moderator of the New School Presbyterian +General Assembly. He and his friends spared no pains to secure a +platform broad enough to hold American slaveholders, and in this +partly succeeded. But the question of slavery is too large a +question to be finally disposed of, even by the <300>Evangelical +Alliance. We appealed from the judgment of the Alliance, to the +judgment of the people of Great Britain, and with the happiest +effect. This controversy with the Alliance might be made the +subject of extended remark, but I must forbear, except to say, +that this effort to shield the Christian character of +slaveholders greatly served to open a way to the British ear for +anti-slavery discussion, and that it was well improved. + +The fourth and last circumstance that assisted me in getting +before the British public, was an attempt on the part of certain +doctors of divinity to silence me on the platform of the World's +Temperance Convention. Here I was brought into point blank +collison with Rev. Dr. Cox, who made me the subject not only of +bitter remark in the convention, but also of a long denunciatory +letter published in the New York Evangelist and other American +papers. I replied to the doctor as well as I could, and was +successful in getting a respectful hearing before the British +public, who are by nature and practice ardent lovers of fair +play, especially in a conflict between the weak and the strong. + +Thus did circumstances favor me, and favor the cause of which I +strove to be the advocate. After such distinguished notice, the +public in both countries was compelled to attach some importance +to my labors. By the very ill usage I received at the hands of +Dr. Cox and his party, by the mob on board the "Cambria," by the +attacks made upon me in the American newspapers, and by the +aspersions cast upon me through the organs of the Free Church of +Scotland, I became one of that class of men, who, for the moment, +at least, "have greatness forced upon them." People became the +more anxious to hear for themselves, and to judge for themselves, +of the truth which I had to unfold. While, therefore, it is by +no means easy for a stranger to get fairly before the British +public, it was my lot to accomplish it in the easiest manner +possible. + +Having continued in Great Britain and Ireland nearly two years, +and being about to return to America--not as I left it, a <301 +THE PRESS A MEANS OF REMOVING PREJUDICES>slave, but a freeman-- +leading friends of the cause of emancipation in that country +intimated their intention to make me a testimonial, not only on +grounds of personal regard to myself, but also to the cause to +which they were so ardently devoted. How far any such thing +could have succeeded, I do not know; but many reasons led me to +prefer that my friends should simply give me the means of +obtaining a printing press and printing materials, to enable me +to start a paper, devoted to the interests of my enslaved and +oppressed people. I told them that perhaps the greatest +hinderance to the adoption of abolition principles by the people +of the United States, was the low estimate, everywhere in that +country, placed upon the Negro, as a man; that because of his +assumed natural inferiority, people reconciled themselves to his +enslavement and oppression, as things inevitable, if not +desirable. The grand thing to be done, therefore, was to change +the estimation in which the colored people of the United States +were held; to remove the prejudice which depreciated and +depressed them; to prove them worthy of a higher consideration; +to disprove their alleged inferiority, and demonstrate their +capacity for a more exalted civilization than slavery and +prejudice had assigned to them. I further stated, that, in my +judgment, a tolerably well conducted press, in the hands of +persons of the despised race, by calling out the mental energies +of the race itself; by making them acquainted with their own +latent powers; by enkindling among them the hope that for them +there is a future; by developing their moral power; by combining +and reflecting their talents--would prove a most powerful means +of removing prejudice, and of awakening an interest in them. I +further informed them--and at that time the statement was true-- +that there was not, in the United States, a single newspaper +regularly published by the colored people; that many attempts had +been made to establish such papers; but that, up to that time, +they had all failed. These views I laid before my friends. The +result was, nearly two thousand five hundred dollars were +speed<302>ily raised toward starting my paper. For this prompt +and generous assistance, rendered upon my bare suggestion, +without any personal efforts on my part, I shall never cease to +feel deeply grateful; and the thought of fulfilling the noble +expectations of the dear friends who gave me this evidence of +their confidence, will never cease to be a motive for persevering +exertion. + +Proposing to leave England, and turning my face toward America, +in the spring of 1847, I was met, on the threshold, with +something which painfully reminded me of the kind of life which +awaited me in my native land. For the first time in the many +months spent abroad, I was met with proscription on account of my +color. A few weeks before departing from England, while in +London, I was careful to purchase a ticket, and secure a berth +for returning home, in the "Cambria"--the steamer in which I left +the United States--paying therefor the round sum of forty pounds +and nineteen shillings sterling. This was first cabin fare. But +on going aboard the Cambria, I found that the Liverpool agent had +ordered my berth to be given to another, and had forbidden my +entering the saloon! This contemptible conduct met with stern +rebuke from the British press. For, upon the point of leaving +England, I took occasion to expose the disgusting tyranny, in the +columns of the London _Times_. That journal, and other leading +journals throughout the United Kingdom, held up the outrage to +unmitigated condemnation. So good an opportunity for calling out +a full expression of British sentiment on the subject, had not +before occurred, and it was most fully embraced. The result was, +that Mr. Cunard came out in a letter to the public journals, +assuring them of his regret at the outrage, and promising that +the like should never occur again on board his steamers; and the +like, we believe, has never since occurred on board the +steamships of the Cunard line. + +It is not very pleasant to be made the subject of such insults; +but if all such necessarily resulted as this one did, I should be +very happy to bear, patiently, many more than I have borne, of +<303 THE STING OF INSULT>the same sort. Albeit, the lash of +proscription, to a man accustomed to equal social position, even +for a time, as I was, has a sting for the soul hardly less severe +than that which bites the flesh and draws the blood from the back +of the plantation slave. It was rather hard, after having +enjoyed nearly two years of equal social privileges in England, +often dining with gentlemen of great literary, social, political, +and religious eminence never, during the whole time, having met +with a single word, look, or gesture, which gave me the slightest +reason to think my color was an offense to anybody--now to be +cooped up in the stern of the "Cambria," and denied the right to +enter the saloon, lest my dark presence should be deemed an +offense to some of my democratic fellow-passengers. The reader +will easily imagine what must have been my feelings. + + + +CHAPTER XXV +_Various Incidents_ + +NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE--UNEXPECTED OPPOSITION--THE OBJECTIONS TO +IT--THEIR PLAUSIBILITY ADMITTED--MOTIVES FOR COMING TO +ROCHESTER--DISCIPLE OF MR. GARRISON--CHANGE OF OPINION--CAUSES +LEADING TO IT--THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHANGE--PREJUDICE AGAINST +COLOR--AMUSING CONDESCENSION--"JIM CROW CARS"--COLLISIONS WITH +CONDUCTORS AND BRAKEMEN--TRAINS ORDERED NOT TO STOP AT LYNN-- +AMUSING DOMESTIC SCENE--SEPARATE TABLES FOR MASTER AND MAN-- +PREJUDICE UNNATURAL--ILLUSTRATIONS--IN HIGH COMPANY--ELEVATION OF +THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR--PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE. + + +I have now given the reader an imperfect sketch of nine years' +experience in freedom--three years as a common laborer on the +wharves of New Bedford, four years as a lecturer in New England, +and two years of semi-exile in Great Britain and Ireland. A +single ray of light remains to be flung upon my life during the +last eight years, and my story will be done. + +A trial awaited me on my return from England to the United +States, for which I was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans +for my then future usefulness as an anti-slavery advocate were +all settled. My friends in England had resolved to raise a given +sum to purchase for me a press and printing materials; and I +already saw myself wielding my pen, as well as my voice, in the +great work of renovating the public mind, and building up a +public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery and +oppression to the grave, and restore to "liberty and the pursuit +of happiness" the people with whom I had suffered, both as a <305 +OBJECTIONS TO MY NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE>slave and as a freeman. +Intimation had reached my friends in Boston of what I intended to +do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find them favorably +disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was +mistaken. I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my +starting a paper, and for several reasons. First, the paper was +not needed; secondly, it would interfere with my usefulness as a +lecturer; thirdly, I was better fitted to speak than to write; +fourthly, the paper could not succeed. This opposition, from a +quarter so highly esteemed, and to which I had been accustomed to +look for advice and direction, caused me not only to hesitate, +but inclined me to abandon the enterprise. All previous attempts +to establish such a journal having failed, I felt that probably I +should but add another to the list of failures, and thus +contribute another proof of the mental and moral deficiencies of +my race. Very much that was said to me in respect to my +imperfect literary acquirements, I felt to be most painfully +true. The unsuccessful projectors of all the previous colored +newspapers were my superiors in point of education, and if they +failed, how could I hope for success? Yet I did hope for +success, and persisted in the undertaking. Some of my English +friends greatly encouraged me to go forward, and I shall never +cease to be grateful for their words of cheer and generous deeds. + +I can easily pardon those who have denounced me as ambitious and +presumptuous, in view of my persistence in this enterprise. I +was but nine years from slavery. In point of mental experience, +I was but nine years old. That one, in such circumstances, +should aspire to establish a printing press, among an educated +people, might well be considered, if not ambitious, quite silly. +My American friends looked at me with astonishment! "A wood- +sawyer" offering himself to the public as an editor! A slave, +brought up in the very depths of ignorance, assuming to instruct +the highly civilized people of the north in the principles of +liberty, justice, and humanity! The thing looked absurd. +Nevertheless, I per<306>severed. I felt that the want of +education, great as it was, could be overcome by study, and that +knowledge would come by experience; and further (which was +perhaps the most controlling consideration). I thought that an +intelligent public, knowing my early history, would easily pardon +a large share of the deficiencies which I was sure that my paper +would exhibit. The most distressing thing, however, was the +offense which I was about to give my Boston friends, by what +seemed to them a reckless disregard of their sage advice. I am +not sure that I was not under the influence of something like a +slavish adoration of my Boston friends, and I labored hard to +convince them of the wisdom of my undertaking, but without +success. Indeed, I never expect to succeed, although time has +answered all their original objections. The paper has been +successful. It is a large sheet, costing eighty dollars per +week--has three thousand subscribers--has been published +regularly nearly eight years--and bids fair to stand eight years +longer. At any rate, the eight years to come are as full of +promise as were the eight that are past. + +It is not to be concealed, however, that the maintenance of such +a journal, under the circumstances, has been a work of much +difficulty; and could all the perplexity, anxiety, and trouble +attending it, have been clearly foreseen, I might have shrunk +from the undertaking. As it is, I rejoice in having engaged in +the enterprise, and count it joy to have been able to suffer, in +many ways, for its success, and for the success of the cause to +which it has been faithfully devoted. I look upon the time, +money, and labor bestowed upon it, as being amply rewarded, in +the development of my own mental and moral energies, and in the +corresponding development of my deeply injured and oppressed +people. + +From motives of peace, instead of issuing my paper in Boston, +among my New England friends, I came to Rochester, western New +York, among strangers, where the circulation of my paper could +not interfere with the local circulation of the _Liberator_ and +the _Standard;_ for at that time I was, on the anti-slavery +question, <307 CHANGE OF VIEWS>a faithful disciple of William +Lloyd Garrison, and fully committed to his doctrine touching the +pro-slavery character of the constitution of the United States, +and the _non-voting principle_, of which he is the known and +distinguished advocate. With Mr. Garrison, I held it to be the +first duty of the non-slaveholding states to dissolve the union +with the slaveholding states; and hence my cry, like his, was, +"No union with slaveholders." With these views, I came into +western New York; and during the first four years of my labor +here, I advocated them with pen and tongue, according to the best +of my ability. + +About four years ago, upon a reconsideration of the whole +subject, I became convinced that there was no necessity for +dissolving the "union between the northern and southern states;" +that to seek this dissolution was no part of my duty as an +abolitionist; that to abstain from voting, was to refuse to +exercise a legitimate and powerful means for abolishing slavery; +and that the constitution of the United States not only contained +no guarantees in favor of slavery, but, on the contrary, it is, +in its letter and spirit, an anti-slavery instrument, demanding +the abolition of slavery as a condition of its own existence, as +the supreme law of the land. + +Here was a radical change in my opinions, and in the action +logically resulting from that change. To those with whom I had +been in agreement and in sympathy, I was now in opposition. What +they held to be a great and important truth, I now looked upon as +a dangerous error. A very painful, and yet a very natural, thing +now happened. Those who could not see any honest reasons for +changing their views, as I had done, could not easily see any +such reasons for my change, and the common punishment of +apostates was mine. + +The opinions first entertained were naturally derived and +honestly entertained, and I trust that my present opinions have +the same claims to respect. Brought directly, when I escaped +from slavery, into contact with a class of abolitionists +regarding the <308>constitution as a slaveholding instrument, and +finding their views supported by the united and entire history of +every department of the government, it is not strange that I +assumed the constitution to be just what their interpretation +made it. I was bound, not only by their superior knowledge, to +take their opinions as the true ones, in respect to the subject, +but also because I had no means of showing their unsoundness. +But for the responsibility of conducting a public journal, and +the necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite views from +abolitionists in this state, I should in all probability have +remained as firm in my disunion views as any other disciple of +William Lloyd Garrison. + +My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject, +and to study, with some care, not only the just and proper rules +of legal interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, +powers, and duties of civil government, and also the relations +which human beings sustain to it. By such a course of thought +and reading, I was conducted to the conclusion that the +constitution of the United States--inaugurated "to form a more +perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, +provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and +secure the blessing of liberty"--could not well have been +designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system of +rapine and murder, like slavery; especially, as not one word can +be found in the constitution to authorize such a belief. Then, +again, if the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern +the meaning of all its parts and details, as they clearly should, +the constitution of our country is our warrant for the abolition +of slavery in every state in the American Union. I mean, +however, not to argue, but simply to state my views. It would +require very many pages of a volume like this, to set forth the +arguments demonstrating the unconstitutionality and the complete +illegality of slavery in our land; and as my experience, and not +my arguments, is within the scope and contemplation of this +volume, I omit the latter and proceed with the former. +<309 THE JIM CROW CAR> + +I will now ask the kind reader to go back a little in my story, +while I bring up a thread left behind for convenience sake, but +which, small as it is, cannot be properly omitted altogether; and +that thread is American prejudice against color, and its varied +illustrations in my own experience. + +When I first went among the abolitionists of New England, and +began to travel, I found this prejudice very strong and very +annoying. The abolitionists themselves were not entirely free +from it, and I could see that they were nobly struggling against +it. In their eagerness, sometimes, to show their contempt for +the feeling, they proved that they had not entirely recovered +from it; often illustrating the saying, in their conduct, that a +man may "stand up so straight as to lean backward." When it was +said to me, "Mr. Douglass, I will walk to meeting with you; I am +not afraid of a black man," I could not help thinking--seeing +nothing very frightful in my appearance--"And why should you be?" +The children at the north had all been educated to believe that +if they were bad, the old _black_ man--not the old _devil_--would +get them; and it was evidence of some courage, for any so +educated to get the better of their fears. + +The custom of providing separate cars for the accommodation of +colored travelers, was established on nearly all the railroads of +New England, a dozen years ago. Regarding this custom as +fostering the spirit of caste, I made it a rule to seat myself in +the cars for the accommodation of passengers generally. Thus +seated, I was sure to be called upon to betake myself to the +"_Jim Crow car_." Refusing to obey, I was often dragged out of +my seat, beaten, and severely bruised, by conductors and +brakemen. Attempting to start from Lynn, one day, for +Newburyport, on the Eastern railroad, I went, as my custom was, +into one of the best railroad carriages on the road. The seats +were very luxuriant and beautiful. I was soon waited upon by the +conductor, and ordered out; whereupon I demanded the reason for +my invidious removal. After a good deal of parleying, I was told +that it was because I <310>was black. This I denied, and +appealed to the company to sustain my denial; but they were +evidently unwilling to commit themselves, on a point so delicate, +and requiring such nice powers of discrimination, for they +remained as dumb as death. I was soon waited on by half a dozen +fellows of the baser sort (just such as would volunteer to take a +bull-dog out of a meeting-house in time of public worship), and +told that I must move out of that seat, and if I did not, they +would drag me out. I refused to move, and they clutched me, +head, neck, and shoulders. But, in anticipation of the +stretching to which I was about to be subjected, I had interwoven +myself among the seats. In dragging me out, on this occasion, it +must have cost the company twenty-five or thirty dollars, for I +tore up seats and all. So great was the excitement in Lynn, on +the subject, that the superintendent, Mr. Stephen A. Chase, +ordered the trains to run through Lynn without stopping, while I +remained in that town; and this ridiculous farce was enacted. +For several days the trains went dashing through Lynn without +stopping. At the same time that they excluded a free colored man +from their cars, this same company allowed slaves, in company +with their masters and mistresses, to ride unmolested. + +After many battles with the railroad conductors, and being +roughly handled in not a few instances, proscription was at last +abandoned; and the "Jim Crow car"--set up for the degradation of +colored people--is nowhere found in New England. This result was +not brought about without the intervention of the people, and the +threatened enactment of a law compelling railroad companies to +respect the rights of travelers. Hon. Charles Francis Adams +performed signal service in the Massachusetts legislature, in +bringing this reformation; and to him the colored citizens of +that state are deeply indebted. + +Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice +against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet +amusement. A half-cured subject of it is sometimes driven into +awkward straits, especially if he happens to get a genuine +specimen of the race into his house. +<311 AMUSING SCENE> + +In the summer of 1843, I was traveling and lecturing, in company +with William A. White, Esq., through the state of Indiana. Anti- +slavery friends were not very abundant in Indiana, at that time, +and beds were not more plentiful than friends. We often slept +out, in preference to sleeping in the houses, at some points. At +the close of one of our meetings, we were invited home with a +kindly-disposed old farmer, who, in the generous enthusiasm of +the moment, seemed to have forgotten that he had but one spare +bed, and that his guests were an ill-matched pair. All went on +pretty well, till near bed time, when signs of uneasiness began +to show themselves, among the unsophisticated sons and daughters. +White is remarkably fine looking, and very evidently a born +gentleman; the idea of putting us in the same bed was hardly to +be tolerated; and yet, there we were, and but the one bed for us, +and that, by the way, was in the same room occupied by the other +members of the family. White, as well as I, perceived the +difficulty, for yonder slept the old folks, there the sons, and a +little farther along slept the daughters; and but one other bed +remained. Who should have this bed, was the puzzling question. +There was some whispering between the old folks, some confused +looks among the young, as the time for going to bed approached. +After witnessing the confusion as long as I liked, I relieved the +kindly-disposed family by playfully saying, "Friend White, having +got entirely rid of my prejudice against color, I think, as a +proof of it, I must allow you to sleep with me to-night." White +kept up the joke, by seeming to esteem himself the favored party, +and thus the difficulty was removed. If we went to a hotel, and +called for dinner, the landlord was sure to set one table for +White and another for me, always taking him to be master, and me +the servant. Large eyes were generally made when the order was +given to remove the dishes from my table to that of White's. In +those days, it was thought strange that a white man and a colored +man could dine peaceably at the same table, and in some parts the +strangeness of such a sight has not entirely subsided. + +Some people will have it that there is a natural, an inherent, +and <312>an invincible repugnance in the breast of the white race +toward dark-colored people; and some very intelligent colored men +think that their proscription is owing solely to the color which +nature has given them. They hold that they are rated according +to their color, and that it is impossible for white people ever +to look upon dark races of men, or men belonging to the African +race, with other than feelings of aversion. My experience, both +serious and mirthful, combats this conclusion. Leaving out of +sight, for a moment, grave facts, to this point, I will state one +or two, which illustrate a very interesting feature of American +character as well as American prejudice. Riding from Boston to +Albany, a few years ago, I found myself in a large car, well +filled with passengers. The seat next to me was about the only +vacant one. At every stopping place we took in new passengers, +all of whom, on reaching the seat next to me, cast a disdainful +glance upon it, and passed to another car, leaving me in the full +enjoyment of a hole form. For a time, I did not know but that my +riding there was prejudicial to the interest of the railroad +company. A circumstance occurred, however, which gave me an +elevated position at once. Among the passengers on this train +was Gov. George N. Briggs. I was not acquainted with him, and +had no idea that I was known to him, however, I was, for upon +observing me, the governor left his place, and making his way +toward me, respectfully asked the privilege of a seat by my side; +and upon introducing himself, we entered into a conversation very +pleasant and instructive to me. The despised seat now became +honored. His excellency had removed all the prejudice against +sitting by the side of a Negro; and upon his leaving it, as he +did, on reaching Pittsfield, there were at least one dozen +applicants for the place. The governor had, without changing my +skin a single shade, made the place respectable which before was +despicable. + +A similar incident happened to me once on the Boston and New +Bedford railroad, and the leading party to it has since been +governor of the state of Massachusetts. I allude to Col. John +Henry <313 AN INCIDENT>Clifford. Lest the reader may fancy I am +aiming to elevate myself, by claiming too much intimacy with +great men, I must state that my only acquaintance with Col. +Clifford was formed while I was _his hired servant_, during the +first winter of my escape from slavery. I owe it him to say, +that in that relation I found him always kind and gentlemanly. +But to the incident. I entered a car at Boston, for New Bedford, +which, with the exception of a single seat was full, and found I +must occupy this, or stand up, during the journey. Having no +mind to do this, I stepped up to the man having the next seat, +and who had a few parcels on the seat, and gently asked leave to +take a seat by his side. My fellow-passenger gave me a look made +up of reproach and indignation, and asked me why I should come to +that particular seat. I assured him, in the gentlest manner, +that of all others this was the seat for me. Finding that I was +actually about to sit down, he sang out, "O! stop, stop! and let +me get out!" Suiting the action to the word, up the agitated man +got, and sauntered to the other end of the car, and was compelled +to stand for most of the way thereafter. Halfway to New Bedford, +or more, Col. Clifford, recognizing me, left his seat, and not +having seen me before since I had ceased to wait on him (in +everything except hard arguments against his pro-slavery +position), apparently forgetful of his rank, manifested, in +greeting me, something of the feeling of an old friend. This +demonstration was not lost on the gentleman whose dignity I had, +an hour before, most seriously offended. Col. Clifford was known +to be about the most aristocratic gentleman in Bristol county; +and it was evidently thought that I must be somebody, else I +should not have been thus noticed, by a person so distinguished. +Sure enough, after Col. Clifford left me, I found myself +surrounded with friends; and among the number, my offended friend +stood nearest, and with an apology for his rudeness, which I +could not resist, although it was one of the lamest ever offered. +With such facts as these before me--and I have many of them--I am +inclined to think that pride and fashion have much to do with +<314>the treatment commonly extended to colored people in the +United States. I once heard a very plain man say (and he was +cross-eyed, and awkwardly flung together in other respects) that +he should be a handsome man when public opinion shall be changed. + +Since I have been editing and publishing a journal devoted to the +cause of liberty and progress, I have had my mind more directed +to the condition and circumstances of the free colored people +than when I was the agent of an abolition society. The result +has been a corresponding change in the disposition of my time and +labors. I have felt it to be a part of my mission--under a +gracious Providence to impress my sable brothers in this country +with the conviction that, notwithstanding the ten thousand +discouragements and the powerful hinderances, which beset their +existence in this country--notwithstanding the blood-written +history of Africa, and her children, from whom we have descended, +or the clouds and darkness (whose stillness and gloom are made +only more awful by wrathful thunder and lightning) now +overshadowing them--progress is yet possible, and bright skies +shall yet shine upon their pathway; and that "Ethiopia shall yet +reach forth her hand unto God." + +Believing that one of the best means of emancipating the slaves +of the south is to improve and elevate the character of the free +colored people of the north I shall labor in the future, as I +have labored in the past, to promote the moral, social, +religious, and intellectual elevation of the free colored people; +never forgetting my own humble orgin{sic}, nor refusing, while +Heaven lends me ability, to use my voice, my pen, or my vote, to +advocate the great and primary work of the universal and +unconditional emancipation of my entire race. + + +APPENDIX +_Containing Extracts from +Speeches, etc._ + + +RECEPTION SPEECH[10] +_At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, 1846_ + + +Mr. Douglass rose amid loud cheers, and said: I feel exceedingly +glad of the opportunity now afforded me of presenting the claims +of my brethren in bonds in the United States, to so many in +London and from various parts of Britain, who have assembled here +on the present occasion. I have nothing to commend me to your +consideration in the way of learning, nothing in the way of +education, to entitle me to your attention; and you are aware +that slavery is a very bad school for rearing teachers of +morality and religion. Twenty-one years of my life have been +spent in slavery--personal slavery--surrounded by degrading +influences, such as can exist nowhere beyond the pale of slavery; +and it will not be strange, if under such circumstances, I should +betray, in what I have to say to you, a deficiency of that +refinement which is seldom or ever found, except among persons +that have experienced superior advantages to those which I have +enjoyed. But I will take it for granted that you know something +about the degrading influences of slavery, and that you will not +expect great things from me this evening, but simply such facts +as I may be able to advance immediately in connection with my own +experience of slavery. + +Now, what is this system of slavery? This is the subject of my +lecture this evening--what is the character of this institution? +I am about to answer the inquiry, what is American slavery? I do +this the more readily, since I have found persons in this country +who have identified the term slavery with that which I think it +is not, and in some instances, I have feared, in so doing, have +rather (unwittingly, I know) detracted much from the horror with +which the term slavery is contemplated. It is com- + + +[10] Mr. Douglass' published speeches alone, would fill two +volumes of the size of this. Our space will only permit the +insertion of the extracts which follow; and which, for +originality of thought, beauty and force of expression, and for +impassioned, indignatory eloquence, have seldom been equaled. + + +<318>mon in this country to distinguish every bad thing by the +name of slavery. Intemperance is slavery; to be deprived of the +right to vote is slavery, says one; to have to work hard is +slavery, says another; and I do not know but that if we should +let them go on, they would say that to eat when we are hungry, to +walk when we desire to have exercise, or to minister to our +necessities, or have necessities at all, is slavery. I do not +wish for a moment to detract from the horror with which the evil +of intemperance is contemplated--not at all; nor do I wish to +throw the slightest obstruction in the way of any political +freedom that any class of persons in this country may desire to +obtain. But I am here to say that I think the term slavery is +sometimes abused by identifying it with that which it is not. +Slavery in the United States is the granting of that power by +which one man exercises and enforces a right of property in the +body and soul of another. The condition of a slave is simply +that of the brute beast. He is a piece of property--a marketable +commodity, in the language of the law, to be bought or sold at +the will and caprice of the master who claims him to be his +property; he is spoken of, thought of, and treated as property. +His own good, his conscience, his intellect, his affections, are +all set aside by the master. The will and the wishes of the +master are the law of the slave. He is as much a piece of +property as a horse. If he is fed, he is fed because he is +property. If he is clothed, it is with a view to the increase of +his value as property. Whatever of comfort is necessary to him +for his body or soul that is inconsistent with his being +property, is carefully wrested from him, not only by public +opinion, but by the law of the country. He is carefully deprived +of everything that tends in the slightest degree to detract from +his value as property. He is deprived of education. God has +given him an intellect; the slaveholder declares it shall not be +cultivated. If his moral perception leads him in a course +contrary to his value as property, the slaveholder declares he +shall not exercise it. The marriage institution cannot exist +among slaves, and one-sixth of the population of democratic +America is denied its privileges by the law of the land. What is +to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of +its humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love +of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders +three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?-- +what must be the condition of that people? I need not lift up +the veil by giving you any experience of my own. Every one that +can put two ideas together, must see the most fearful results +from such a state of things as I have just mentioned. If any of +these three millions find for themselves companions, and prove +themselves honest, upright, virtuous persons to each other, yet +in these <319>cases--few as I am bound to confess they are--the +virtuous live in constant apprehension of being torn asunder by +the merciless men-stealers that claim them as their property. +This is American slavery; no marriage--no education--the light of +the gospel shut out from the dark mind of the bondman--and he +forbidden by law to learn to read. If a mother shall teach her +children to read, the law in Louisiana proclaims that she may be +hanged by the neck. If the father attempt to give his son a +knowledge of letters, he may be punished by the whip in one +instance, and in another be killed, at the discretion of the +court. Three millions of people shut out from the light of +knowledge! It is easy for you to conceive the evil that must +result from such a state of things. + +I now come to the physical evils of slavery. I do not wish to +dwell at length upon these, but it seems right to speak of them, +not so much to influence your minds on this question, as to let +the slaveholders of America know that the curtain which conceals +their crimes is being lifted abroad; that we are opening the dark +cell, and leading the people into the horrible recesses of what +they are pleased to call their domestic institution. We want +them to know that a knowledge of their whippings, their +scourgings, their brandings, their chainings, is not confined to +their plantations, but that some Negro of theirs has broken loose +from his chains--has burst through the dark incrustation of +slavery, and is now exposing their deeds of deep damnation to the +gaze of the christian people of England. + +The slaveholders resort to all kinds of cruelty. If I were +disposed, I have matter enough to interest you on this question +for five or six evenings, but I will not dwell at length upon +these cruelties. Suffice it to say, that all of the peculiar +modes of torture that were resorted to in the West India islands, +are resorted to, I believe, even more frequently, in the United +States of America. Starvation, the bloody whip, the chain, the +gag, the thumb-screw, cat-hauling, the cat-o'-nine-tails, the +dungeon, the blood-hound, are all in requisition to keep the +slave in his condition as a slave in the United States. If any +one has a doubt upon this point, I would ask him to read the +chapter on slavery in Dickens's _Notes on America_. If any man +has a doubt upon it, I have here the "testimony of a thousand +witnesses," which I can give at any length, all going to prove +the truth of my statement. The blood-hound is regularly trained +in the United States, and advertisements are to be found in the +southern papers of the Union, from persons advertising themselves +as blood-hound trainers, and offering to hunt down slaves at +fifteen dollars a piece, recommending their hounds as the +fleetest in the neighborhood, never known to fail. +Adver<320>tisements are from time to time inserted, stating that +slaves have escaped with iron collars about their necks, with +bands of iron about their feet, marked with the lash, branded +with red-hot irons, the initials of their master's name burned +into their flesh; and the masters advertise the fact of their +being thus branded with their own signature, thereby proving to +the world, that, however damning it may appear to non-slavers, +such practices are not regarded discreditable among the +slaveholders themselves. Why, I believe if a man should brand +his horse in this country--burn the initials of his name into any +of his cattle, and publish the ferocious deed here--that the +united execrations of Christians in Britain would descend upon +him. Yet in the United States, human beings are thus branded. +As Whittier says-- + . . . _Our countrymen in chains, + The whip on woman's shrinking flesh, + Our soil yet reddening with the stains + Caught from her scourgings warm and fresh_. + + +The slave-dealer boldly publishes his infamous acts to the world. +Of all things that have been said of slavery to which exception +has been taken by slaveholders, this, the charge of cruelty, +stands foremost, and yet there is no charge capable of clearer +demonstration, than that of the most barbarous inhumanity on the +part of the slaveholders toward their slaves. And all this is +necessary; it is necessary to resort to these cruelties, in order +to _make the slave a slave_, and to _keep him a slave_. Why, my +experience all goes to prove the truth of what you will call a +marvelous proposition, that the better you treat a slave, the +more you destroy his value _as a slave_, and enhance the +probability of his eluding the grasp of the slaveholder; the more +kindly you treat him, the more wretched you make him, while you +keep him in the condition of a slave. My experience, I say, +confirms the truth of this proposition. When I was treated +exceedingly ill; when my back was being scourged daily; when I +was whipped within an inch of my life--_life_ was all I cared +for. "Spare my life," was my continual prayer. When I was +looking for the blow about to be inflicted upon my head, I was +not thinking of my liberty; it was my life. But, as soon as the +blow was not to be feared, then came the longing for liberty. If +a slave has a bad master, his ambition is to get a better; when +he gets a better, he aspires to have the best; and when he gets +the best, he aspires to be his own master. But the slave must be +brutalized to keep him as a slave. The slaveholder feels this +necessity. I admit this necessity. If it be right to hold +slaves at all, it is right to hold <321>them in the only way in +which they can be held; and this can be done only by shutting out +the light of education from their minds, and brutalizing their +persons. The whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the +blood-hound, the stocks, and all the other bloody paraphernalia +of the slave system, are indispensably necessary to the relation +of master and slave. The slave must be subjected to these, or he +ceases to be a slave. Let him know that the whip is burned; that +the fetters have been turned to some useful and profitable +employment; that the chain is no longer for his limbs; that the +blood-hound is no longer to be put upon his track; that his +master's authority over him is no longer to be enforced by taking +his life--and immediately he walks out from the house of bondage +and asserts his freedom as a man. The slaveholder finds it +necessary to have these implements to keep the slave in bondage; +finds it necessary to be able to say, "Unless you do so and so; +unless you do as I bid you--I will take away your life!" + +Some of the most awful scenes of cruelty are constantly taking +place in the middle states of the Union. We have in those states +what are called the slave-breeding states. Allow me to speak +plainly. Although it is harrowing to your feelings, it is +necessary that the facts of the case should be stated. We have +in the United States slave-breeding states. The very state from +which the minister from our court to yours comes, is one of these +states--Maryland, where men, women, and children are reared for +the market, just as horses, sheep, and swine are raised for the +market. Slave-rearing is there looked upon as a legitimate +trade; the law sanctions it, public opinion upholds it, the +church does not condemn it. It goes on in all its bloody +horrors, sustained by the auctioneer's block. If you would see +the cruelties of this system, hear the following narrative. Not +long since the following scene occurred. A slave-woman and a +slaveman had united themselves as man and wife in the absence of +any law to protect them as man and wife. They had lived together +by the permission, not by right, of their master, and they had +reared a family. The master found it expedient, and for his +interest, to sell them. He did not ask them their wishes in +regard to the matter at all; they were not consulted. The man +and woman were brought to the auctioneer's block, under the sound +of the hammer. The cry was raised, "Here goes; who bids cash?" +Think of it--a man and wife to be sold! The woman was placed on +the auctioneer's block; her limbs, as is customary, were brutally +exposed to the purchasers, who examined her with all the freedom +with which they would examine a horse. There stood the husband, +powerless; no right to his wife; the master's right preeminent. +She was sold. He was next <322>brought to the auctioneer's +block. His eyes followed his wife in the distance; and he looked +beseechingly, imploringly, to the man that had bought his wife, +to buy him also. But he was at length bid off to another person. +He was about to be separated forever from her he loved. No word +of his, no work of his, could save him from this separation. He +asked permission of his new master to go and take the hand of his +wife at parting. It was denied him. In the agony of his soul he +rushed from the man who had just bought him, that he might take a +farewell of his wife; but his way was obstructed, he was struck +over the head with a loaded whip, and was held for a moment; but +his agony was too great. When he was let go, he fell a corpse at +the feet of his master. His heart was broken. Such scenes are +the everyday fruits of American slavery. Some two years since, +the Hon. Seth. M. Gates, an anti-slavery gentleman of the state +of New York, a representative in the congress of the United +States, told me he saw with his own eyes the following +circumstances. In the national District of Columbia, over which +the star-spangled emblem is constantly waving, where orators are +ever holding forth on the subject of American liberty, American +democracy, American republicanism, there are two slave prisons. +When going across a bridge, leading to one of these prisons, he +saw a young woman run out, bare-footed and bare-headed, and with +very little clothing on. She was running with all speed to the +bridge he was approaching. His eye was fixed upon her, and he +stopped to see what was the matter. He had not paused long +before he saw three men run out after her. He now knew what the +nature of the case was; a slave escaping from her chains--a young +woman, a sister--escaping from the bondage in which she had been +held. She made her way to the bridge, but had not reached, ere +from the Virginia side there came two slaveholders. As soon as +they saw them, her pursuers called out, "Stop her!" True to +their Virginian instincts, they came to the rescue of their +brother kidnappers, across the bridge. The poor girl now saw +that there was no chance for her. It was a trying time. She +knew if she went back, she must be a slave forever--she must be +dragged down to the scenes of pollution which the slaveholders +continually provide for most of the poor, sinking, wretched young +women, whom they call their property. She formed her resolution; +and just as those who were about to take her, were going to put +hands upon her, to drag her back, she leaped over the balustrades +of the bridge, and down she went to rise no more. She chose +death, rather than to go back into the hands of those christian +slaveholders from whom she had escaped. + +Can it be possible that such things as these exist in the United +States? <323>Are not these the exceptions? Are any such scenes +as this general? Are not such deeds condemned by the law and +denounced by public opinion? Let me read to you a few of the +laws of the slaveholding states of America. I think no better +exposure of slavery can be made than is made by the laws of the +states in which slavery exists. I prefer reading the laws to +making any statement in confirmation of what I have said myself; +for the slaveholders cannot object to this testimony, since it is +the calm, the cool, the deliberate enactment of their wisest +heads, of their most clear-sighted, their own constituted +representatives. "If more than seven slaves together are found +in any road without a white person, twenty lashes a piece; for +visiting a plantation without a written pass, ten lashes; for +letting loose a boat from where it is made fast, thirty-nine +lashes for the first offense; and for the second, shall have cut +off from his head one ear; for keeping or carrying a club, +thirty-nine lashes; for having any article for sale, without a +ticket from his master, ten lashes; for traveling in any other +than the most usual and accustomed road, when going alone to any +place, forty lashes; for traveling in the night without a pass, +forty lashes." I am afraid you do not understand the awful +character of these lashes. You must bring it before your mind. +A human being in a perfect state of nudity, tied hand and foot to +a stake, and a strong man standing behind with a heavy whip, +knotted at the end, each blow cutting into the flesh, and leaving +the warm blood dripping to the feet; and for these trifles. "For +being found in another person's negro-quarters, forty lashes; for +hunting with dogs in the woods, thirty lashes; for being on +horseback without the written permission of his master, twenty- +five lashes; for riding or going abroad in the night, or riding +horses in the day time, without leave, a slave may be whipped, +cropped, or branded in the cheek with the letter R. or otherwise +punished, such punishment not extending to life, or so as to +render him unfit for labor." The laws referred to, may be found +by consulting _Brevard's Digest; Haywood's Manual; Virginia +Revised Code; Prince's Digest; Missouri Laws; Mississippi Revised +Code_. A man, for going to visit his brethren, without the +permission of his master--and in many instances he may not have +that permission; his master, from caprice or other reasons, may +not be willing to allow it--may be caught on his way, dragged to +a post, the branding-iron heated, and the name of his master or +the letter R branded into his cheek or on his forehead. They +treat slaves thus, on the principle that they must punish for +light offenses, in order to prevent the commission of larger +ones. I wish you to mark that in the single state of Virginia +there are seventy-one crimes for which a colored man may be +executed; while there are only three of <324>these crimes, which, +when committed by a white man, will subject him to that +punishment. There are many of these crimes which if the white +man did not commit, he would be regarded as a scoundrel and a +coward. In the state of Maryland, there is a law to this effect: +that if a slave shall strike his master, he may be hanged, his +head severed from his body, his body quartered, and his head and +quarters set up in the most prominent places in the neighborhood. +If a colored woman, in the defense of her own virtue, in defense +of her own person, should shield herself from the brutal attacks +of her tyrannical master, or make the slightest resistance, she +may be killed on the spot. No law whatever will bring the guilty +man to justice for the crime. + +But you will ask me, can these things be possible in a land +professing Christianity? Yes, they are so; and this is not the +worst. No; a darker feature is yet to be presented than the mere +existence of these facts. I have to inform you that the religion +of the southern states, at this time, is the great supporter, the +great sanctioner of the bloody atrocities to which I have +referred. While America is printing tracts and bibles; sending +missionaries abroad to convert the heathen; expending her money +in various ways for the promotion of the gospel in foreign +lands--the slave not only lies forgotten, uncared for, but is +trampled under foot by the very churches of the land. What have +we in America? Why, we have slavery made part of the religion of +the land. Yes, the pulpit there stands up as the great defender +of this cursed _institution_, as it is called. Ministers of +religion come forward and torture the hallowed pages of inspired +wisdom to sanction the bloody deed. They stand forth as the +foremost, the strongest defenders of this "institution." As a +proof of this, I need not do more than state the general fact, +that slavery has existed under the droppings of the sanctuary of +the south for the last two hundred years, and there has not been +any war between the _religion_ and the _slavery_ of the south. +Whips, chains, gags, and thumb-screws have all lain under the +droppings of the sanctuary, and instead of rusting from off the +limbs of the bondman, those droppings have served to preserve +them in all their strength. Instead of preaching the gospel +against this tyranny, rebuke, and wrong, ministers of religion +have sought, by all and every means, to throw in the back-ground +whatever in the bible could be construed into opposition to +slavery, and to bring forward that which they could torture into +its support. This I conceive to be the darkest feature of +slavery, and the most difficult to attack, because it is +identified with religion, and exposes those who denounce it to +the charge of infidelity. Yes, those with whom I have been +laboring, namely, the old <325>organization anti-slavery society +of America, have been again and again stigmatized as infidels, +and for what reason? Why, solely in consequence of the +faithfulness of their attacks upon the slaveholding religion of +the southern states, and the northern religion that sympathizes +with it. I have found it difficult to speak on this matter +without persons coming forward and saying, "Douglass, are you not +afraid of injuring the cause of Christ? You do not desire to do +so, we know; but are you not undermining religion?" This has +been said to me again and again, even since I came to this +country, but I cannot be induced to leave off these exposures. I +love the religion of our blessed Savior. I love that religion +that comes from above, in the "wisdom of God, which is first +pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of +mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. +I love that religion that sends its votaries to bind up the +wounds of him that has fallen among thieves. I love that +religion that makes it the duty of its disciples to visit the +father less and the widow in their affliction. I love that +religion that is based upon the glorious principle, of love to +God and love to man; which makes its followers do unto others as +they themselves would be done by. If you demand liberty to +yourself, it says, grant it to your neighbors. If you claim a +right to think for yourself, it says, allow your neighbors the +same right. If you claim to act for yourself, it says, allow +your neighbors the same right. It is because I love this +religion that I hate the slaveholding, the woman-whipping, the +mind-darkening, the soul-destroying religion that exists in the +southern states of America. It is because I regard the one as +good, and pure, and holy, that I cannot but regard the other as +bad, corrupt, and wicked. Loving the one I must hate the other; +holding to the one I must reject the other. + +I may be asked, why I am so anxious to bring this subject before +the British public--why I do not confine my efforts to the United +States? My answer is, first, that slavery is the common enemy of +mankind, and all mankind should be made acquainted with its +abominable character. My next answer is, that the slave is a +man, and, as such, is entitled to your sympathy as a brother. +All the feelings, all the susceptibilities, all the capacities, +which you have, he has. He is a part of the human family. He +has been the prey--the common prey--of Christendom for the last +three hundred years, and it is but right, it is but just, it is +but proper, that his wrongs should be known throughout the world. +I have another reason for bringing this matter before the British +public, and it is this: slavery is a system of wrong, so blinding +to all around, so hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the +morals, so deleterious to religion, so <326>sapping to all the +principles of justice in its immediate vicinity, that the +community surrounding it lack the moral stamina necessary to its +removal. It is a system of such gigantic evil, so strong, so +overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is equal to its +removal. It requires the humanity of Christianity, the morality +of the world to remove it. Hence, I call upon the people of +Britain to look at this matter, and to exert the influence I am +about to show they possess, for the removal of slavery from +America. I can appeal to them, as strongly by their regard for +the slaveholder as for the slave, to labor in this cause. I am +here, because you have an influence on America that no other +nation can have. You have been drawn together by the power of +steam to a marvelous extent; the distance between London and +Boston is now reduced to some twelve or fourteen days, so that +the denunciations against slavery, uttered in London this week, +may be heard in a fortnight in the streets of Boston, and +reverberating amidst the hills of Massachusetts. There is +nothing said here against slavery that will not be recorded in +the United States. I am here, also, because the slaveholders do +not want me to be here; they would rather that I were not here. +I have adopted a maxim laid down by Napoleon, never to occupy +ground which the enemy would like me to occupy. The slaveholders +would much rather have me, if I will denounce slavery, denounce +it in the northern states, where their friends and supporters +are, who will stand by and mob me for denouncing it. They feel +something as the man felt, when he uttered his prayer, in which +he made out a most horrible case for himself, and one of his +neighbors touched him and said, "My friend, I always had the +opinion of you that you have now expressed for yourself--that you +are a very great sinner." Coming from himself, it was all very +well, but coming from a stranger it was rather cutting. The +slaveholders felt that when slavery was denounced among +themselves, it was not so bad; but let one of the slaves get +loose, let him summon the people of Britain, and make known to +them the conduct of the slaveholders toward their slaves, and it +cuts them to the quick, and produces a sensation such as would be +produced by nothing else. The power I exert now is something +like the power that is exerted by the man at the end of the +lever; my influence now is just in proportion to the distance +that I am from the United States. My exposure of slavery abroad +will tell more upon the hearts and consciences of slaveholders, +than if I was attacking them in America; for almost every paper +that I now receive from the United States, comes teeming with +statements about this fugitive Negro, calling him a "glib-tongued +scoundrel," and saying that he is running out against the +institutions and people of America. I deny the charge that I am +saying a word against the institutions of America, <327>or the +people, as such. What I have to say is against slavery and +slaveholders. I feel at liberty to speak on this subject. I +have on my back the marks of the lash; I have four sisters and +one brother now under the galling chain. I feel it my duty to +cry aloud and spare not. I am not averse to having the good +opinion of my fellow creatures. I am not averse to being kindly +regarded by all men; but I am bound, even at the hazard of making +a large class of religionists in this country hate me, oppose me, +and malign me as they have done--I am bound by the prayers, and +tears, and entreaties of three millions of kneeling bondsmen, to +have no compromise with men who are in any shape or form +connected with the slaveholders of America. I expose slavery in +this country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one +of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is +death. Expose slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what +the heat of the sun is to the root of a tree; it must die under +it. All the slaveholder asks of me is silence. He does not ask +me to go abroad and preach _in favor_ of slavery; he does not ask +any one to do that. He would not say that slavery is a good +thing, but the best under the circumstances. The slaveholders +want total darkness on the subject. They want the hatchway shut +down, that the monster may crawl in his den of darkness, crushing +human hopes and happiness, destroying the bondman at will, and +having no one to reprove or rebuke him. Slavery shrinks from the +light; it hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its +deeds should be reproved. To tear off the mask from this +abominable system, to expose it to the light of heaven, aye, to +the heat of the sun, that it may burn and wither it out of +existence, is my object in coming to this country. I want the +slaveholder surrounded, as by a wall of anti-slavery fire, so +that he may see the condemnation of himself and his system +glaring down in letters of light. I want him to feel that he has +no sympathy in England, Scotland, or Ireland; that he has none in +Canada, none in Mexico, none among the poor wild Indians; that +the voice of the civilized, aye, and savage world is against him. +I would have condemnation blaze down upon him in every direction, +till, stunned and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is +compelled to let go the grasp he holds upon the persons of his +victims, and restore them to their long-lost rights. + + +_Dr. Campbell's Reply_ + + +From Rev. Dr. Campbell's brilliant reply we extract the +following: FREDERICK DOUGLASS, the beast of burden," the portion +of "goods and chattels," the representative of three millions of +men, has been raised <328>up! Shall I say the _man?_ If there +is a man on earth, he is a man. My blood boiled within me when I +heard his address tonight, and thought that he had left behind +him three millions of such men. + +We must see more of this man; we must have more of this man. One +would have taken a voyage round the globe some forty years back-- +especially since the introduction of steam--to have heard such an +exposure of slavery from the lips of a slave. It will be an era +in the individual history of the present assembly. Our +children--our boys and girls--I have tonight seen the delightful +sympathy of their hearts evinced by their heaving breasts, while +their eyes sparkled with wonder and admiration, that this black +man--this slave--had so much logic, so much wit, so much fancy, +so much eloquence. He was something more than a man, according +to their little notions. Then, I say, we must hear him again. +We have got a purpose to accomplish. He has appealed to the +pulpit of England. The English pulpit is with him. He has +appealed to the press of England; the press of England is +conducted by English hearts, and that press will do him justice. +About ten days hence, and his second master, who may well prize +"such a piece of goods," will have the pleasure of reading his +burning words, and his first master will bless himself that he +has got quit of him. We have to create public opinion, or +rather, not to create it, for it is created already; but we have +to foster it; and when tonight I heard those magnificent words-- +the words of Curran, by which my heart, from boyhood, has +ofttimes been deeply moved--I rejoice to think that they embody +an instinct of an Englishman's nature. I heard, with +inexpressible delight, how they told on this mighty mass of the +citizens of the metropolis. + +Britain has now no slaves; we can therefore talk to the other +nations now, as we could not have talked a dozen years ago. I +want the whole of the London ministry to meet Douglass. For as +his appeal is to England, and throughout England, I should +rejoice in the idea of churchmen and dissenters merging all +sectional distinctions in this cause. Let us have a public +breakfast. Let the ministers meet him; let them hear him; let +them grasp his hand; and let him enlist their sympathies on +behalf of the slave. Let him inspire them with abhorrence of the +man-stealer--the slaveholder. No slaveholding American shall +ever my cross my door. No slaveholding or slavery-supporting +minister shall ever pollute my pulpit. While I have a tongue to +speak, or a hand to write, I will, to the utmost of my power, +oppose these slaveholding men. We must have Douglass amongst us +to aid in fostering public opinion. + +The great conflict with slavery must now take place in America; +and <329>while they are adding other slave states to the Union, +our business is to step forward and help the abolitionists there. +It is a pleasing circumstance that such a body of men has risen +in America, and whilst we hurl our thunders against her slavers, +let us make a distinction between those who advocate slavery and +those who oppose it. George Thompson has been there. This man, +Frederick Douglass, has been there, and has been compelled to +flee. I wish, when he first set foot on our shores, he had made +a solemn vow, and said, "Now that I am free, and in the sanctuary +of freedom, I will never return till I have seen the emancipation +of my country completed." He wants to surround these men, the +slaveholders, as by a wall of fire; and he himself may do much +toward kindling it. Let him travel over the island--east, west, +north, and south--everywhere diffusing knowledge and awakening +principle, till the whole nation become a body of petitioners to +America. He will, he must, do it. He must for a season make +England his home. He must send for his wife. He must send for +his children. I want to see the sons and daughters of such a +sire. We, too, must do something for him and them worthy of the +English name. I do not like the idea of a man of such mental +dimensions, such moral courage, and all but incomparable talent, +having his own small wants, and the wants of a distant wife and +children, supplied by the poor profits of his publication, the +sketch of his life. Let the pamphlet be bought by tens of +thousands. But we will do something more for him, shall we not? + +It only remains that we pass a resolution of thanks to Frederick +Douglass, the slave that was, the man that is! He that was +covered with chains, and that is now being covered with glory, +and whom we will send back a gentleman. + + + +LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER.[11] +_To My Old Master, Thomas Auld_ + + + +SIR--The long and intimate, though by no means friendly, relation +which unhappily subsisted between you and myself, leads me to +hope that you will easily account for the great liberty which I +now take in addressing you in this open and public manner. The +same fact may remove any disagreeable surprise which you may +experience on again finding your name coupled with mine, in any +other way than in an advertisement, accurately describing my +person, and offering a large sum for my arrest. In thus dragging +you again before the public, I am aware that I shall subject +myself to no inconsiderable amount of censure. I shall probably +be charged with an unwarrantable, if not a wanton and reckless +disregard of the rights and properties of private life. There +are those north as well as south who entertain a much higher +respect for rights which are merely conventional, than they do +for rights which are personal and essential. Not a few there are +in our country, who, while they have no scruples against robbing +the laborer of the hard earned results of his patient industry, +will be shocked by the extremely indelicate manner of bringing +your name before the public. Believing this to be the case, and +wishing to meet every reasonable or plausible objection to my +conduct, I will frankly state the ground upon which I justfy{sic} +myself in this instance, as well as on former occasions when I +have thought proper to mention your name in public. All will +agree that a man guilty of theft, robbery, or murder, has +forfeited the right to concealment and private life; that the +community have a right to subject such persons to the most +complete exposure. However much they may desire retirement, and +aim to conceal themselves and their movements from the popular +gaze, the public have a right to ferret them out, and bring their +conduct before + + +[11] It is not often that chattels address their owners. The +following letter is unique; and probably the only specimen of the +kind extant. It was written while in England. + + +<331>the proper tribunals of the country for investigation. Sir, +you will undoubtedly make the proper application of these +generally admitted principles, and will easily see the light in +which you are regarded by me; I will not therefore manifest ill +temper, by calling you hard names. I know you to be a man of +some intelligence, and can readily determine the precise estimate +which I entertain of your character. I may therefore indulge in +language which may seem to others indirect and ambiguous, and yet +be quite well understood by yourself. + +I have selected this day on which to address you, because it is +the anniversary of my emancipation; and knowing no better way, I +am led to this as the best mode of celebrating that truly +important events. Just ten years ago this beautiful September +morning, yon bright sun beheld me a slave--a poor degraded +chattel--trembling at the sound of your voice, lamenting that I +was a man, and wishing myself a brute. The hopes which I had +treasured up for weeks of a safe and successful escape from your +grasp, were powerfully confronted at this last hour by dark +clouds of doubt and fear, making my person shake and my bosom to +heave with the heavy contest between hope and fear. I have no +words to describe to you the deep agony of soul which I +experienced on that never-to-be-forgotten morning--for I left by +daylight. I was making a leap in the dark. The probabilities, +so far as I could by reason determine them, were stoutly against +the undertaking. The preliminaries and precautions I had adopted +previously, all worked badly. I was like one going to war +without weapons--ten chances of defeat to one of victory. One in +whom I had confided, and one who had promised me assistance, +appalled by fear at the trial hour, deserted me, thus leaving the +responsibility of success or failure solely with myself. You, +sir, can never know my feelings. As I look back to them, I can +scarcely realize that I have passed through a scene so trying. +Trying, however, as they were, and gloomy as was the prospect, +thanks be to the Most High, who is ever the God of the oppressed, +at the moment which was to determine my whole earthly career, His +grace was sufficient; my mind was made up. I embraced the golden +opportunity, took the morning tide at the flood, and a free man, +young, active, and strong, is the result. + +I have often thought I should like to explain to you the grounds +upon which I have justified myself in running away from you. I +am almost ashamed to do so now, for by this time you may have +discovered them yourself. I will, however, glance at them. When +yet but a child about six years old, I imbibed the determination +to run away. The very first mental <332>effort that I now +remember on my part, was an attempt to solve the mystery--why am +I a slave? and with this question my youthful mind was troubled +for many days, pressing upon me more heavily at times than +others. When I saw the slave-driver whip a slave-woman, cut the +blood out of her neck, and heard her piteous cries, I went away +into the corner of the fence, wept and pondered over the mystery. +I had, through some medium, I know not what, got some idea of +God, the Creator of all mankind, the black and the white, and +that he had made the blacks to serve the whites as slaves. How +he could do this and be _good_, I could not tell. I was not +satisfied with this theory, which made God responsible for +slavery, for it pained me greatly, and I have wept over it long +and often. At one time, your first wife, Mrs. Lucretia, heard me +sighing and saw me shedding tears, and asked of me the matter, +but I was afraid to tell her. I was puzzled with this question, +till one night while sitting in the kitchen, I heard some of the +old slaves talking of their parents having been stolen from +Africa by white men, and were sold here as slaves. The whole +mystery was solved at once. Very soon after this, my Aunt Jinny +and Uncle Noah ran away, and the great noise made about it by +your father-in-law, made me for the first time acquainted with +the fact, that there were free states as well as slave states. +From that time, I resolved that I would some day run away. The +morality of the act I dispose of as follows: I am myself; you +are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons. What +you are, I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, +and made us separate beings. I am not by nature bond to you, or +you to me. Nature does not make your existence depend upon me, +or mine to depend upon yours. I cannot walk upon your legs, or +you upon mine. I cannot breathe for you, or you for me; I must +breathe for myself, and you for yourself. We are distinct +persons, and are each equally provided with faculties necessary +to our individual existence. In leaving you, I took nothing but +what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for +obtaining an _honest_ living. Your faculties remained yours, and +mine became useful to their rightful owner. I therefore see no +wrong in any part of the transaction. It is true, I went off +secretly; but that was more your fault than mine. Had I let you +into the secret, you would have defeated the enterprise entirely; +but for this, I should have been really glad to have made you +acquainted with my intentions to leave. + +You may perhaps want to know how I like my present condition. I +am free to say, I greatly prefer it to that which I occupied in +Maryland. I am, however, by no means prejudiced against the +state as such. Its geography, climate, fertility, and products, +are such as to make it a very <333>desirable abode for any man; +and but for the existence of slavery there, it is not impossible +that I might again take up my abode in that state. It is not +that I love Maryland less, but freedom more. You will be +surprised to learn that people at the north labor under the +strange delusion that if the slaves were emancipated at the +south, they would flock to the north. So far from this being the +case, in that event, you would see many old and familiar faces +back again to the south. The fact is, there are few here who +would not return to the south in the event of emancipation. We +want to live in the land of our birth, and to lay our bones by +the side of our fathers; and nothing short of an intense love of +personal freedom keeps us from the south. For the sake of this, +most of us would live on a crust of bread and a cup of cold +water. + +Since I left you, I have had a rich experience. I have occupied +stations which I never dreamed of when a slave. Three out of the +ten years since I left you, I spent as a common laborer on the +wharves of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was there I earned my +first free dollar. It was mine. I could spend it as I pleased. +I could buy hams or herring with it, without asking any odds of +anybody. That was a precious dollar to me. You remember when I +used to make seven, or eight, or even nine dollars a week in +Baltimore, you would take every cent of it from me every Saturday +night, saying that I belonged to you, and my earnings also. I +never liked this conduct on your part--to say the best, I thought +it a little mean. I would not have served you so. But let that +pass. I was a little awkward about counting money in New England +fashion when I first landed in New Bedford. I came near +betraying myself several times. I caught myself saying phip, for +fourpence; and at one time a man actually charged me with being a +runaway, whereupon I was silly enough to become one by running +away from him, for I was greatly afraid he might adopt measures +to get me again into slavery, a condition I then dreaded more +than death. + +I soon learned, however, to count money, as well as to make it, +and got on swimmingly. I married soon after leaving you; in +fact, I was engaged to be married before I left you; and instead +of finding my companion a burden, she was truly a helpmate. She +went to live at service, and I to work on the wharf, and though +we toiled hard the first winter, we never lived more happily. +After remaining in New Bedford for three years, I met with +William Lloyd Garrison, a person of whom you have _possibly_ +heard, as he is pretty generally known among slaveholders. He +put it into my head that I might make myself serviceable to the +cause of the slave, by devoting a portion of my time to telling +my own sorrows, and those of other slaves, which had come under +my observation. This <334>was the commencement of a higher state +of existence than any to which I had ever aspired. I was thrown +into society the most pure, enlightened, and benevolent, that the +country affords. Among these I have never forgotten you, but +have invariably made you the topic of conversation--thus giving +you all the notoriety I could do. I need not tell you that the +opinion formed of you in these circles is far from being +favorable. They have little respect for your honesty, and less +for your religion. + +But I was going on to relate to you something of my interesting +experience. I had not long enjoyed the excellent society to +which I have referred, before the light of its excellence exerted +a beneficial influence on my mind and heart. Much of my early +dislike of white persons was removed, and their manners, habits, +and customs, so entirely unlike what I had been used to in the +kitchen-quarters on the plantations of the south, fairly charmed +me, and gave me a strong disrelish for the coarse and degrading +customs of my former condition. I therefore made an effort so to +improve my mind and deportment, as to be somewhat fitted to the +station to which I seemed almost providentially called. The +transition from degradation to respectability was indeed great, +and to get from one to the other without carrying some marks of +one's former condition, is truly a difficult matter. I would not +have you think that I am now entirely clear of all plantation +peculiarities, but my friends here, while they entertain the +strongest dislike to them, regard me with that charity to which +my past life somewhat entitles me, so that my condition in this +respect is exceedingly pleasant. So far as my domestic affairs +are concerned, I can boast of as comfortable a dwelling as your +own. I have an industrious and neat companion, and four dear +children--the oldest a girl of nine years, and three fine boys, +the oldest eight, the next six, and the youngest four years old. +The three oldest are now going regularly to school--two can read +and write, and the other can spell, with tolerable correctness, +words of two syllables. Dear fellows! they are all in +comfortable beds, and are sound asleep, perfectly secure under my +own roof. There are no slaveholders here to rend my heart by +snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother's dearest hopes by +tearing them from her bosom. These dear children are ours--not +to work up into rice, sugar, and tobacco, but to watch over, +regard, and protect, and to rear them up in the nurture and +admonition of the gospel--to train them up in the paths of wisdom +and virtue, and, as far as we can, to make them useful to the +world and to themselves. Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to +me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look +upon my dear children. It is then that my feelings rise above my +control. I meant to have said more with respect to my own +prosperity and happiness, but thoughts and feel<335>ings which +this recital has quickened, unfit me to proceed further in that +direction. The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly +terror before me; the wails of millions pierce my heart and chill +my blood. I remember the chain, the gag, the bloody whip; the +death-like gloom overshadowing the broken spirit of the fettered +bondman; the appalling liability of his being torn away from wife +and children, and sold like a beast in the market. Say not that +this is a picture of fancy. You well know that I wear stripes on +my back, inflicted by your direction; and that you, while we were +brothers in the same church, caused this right hand, with which I +am now penning this letter, to be closely tied to my left, and my +person dragged, at the pistol's mouth, fifteen miles, from the +Bay Side to Easton, to be sold like a beast in the market, for +the alleged crime of intending to escape from your possession. +All this, and more, you remember, and know to be perfectly true, +not only of yourself, but of nearly all of the slaveholders +around you. + +At this moment, you are probably the guilty holder of at least +three of my own dear sisters, and my only brother, in bondage. +These you regard as your property. They are recorded on your +ledger, or perhaps have been sold to human flesh-mongers, with a +view to filling our own ever-hungry purse. Sir, I desire to know +how and where these dear sisters are. Have you sold them? or are +they still in your possession? What has become of them? are they +living or dead? And my dear old grandmother, whom you turned out +like an old horse to die in the woods--is she still alive? Write +and let me know all about them. If my grandmother be still +alive, she is of no service to you, for by this time she must be +nearly eighty years old--too old to be cared for by one to whom +she has ceased to be of service; send her to me at Rochester, or +bring her to Philadelphia, and it shall be the crowning happiness +of my life to take care of her in her old age. Oh! she was to me +a mother and a father, so far as hard toil for my comfort could +make her such. Send me my grandmother! that I may watch over and +take care of her in her old age. And my sisters--let me know all +about them. I would write to them, and learn all I want to know +of them, without disturbing you in any way, but that, through +your unrighteous conduct, they have been entirely deprived of the +power to read and write. You have kept them in utter ignorance, +and have therefore robbed them of the sweet enjoyments of writing +or receiving letters from absent friends and relatives. Your +wickedness and cruelty, committed in this respect on your fellow- +creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon my +back or theirs. It is an outrage upon the soul, a war upon the +immortal spirit, and one for which you must give account at the +bar of our common Father and Creator. +<336> + +The responsibility which you have assumed in this regard is truly +awful, and how you could stagger under it these many years is +marvelous. Your mind must have become darkened, your heart +hardened, your conscience seared and petrified, or you would have +long since thrown off the accursed load, and sought relief at the +hands of a sin-forgiving God. How, let me ask, would you look +upon me, were I, some dark night, in company with a band of +hardened villains, to enter the precincts of your elegant +dwelling, and seize the person of your own lovely daughter, +Amanda, and carry her off from your family, friends, and all the +loved ones of her youth--make her my slave--compel her to work, +and I take her wages--place her name on my ledger as property-- +disregard her personal rights--fetter the powers of her immortal +soul by denying her the right and privilege of learning to read +and write--feed her coarsely--clothe her scantily, and whip her +on the naked back occasionally; more, and still more horrible, +leave her unprotected--a degraded victim to the brutal lust of +fiendish overseers, who would pollute, blight, and blast her fair +soul--rob her of all dignity--destroy her virtue, and annihilate +in her person all the graces that adorn the character of virtuous +womanhood? I ask, how would you regard me, if such were my +conduct? Oh! the vocabulary of the damned would not afford a +word sufficiently infernal to express your idea of my God- +provoking wickedness. Yet, sir, your treatment of my beloved +sisters is in all essential points precisely like the case I have +now supposed. Damning as would be such a deed on my part, it +would be no more so than that which you have committed against me +and my sisters. + +I will now bring this letter to a close; you shall hear from me +again unless you let me hear from you. I intend to make use of +you as a weapon with which to assail the system of slavery--as a +means of concentrating public attention on the system, and +deepening the horror of trafficking in the souls and bodies of +men. I shall make use of you as a means of exposing the +character of the American church and clergy--and as a means of +bringing this guilty nation, with yourself, to repentance. In +doing this, I entertain no malice toward you personally. There +is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and +there is nothing in my house which you might need for your +comfort, which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should +esteem it a privilege to set you an example as to how mankind +ought to treat each other. + + _I am your fellow-man, but not your slave_. + +THE NATURE OF SLAVERY +_Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, +December 1, 1850_ + + +More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of +slavery. My childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities +of the slave system. I grew up to manhood in the presence of +this hydra headed monster--not as a master--not as an idle +spectator--not as the guest of the slaveholder--but as A SLAVE, +eating the bread and drinking the cup of slavery with the most +degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing with them all the +painful conditions of their wretched lot. In consideration of +these facts, I feel that I have a right to speak, and to speak +_strongly_. Yet, my friends, I feel bound to speak truly. + +Goading as have been the cruelties to which I have been +subjected--bitter as have been the trials through which I have +passed--exasperating as have been, and still are, the indignities +offered to my manhood--I find in them no excuse for the slightest +departure from truth in dealing with any branch of this subject. + +First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and +social relation of master and slave. A master is one--to speak +in the vocabulary of the southern states--who claims and +exercises a right of property in the person of a fellow-man. +This he does with the force of the law and the sanction of +southern religion. The law gives the master absolute power over +the slave. He may work him, flog him, hire him out, sell him, +and, in certain contingencies, _kill_ him, with perfect impunity. +The slave is a human being, divested of all rights--reduced to +the level of a brute--a mere "chattel" in the eye of the law-- +placed beyond the circle of human brotherhood--cut off from his +kind--his name, which the "recording angel" may have enrolled in +heaven, among the blest, is impiously inserted in a _master's +ledger_, with horses, sheep, and swine. In law, the slave has no +wife, no children, no country, and no home. He can own nothing, +possess nothing, acquire nothing, but what must belong to +another. To <338>eat the fruit of his own toil, to clothe his +person with the work of his own hands, is considered stealing. +He toils that another may reap the fruit; he is industrious that +another may live in idleness; he eats unbolted meal that another +may eat the bread of fine flour; he labors in chains at home, +under a burning sun and biting lash, that another may ride in +ease and splendor abroad; he lives in ignorance that another may +be educated; he is abused that another may be exalted; he rests +his toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp ground that another may +repose on the softest pillow; he is clad in coarse and tattered +raiment that another may be arrayed in purple and fine linen; he +is sheltered only by the wretched hovel that a master may dwell +in a magnificent mansion; and to this condition he is bound down +as by an arm of iron. + +From this monstrous relation there springs an unceasing stream of +most revolting cruelties. The very accompaniments of the slave +system stamp it as the offspring of hell itself. To ensure good +behavior, the slaveholder relies on the whip; to induce proper +humility, he relies on the whip; to rebuke what he is pleased to +term insolence, he relies on the whip; to supply the place of +wages as an incentive to toil, he relies on the whip; to bind +down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute and destroy his manhood, +he relies on the whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the +pillory, the bowie knife the pistol, and the blood-hound. These +are the necessary and unvarying accompaniments of the system. +Wherever slavery is found, these horrid instruments are also +found. Whether on the coast of Africa, among the savage tribes, +or in South Carolina, among the refined and civilized, slavery is +the same, and its accompaniments one and the same. It makes no +difference whether the slaveholder worships the God of the +Christians, or is a follower of Mahomet, he is the minister of +the same cruelty, and the author of the same misery. _Slavery_ +is always _slavery;_ always the same foul, haggard, and damning +scourge, whether found in the eastern or in the western +hemisphere. + +There is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. The +physical cruelties are indeed sufficiently harassing and +revolting; but they are as a few grains of sand on the sea shore, +or a few drops of water in the great ocean, compared with the +stupendous wrongs which it inflicts upon the mental, moral, and +religious nature of its hapless victims. It is only when we +contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being, that we +can adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slavery, +and the intense criminality of the slaveholder. I have said that +the slave was a man. "What a piece of work is man! How noble in +reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving how +express and admirable! In action <339>how like an angel! In +apprehension how like a God! The beauty of the world! The +paragon of animals!" + +The slave is a man, "the image of God," but "a little lower than +the angels;" possessing a soul, eternal and indestructible; +capable of endless happiness, or immeasurable woe; a creature of +hopes and fears, of affections and passions, of joys and sorrows, +and he is endowed with those mysterious powers by which man soars +above the things of time and sense, and grasps, with undying +tenacity, the elevating and sublimely glorious idea of a God. It +is _such_ a being that is smitten and blasted. The first work of +slavery is to mar and deface those characteristics of its victims +which distinguish _men_ from _things_, and _persons_ from +_property_. Its first aim is to destroy all sense of high moral +and religious responsibility. It reduces man to a mere machine. +It cuts him off from his Maker, it hides from him the laws of +God, and leaves him to grope his way from time to eternity in the +dark, under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, +depraved, and sinful fellow-man. As the serpent-charmer of India +is compelled to extract the deadly teeth of his venomous prey +before he is able to handle him with impunity, so the slaveholder +must strike down the conscience of the slave before he can obtain +the entire mastery over his victim. + +It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, +deaden, and destroy the central principle of human +responsibility. Conscience is, to the individual soul, and to +society, what the law of gravitation is to the universe. It +holds society together; it is the basis of all trust and +confidence; it is the pillar of all moral rectitude. Without it, +suspicion would take the place of trust; vice would be more than +a match for virtue; men would prey upon each other, like the wild +beasts of the desert; and earth would become a _hell_. + +Nor is slavery more adverse to the conscience than it is to the +mind. This is shown by the fact, that in every state of the +American Union, where slavery exists, except the state of +Kentucky, there are laws absolutely prohibitory of education +among the slaves. The crime of teaching a slave to read is +punishable with severe fines and imprisonment, and, in some +instances, with _death itself_. + +Nor are the laws respecting this matter a dead letter. Cases may +occur in which they are disregarded, and a few instances may be +found where slaves may have learned to read; but such are +isolated cases, and only prove the rule. The great mass of +slaveholders look upon education among the slaves as utterly +subversive of the slave system. I well remember when my mistress +first announced to my master that she had dis<340>covered that I +could read. His face colored at once with surprise and chagrin. +He said that "I was ruined, and my value as a slave destroyed; +that a slave should know nothing but to obey his master; that to +give a negro an inch would lead him to take an ell; that having +learned how to read, I would soon want to know how to write; and +that by-and-by I would be running away." I think my audience +will bear witness to the correctness of this philosophy, and to +the literal fulfillment of this prophecy. + +It is perfectly well understood at the south, that to educate a +slave is to make him discontened{sic} with slavery, and to invest +him with a power which shall open to him the treasures of +freedom; and since the object of the slaveholder is to maintain +complete authority over his slave, his constant vigilance is +exercised to prevent everything which militates against, or +endangers, the stability of his authority. Education being among +the menacing influences, and, perhaps, the most dangerous, is, +therefore, the most cautiously guarded against. + +It is true that we do not often hear of the enforcement of the +law, punishing as a crime the teaching of slaves to read, but +this is not because of a want of disposition to enforce it. The +true reason or explanation of the matter is this: there is the +greatest unanimity of opinion among the white population in the +south in favor of the policy of keeping the slave in ignorance. +There is, perhaps, another reason why the law against education +is so seldom violated. The slave is too poor to be able to offer +a temptation sufficiently strong to induce a white man to violate +it; and it is not to be supposed that in a community where the +moral and religious sentiment is in favor of slavery, many +martyrs will be found sacrificing their liberty and lives by +violating those prohibitory enactments. + +As a general rule, then, darkness reigns over the abodes of the +enslaved, and "how great is that darkness!" + +We are sometimes told of the contentment of the slaves, and are +entertained with vivid pictures of their happiness. We are told +that they often dance and sing; that their masters frequently +give them wherewith to make merry; in fine, that they have little +of which to complain. I admit that the slave does sometimes +sing, dance, and appear to be merry. But what does this prove? +It only proves to my mind, that though slavery is armed with a +thousand stings, it is not able entirely to kill the elastic +spirit of the bondman. That spirit will rise and walk abroad, +despite of whips and chains, and extract from the cup of nature +occasional drops of joy and gladness. No thanks to the +slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the <341>vivacious captive may +sometimes dance in his chains; his very mirth in such +circumstances stands before God as an accusing angel against his +enslaver. + +It is often said, by the opponents of the anti-slavery cause, +that the condition of the people of Ireland is more deplorable +than that of the American slaves. Far be it from me to underrate +the sufferings of the Irish people. They have been long +oppressed; and the same heart that prompts me to plead the cause +of the American bondman, makes it impossible for me not to +sympathize with the oppressed of all lands. Yet I must say that +there is no analogy between the two cases. The Irishman is poor, +but he is not a slave. He may be in rags, but he is not a slave. +He is still the master of his own body, and can say with the +poet, "The hand of Douglass is his own." "The world is all +before him, where to choose;" and poor as may be my opinion of +the British parliament, I cannot believe that it will ever sink +to such a depth of infamy as to pass a law for the recapture of +fugitive Irishmen! The shame and scandal of kidnapping will long +remain wholly monopolized by the American congress. The Irishman +has not only the liberty to emigrate from his country, but he has +liberty at home. He can write, and speak, and cooperate for the +attainment of his rights and the redress of his wrongs. + +The multitude can assemble upon all the green hills and fertile +plains of the Emerald Isle; they can pour out their grievances, +and proclaim their wants without molestation; and the press, that +"swift-winged messenger," can bear the tidings of their doings to +the extreme bounds of the civilized world. They have their +"Conciliation Hall," on the banks of the Liffey, their reform +clubs, and their newspapers; they pass resolutions, send forth +addresses, and enjoy the right of petition. But how is it with +the American slave? Where may he assemble? Where is his +Conciliation Hall? Where are his newspapers? Where is his right +of petition? Where is his freedom of speech? his liberty of the +press? and his right of locomotion? He is said to be happy; +happy men can speak. But ask the slave what is his condition-- +what his state of mind--what he thinks of enslavement? and you +had as well address your inquiries to the _silent dead_. There +comes no _voice_ from the enslaved. We are left to gather his +feelings by imagining what ours would be, were our souls in his +soul's stead. + +If there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the +slave is dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave +system as a grand aggregation of human horrors. + +Most who are present, will have observed that leading men in this +<342>country have been putting forth their skill to secure quiet +to the nation. A system of measures to promote this object was +adopted a few months ago in congress. The result of those +measures is known. Instead of quiet, they have produced alarm; +instead of peace, they have brought us war; and so it must ever +be. + +While this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions +of innocent men and women, it is as idle to think of having a +sound and lasting peace, as it is to think there is no God to +take cognizance of the affairs of men. There can be no peace to +the wicked while slavery continues in the land. It will be +condemned; and while it is condemned there will be agitation. +Nature must cease to be nature; men must become monsters; +humanity must be transformed; Christianity must be exterminated; +all ideas of justice and the laws of eternal goodness must be +utterly blotted out from the human soul--ere a system so foul and +infernal can escape condemnation, or this guilty republic can +have a sound, enduring peace. + + + +INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY + +_Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester, +December 8, 1850_ + + +The relation of master and slave has been called patriarchal, and +only second in benignity and tenderness to that of the parent and +child. This representation is doubtless believed by many +northern people; and this may account, in part, for the lack of +interest which we find among persons whom we are bound to believe +to be honest and humane. What, then, are the facts? Here I will +not quote my own experience in slavery; for this you might call +one-sided testimony. I will not cite the declarations of +abolitionists; for these you might pronounce exaggerations. I +will not rely upon advertisements cut from newspapers; for these +you might call isolated cases. But I will refer you to the laws +adopted by the legislatures of the slave states. I give you such +evidence, because it cannot be invalidated nor denied. I hold in +my hand sundry extracts from the slave codes of our country, from +which I will quote. * * * + +Now, if the foregoing be an indication of kindness, _what is +cruelty_? If this be parental affection, _what is bitter +malignity_? A more atrocious and blood-thirsty string of laws +could not well be conceived of. And yet I am bound to say that +they fall short of indicating the horrible cruelties constantly +practiced in the slave states. + +I admit that there are individual slaveholders less cruel and +barbarous than is allowed by law; but these form the exception. +The majority of slaveholders find it necessary, to insure +obedience, at times, to avail themselves of the utmost extent of +the law, and many go beyond it. If kindness were the rule, we +should not see advertisements filling the columns of almost every +southern newspaper, offering large rewards for fugitive slaves, +and describing them as being branded with irons, loaded with +chains, and scarred by the whip. One of the most telling +testimonies against the pretended kindness of slaveholders, is +the fact that uncounted numbers of fugitives are now inhabiting +the Dismal Swamp, preferring <344>the untamed wilderness to their +cultivated homes--choosing rather to encounter hunger and thirst, +and to roam with the wild beasts of the forest, running the +hazard of being hunted and shot down, than to submit to the +authority of _kind_ masters. + +I tell you, my friends, humanity is never driven to such an +unnatural course of life, without great wrong. The slave finds +more of the milk of human kindness in the bosom of the savage +Indian, than in the heart of his _Christian_ master. He leaves +the man of the _bible_, and takes refuge with the man of the +_tomahawk_. He rushes from the praying slaveholder into the paws +of the bear. He quits the homes of men for the haunts of wolves. +He prefers to encounter a life of trial, however bitter, or +death, however terrible, to dragging out his existence under the +dominion of these _kind_ masters. + +The apologists for slavery often speak of the abuses of slavery; +and they tell us that they are as much opposed to those abuses as +we are; and that they would go as far to correct those abuses and +to ameliorate the condition of the slave as anybody. The answer +to that view is, that slavery is itself an abuse; that it lives +by abuse; and dies by the absence of abuse. Grant that slavery +is right; grant that the relations of master and slave may +innocently exist; and there is not a single outrage which was +ever committed against the slave but what finds an apology in the +very necessity of the case. As we said by a slaveholder (the +Rev. A. G. Few) to the Methodist conference, "If the relation be +right, the means to maintain it are also right;" for without +those means slavery could not exist. Remove the dreadful +scourge--the plaited thong--the galling fetter--the accursed +chain--and let the slaveholder rely solely upon moral and +religious power, by which to secure obedience to his orders, and +how long do you suppose a slave would remain on his plantation? +The case only needs to be stated; it carries its own refutation +with it. + +Absolute and arbitrary power can never be maintained by one man +over the body and soul of another man, without brutal +chastisement and enormous cruelty. + +To talk of _kindness_ entering into a relation in which one party +is robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of +friends, of society, of knowledge, and of all that makes this +life desirable, is most absurd, wicked, and preposterous. + +I have shown that slavery is wicked--wicked, in that it violates +the great law of liberty, written on every human heart--wicked, +in that it violates the first command of the decalogue--wicked, +in that it fosters the most disgusting licentiousness--wicked, in +that it mars and defaces <345>the image of God by cruel and +barbarous inflictions--wicked, in that it contravenes the laws of +eternal justice, and tramples in the dust all the humane and +heavenly precepts of the New Testament. + +The evils resulting from this huge system of iniquity are not +confined to the states south of Mason and Dixon's line. Its +noxious influence can easily be traced throughout our northern +borders. It comes even as far north as the state of New York. +Traces of it may be seen even in Rochester; and travelers have +told me it casts its gloomy shadows across the lake, approaching +the very shores of Queen Victoria's dominions. + +The presence of slavery may be explained by--as it is the +explanation of--the mobocratic violence which lately disgraced +New York, and which still more recently disgraced the city of +Boston. These violent demonstrations, these outrageous invasions +of human rights, faintly indicate the presence and power of +slavery here. It is a significant fact, that while meetings for +almost any purpose under heaven may be held unmolested in the +city of Boston, that in the same city, a meeting cannot be +peaceably held for the purpose of preaching the doctrine of the +American Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created +equal." The pestiferous breath of slavery taints the whole moral +atmosphere of the north, and enervates the moral energies of the +whole people. + +The moment a foreigner ventures upon our soil, and utters a +natural repugnance to oppression, that moment he is made to feel +that there is little sympathy in this land for him. If he were +greeted with smiles before, he meets with frowns now; and it +shall go well with him if he be not subjected to that peculiarly +fining method of showing fealty to slavery, the assaults of a +mob. + +Now, will any man tell me that such a state of things is natural, +and that such conduct on the part of the people of the north, +springs from a consciousness of rectitude? No! every fibre of +the human heart unites in detestation of tyranny, and it is only +when the human mind has become familiarized with slavery, is +accustomed to its injustice, and corrupted by its selfishness, +that it fails to record its abhorrence of slavery, and does not +exult in the triumphs of liberty. + +The northern people have been long connected with slavery; they +have been linked to a decaying corpse, which has destroyed the +moral health. The union of the government; the union of the +north and south, in the political parties; the union in the +religious organizations of the land, have all served to deaden +the moral sense of the northern people, and to impregnate them +with sentiments and ideas forever in conflict with what as a +nation we call _genius of American institutions_. Rightly +viewed, <346>this is an alarming fact, and ought to rally all +that is pure, just, and holy in one determined effort to crush +the monster of corruption, and to scatter "its guilty profits" to +the winds. In a high moral sense, as well as in a national +sense, the whole American people are responsible for slavery, and +must share, in its guilt and shame, with the most obdurate men- +stealers of the south. + +While slavery exists, and the union of these states endures, +every American citizen must bear the chagrin of hearing his +country branded before the world as a nation of liars and +hypocrites; and behold his cherished flag pointed at with the +utmost scorn and derision. Even now an American _abroad_ is +pointed out in the crowd, as coming from a land where men gain +their fortunes by "the blood of souls," from a land of slave +markets, of blood-hounds, and slave-hunters; and, in some +circles, such a man is shunned altogether, as a moral pest. Is +it not time, then, for every American to awake, and inquire into +his duty with respect to this subject? + +Wendell Phillips--the eloquent New England orator--on his return +from Europe, in 1842, said, "As I stood upon the shores of Genoa, +and saw floating on the placid waters of the Mediterranean, the +beautiful American war ship Ohio, with her masts tapering +proportionately aloft, and an eastern sun reflecting her noble +form upon the sparkling waters, attracting the gaze of the +multitude, my first impulse was of pride, to think myself an +American; but when I thought that the first time that gallant +ship would gird on her gorgeous apparel, and wake from beneath +her sides her dormant thunders, it would be in defense of the +African slave trade, I blushed in utter _shame_ for my country." + +Let me say again, _slavery is alike the sin and the shame of the +American people;_ it is a blot upon the American name, and the +only national reproach which need make an American hang his head +in shame, in the presence of monarchical governments. + +With this gigantic evil in the land, we are constantly told to +look _at home;_ if we say ought against crowned heads, we are +pointed to our enslaved millions; if we talk of sending +missionaries and bibles abroad, we are pointed to three millions +now lying in worse than heathen darkness; if we express a word of +sympathy for Kossuth and his Hungarian fugitive brethren, we are +pointed to that horrible and hell-black enactment, "the fugitive +slave bill." + +Slavery blunts the edge of all our rebukes of tyranny abroad--the +criticisms that we make upon other nations, only call forth +ridicule, contempt, and scorn. In a word, we are made a reproach +and a by-word to a <347>mocking earth, and we must continue to be +so made, so long as slavery continues to pollute our soil. + +We have heard much of late of the virtue of patriotism, the love +of country, &c., and this sentiment, so natural and so strong, +has been impiously appealed to, by all the powers of human +selfishness, to cherish the viper which is stinging our national +life away. In its name, we have been called upon to deepen our +infamy before the world, to rivet the fetter more firmly on the +limbs of the enslaved, and to become utterly insensible to the +voice of human woe that is wafted to us on every southern gale. +We have been called upon, in its name, to desecrate our whole +land by the footprints of slave-hunters, and even to engage +ourselves in the horrible business of kidnapping. + +I, too, would invoke the spirit of patriotism; not in a narrow +and restricted sense, but, I trust, with a broad and manly +signification; not to cover up our national sins, but to inspire +us with sincere repentance; not to hide our shame from the +the{sic} world's gaze, but utterly to abolish the cause of that +shame; not to explain away our gross inconsistencies as a nation, +but to remove the hateful, jarring, and incongruous elements from +the land; not to sustain an egregious wrong, but to unite all our +energies in the grand effort to remedy that wrong. + +I would invoke the spirit of patriotism, in the name of the law +of the living God, natural and revealed, and in the full belief +that "righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to +any people." "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh +uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that +shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, he shall dwell on +high, his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks, bread +shall be given him, his water shall be sure." + +We have not only heard much lately of patriotism, and of its aid +being invoked on the side of slavery and injustice, but the very +prosperity of this people has been called in to deafen them to +the voice of duty, and to lead them onward in the pathway of sin. +Thus has the blessing of God been converted into a curse. In the +spirit of genuine patriotism, I warn the American people, by all +that is just and honorable, to BEWARE! + +I warn them that, strong, proud, and prosperous though we be, +there is a power above us that can "bring down high looks; at the +breath of whose mouth our wealth may take wings; and before whom +every knee shall bow;" and who can tell how soon the avenging +angel may pass over our land, and the sable bondmen now in +chains, may become the instruments of our nation's chastisement! +Without appealing to any higher feeling, I would warn the +American people, and the American govern<348>ment, to be wise in +their day and generation. I exhort them to remember the history +of other nations; and I remind them that America cannot always +sit "as a queen," in peace and repose; that prouder and stronger +governments than this have been shattered by the bolts of a just +God; that the time may come when those they now despise and hate, +may be needed; when those whom they now compel by oppression to +be enemies, may be wanted as friends. What has been, may be +again. There is a point beyond which human endurance cannot go. +The crushed worm may yet turn under the heel of the oppressor. I +warn them, then, with all solemnity, and in the name of +retributive justice, _to look to their ways;_ for in an evil +hour, those sable arms that have, for the last two centuries, +been engaged in cultivating and adorning the fair fields of our +country, may yet become the instruments of terror, desolation, +and death, throughout our borders. + +It was the sage of the Old Dominion that said--while speaking of +the possibility of a conflict between the slaves and the +slaveholders--"God has no attribute that could take sides with +the oppressor in such a contest. I tremble for my country when I +reflect that God _is just_, and that his justice cannot sleep +forever." Such is the warning voice of Thomas Jefferson; and +every day's experience since its utterance until now, confirms +its wisdom, and commends its truth. + + + +WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE +FOURTH OF JULY? + +_Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July 5, 1852_ + + +Fellow-Citizens--Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called +upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to +do with your national independence? Are the great principles of +political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that +Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, +called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, +and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the +blessings, resulting from your independence to us? + +Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative +answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then +would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For +who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? +Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would +not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so +stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the +hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude +had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like +that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as +an hart." + +But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad +sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the +pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only +reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in +which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich +inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, +bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The +sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought +stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is _yours_, not +mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters +into the grand illuminated <350>temple of liberty, and call upon +him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and +sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking +me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. +And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a +nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by +the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable +ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and +woe-smitten people. + +"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when +we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the +midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, +required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us +mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing +the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O +Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not +remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." + +Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the +mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous +yesterday, are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant +shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully +remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my +right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the +roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their +wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason +most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before +God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is +AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular +characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there, +identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I +do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character +and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on +this Fourth of July. Whether we turn to the declarations of the +past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the +nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to +the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be +false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and +bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity +which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in +the name of the constitution and the bible, which are disregarded +and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with +all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to +perpetuate slavery--the great sin and shame of America! "I will +not equivocate; I will not excuse;" I will use the severest +language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that +any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is +not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and +just. +<351> + +But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in +this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to +make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue +more, and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, +your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, +where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in +the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch +of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I +undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is +conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves +acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. +They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of +the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the state of +Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how +ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while +only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to the +like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the +slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being. The +manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact +that southern statute books are covered with enactments +forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the +slave to read or write. When you can point to any such laws, in +reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue +the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when +the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the +fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to +distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you +that the slave is a man! + +For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the +Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, +planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, +erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in +metals of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold; that, while we +are reading, writing, and cyphering, acting as clerks, merchants, +and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, +poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; that, while we +are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men-- +digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, +feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, +thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and +children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the +Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality +beyond the grave--we are called upon to prove that we are men! + +Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he +is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared +it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a +question for republicans? <352>Is it to be settled by the rules +of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great +difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of +justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day in the +presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a discourse, to +show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking of it +relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do +so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to +your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of +heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for _him_. + +What! am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob +them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them +ignorant of their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them +with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their +limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at +auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to +burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to +their masters? Must I argue that a system, thus marked with +blood and stained with pollution, is wrong? No; I will not. I +have better employment for my time and strength than such +arguments would imply. + +What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not +divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of +divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That +which is inhuman cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a +proposition! They that can, may! I cannot. The time for such +argument is past. + +At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is +needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's +ear, I would to-day pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, +blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it +is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle +shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the +earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the +conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the +nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be +exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed +and denounced. + +What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a +day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, +the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant +victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted +liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling +vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your +denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of +liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, +your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade +and solemnity, <353>are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, +impiety, and hypocrisy--a thin veil to cover up crimes which +would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the +earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are the +people of these United States, at this very hour. + +Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the +monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South +America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the +last, lay your facts by the side of the every-day practices of +this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting +barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a +rival. + + +THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. + +_Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July 5, 1852_ + + +Take the American slave trade, which, we are told by the papers, +is especially prosperous just now. Ex-senator Benton tells us +that the price of men was never higher than now. He mentions the +fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This trade is one of +the peculiarities of American institutions. It is carried on in +all the large towns and cities in one-half of this confederacy; +and millions are pocketed every year by dealers in this horrid +traffic. In several states this trade is a chief source of +wealth. It is called (in contradistinction to the foreign slave +trade) _"the internal slave trade_." It is, probably, called so, +too, in order to divert from it the horror with which the foreign +slave trade is contemplated. That trade has long since been +denounced by this government as piracy. It has been denounced +with burning words, from the high places of the nation, as an +execrable traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this +nation keeps a squadron, at immense cost, on the coast of Africa. +Everywhere in this country, it is safe to speak of this foreign +slave trade as a most inhuman traffic, opposed alike to the laws +of God and of man. The duty to extirpate and destroy it is +admitted even by our _doctors of divinity_. In order to put an +end to it, some of these last have consented that their colored +brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and +establish themselves on the western coast of Africa. It is, +however, a notable fact, that, while so much execration is poured +out by Americans, upon those engaged in the foreign slave trade, +the men engaged in the slave trade between the states pass +without condemnation, and their business is deemed honorable. + +Behold the practical operation of this internal slave trade--the +American slave trade sustained by American politics and American +religion! Here you will see men and women reared like swine for +the market. You know what is a swine-drover? I will show you a +man-drover. They inhabit all our southern states. They +perambulate the country, and crowd the <355>highways of the +nation with droves of human stock. You will see one of these +human-flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip, and bowie-knife, +driving a company of a hundred men, women, and children, from the +Potomac to the slave market at New Orleans. These wretched +people are to be sold singly, or in lots, to suit purchasers. +They are food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar-mill. +Mark the sad procession as it moves wearily along, and the +inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage yells and his +blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives. +There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Cast one +glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders +are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the +brow of the babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, +weeping, yes, weeping, as she thinks of the mother from whom she +has been torn. The drove moves tardily. Heat and sorrow have +nearly consumed their strength. Suddenly you hear a quick snap, +like the discharge of a rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain +rattles simultaneously; your ears are saluted with a scream that +seems to have torn its way to the center of your soul. The crack +you heard was the sound of the slave whip; the scream you heard +was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered +under the weight of her child and her chains; that gash on her +shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to New Orleans. +Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms +of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of +American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated +forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that +scattered multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun, +can you witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this +is but a glance at the American slave trade, as it exists at this +moment, in the ruling part of the United States. + +I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American slave +trade is a terrible reality. When a child, my soul was often +pierced with a sense of its horrors. I lived on Philpot street, +Fell's Point, Baltimore, and have watched from the wharves the +slave ships in the basin, anchored from the shore, with their +cargoes of human flesh, waiting for favorable winds to waft them +down the Chesapeake. There was, at that time, a grand slave mart +kept at the head of Pratt street, by Austin Woldfolk. His agents +were sent into every town and county in Maryland, announcing +their arrival through the papers, and on flaming hand-bills, +headed, "cash for negroes." These men were generally well +dressed, and very captivating in their manners; ever ready to +drink, to treat, and to gamble. The fate <356>of many a slave +has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has +been snatched from the arms of its mothers by bargains arranged +in a state of brutal drunkenness. + +The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive +them, chained, to the general depot at Baltimore. When a +sufficient number have been collected here, a ship is chartered, +for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to Mobile or to New +Orleans. From the slave-prison to the ship, they are usually +driven in the darkness of night; for since the anti-slavery +agitation a certain caution is observed. + +In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often +aroused by the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the +chained gangs that passed our door. The anguish of my boyish +heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when speaking to my +mistress in the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very +wicked; that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains, and the +heart-rending cries. I was glad to find one who sympathized with +me in my horror. + +Fellow citizens, this murderous traffic is to-day in active +operation in this boasted republic. In the solitude of my +spirit, I see clouds of dust raised on the highways of the south; +I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of fettered +humanity, on the way to the slave markets, where the victims are +to be sold like horses, sheep, and swine, knocked off to the +highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly +broken, to gratify the lust, caprice, and rapacity of the buyers +and sellers of men. My soul sickens at the sight. + + _Is this the land your fathers loved? + The freedom which they toiled to win? + Is this the earth whereon they moved? + Are these the graves they slumber in?_ + + +But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of +things remains to be presented. By an act of the American +congress, not yet two years old, slavery has been nationalized in +its most horrible and revolting form. By that act, Mason and +Dixon's line has been obliterated; New York has become as +Virginia; and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and +children as slaves, remains no longer a mere state institution, +but is now an institution of the whole United States. The power +is coextensive with the star-spangled banner and American +christianity. Where these go, may also go the merciless slave- +hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird for +the sportsman's gun. By that most foul and fiendish of all human +decrees, the liberty and person of every man are <357>put in +peril. Your broad republican domain is a hunting-ground for +_men_. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, +but for men guilty of no crime. Your law-makers have commanded +all good citizens to engage in this hellish sport. Your +president, your secretary of state, your lords, nobles, and +ecclesiastics, enforce as a duty you owe to your free and +glorious country and to your God, that you do this accursed +thing. Not fewer than forty Americans have within the past two +years been hunted down, and without a moment's warning, hurried +away in chains, and consigned to slavery and excruciating +torture. Some of these have had wives and children dependent on +them for bread; but of this no account was made. The right of +the hunter to his prey, stands superior to the right of marriage, +and to _all_ rights in this republic, the rights of God included! +For black men there are neither law, justice, humanity, nor +religion. The fugitive slave law makes MERCY TO THEM A CRIME; +and bribes the judge who tries them. An American judge GETS TEN +DOLLARS FOR EVERY VICTIM HE CONSIGNS to slavery, and five, when +he fails to do so. The oath of an{sic} two villains is +sufficient, under this hell-black enactment, to send the most +pious and exemplary black man into the remorseless jaws of +slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring no +witnesses for himself. The minister of American justice is bound +by the law to hear but _one side_, and that side is the side of +the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. Let +it be thundered around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king +hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America, the seats +of justice are filled with judges, who hold their office under an +open and palpable _bribe_, and are bound, in deciding in the case +of a man's liberty, _to hear only his accusers!_ + +In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the +forms of administering law, in cunning arrangement to entrap the +defenseless, and in diabolical intent, this fugitive slave law +stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt if +there be another nation on the globe having the brass and the +baseness to put such a law on the statute-book. If any man in +this assembly thinks differently from me in this matter, and +feels able to disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him +at any suitable time and place he may select. + + + +THE SLAVERY PARTY + +_Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S. Society, in +New York, May, 1853_ + + +Sir, it is evident that there is in this country a purely slavery +party--a party which exists for no other earthly purpose but to +promote the interests of slavery. The presence of this party is +felt everywhere in the republic. It is known by no particular +name, and has assumed no definite shape; but its branches reach +far and wide in the church and in the state. This shapeless and +nameless party is not intangible in other and more important +respects. That party, sir, has determined upon a fixed, +definite, and comprehensive policy toward the whole colored +population of the United States. What that policy is, it becomes +us as abolitionists, and especially does it become the colored +people themselves, to consider and to understand fully. We ought +to know who our enemies are, where they are, and what are their +objects and measures. Well, sir, here is my version of it--not +original with me--but mine because I hold it to be true. + +I understand this policy to comprehend five cardinal objects. +They are these: 1st. The complete suppression of all anti-slavery +discussion. 2d. The expatriation of the entire free people of +color from the United States. 3d. The unending perpetuation of +slavery in this republic. 4th. The nationalization of slavery to +the extent of making slavery respected in every state of the +Union. 5th. The extension of slavery over Mexico and the entire +South American states. + +Sir, these objects are forcibly presented to us in the stern +logic of passing events; in the facts which are and have been +passing around us during the last three years. The country has +been and is now dividing on these grand issues. In their +magnitude, these issues cast all others into the shade, depriving +them of all life and vitality. Old party ties are broken. Like +is finding its like on either side of these great issues, and the +great battle is at hand. For the present, the best +representative of the slavery party in politics is the democratic +party. Its great head for the <359>present is President Pierce, +whose boast it was, before his election, that his whole life had +been consistent with the interests of slavery, that he is above +reproach on that score. In his inaugural address, he reassures +the south on this point. Well, the head of the slave power being +in power, it is natural that the pro slavery elements should +cluster around the administration, and this is rapidly being +done. A fraternization is going on. The stringent +protectionists and the free-traders strike hands. The supporters +of Fillmore are becoming the supporters of Pierce. The silver- +gray whig shakes hands with the hunker democrat; the former only +differing from the latter in name. They are of one heart, one +mind, and the union is natural and perhaps inevitable. Both hate +Negroes; both hate progress; both hate the "higher law;" both +hate William H. Seward; both hate the free democratic party; and +upon this hateful basis they are forming a union of hatred. +"Pilate and Herod are thus made friends." Even the central organ +of the whig party is extending its beggar hand for a morsel from +the table of slavery democracy, and when spurned from the feast +by the more deserving, it pockets the insult; when kicked on one +side it turns the other, and preseveres in its importunities. +The fact is, that paper comprehends the demands of the times; it +understands the age and its issues; it wisely sees that slavery +and freedom are the great antagonistic forces in the country, and +it goes to its own side. Silver grays and hunkers all understand +this. They are, therefore, rapidly sinking all other questions +to nothing, compared with the increasing demands of slavery. +They are collecting, arranging, and consolidating their forces +for the accomplishment of their appointed work. + +The keystone to the arch of this grand union of the slavery party +of the United States, is the compromise of 1850. In that +compromise we have all the objects of our slaveholding policy +specified. It is, sir, favorable to this view of the designs of +the slave power, that both the whig and the democratic party bent +lower, sunk deeper, and strained harder, in their conventions, +preparatory to the late presidential election, to meet the +demands of the slavery party than at any previous time in their +history. Never did parties come before the northern people with +propositions of such undisguised contempt for the moral sentiment +and the religious ideas of that people. They virtually asked +them to unite in a war upon free speech, and upon conscience, and +to drive the Almighty presence from the councils of the nation. +Resting their platforms upon the fugitive slave bill, they boldly +asked the people for political power to execute the horrible and +hell-black provisions of that bill. The history of that election +reveals, with great clearness, the extent to which <360>slavery +has shot its leprous distillment through the life-blood of the +nation. The party most thoroughly opposed to the cause of +justice and humanity, triumphed; while the party suspected of a +leaning toward liberty, was overwhelmingly defeated, some say +annihilated. + +But here is a still more important fact, illustrating the designs +of the slave power. It is a fact full of meaning, that no sooner +did the democratic slavery party come into power, than a system +of legislation was presented to the legislatures of the northern +states, designed to put the states in harmony with the fugitive +slave law, and the malignant bearing of the national government +toward the colored inhabitants of the country. This whole +movement on the part of the states, bears the evidence of having +one origin, emanating from one head, and urged forward by one +power. It was simultaneous, uniform, and general, and looked to +one end. It was intended to put thorns under feet already +bleeding; to crush a people already bowed down; to enslave a +people already but half free; in a word, it was intended to +discourage, dishearten, and drive the free colored people out of +the country. In looking at the recent black law of Illinois, one +is struck dumb with its enormity. It would seem that the men who +enacted that law, had not only banished from their minds all +sense of justice, but all sense of shame. It coolly proposes to +sell the bodies and souls of the blacks to increase the +intelligence and refinement of the whites; to rob every black +stranger who ventures among them, to increase their literary +fund. + +While this is going on in the states, a pro-slavery, political +board of health is established at Washington. Senators Hale, +Chase, and Sumner are robbed of a part of their senatorial +dignity and consequence as representing sovereign states, because +they have refused to be inoculated with the slavery virus. Among +the services which a senator is expected by his state to perform, +are many that can only be done efficiently on committees; and, in +saying to these honorable senators, you shall not serve on the +committees of this body, the slavery party took the +responsibility of robbing and insulting the states that sent +them. It is an attempt at Washington to decide for the states +who shall be sent to the senate. Sir, it strikes me that this +aggression on the part of the slave power did not meet at the +hands of the proscribed senators the rebuke which we had a right +to expect would be administered. It seems to me that an +opportunity was lost, that the great principle of senatorial +equality was left undefended, at a time when its vindication was +sternly demanded. But it is not to the purpose of my present +statement to criticise the conduct of our friends. I am +persuaded that much ought to be left to the discretion of +<361>anti slavery men in congress, and charges of recreancy +should never be made but on the most sufficient grounds. For, of +all the places in the world where an anti-slavery man needs the +confidence and encouragement of friends, I take Washington to be +that place. + +Let me now call attention to the social influences which are +operating and cooperating with the slavery party of the country, +designed to contribute to one or all of the grand objects aimed +at by that party. We see here the black man attacked in his +vital interests; prejudice and hate are excited against him; +enmity is stirred up between him and other laborers. The Irish +people, warm-hearted, generous, and sympathizing with the +oppressed everywhere, when they stand upon their own green +island, are instantly taught, on arriving in this Christian +country, to hate and despise the colored people. They are taught +to believe that we eat the bread which of right belongs to them. +The cruel lie is told the Irish, that our adversity is essential +to their prosperity. Sir, the Irish-American will find out his +mistake one day. He will find that in assuming our avocation he +also has assumed our degradation. But for the present we are +sufferers. The old employments by which we have heretofore +gained our livelihood, are gradually, and it may be inevitably, +passing into other hands. Every hour sees us elbowed out of some +employment to make room perhaps for some newly-arrived emigrants, +whose hunger and color are thought to give them a title to +especial favor. White men are becoming house-servants, cooks, +and stewards, common laborers, and flunkeys to our gentry, and, +for aught I see, they adjust themselves to their stations with +all becoming obsequiousness. This fact proves that if we cannot +rise to the whites, the whites can fall to us. Now, sir, look +once more. While the colored people are thus elbowed out of +employment; while the enmity of emigrants is being excited +against us; while state after state enacts laws against us; while +we are hunted down, like wild game, and oppressed with a general +feeling of insecurity--the American colonization society--that +old offender against the best interests and slanderer of the +colored people--awakens to new life, and vigorously presses its +scheme upon the consideration of the people and the government. +New papers are started--some for the north and some for the +south--and each in its tone adapting itself to its latitude. +Government, state and national, is called upon for appropriations +to enable the society to send us out of the country by steam! +They want steamers to carry letters and Negroes to Africa. +Evidently, this society looks upon our "extremity as its +opportunity," and we may expect that it will use the occasion +well. They do not deplore, but glory, in our misfortunes. +<362> + +But, sir, I must hasten. I have thus briefly given my view of +one aspect of the present condition and future prospects of the +colored people of the United States. And what I have said is far +from encouraging to my afflicted people. I have seen the cloud +gather upon the sable brows of some who hear me. I confess the +case looks black enough. Sir, I am not a hopeful man. I think I +am apt even to undercalculate the benefits of the future. Yet, +sir, in this seemingly desperate case, I do not despair for my +people. There is a bright side to almost every picture of this +kind; and ours is no exception to the general rule. If the +influences against us are strong, those for us are also strong. +To the inquiry, will our enemies prevail in the execution of +their designs. In my God and in my soul, I believe they _will +not_. Let us look at the first object sought for by the slavery +party of the country, viz: the suppression of anti slavery +discussion. They desire to suppress discussion on this subject, +with a view to the peace of the slaveholder and the security of +slavery. Now, sir, neither the principle nor the subordinate +objects here declared, can be at all gained by the slave power, +and for this reason: It involves the proposition to padlock the +lips of the whites, in order to secure the fetters on the limbs +of the blacks. The right of speech, precious and priceless, +_cannot, will not_, be surrendered to slavery. Its suppression +is asked for, as I have said, to give peace and security to +slaveholders. Sir, that thing cannot be done. God has +interposed an insuperable obstacle to any such result. "There +can be _no peace_, saith my God, to the wicked." Suppose it were +possible to put down this discussion, what would it avail the +guilty slaveholder, pillowed as he is upon heaving bosoms of +ruined souls? He could not have a peaceful spirit. If every +anti-slavery tongue in the nation were silent--every anti-slavery +organization dissolved--every anti-slavery press demolished-- +every anti slavery periodical, paper, book, pamphlet, or what +not, were searched out, gathered, deliberately burned to ashes, +and their ashes given to the four winds of heaven, still, still +the slaveholder could have _"no peace_." In every pulsation of +his heart, in every throb of his life, in every glance of his +eye, in the breeze that soothes, and in the thunder that +startles, would be waked up an accuser, whose cause is, "Thou +art, verily, guilty concerning thy brother." + + +THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT + +_Extracts from a Lecture before Various Anti-Slavery Bodies, in +the Winter of 1855_ + + +A grand movement on the part of mankind, in any direction, or for +any purpose, moral or political, is an interesting fact, fit and +proper to be studied. It is such, not only for those who eagerly +participate in it, but also for those who stand aloof from it-- +even for those by whom it is opposed. I take the anti-slavery +movement to be such an one, and a movement as sublime and +glorious in its character, as it is holy and beneficent in the +ends it aims to accomplish. At this moment, I deem it safe to +say, it is properly engrossing more minds in this country than +any other subject now before the American people. The late John +C. Calhoun--one of the mightiest men that ever stood up in the +American senate--did not deem it beneath him; and he probably +studied it as deeply, though not as honestly, as Gerrit Smith, or +William Lloyd Garrison. He evinced the greatest familiarity with +the subject; and the greatest efforts of his last years in the +senate had direct reference to this movement. His eagle eye +watched every new development connected with it; and he was ever +prompt to inform the south of every important step in its +progress. He never allowed himself to make light of it; but +always spoke of it and treated it as a matter of grave import; +and in this he showed himself a master of the mental, moral, and +religious constitution of human society. Daniel Webster, too, in +the better days of his life, before he gave his assent to the +fugitive slave bill, and trampled upon all his earlier and better +convictions--when his eye was yet single--he clearly comprehended +the nature of the elements involved in this movement; and in his +own majestic eloquence, warned the south, and the country, to +have a care how they attempted to put it down. He is an +illustration that it is easier to give, than to take, good +advice. To these two men--the greatest men to whom the nation +has yet given birth--may be traced the two great facts of the +present--the south triumphant, and the north humbled. <364>Their +names may stand thus--Calhoun and domination--Webster and +degradation. Yet again. If to the enemies of liberty this +subject is one of engrossing interest, vastly more so should it +be such to freedom's friends. The latter, it leads to the gates +of all valuable knowledge--philanthropic, ethical, and religious; +for it brings them to the study of man, wonderfully and fearfully +made--the proper study of man through all time--the open book, in +which are the records of time and eternity. + +Of the existence and power of the anti-slavery movement, as a +fact, you need no evidence. The nation has seen its face, and +felt the controlling pressure of its hand. You have seen it +moving in all directions, and in all weathers, and in all places, +appearing most where desired least, and pressing hardest where +most resisted. No place is exempt. The quiet prayer meeting, +and the stormy halls of national debate, share its presence +alike. It is a common intruder, and of course has the name of +being ungentlemanly. Brethren who had long sung, in the most +affectionate fervor, and with the greatest sense of security, + + _Together let us sweetly live--together let us die,_ + +have been suddenly and violently separated by it, and ranged in +hostile attitude toward each other. The Methodist, one of the +most powerful religious organizations of this country, has been +rent asunder, and its strongest bolts of denominational +brotherhood started at a single surge. It has changed the tone +of the northern pulpit, and modified that of the press. A +celebrated divine, who, four years ago, was for flinging his own +mother, or brother, into the remorseless jaws of the monster +slavery, lest he should swallow up the Union, now recognizes +anti-slavery as a characteristic of future civilization. Signs +and wonders follow this movement; and the fact just stated is one +of them. Party ties are loosened by it; and men are compelled to +take sides for or against it, whether they will or not. Come +from where he may, or come for what he may, he is compelled to +show his hand. What is this mighty force? What is its history? +and what is its destiny? Is it ancient or modern, transient or +permanent? Has it turned aside, like a stranger and a sojourner, +to tarry for a night? or has it come to rest with us forever? +Excellent chances are here for speculation; and some of them are +quite profound. We might, for instance, proceed to inquire not +only into the philosophy of the anti-slavery movement, but into +the philosophy of the law, in obedience to which that movement +started into existence. We might demand to know what is that law +or power, which, at different times, disposes the minds of men to +this or that particular object--now for peace, and now for war-- +now for free<365>dom, and now for slavery; but this profound +question I leave to the abolitionists of the superior class to +answer. The speculations which must precede such answer, would +afford, perhaps, about the same satisfaction as the learned +theories which have rained down upon the world, from time to +time, as to the origin of evil. I shall, therefore, avoid water +in which I cannot swim, and deal with anti-slavery as a fact, +like any other fact in the history of mankind, capable of being +described and understood, both as to its internal forces, and its +external phases and relations. + +[After an eloquent, a full, and highly interesting exposition of +the nature, character, and history of the anti-slavery movement, +from the insertion of which want of space precludes us, he +concluded in the following happy manner.] + +Present organizations may perish, but the cause will go on. That +cause has a life, distinct and independent of the organizations +patched up from time to time to carry it forward. Looked at, +apart from the bones and sinews and body, it is a thing immortal. +It is the very essence of justice, liberty, and love. The moral +life of human society, it cannot die while conscience, honor, and +humanity remain. If but one be filled with it, the cause lives. +Its incarnation in any one individual man, leaves the whole world +a priesthood, occupying the highest moral eminence even that of +disinterested benevolence. Whoso has ascended his height, and +has the grace to stand there, has the world at his feet, and is +the world's teacher, as of divine right. He may set in judgment +on the age, upon the civilization of the age, and upon the +religion of the age; for he has a test, a sure and certain test, +by which to try all institutions, and to measure all men. I say, +he may do this, but this is not the chief business for which he +is qualified. The great work to which he is called is not that +of judgment. Like the Prince of Peace, he may say, if I judge, I +judge righteous judgment; still mainly, like him, he may say, +this is not his work. The man who has thoroughly embraced the +principles of justice, love, and liberty, like the true preacher +of Christianity, is less anxious to reproach the world of its +sins, than to win it to repentance. His great work on earth is +to exemplify, and to illustrate, and to ingraft those principles +upon the living and practical understandings of all men within +the reach of his influence. This is his work; long or short his +years, many or few his adherents, powerful or weak his +instrumentalities, through good report, or through bad report, +this is his work. It is to snatch from the bosom of nature the +latent facts of each individual man's experience, and with steady +hand to hold them up fresh and glowing, enforeing, with all his +power, their acknowledgment and practical adoption. If there be +but _one_ <366>such man in the land, no matter what becomes of +abolition societies and parties, there will be an anti-slavery +cause, and an anti-slavery movement. Fortunately for that cause, +and fortunately for him by whom it is espoused, it requires no +extraordinary amount of talent to preach it or to receive it when +preached. The grand secret of its power is, that each of its +principles is easily rendered appreciable to the faculty of +reason in man, and that the most unenlightened conscience has no +difficulty in deciding on which side to register its testimony. +It can call its preachers from among the fishermen, and raise +them to power. In every human breast, it has an advocate which +can be silent only when the heart is dead. It comes home to +every man's understanding, and appeals directly to every man's +conscience. A man that does not recognize and approve for +himself the rights and privileges contended for, in behalf of the +American slave, has not yet been found. In whatever else men may +differ, they are alike in the apprehension of their natural and +personal rights. The difference between abolitionists and those +by whom they are opposed, is not as to principles. All are +agreed in respect to these. The manner of applying them is the +point of difference. + +The slaveholder himself, the daily robber of his equal brother, +discourses eloquently as to the excellency of justice, and the +man who employs a brutal driver to flay the flesh of his negroes, +is not offended when kindness and humanity are commended. Every +time the abolitionist speaks of justice, the anti-abolitionist +assents says, yes, I wish the world were filled with a +disposition to render to every man what is rightfully due him; I +should then get what is due me. That's right; let us have +justice. By all means, let us have justice. Every time the +abolitionist speaks in honor of human liberty, he touches a chord +in the heart of the anti-abolitionist, which responds in +harmonious vibrations. Liberty--yes, that is evidently my right, +and let him beware who attempts to invade or abridge that right. +Every time he speaks of love, of human brotherhood, and the +reciprocal duties of man and man, the anti-abolitionist assents-- +says, yes, all right--all true--we cannot have such ideas too +often, or too fully expressed. So he says, and so he feels, and +only shows thereby that he is a man as well as an anti- +abolitionist. You have only to keep out of sight the manner of +applying your principles, to get them endorsed every time. +Contemplating himself, he sees truth with absolute clearness and +distinctness. He only blunders when asked to lose sight of +himself. In his own cause he can beat a Boston lawyer, but he is +dumb when asked to plead the cause of others. He knows very well +whatsoever he would have done unto himself, but is quite in doubt +as to having the <367>same thing done unto others. It is just +here, that lions spring up in the path of duty, and the battle +once fought in heaven is refought on the earth. So it is, so +hath it ever been, and so must it ever be, when the claims of +justice and mercy make their demand at the door of human +selfishness. Nevertheless, there is that within which ever +pleads for the right and the just. + +In conclusion, I have taken a sober view of the present anti- +slavery movement. I am sober, but not hopeless. There is no +denying, for it is everywhere admitted, that the anti-slavery +question is the great moral and social question now before the +American people. A state of things has gradually been developed, +by which that question has become the first thing in order. It +must be met. Herein is my hope. The great idea of impartial +liberty is now fairly before the American people. Anti-slavery +is no longer a thing to be prevented. The time for prevention is +past. This is great gain. When the movement was younger and +weaker--when it wrought in a Boston garret to human apprehension, +it might have been silently put out of the way. Things are +different now. It has grown too large--its friends are too +numerous--its facilities too abundant--its ramifications too +extended--its power too omnipotent, to be snuffed out by the +contingencies of infancy. A thousand strong men might be struck +down, and its ranks still be invincible. One flash from the +heart-supplied intellect of Harriet Beecher Stowe could light a +million camp fires in front of the embattled host of slavery, +which not all the waters of the Mississippi, mingled as they are +with blood, could extinguish. The present will be looked to by +after coming generations, as the age of anti-slavery literature-- +when supply on the gallop could not keep pace with the ever +growing demand--when a picture of a Negro on the cover was a help +to the sale of a book--when conservative lyceums and other +American literary associations began first to select their +orators for distinguished occasions from the ranks of the +previously despised abolitionists. If the anti-slavery movement +shall fail now, it will not be from outward opposition, but from +inward decay. Its auxiliaries are everywhere. Scholars, +authors, orators, poets, and statesmen give it their aid. The +most brilliant of American poets volunteer in its service. +Whittier speaks in burning verse to more than thirty thousand, in +the National Era. Your own Longfellow whispers, in every hour of +trial and disappointment, "labor and wait." James Russell Lowell +is reminding us that "men are more than institutions." Pierpont +cheers the heart of the pilgrim in search of liberty, by singing +the praises of "the north star." Bryant, too, is with us; and +though chained to the car of party, and dragged on amidst a whirl +of <368>political excitement, he snatches a moment for letting +drop a smiling verse of sympathy for the man in chains. The +poets are with us. It would seem almost absurd to say it, +considering the use that has been made of them, that we have +allies in the Ethiopian songs; those songs that constitute our +national music, and without which we have no national music. +They are heart songs, and the finest feelings of human nature are +expressed in them. "Lucy Neal," "Old Kentucky Home," and "Uncle +Ned," can make the heart sad as well as merry, and can call forth +a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the sympathies for the +slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and +flourish. In addition to authors, poets, and scholars at home, +the moral sense of the civilized world is with us. England, +France, and Germany, the three great lights of modern +civilization, are with us, and every American traveler learns to +regret the existence of slavery in his country. The growth of +intelligence, the influence of commerce, steam, wind, and +lightning are our allies. It would be easy to amplify this +summary, and to swell the vast conglomeration of our material +forces; but there is a deeper and truer method of measuring the +power of our cause, and of comprehending its vitality. This is +to be found in its accordance with the best elements of human +nature. It is beyond the power of slavery to annihilate +affinities recognized and established by the Almighty. The slave +is bound to mankind by the powerful and inextricable net-work of +human brotherhood. His voice is the voice of a man, and his cry +is the cry of a man in distress, and man must cease to be man +before he can become insensible to that cry. It is the righteous +of the cause--the humanity of the cause--which constitutes its +potency. As one genuine bankbill is worth more than a thousand +counterfeits, so is one man, with right on his side, worth more +than a thousand in the wrong. "One may chase a thousand, and put +ten thousand to flight." It is, therefore, upon the goodness of +our cause, more than upon all other auxiliaries, that we depend +for its final triumph. + +Another source of congratulations is the fact that, amid all the +efforts made by the church, the government, and the people at +large, to stay the onward progress of this movment, its course +has been onward, steady, straight, unshaken, and unchecked from +the beginning. Slavery has gained victories large and numerous; +but never as against this movement--against a temporizing policy, +and against northern timidity, the slave power has been +victorious; but against the spread and prevalence in the country, +of a spirit of resistance to its aggression, and of sentiments +favorable to its entire overthrow, it has yet accomplished +nothing. Every measure, yet devised and executed, having for its +object the suppression <369>of anti-slavery, has been as idle and +fruitless as pouring oil to extinguish fire. A general rejoicing +took place on the passage of "the compromise measures" of 1850. +Those measures were called peace measures, and were afterward +termed by both the great parties of the country, as well as by +leading statesmen, a final settlement of the whole question of +slavery; but experience has laughed to scorn the wisdom of pro- +slavery statesmen; and their final settlement of agitation seems +to be the final revival, on a broader and grander scale than ever +before, of the question which they vainly attempted to suppress +forever. The fugitive slave bill has especially been of positive +service to the anti-slavery movement. It has illustrated before +all the people the horrible character of slavery toward the +slave, in hunting him down in a free state, and tearing him away +from wife and children, thus setting its claims higher than +marriage or parental claims. It has revealed the arrogant and +overbearing spirit of the slave states toward the free states; +despising their principles--shocking their feelings of humanity, +not only by bringing before them the abominations of slavery, but +by attempting to make them parties to the crime. It has called +into exercise among the colored people, the hunted ones, a spirit +of manly resistance well calculated to surround them with a +bulwark of sympathy and respect hitherto unknown. For men are +always disposed to respect and defend rights, when the victims of +oppression stand up manfully for themselves. + +There is another element of power added to the anti-slavery +movement, of great importance; it is the conviction, becoming +every day more general and universal, that slavery must be +abolished at the south, or it will demoralize and destroy liberty +at the north. It is the nature of slavery to beget a state of +things all around it favorable to its own continuance. This +fact, connected with the system of bondage, is beginning to be +more fully realized. The slave-holder is not satisfied to +associate with men in the church or in the state, unless he can +thereby stain them with the blood of his slaves. To be a slave- +holder is to be a propagandist from necessity; for slavery can +only live by keeping down the under-growth morality which nature +supplies. Every new-born white babe comes armed from the Eternal +presence, to make war on slavery. The heart of pity, which would +melt in due time over the brutal chastisements it sees inflicted +on the helpless, must be hardened. And this work goes on every +day in the year, and every hour in the day. + +What is done at home is being done also abroad here in the north. +And even now the question may be asked, have we at this moment a +single free state in the Union? The alarm at this point will +become more general. <370>The slave power must go on in its +career of exactions. Give, give, will be its cry, till the +timidity which concedes shall give place to courage, which shall +resist. Such is the voice of experience, such has been the past, +such is the present, and such will be that future, which, so sure +as man is man, will come. Here I leave the subject; and I leave +off where I began, consoling myself and congratulating the +friends of freedom upon the fact that the anti-slavery cause is +not a new thing under the sun; not some moral delusion which a +few years' experience may dispel. It has appeared among men in +all ages, and summoned its advocates from all ranks. Its +foundations are laid in the deepest and holiest convictions, and +from whatever soul the demon, selfishness, is expelled, there +will this cause take up its abode. Old as the everlasting hills; +immovable as the throne of God; and certain as the purposes of +eternal power, against all hinderances, and against all delays, +and despite all the mutations of human instrumentalities, it is +the faith of my soul, that this anti-slavery cause will triumph. + + +[The end] + diff --git a/old/bfree10.zip b/old/bfree10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bdacb16 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/bfree10.zip |